OmniBridge

NDI Setup Guide

OmniBridge's NDI destinations and sources use NDI's own discovery mechanism (mDNS-based) — this is different from every other protocol this gateway supports, which connect over specific IP addresses/ports you configure directly. This page covers what that means in practice and what to check when something isn't discoverable.

How NDI discovery works

NDI sources and destinations advertise themselves — and find each other — over mDNS (multicast DNS) on the local network. This means:

  • The device running OmniBridge and whatever's finding/publishing an NDI feed (vMix, OBS, a hardware NDI encoder) need to be on the same network segment (the same subnet/VLAN, reachable by multicast) — not just able to reach each other over ordinary routed IP traffic.
  • Unlike this gateway's other destinations, there's no IP address or port to type in — you pick an NDI source or destination by the name it advertises on the network.

NDI destination not showing up elsewhere

If a destination you've configured as NDI doesn't appear in another NDI application's source list (vMix, OBS's NDI plugin, etc.), check:

  1. Same network segment. Confirm the OmniBridge host and the machine running the NDI-receiving application are on the same subnet/VLAN — mDNS discovery doesn't cross routed network boundaries by default.
  2. Host firewall. Confirm nothing on either machine is blocking multicast/UDP traffic between them.
  3. Switch configuration. If your network switches use IGMP snooping (common on managed switches), confirm there's an active IGMP querier on the network — without one, snooping can silently drop multicast traffic that would otherwise flow fine.

NDI source not appearing in OmniBridge

The same same-segment/firewall/switch checks above apply in reverse — if a real NDI source on your network isn't showing up in OmniBridge's own source list, it's almost always one of the same three things.

Split or routed networks

If your NDI sources and destinations genuinely need to span more than one network segment (a dedicated video VLAN separate from your general network, for example), the real solution is NDI's own Discovery Server or Access Manager — a component of the NDI ecosystem built specifically to bridge discovery across routed boundaries. OmniBridge doesn't implement or configure this itself; if your network needs it, set it up using NDI's own tooling and documentation independently of OmniBridge.