Extron Electronics VN-MATRIX User Guide - Manual (Page 16)

Section 1: Introduction VN-MATRIX User Guide
Page 16 I458GB issue 6
Multicast RTP
This method uses a real-time variation of UDP (User Datagram Protocol), called RTP (Real Time
Protocol). Multicast RTP allows a source to be displayed on any number of displays.
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The source encoder uses RTP to send data to a multicast group. The source does not need to know
the IP address of any decoders that use that source.
RTP provides very low latency which is important for video transport. Unlike other protocols, RTP
packets include a time-stamp. Therefore, if packets are received in the wrong order they can easily be
sorted into the correct order for display, or discarded if the time stamp is ‘out of date’.
However, because RTP is a connection-less protocol, data delivery is not guaranteed. Where data
packets are lost (e.g. due to excessive network traffic) VN-MATRIX carefully manages the data
stream to minimize any image disruption.