NDI Bridge Alternative - Easy Setup & No Port Forwarding

Bridge Sharing is not limited to NDI. The sending device can bridge any source Stream Bridge supports - full-bandwidth NDI and NDI HX, OMT, Blackmagic DeckLink and SDI inputs, desktop capture, Dante audio and other production inputs available on the paired machine.

Only sources visible to the desktop device can be bridged. Allow discovery time after connecting, enable the relevant input families in Device Settings, and use local-sources-only filtering on a busy LAN if the source list is longer than you need.

Stream Bridge can capture up to 16 audio channels from the source and deliver them with the picture to the receiving device, whether that source is NDI, OMT, embedded SDI audio or another supported input.

Name outputs per bridge so the receiving team can identify programme audio, clean feeds and commentary alongside their existing sources. Audio handling is planned with the picture route, not added afterwards.

Use NVENC on a supported NVIDIA GPU if you have one - it keeps latency and CPU use down beside live production software. CPU encoding is the fallback for machines without compatible hardware, or when the GPU is already committed elsewhere.

Each device starts at four GPU encodes and two CPU encodes as a limit. Treat that as a safety net rather than a target, and watch the live CPU and GPU meters before adding more simultaneous bridges.

Bridge Sharing is built for production handoff. The receiving device can publish the remote feed as a named NDI or OMT source, or route it out through compatible Blackmagic DeckLink hardware as SDI - so a feed sent from one country can land on a vision mixer, router or monitor as a standard SDI input at the other end.

Even when routed through Bridge Sharing, streams target sub-500ms delivery under suitable conditions. You can change bitrate live without rebuilding the route - most 1080p30 pictures sit comfortably around 3-5Mbps, with fast motion or 60fps often needing more headroom.

Unlike NDI Bridge, Stream Bridge does not ask either site to open inbound ports or maintain a permanent tunnel between networks. Each bridge negotiates its own outbound route across the internet, whether you are sending NDI across a border or bridging any other supported source type.

A direct device-to-device path is always preferred. When corporate, venue or carrier networks block that, Stream Bridge falls back to its relay network automatically - you do not reconfigure the bridge, though the extra hop can add delay and needs stable wired bandwidth.

Bridge routes are managed from the dashboard, not by sharing access to the whole production network. Output names, NDI or OMT publishing, and DeckLink SDI port assignment are set per receiving device so remote feeds arrive with labels and routing the destination team already understands.

Keep device connection keys private to whoever manages each machine. Remove bridge routes when a production ends, and treat named outputs and SDI assignments the same way you would any other production source on the receiving network.