NDI inputs

Add one

Press Add Input…, choose NDI, and pick a sender from Discovered source, which lists every sender InterDirector currently finds on your network. Press Refresh if the one you want has not appeared yet.

If a sender is not found by discovery (it is on another network segment, or the network blocks discovery), add the sending machine’s IP address in Settings › NDI › Extra addresses, and its sources are listed. Or type it in the input’s IP address field. See I don’t see any NDI sources if nothing is found at all.

An input you pick from the list finds its sender by name, so it follows a camera whose IP address changes. If the sender is renamed, choose it again in the input’s settings. Give each sender a name of its own: two with the same name can’t be told apart.

With an IP address typed in, the input connects to whatever is sending at that address, and the list and name are turned off. Add :port if the sender is not on 5961. If the address later belongs to another camera, the input shows that camera, so give a camera you connect this way a fixed address.

Stream

Choose Stream:

Full: the sender’s full-resolution stream.
Low bandwidth: the sender’s small preview stream, for far less network and CPU.
Audio only: no picture at all, for a source you only want to hear; the sender stops sending pictures to you entirely, and the card shows its meter instead. A track from a DAW comes in this way, through our InterStream plug-in.

Timing

Choose Timing:

Sender’s clock: follows the sender’s own timing, which keeps its sound in step with its picture.
Arrival: places sound as it arrives instead, steadier when the sender’s clock is not this Mac’s, and free to choose for a source with no picture.

Tally

InterDirector tells each NDI sender whether its source is on Program or in Preview. A camera or app that shows NDI tally, such as a PTZ camera with a tally light, the NDI app on a phone or NDI Studio Monitor, lights red while the source is on Program and green while it is in Preview, so whoever is behind the camera knows when they are live.

Control the camera

An NDI camera that takes PTZ control has a camera button on its card: it can be panned, tilted and zoomed, sent to its presets, and have its focus, exposure and white balance set from InterDirector. See Controlling an NDI camera.

Its sound, or another input’s

A phone’s or a camera’s own microphone is often not the sound you want, or not all of it. On the input’s Audio tab, under Audio Source, tick what it is heard with: Its own sound (ticked to begin with), other inputs’ sound (a microphone on an Audio input, say), or several. With nothing ticked it has no sound. An NDI input set to Audio only under Stream is the sound itself, and has no Audio Source to choose. See Pairing an input’s sound.

If the sender goes offline

A saved source stays configured and shows Offline while its sender is unavailable, rather than being removed; it starts working again as soon as the sender is back.

NDI, Blackmagic and the external display, for sending your own Program out as NDI.