This guide provides step-by-step instructions for estimating bandwidth requirements for a live video and audio production.

The bandwidth requirements depend on several factors, including the number of live feeds, the type of transport stream used, and the number of screens used for monitoring.

Step 1: Calculate Upload and Download Requirements

The first step in estimating bandwidth requirements is to calculate the upload and download requirements.

This depends on the number of live feeds being transferred from on-premises to the cloud and back. 

For each live feed, consider the following:

• Video bitrate: This is the amount of data processed per unit of time. High-definition video requires a higher bitrate and therefore more bandwidth.

• Audio bitrate: This is similar to the video bitrate but for audio data. High-quality audio requires a higher bitrate and therefore more bandwidth.

Add up the bitrates for all live feeds to get the total upload and download requirements.

Step 2: Consider Multi-Viewer Output for Monitoring

Next, consider the bandwidth requirements for multi-viewer output for monitoring. This depends on the number of screens used and the resolution of each screen. 

For each screen, consider the following:

• Screen resolution: Higher resolution screens require more bandwidth.

• Frame rate: Higher frame rates require more bandwidth.

Add up the bandwidth requirements for all screens to get the total multi-viewer output requirements.

Step 3: Consider Nice DCV PCoIP Requirements

Nice DCV PCoIP (PC-over-IP) is a high-performance remote display protocol that requires additional bandwidth. The bandwidth requirements depend on the number of screens used and the resolution of each screen. 

For each screen, consider the following:

• Screen resolution: Higher resolution screens require more bandwidth.

• Frame rate: Higher frame rates require more bandwidth.

Add up the bandwidth requirements for all screens to get the total Nice DCV PCoIP requirements.

Step 4: Consider Transport Stream Requirements

The type of transport stream used also affects the bandwidth requirements. Different video codecs have different bandwidth requirements. For example, H.264 is a commonly used video codec that provides good video quality with relatively low bandwidth requirements. 

Consider the following:

• Video codec: Different codecs have different bandwidth requirements. Choose a codec that provides the desired video quality with the lowest possible bandwidth requirements.

• Error correction: Error correction techniques can improve the quality of the video stream but require additional bandwidth.

Step 5: Plan for Contingency

Finally, it's important to plan for contingency. This means allowing for additional bandwidth to account for unexpected increases in demand or temporary network issues. A common approach is to add an additional 20-30% to the estimated bandwidth requirements.

Following these steps, you can estimate the bandwidth requirements for live video and audio production. This helps ensure that you have sufficient bandwidth to deliver a high-quality live stream without interruption.

References

NDI Full Bandwidth

NDI HX, NDI HX H264 & HEVC e NDI HX3 H264 & H265

NDI Bridge

Estimate of NDI Bridge bandwidth using 1080p60 as the video format.  Multiply single bandwidth value by number of video inputs to get overall throughput.  NDI Bridge compression uses VBR encoding, actual bandwidth depends on video detail and motion complexity.

Calculation Example