Stream Bridge Stream Bridge

TURN relay for production streaming behind firewalls

Stream Bridge keeps live production viewers connected even when corporate firewalls, strict NAT or venue networks block a direct connection. Cloud relay kicks in automatically, so there's no port to forward and nothing to rebuild for a difficult destination.

Join Beta
Signal Flow

4 Simple Steps

  1. Pick the feed

    Video and audio from the paired device, ready to send to a viewer.

  2. Direct route first

    Stream Bridge tries a direct peer-to-peer route for the lowest delay.

  3. Cloud relay if blocked

    Firewalls or strict NAT? Our cloud relay steps in automatically.

  4. They still connect

    The same viewer link works, with no port forwarding at either end.

How it works

Stream Bridge always looks for the most direct route between a production device and its viewer or receiver first. On normal networks, that lets media travel peer to peer with the lowest practical delay.

Some corporate, venue and mobile networks won't allow that direct path. In those cases, we supply time-limited relay access automatically, so the same viewer link still connects without any change to how the operator works.

The relay's part of the connection process, not a separate service the viewer has to configure - there's no public IP to exchange and no inbound router rule to create at either end.

A relayed route can add distance, latency and cloud bandwidth compared with a direct connection. Live bitrate control and connection information help you make a sensible quality call when a difficult network needs that fallback.

Get Started Quickly

To get started straight away, join our beta, download the application, and get streaming. We also have a host of documentation available that goes through all of the features of Stream Bridge, troubleshooting issues, and our support team are ready to help if needed.

Join Beta View Documentation

Devices

Studio A

Online
Sources 5 sources
Last Seen 18 January 2026 | 10:21 AM
CPU 21%
GPU 20%
Under the hood

Technical Breakdown

A closer look at direct connection attempts, relay fallback, credentials, firewall behaviour, capacity and route visibility.

Supported Sources

The selected production source is encoded once on the paired device.

Explore details

Stream Bridge works with an NDI, OMT, desktop or DeckLink/SDI source available to it - cameras, mixers, graphics, presentations, multiviews and programme outputs are typical picks.

Discovery is controlled per device, so you can turn off input families you don't use, or restrict results to local sources on a busy network.

Audio

Picture and production audio stay together across direct and relayed routes.

Explore details

Programme and additional audio can be routed according to the chosen source and viewer configuration, and up to 16 channels are available where the source supports it.

Different audiences don't need the same audio. Configure extra tracks and communication tools at the viewer-link level to suit each role.

Performance

Relay fallback doesn't need you to restart or rebuild the stream.

Explore details

Encoding can run on NVIDIA NVENC or the CPU. NVENC generally gives the lowest latency and CPU use; CPU mode is useful on systems without compatible hardware or where GPU capacity is already committed.

Live telemetry makes encoder headroom visible. If load's getting close to the top or frames start dropping, cut back on concurrent work or move the encode to better hardware.

Viewer Quality & Latency

The viewer keeps the same browser experience when the route changes.

Explore details

Relaying uses cloud bandwidth and can add some latency, so a healthy direct route stays the preferred path. Every viewer is a separate connection, and your bitrate applies to each - two viewers at 5Mbps needs roughly 10Mbps upload.

A static presentation and a fast sports camera put very different demands on the encoder, so tune bitrate live while watching device and viewer behaviour.

Networking

Direct connection preferred, cloud relay when peer-to-peer fails.

Explore details

There's no manual IP exchange or router forwarding required. Each session negotiates its own route automatically.

Corporate and venue networks sometimes block a direct connection. When that happens, Stream Bridge falls back to relay, and you can drop the bitrate if the longer route has less headroom.

Security & Customisation

Authenticated, time-limited relay access, no shared VPN credentials or open ports.

Explore details

Custom URLs, passwords, colours, logos and controls let you match the viewer experience to its audience. Up to 25 viewer links can be created per stream.

Security isn't just about the connection - keep your dashboard account protected, keep pairing keys private, password anything sensitive, and don't reuse access beyond the event it was made for.

TURN relay for production

Frequently Asked Questions

Practical answers about when relay is used, what changes, firewall requirements, latency and bandwidth.

Routing & setup

Stream Bridge always tries a direct WebRTC connection first. Relay's used when NAT behaviour, firewall policy or network topology stops the endpoints establishing that direct path.

No. Route negotiation and fallback happen as part of the connection process - the viewer keeps using the same link, and you don't need to recreate the stream.

No. Stream Bridge uses outbound connections from the paired device and browser - a VPN, public IP exchange and inbound port forwarding aren't required.

Bandwidth & reliability

It can. A relayed path adds an intermediate network location, so delay depends on distance to that relay and current internet conditions. Direct routes stay preferred whenever they're available.

Stream Bridge issues authenticated, time-limited TURN credentials during connection setup, so viewers and operators don't need to configure or share permanent server credentials.

Each viewer's still an individual stream connection - plan sender upload from the configured bitrate multiplied by concurrent viewers, and allow headroom for audio, overhead and network variation.

Related workflows

Encrypted live streaming for production GPU encoding for low-latency live streaming Blackmagic SDI over the internet Low-latency NDI over the internet