Multimedia Streaming Server: Overview

The Multimedia Streaming Server, mm-stream, is a network media server that can stream video and audio content over IP networks. Remote clients can access the media streams using RTSP or RTP.

The use cases supported by mm-stream include but aren't limited to:

showing a video file on multiple displays on multiple nodes simultaneously (e.g., a flight safety demo)
displaying the camera feed on a node different than the one the camera is attached to (e.g., a video shown on rear seat displays in a vehicle)
distributing microphone audio to different nodes, with echo cancellation
sharing a UI across multiple nodes; this could be a smartphone UI or a UI for medical instruments

The mm-stream service can fulfill one or many of these roles at the same time. This is achieved by having multiple mm-stream instances; each instance manages its own media session, meaning it can stream content independently of other sessions. An instance is identified by the URL of an input media source and is controlled by its configuration, which defines how the input is read, the media streams are encoded, and the output is delivered.

Note: An instance is not an mm-stream process. You should run only one process but within it, you can define as many instances as you need. Also, multiple instances can use the same input media source.

The configuration also defines how an mm-stream instance is accessed by remote streaming clients. When RTSP is used, the instance starts and stops streaming content (over RTP) to individual clients in response to their RTSP commands. When RTP is used for access, the content is continuously streamed to all clients until the instance is disabled.