DEV Community: Red5

Live Streaming From Space: The Infrastructure Challenges Behind Live Video Beyond Earth

Maria Artamonova — Mon, 13 Apr 2026 18:28:31 +0000

Space, the final frontier in live video streaming. Today I want to discuss what it takes to deliver reliable live streaming from space, from early orbital broadcasts to upcoming lunar missions and beyond. We will break down the technical, operational, and viewer experience challenges behind delivering a live feed from space at scale.

From the Moon to Millions: NASA’s Streaming Vision

Back in December I had the privilege of attending a super cool presentation at the SVG Summit 2025, Live Streaming from the Moon: From Sports to Space with NASA+ with Lee Erikson and Rebecca Sirmons. What they covered sounded a bit like sci-fi fiction, but they made it clear plans are in the works for a massive live streaming event from space.

From the talk I learned that NASA is opening up their live feed for anyone and everyone who wants to use it to create their own live viewing experiences. I think the possibilities of this are super exciting, meaning we can create some really unique experiences with their live content. Imagine synchronized viewing rooms where millions of people watch a lunar landing together with real-time telemetry overlays, mission data, and social interaction aligned to the exact video moment.

You might be wondering why NASA was presenting at a Sports Video conference, since obviously space travel isn’t a sport. Rebecca and Lee made it clear that the problems they face in broadcasting their live event has many of the same challenges that sports broadcasters do. Therefore they came to the conference to get our (us in the live sports business) feedback.

Artemis II Mission: What Viewers Expect vs Reality

Artemis II marked NASA’s next major step toward returning humans to deep space, with a crewed mission that served as a dress rehearsal before future lunar landings. The mission included a full launch sequence, rollout of the rocket, a multi-day journey around the Moon, and a safe return to Earth, validating systems that will support long-duration human spaceflight beyond low Earth orbit.

From a viewer experience perspective, the video delivery can be divided into three stages: the launch phase with the crew departing Earth and reaching orbit, the live video from space during the translunar flight, and the return to Earth with reentry and splashdown. The Artemis II launch was scheduled for April 1, 2026, at 6:24 PM ET and could be viewed as a live feed on NASA+, the NASA YouTube channel, and via the NASA App. Coverage was also available on TV through major networks like CBS and CNN, and via streaming platforms such as Amazon Prime, Roku, and FOX Weather. A recording of the broadcast is also available for replay.

The expectations for the launch broadcast were massive, especially given how modern audiences consume live video, and how commercial space companies have pushed expectations higher. Audiences now expect cinematic quality from launches because companies like SpaceX normalized multi-camera live production with real-time telemetry overlays.

Looking at viewer feedback from Reddit and engineering communities criticized Artemis coverage for inconsistent production quality and long stretches of filler content:

Viewers were disappointed with the production quality during both the launch and reentry phases. Feedback highlighted issues such as manual camera tracking of the rocket that appeared slow and often out of focus, excessive cuts to crowd reactions instead of showing the mission itself, missed key moments like SRB separation, limited onboard camera footage, and low-quality visuals including oversaturated Orion camera feeds and lagging CG representations.
Multiple users pointed out that feeds dropped or went black at crucial moments, including right before and during liftoff. This created confusion about whether issues were technical failures or production errors.
Many criticized the broadcast pacing, especially during the countdown and pre-launch segments where engagement dropped due to lack of meaningful visuals or data overlays.
Viewers were frustrated with delays between events and what was shown in the live stream. Several users pointed out noticeable lag in the live feed compared to real-time expectations.

Overall, the expectation was clear. Audiences wanted a true live experience with synchronized data, minimal delay, and a compelling broadcast that felt modern. Today, people expect high-quality video similar to what they see in video on demand replays of live broadcasts, even when the live video is coming from space. This has become the standard expectation for all live content, regardless of where it originates. However, live streaming, especially from space, is fundamentally different from streaming on Earth. It introduces a set of unique challenges that I will explain next.

Engineering Reality: Streaming Beyond Earth

Historically, live video from orbit has already proven technically feasible. Systems like the ISS High Definition Earth Viewing cameras streamed live footage from space using commercial camera hardware, showing that consumer-grade technology can operate in orbit with proper engineering.

SpaceX regularly live streams from low orbit in their rocket launches with multi-camera setups, onboard live video feeds, and real-time telemetry overlays that deliver a polished broadcast experience to viewers on Earth.

However, future lunar missions introduce a different scale of challenge compared to low Earth orbit. Latency increases dramatically due to distance, transmission windows are constrained, and relay satellites become part of the architecture. Bandwidth is limited because astronaut safety data always has priority. Hardware has to survive radiation and extreme environments. Certification cycles can take years, so systems often launch with technology that is already a decade old. That changes assumptions about synchronization and interactivity.

One of the biggest architectural differences compared to terrestrial streaming is that space video systems must operate in intermittently connected environments. Unlike Earth networks where persistent connectivity is assumed, spacecraft often rely on scheduled transmission windows through relay satellites. That means buffering strategies, forward error correction, and delay-tolerant networking concepts become part of the video delivery stack. In many cases, reliability matters more than immediacy, which forces engineers to rethink traditional assumptions about latency optimization.

To overcome those limitations, the industry is starting to explore entirely different transmission technologies. Another emerging factor is optical communications. Space agencies are investing heavily in laser-based transmission systems to increase bandwidth between spacecraft and Earth. We at Red5 hold two patents related to extraterrestrial streaming. The core idea involves transmitting video over long-distance optical links such as line-of-sight laser communication instead of traditional radio frequencies. This approach can significantly increase bandwidth efficiency by a huge amount while reducing interference, which becomes critical when you are dealing with massive distances and constrained transmission windows.

Another interesting challenge is compression efficiency. When line of site laser transmission is blocked and bandwidth is scarce, or other circumstances cause transmission to be limited, every bit matters. Advances in codecs, adaptive bitrate strategies, and edge processing will play a major role in making high-quality video feasible beyond Earth orbit. There is also growing interest in performing AI-assisted processing at the edge, for example prioritizing regions of interest or dynamically adjusting quality based on mission context before transmission.

To make matters even more difficult is the speed of light limitations and transmitting at tremendous distances. A transmission from Mars for example takes on average around 40 seconds, so real-time communication isn’t possible. This exact scenario was the fodder for last year’s April Fool’s joke, where we claimed to create negative latency streaming that indeed would have made real-time communication to and from Mars possible. You’d be surprised at how many people actually wanted access to that beta.

Conclusion

Live streaming from space has been technically feasible for years, but Artemis II showed how today’s NASA live streaming infrastructure actually performs at scale. While the experience did not always meet viewer expectations due to delays and production limitations, it is important to recognize that streaming from space operates under fundamentally different constraints than terrestrial live streaming.

At the same time, many aspects of launch broadcast production from Earth can already be improved using modern tooling. AI-powered features such as automated object tracking for rocket launches, real-time transcription and translation, and moderation of user-generated content based on predefined rules can significantly enhance the viewing experience. Engagement can also be improved with chat overlays powered by real-time data streaming, as well as tighter synchronization of telemetry data, rocket trajectory, and weather conditions with live video.

As extraterrestrial streaming evolves, combining these production advancements with space-grade infrastructure will help close the gap between what is technically possible and what audiences expect from a modern live broadcast from space.

Ad Insertion for MOQ (Media over QUIC): What Is Possible Today and What Comes Next

Maria Artamonova — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 13:21:26 +0000

To continue my coverage of all things MOQ, today I want to touch on something that keeps coming up in MOQ discussions: ad insertion.

Ultra-low latency delivery is only part of the equation. For MOQ to be viable in real production environments, monetization has to work too. That means clean ad signaling, measurable delivery, and architectures that scale without breaking synchronization.

IETF MOQ interim at Google’s Boulder campus

This was one of the topics at the recent IETF MOQ interim at Google’s Boulder campus in February 2026. Watch the video below, where I discuss this event with my teammate Paul Gregoire, Red5 Solutions Architect, who attended it.

To better understand how these concepts apply in practice, here are the key definitions used in ad insertion workflows for MOQ:

Server-Side Ad Insertion (SSAI): ads are stitched directly into the video stream on the server before the stream is delivered to viewers.
Server-Guided Ad Insertion (SGAI): the server signals ad opportunities and decides when and which ads to request and play.
Client-Side Ad Insertion (CSAI): the video player on the viewer’s device requests, loads, and inserts ads during playback instead of receiving a prestitched stream.
Regional blackout: a restriction that blocks or replaces live content for viewers in certain geographic areas due to licensing or local broadcast rights.

Gwendal Simon from Synamedia and Will Law from Akamai Technologies presented how MOQ and the MOQ Transport Streaming Format (MSF) can carry SCTE-35 signaling for Server-Guided Ad Insertion (SGAI) as well as other control scenarios such as regional blackout enforcement.

Figuring out how content works with advertising and blackout use cases in a MOQ environment is critical for the technology to support real-world media and entertainment applications. Because of that, the topic is receiving significant attention across the MOQ community. The problem is not fully solved yet, but progress is moving quickly as new approaches and demonstrations continue to emerge.

Gwendal and Will presented what is possible today: a working architecture where ad decisioning systems publish SCTE-35 signaling as structured events on a dedicated Event Timeline track, while media and advertising streams remain separate and independently distributed over MOQ. Subscribers can follow these signals in real-time to switch between media and ad tracks, fetch ad content dynamically using identifiers such as MOQ URLs, and return to the primary program stream at the correct playback moment.

Learn more from the files they presented at the event.

Ad Insertion in MOQ — Interim Meeting Boulder Download

SGAI Over MOQ_ SCTE35-Based Event Timeline Type Definition Download

The approach demonstrates how existing broadcast signaling models can operate over MOQ without embedding cues directly inside the video stream, allowing signaling and media delivery to scale independently while preserving the timing relationships needed for live playback.

Does Red5 Support Ad Insertion for MOQ?

We are actively working on this area with partners like Showfer Media, integrating ad workflows into real-time streaming pipelines so MOQ can move from experimental to production-ready systems. If you are interested in learning more, visit us at the NAB Show 2026, where we will showcase MOQ and TrueTime Solutions™ in action at the Nomad Media booth W2357 and AWS booth W1701. Reach out to us here to schedule a meeting at NAB. Our schedule is filling up quickly, so it is best to plan ahead.

Become a Beta Tester of MOQ Streaming Powered by Red5 and CacheFly

Beyond the live demos, we will introduce how Red5 Cloud will deliver MOQ at scale through our partnership with CacheFly. In this workflow, live streams are ingested into Red5, processed through our video packaging layer, and delivered via CacheFly using either MOQ or HTTP-based protocols like HLS and LL-HLS. This gives customers flexibility. You can deliver ultra-low latency streams with MOQ where real-time performance matters most, while still supporting traditional formats for broader device compatibility. It is not about replacing one protocol with another. It is about choosing what works best for your use case.

Our teams will be collecting beta testers at NAB for our globally deployed MOQ network. It allows Red5 Cloud users to leverage CacheFly CDN for MOQ delivery. If you want in on this early or just want some more details on how it might work for your business, reach out to us using this link.

Conclusion

Ad insertion for MOQ is evolving quickly as the industry works to make real-time streaming monetizable without sacrificing synchronization or scale. While approaches like SCTE-35–based signaling and SGAI over MOQ already show strong potential, the ecosystem is still maturing as partners continue building production-ready workflows. With ongoing collaboration and real-world testing, MOQ is moving closer to supporting reliable, scalable ad-supported streaming. For a deeper look at how MOQ compares to existing transport approaches, read our “SRT vs MOQT” blog.

Red5 TrueTime Meetings™ for News: From the Field to Broadcast in Real-Time

Maria Artamonova — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 13:40:29 +0000

Today I want to talk about how news organizations can bring remote reporters, field video, and user-generated content into live production workflows without losing quality or control using Red5 TrueTime Meetings™.

Why Zoom, Facetime, Or Teams Do Not Work Well For News Organizations?

Traditional meeting tools like Zoom, Facetime, and Teams were never built for broadcast. They are closed systems with limited control over routing, monitoring, and integration. News teams often end up stitching together multiple tools just to get someone on air.

There are also concerns about outages and centralized service failures. In April 2025, a global Zoom outage generated tens of thousands of user complaints and disrupted operations for organizations that rely on it for daily communication. For live news production, even a short outage can mean losing a critical moment on air.

How Red5 TrueTime Meetings™ Can Help Evolve News Broadcasting?

This is where our open source TrueTime Meetings™ becomes interesting. Watch the video below to learn more about this solution.

Red5 TrueTime Meetings™ runs on Red5 live streaming infrastructure, so participants who join through a simple browser link are not just “meeting attendees.” Their streams can function as production-ready inputs that can be routed, recorded, monitored, or integrated into newsroom workflows.

Perhaps more importantly, as an open source project, TrueTime Meetings™ was designed for developers to take the parts of the code that they need and apply them to their own applications.

For news environments, that enables several practical scenarios:

Remote reporters joining live from the field through a browser or mobile device.
Citizen journalists contributing video during breaking news events.
Guest interviews without relying on consumer conferencing platforms.
Distributed newsroom coordination across locations.
Pre-production green rooms before going live.

What makes this even more powerful is how it works alongside contribution workflows with partners like Zixi. Zixi is widely used in broadcast environments for reliable contribution and transport over IP. When combined with Red5, news organizations can monitor high-fidelity contribution feeds with end-to-end latencies under 250ms while also enabling browser-based contributors through Red5 TrueTime Meetings™. That means professional camera feeds, bonded cellular transmitters, and user-generated streams can all land in the same production environment.

The integration also enables capabilities that matter directly to news operations:

Real-time monitoring of contribution feeds with high signal integrity.
Syndicating multiple live sources into multiview layouts for production teams.
Commercial slating and content replacement during live workflows.
Secure ingestion and rebroadcast of user-contributed streams.
Lower operational costs compared to traditional satellite or fiber workflows.

One example that stands out is breaking news coverage. A newsroom can receive professional camera feeds through contribution infrastructure while simultaneously bringing in eyewitness footage from smartphones through Red5 TrueTime Meetings™. Both sources remain synchronized and production-ready.

Another important factor is deployment flexibility. Red5 TrueTime Meetings™ can run in Red5 Cloud for rapid deployment or on-premises with Red5 Pro when security, compliance, or infrastructure control are required. And of course, it’s open source, which allows broadcasters to customize branding and workflows instead of forcing teams into generic meeting interfaces.

Try Red5 TrueTime Meetings™ today

Option 1:

Download the source from GitHub

Get the open source code, customize the front end, and deploy in your own environment. This is the best path if you want full control and deeper product integration.

View on GitHub >

Option 2:

Launch it in Red5 Cloud

Get the open source code, customize the front end, and deploy in your own environment. This is the best path if you want full control and deeper product integration.

Option 3:

Deploy with Red5 Pro

Prefer a self-managed setup? Red5 Pro users can download the source and deploy TrueTime Meetings™ in their own infrastructure, then extend it for their application and workflow needs.

Schedule a consultation >

What I find most compelling is how convenient it is and how seamlessly it integrates into existing workflows and consumer applications. That is what really accelerates getting new content into the news cycle.

When reporters, guests, and contributors can join a live broadcast in seconds instead of minutes, response time improves. In news, that speed often translates directly into audience engagement and competitive differentiation.

Conclusion

Red5 TrueTime Meetings™ helps news organizations bring remote contributors into live production workflows without sacrificing quality, speed, or operational control. Instead of relying on consumer meeting platforms, broadcasters can use Red5 TrueTime Meetings™ to ingest browser-based video as production-ready inputs that integrate directly into newsroom infrastructure. This approach allows news teams to move faster, capture breaking moments, and deliver live coverage with professional broadcast reliability.

SS4A Grant: Proven Video Streaming Infrastructure for Safer Road Initiatives

Maria Artamonova — Wed, 18 Mar 2026 19:36:59 +0000

SS4A grant conversations have been coming up a lot lately in discussions I’ve had with teams that have either applied for or already received funding. What stands out to me is how much opportunity there is to modernize road safety using video streaming infrastructure and real-time intelligence. Today, it is no longer enough to rely on passive monitoring. In this article, I’ll explain how the SS4A Grant Program works, what technology is required, and how Red5’s real-time intelligence can transform traffic monitoring capabilities, video surveillance, and vehicle monitoring.

About Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) Grant Program

The SS4A Grant Program is a federal initiative led by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) that helps communities reduce roadway fatalities through a system approach to safety. It funds planning, infrastructure, and operational improvements that make streets safer for all users.

At its core, SS4A supports data-driven safety strategies. Communities use funding to build action plans, deploy infrastructure, and implement technologies that improve outcomes across traffic and vehicle monitoring, and video surveillance systems. The goal is not just collecting more data but enabling real-time intelligence that helps agencies act faster and prevent incidents before they escalate.

To apply for SS4A funding, organizations must carefully review the NOFO, the Notice of Funding Opportunity. This document outlines all requirements, eligibility criteria, deadlines, and instructions needed to submit a competitive application. It is not optional reading. It is effectively the checklist that determines whether your application will be considered.

The NOFO explains two main grant types: Planning and Demonstration Grants and Implementation Grants. Planning and Demonstration Grants focus on developing or updating an action plan, running pilot programs, and testing strategies. Implementation grants fund actual deployment of projects identified in an approved action plan. Applicants must choose one path per application and must meet strict requirements. These include developing a comprehensive action plan with defined components such as safety analysis, stakeholder engagement, strategy selection, and measurable outcomes.

Your application must include detailed documentation, including a plan template, supporting materials, and a clear description of how your project aligns with SS4A priorities. Deadlines are fixed and must be followed precisely.

What Do You Need From A Technology Standpoint

Most cities today already have cameras, sensors, speed cameras, drones, and connected intersections generating massive amounts of data. The issue is not data collection. It is that today’s traffic monitoring systems are delayed, siloed, difficult to scale across districts and departments, and rarely actionable in real time. On top of that, they often lack advanced AI and vision-language model analysis of live camera feeds that could automatically surface risks, detect patterns, and turn raw video into meaningful operational insight. What cities actually need is real-time roadway intelligence. That gap is exactly where modern streaming infrastructure can make a difference.

Modern SS4A projects require video streaming infrastructure that can ingest live feeds from video surveillance systems, drone operations, and mobile devices without replacing existing infrastructure. Video must be processed in real-time, apply AI models, and deliver insights instantly.

With the right approach, agencies can detect license plates, identify anomalies, and generate real-time threat intelligence from live feeds. Instead of reviewing footage after an incident, teams can act while events are unfolding.

This shift enables:

Faster detection of accidents, congestion, and risks involving vulnerable road users.
Real-time intelligence across departments using shared live video.
Better coordination between emergency responders and traffic operators.
Scalable vehicle monitoring across jurisdictions.

Without this foundation, SS4A-funded projects risk becoming another layer of disconnected systems rather than a unified safety solution.

How Red5 Can Help

We provide video streaming infrastructure designed for real-time intelligence at scale. The platform ingests video from traffic cameras, drones, or even mobile devices, ingest it using standard protocols without replacing existing infrastructure, process it in the cloud with AI (for detecting and alerting anomalies), and deliver sub-second live video to operators and agencies that need to act immediately.

When you move from delayed analytics to live situational awareness, several things change:

Risks can be detected sooner, including identifying accidents, congestion, wildfire events, dangerous intersections, or vulnerable road users.
Emergency response coordination improves because everyone sees the same live view, helps identify stolen vehicles in real-time, and enables faster incident verification before dispatch.
Cross-agency collaboration becomes practical instead of theoretical.
Safety outcomes can actually be measured for programs like the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Safe Streets and Roads for All initiative..

One thing that stands out about Red5’s approach is that it does not require ripping out existing infrastructure. Cities can use cameras they already have and turn it into something operationally meaningful.

Our Customers Success Stories

We have seen this in real-world deployments.

For example, Red5 supported a real-time drone streaming solution for the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department, enabling faster response during critical incidents.

In another case, Red5 worked with Nomad Media to power a traffic monitoring solution for Caltrans District 7, where sub-250ms latency video improves decision-making during fires, disasters, and large-scale incidents. We provide a unified interface for viewing and sharing live and recorded roadway video across agencies including the California Highway Patrol. Faster visibility leads to faster decisions, and faster decisions save lives.

Conclusion

SS4A Grant initiatives are pushing cities to rethink how they use data, moving from passive monitoring to real-time intelligence powered by video streaming infrastructure. Today, the gap between data collection and action is the biggest challenge in road safety. By adopting modern traffic monitoring software, video surveillance, and vehicle monitoring solutions, agencies can turn SS4A funding into measurable safety outcomes. If your organization has applied for or received SS4A funding, feel free to reach out to us.

What Can Real-Time In-Stadium Streaming Do for Live Sports Broadcasting and Event Production in 2026?

Maria Artamonova — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 18:00:30 +0000

There’s a quiet revolution happening in stadiums and arenas. And it’s not just about 5G or giant LED screens. It’s about real-time video, interactive features, and creating unforgettable in-venue experiences that extend far beyond the walls of the stadium. In this study, you’ll learn what in-stadium streaming can do for live sports broadcasting and event production in large venues, why it is becoming a game-changer for both fans and businesses, and what innovative solutions Red5 and partners provide.

What Is In-Stadium Streaming?

At Red5, we’ve been working on revolutionizing stadium experiences with the following partners.

Together, Red5 Pro‘s real-time streaming server software and Amino’s media players and device management capabilities power on-premise streaming for large-scale venues like stadiums. We are currently working on a large-scale pilot with a customer in Mexico that uses this setup to stream live sports to TVs across stadiums with synchronized, low-latency video on 15–20 screens in view. It scales to thousands of endpoints without heavy infrastructure, while reducing operational costs.
The Famous Group, on the other hand, is flipping the camera around by streaming fan content from phones directly to those same digital signs in real time. Think live shoutouts, dance cams, and on-the-fly interactions that make the crowd part of the show.
Another exciting partnership we’re working on is combining on-prem deployment with Osprey encoders. With frame-level encoding they provide and Red5 deployed on a server on-site, we’ve seen glass to glass latencies as low as 60ms. That aligns (or often beats) with the speed of sound depending on where you are situated in the stadium. So the video on the screen matches what your ears hear, which has been sorely missing at concerts and games alike. This is particularly important with live concerts and getting lip-sync dialed in on the video playback with the sound in the arena.

What AI-Powered Capabilities Red5 Delivers

Here are some of the AI-powered capabilities Red5 delivers for enhancing sports and event in-stadium streaming experiences.

Frame-level detection: Extracting video frames in under a second and handing them off to AI models. This makes it possible to flag large crowd gatherings and enable routing at mass events to ensure safety, track player movements in real time, and detect unauthorized access to restricted areas in a stadium.
Audio intelligence: Using models like NVIDIA’s Parakeet for live transcription, translation, and generating searchable metadata from conversations or broadcasts. Imagine live sports commentators’ play-by-play calls being instantly transcribed and translated, or concert lyrics synced in real time for fans across multiple languages.
Smart search: Generate searchable metadata from video or audio content and automatically tag key events, such as goals and penalties in sports, so they can be quickly located in the recording.
Custom advertising: Align ads with the tone of the content to ensure higher relevancy and conversion rates. For example, you could display a sportswear commercial right after a major goal replay, or showcase upcoming tour dates immediately following a concert highlight.

How These Solutions Benefit Both Fans and Businesses

What excites me most about real-time stadium streaming is the value it unlocks for businesses:

Enhance fan engagement with multi-view angles that let attendees follow the game their way.
Expand your audience and drive customer loyalty by adding new high-value capabilities. Deliver broadcast-quality video and perfectly synced audio with the live action. Offer personalized in-app audio with selectable commentators and languages.
Monetize and earn more revenue through interactive overlays and targeted ads tailored to each fan’s location and profile.
Reduce infrastructure costs by deploying on prem, on your own cloud account, or using Red5 Cloud’s Pay-As-You-Grow service.

While sports and music use cases are some of the most obvious, fan festivals, amusement parks, eSports events, and other use cases could benefit from this kind of infrastructure. And here’s where it gets even more exciting: this isn’t just for the world’s most connected stadiums.

In many emerging markets, connectivity inside venues still lags far behind. Public internet can be slow or unreliable, and building centralized infrastructure often feels out of reach. But it does not have to be. By deploying Red5 on-prem, paired with private 5G or dedicated Wi-Fi networks, venues can bypass the limitations of external connectivity altogether. You get the benefits of real-time streaming, synchronized playback, and interactive experiences, all running locally on your own hardware.

This approach is already proving effective in places like Mexico, where teams are using this model to deliver broadcast-quality experiences without needing massive cloud infrastructure or robust public internet access. It’s a way for stadiums in under-connected regions to leap ahead, not wait to catch up.

Conclusion

It feels like the time is finally right, the networks are ready, and the tech is here for stadiums. And the demand for immersive, interactive, real-time experiences is only growing.

In-stadium streaming is redefining how fans experience live events and how venues unlock new revenue opportunities. From synchronized, ultra-low latency video to interactive tools like kiss cams and fan shoutouts, the technology enhances engagement while lowering infrastructure costs. Whether in the world’s most connected arenas or in emerging markets, Red5 and its partners are proving that the future of live event broadcasting is already here.

TrueTime Meetings™: Open Source Video Calling Built for Real-Time Streaming

Maria Artamonova — Fri, 13 Mar 2026 13:50:57 +0000

The world has reached a turning point in internet video engagement where the ubiquitous need for instant access to interactive audio/video communications can’t be satisfied by the usual approaches to video conferencing.

Good as they might be at supporting traditional video conferencing, and even there they leave a lot to be desired, the likes of Google Meet, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Cisco Webex , etc. fall far short of what’s required as a new era in live video streaming takes hold. To put it bluntly, they’re simply not designed to accommodate a world where spontaneous face-to-face social engagement is becoming an intrinsic component of live streaming across the consumer, enterprise and institutional landscapes. See our latest white paper for an examination of the major trends driving the need for a new video communications paradigm.

Of course, the more ubiquitous demand for infrastructure supporting such capabilities becomes, the more needs to be done to ensure that demand is met. Which is why, along with platforms like Red5’s Experience Delivery Network (XDN) Architecture that heavily rely on WebRTC and its enhancements for current transport needs, there’s an industry-wide standard informally known as MOQ nearing competition under the guidance of the Internet Engineering Task Force. With widescale industry engagement including full support from Red5, MOQ is set to drive faster emergence of a global marketplace connected by real-time interactive streaming.

As next-gen streaming infrastructures take hold, it’s clear that from now on the live mass market streaming and video calling components must act as a single piece as opposed to remaining locked into the bifurcation that currently persists. This requires a video meeting platform built on global real-time streaming architecture that can support point-and-click activation of fully synchronized unscheduled interactive A/V communications in any use case reaching any number of users at 250ms or lower end-to-end latencies.

We at Red5 met this challenge by introducing a set of open-source software modules comprising the TrueTime Meetings™ toolset. Now service and applications providers can make A/V communications an intrinsic, readily accessible part of live streaming UX at these performance levels in virtually any scenario.

The options start with TrueTime Meetings™ default parameters supporting a more scalable, higher quality version of a conventional conferencing solution, with or without appointment requirements. Out of the box, TrueTime Meetings™ is more or less a Google Meet clone in terms of functionality with features like live transcriptions, save recordings, virtual background replacement, and more. Those looking to customize a solution to meet their goals can leverage the flexibility of this open source software stack to implement whatever approaches to real-time A/V communications fit their use cases. Relying on in-house and/or Red5 development teams, they can create their own ground-breaking communications environments from a deep well of open-sourced TrueTime Meetings™ functionalities together with any of the tools available with other TrueTime solutions.

TrueTime Meetings™ tools are available like the other Red5 TrueTime toolsets at no added costs beyond the usage-based pricing that makes the Red5 Cloud managed platform-as-a-service (PaaS) and the self-managed Red5 Pro implementations of the company’s Experience Delivery Network (XDN) Architecture a cost-effective approach to real-time interactive streaming. In addition, Red5 customers have access to major advancements that are shaping the next generation in interactive video communications. These include support for:

AI-assisted Large Language Model (LLM) applications ranging from real-time analytics and voice-to-text and text-to-voice language translation to execution of the creative capabilities driven by AI Vision Language Models (VLMs).
A/V connectivity with use of HEVC and, soon, AV1 to attain 4K quality levels and beyond;
Spatially realistic audio and video experiences with immersive tie-ins to extended reality (XR) applications.

The Unique Capabilities of the TrueTime Meetings™ Platform

With TrueTime Meetings™ we’re addressing the need for a video meetings platform with global reach that can be easily configured to accommodate the vast range of socialization strategies that are becoming more and more expected in modern live video streaming experiences.

While the need for capabilities akin to what’s available from conventional video conferencing platforms will persist, a rapidly expanding share of the interactive video communications strategies coming into play require what’s not available from the conventional platforms, including:

adaptability to any strategy,
unlimited scalability,
ease of use supporting instantaneous appointment-free participation,
A/V quality levels matched to current expectations, and
support for the new technologies reshaping the communications landscape, from AI to innovations like LiDAR, spatial audio and the many permutations of AR and VR.

For the first time, we have made it possible to meet all these requirements with the freedom and cost benefits that come with using the open-source frontend code base underlying the tools and SDKs comprising TrueTime Meetings™. The license-free possibilities range from a default mode that adds unlimited scalability and high A/V quality for users requiring a conventional video conferencing platform to easily structured combinations of TrueTime Meetings™ elements in support of any use case.

Critically, the tools and functionalities comprising TrueTime Meetings™ don’t entail any kind of forklift departure from the fundamental capabilities that have long characterized XDN Architecture as a foundation for real-time interactive streaming. Abundant documentation on our website describes the full range of XDN capabilities that go into enabling real-time streaming in any direction from any number of originating sources to any number of receivers with end-to-end latencies at or below 250ms over any distance. See, for example, these blogs on the keys to the XDN performance advantage over all other real-time streaming platforms, the role Red5 is playing supporting distributed collaboration in live production, and the capabilities achieved in collaboration with Red5 partners whose solutions have been integrated to work with XDN Architecture.

Mirroring the convenience that comes with building apps using our other toolsets, including the TrueTime MultiView™, Watch Party™, Studio™ and DataSync™ toolsets Red5 created to facilitate building specific applications on XDN infrastructures, TrueTime Meetings™ consists of a stack of open-source software tools with easy-to-follow guidance on how to use them on a customer portal, ensuring enough functionalities are embodied in the stack to take video communications anywhere a customer wants to go.

All TrueTime Solutions™ are available to XDN customers at no extra costs, which in the case of TrueTime Meetings™ applies whether customers choose to utilize the tools as structured in the feature-rich video conferencing default mode or to use them to build interactive communications systems precisely tailored to their use cases. Red5 Cloud customers can customize their uses with their own branding through direct access to Meetings in the TrueTime Apps section on their Red5 Cloud dashboards.

For those deploying in their own environments, Red5 Pro customers can put TrueTime Meetings™ to use by downloading whatever tools they need from the TrueTime apps repository.

In all cases, customized usage is facilitated through the Red5 Pro Conference SDK, which provides a high-level API for building video calling applications while abstracting the complexities of WebRTC management, media handling, and connection management. Settings applied with custom builds can be modified, added or deleted without requiring a full application rebuild.

Red5 Pro users can launch real-time streaming with customized applications enabled by TrueTime toolsets, including Meetings, using the free Java-coded Red5 Media Server with its simple plugin architecture, which has been installed by the likes of Amazon, the U.S. Department of Defense, Akamai, Harvard University and many other entities in over one million instances of XDN usage worldwide. Or they can use their own server software to accomplish the same things.

Red5 Cloud and Red5 Pro customers can integrate into their existing workflows the pre-packaged TrueTime Meetings™ tools comprising the default video calling mode or they can integrate whichever tools they need to build their own custom calling applications. This helps to ensure that whatever approaches they take, the calling functions work in holistic alignment with their real-time streaming operations.

TrueTime Meetings™ users also benefit from our latest support for AI.

AI-assisted multilingual speech-to-text captioning and large language model (LLM) multilingual generation of speech from text are included in the TrueTimes MeetingsTM default mode with the Red5 Cloud and Red5 Pro Enterprise subscription tiers. They are also available on a per-user negotiated cost or no-cost basis with the Red5 Cloud Pay-as-You-Grow and Growth plans and the Red5 Pro Developer Pro, Start-Up and Growth Pro plans.

More broadly, use of TrueTime Meetings™ is enhanced by virtue of Red5’s integration of XDN Architecture with an ever-expanding array of LLMs and VLMs, which are available to work with any Meeting use case. At the same time, customers can arrange for integration of any other AI models that employ open interfaces compatible with the industry standards used with Red5 APIs.

Adding to the AI functionalities available to TrueTime Meetings™ users, for the first time anywhere we’re enabling virtually instant extraction of A/V frames at any frequency down to sub-second intervals from content delivered to Red5 Cloud infrastructure over any supported ingest, including WebRTC / WHIP, SRT, Zixi, RTMP, and RTSP. This is vital to thorough analysis of payloads in surveillance operations and in any other real-time streaming scenarios involving granular enhancements to metadata, avoiding unwanted content elements and monitoring user behavior.

TrueTime Meetings™ Video Calling Default Mode

For customers who simply want to be able to support a better version of conventional video conferencing systems, the TrueTime Meetings™ default mode is easily activated by responding to prompts on their dashboards. The automated video calling setup creates an easy-to-manage conferencing adjunct to any streaming scenario.

The platform can be used as a standalone center for appointment-based group meetings or as a video communications overlay integrated for access as an appointment-free component of the customer’s real-time streaming UX. TrueTime Meetings™ can also be activated with a seamless transfer from an HTTP-streamed live sports or other event to real-time XDN streaming to support viewer participation in video conversations during post-event programming.

Whatever approach is taken in the use of XDN Architecture, TrueTime Meetings™ allows viewers, remote commentators or any other category of collaborators and participants to be brought into video conversations associated with webinars, trade shows. live sports and newscasts, esports competitions, game shows, live-shopping programs – the list is endless. And the platform can be used in audio-only group meeting applications as in the case of live-streamed talk radio programs and audio podcasts.

Some of the features included with the core default video conferencing mode include:

Scalability – Multiuser participation with up to 30 on-screen users at any one time with managed access available to any number of others extending into the millions as Meetings users are rotated in and out of a given streaming session.
Participation Monitoring in Appointment-Free Applications – Conferencing managers’ ability to track what’s happening on the platform is facilitated by automated participant updates when users enter or leave a session and by signals that let organizers know when someone turns a camera on or off or mutes or unmutes a microphone.
Video Quality Control – The H.264 default encoding used with TrueTime MeetingsTM can support any level of screen resolution through management of the bandwidth allocated to the A/V streams. Whereas conventional conferencing platforms typically top out at 720p with some charging premium fees to enable HD 1080p, display resolutions in TrueTime Meetings™ sessions can surge to 1080p HD and beyond based on whatever bandwidth is made available by session managers. Side-by-side comparisons with conventional streaming show that at any given bandwidth allocation, image clarity in the Meetings display windows is much greater than the alternative. Moreover, the quality is persistent with the real-time streaming support provided by XDN architecture, which frequently isn’t the case with the freezes and fluctuations common to HTTP-based streaming.
Audio Control – Along with benefitting from superior consistency in audio performance mirroring what’s achieved with video on the TrueTime Meetings™ real-time XDN streaming infrastructure, session managers can keep tabs on user-controlled audio levels to ensure satisfactory UX on the part of all participants. Exploiting the Meeting software client’s periodic registering of each participant’s audio level, managers can activate a “talking indicator” to display how audio is playing out in conference conversations.
Support for Text and Emoji Messaging, Screen Sharing, Hand Raising and Meeting Recordings – All of these functionalities are built into the default platform, eliminating the need to engage third-party services or in-house developers.
Layout Flexibility – Operating in auto mode, the TrueTime Meetings™ platform adjusts the display layout based on the participant count. Alternatively, session managers have other options allowing them to set up tiled layouts that allocate equal-sized video tiles to all participants or implement sidebar layouts where the main speaker is prominently displayed with others in a participant sidebar. They can also choose hands-on control over shifts in participant focus throughout the session.
UI Styling – The TrueTimes Meetings™ software stack includes a broad range of styling and branding options that can be easily implemented on user dashboards.

Custom Use of TrueTime Meetings™

Beyond default mode TrueTime Meetings™ can be configured in unique ways as an integral part of any real-time streaming scenario to enable usage formats that depart from the traditional video conferencing structure. Of course, all the capabilities enumerated above for the default mode can be applied in customized applications as well.

Here is where TrueTime Meetings™ meets the full scope of challenges in the new live streaming era, unleashing the unlimited possibilities that emerge when interactive video communications and multicast streams share the same real-time infrastructure. In this hybrid environment any viewer in a live-streamed video audience of any size extending into the millions can seamlessly join in interactive video communications as configured on the TrueTimes Meetings™ platform.

In commercial operations ready-to-deploy face-to-face group interactions can be implemented with real-time XDN streaming in support of dispersed collaboration across a vast range of pursuits, from live sports productions, coordinated engagements of public safety units in emergency surveillance, engineering and architectural design and much else in the workaday world to every type of education and training environment. Anyone anywhere can be connected into the global Red5 Cloud XDN for a role as commentator or influencer in any of these use cases.

Adding to the cost-free versatility, our customers can work with other TrueTime Solutions™ integrated in their workflows to enhance their video calling with additional features related to multiviewing, watch parties, live production and use of telemetric data feeds in sports streaming and surveillance. Moreover, TrueTime Meetings™ users can integrate interactive video communications with the interactive data streaming capabilities enabled by the partnership between Red5 and global data platform operator PubNub.

Aggregations of meeting participants can be displayed anywhere. For example, our customers might prefer to put the TrueTime Meetings™ participation grid on display in a venue setting that makes users part of what’s transpiring at the location. LED walls used with live-streamed game shows, live shopping, reality TV, sports shows with call-in formats, and much else can display large numbers of participants while prominently projecting speakers chosen by the host.

Or maybe there’s no interest in creating multi-participant grids at all, as when customers simply want to accord a video presence to individuals speaking in Q&A sessions during corporate earnings calls and other types of meetings. Or, in another example of unitary displays involving big venues like sports stadiums, in-venue and remote smartphone users alike can participate in a mass shared experience where video generated from anyone’s phone at any moment can be displayed on the stadium screens, as is the case in multiple locations where The Famous Group is bringing such experiences alive in partnership with Red5.

Looking at another use case, ever since the Covid Pandemic, there’s been an interest in adding virtualized functionalities to remote participants in webinars and location-based trade shows, but the attempts at supporting such use cases proved to be too cumbersome and costly to take hold. Now it’s a different story for our XDN customers who want to use the open-source TrueTime Meetings™ tools to create multi-dimensional virtual extensions with their events featuring things like private rooms for booked meetings between remote attendees and vendors.

The Spatial Audio Option

There’s an unmatched level of realism that can be infused into group social interactions enabled by our support for spatial audio. In all situations involving virtualized group interactions, including virtual casinos, virtual sports bars and other online social meeting places, customers who utilize TrueTime Meetings™ can benefit from the value-added spatial audio solution whether or not the use of XR headgear is involved.

We have taken immersive spatial audio to a new level of versatility and scalability by exploiting unique characteristics of XDN Architecture to maintain real-time configurations of realistic audio experiences in 3D space no matter how many users are engaged or how complex the ambient environment might be. Individualized mixes of ambient sound are applied to realistically reflect each user’s position in the virtual space while personal conversational sound levels are raised with one-on-one communications.

A key element in the XDN toolset that makes this possible is our Cauldron transcoding engine, which supports blending of personally directed stream segments with the primary streams in real time. These segments, which we call Brews, can be added in the transcoding process without incurring delays usually caused by the need to translate coding to the languages understood by processors.

As for instances involving XR headgear, these and other unique attributes together with the simultaneous ultra-low latency connecting all participants in AR and VR use cases running on XDN Architecture ensure that TrueTime Meetings™ is readily available to support any socialized XR use case. That means advancements like spatial audio, light detection and arranging (LiDAR) used to add realistic dimensionality to visual displays, and any iteration of spatial computing technology can be effortlessly brought to bear as our customers adapt to next-gen operations in the new world of real-time interactive video streaming.

Conclusion

With flexibility and scalability in interactive video communications as enabled by our TrueTime Meetings™ taking hold over the next few years, the market for interactive video communications across all consumer and non-consumer market segments is likely to take up a much bigger, if not the lion’s share, of the $107.0-billion interactive streaming market Grand View Research projects will be in play by 2030. Leveraging the readily deployable capabilities facilitating implementations of the open-source TrueTime Meetings™ tools through Red5 Cloud or Red5 Pro, operators of live-streamed use cases can act now to bring the new era in video communications to life in their domains.

Try Red5 TrueTime Meetings™ today

Option 1:

Download the source from GitHub

Get the open source code, customize the front end, and deploy in your own environment. This is the best path if you want full control and deeper product integration.

View on GitHub >

Option 2:

Launch it in Red5 Cloud

Get the open source code, customize the front end, and deploy in your own environment. This is the best path if you want full control and deeper product integration.

Option 3:

Deploy with Red5 Pro

Prefer a self-managed setup? Red5 Pro users can download the source and deploy TrueTime Meetings™ in their own infrastructure, then extend it for their application and workflow needs.

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SRT vs MOQT: Low-Latency Video Transport Comparison

Maria Artamonova — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 13:31:31 +0000

Questions about SRT vs MOQT come up often when engineers evaluate low latency video transport options. As a Lead Real-Time Video Architect working on MOQ development at Red5, I ran into this question during architecture discussions and realized others will likely face the same comparison soon. This article is written from my perspective and has also been reviewed and verified by my teammate Paul Gregoire, Red5 Solutions Architect.

If you want a quick summary, read the Key Takeaways section. If you want a deeper technical comparison, continue through the rest of the blog.

Key Takeaways

SRT is a well-established, reliable protocol for video contribution, offering strict end-to-end latency controls. However, its payload-agnostic approach to packet dropping can introduce playback instability under severe congestion, and its single-stream architecture can still create Head-of-Line blocking conditions, limiting its applicability to modern SVC workflows.

MOQT, pairing flexible streaming formats mapped to independent QUIC streams, provides equivalent latency controls while enabling granular, payload-aware data handling and discard strategies. Utilizing parallel streams, isolated packet loss recovery, and priority-based delivery, it can safely drop late data and natively support SVC adaptation. The protocol’s architecture is highly optimized for resilient, low-latency, bandwidth efficient media distribution.

Baseline for Comparison

When comparing Secure Reliable Transport (SRT) and Media over QUIC Transport (MOQT), it is important to establish equivalent architectural layers. Technically, SRT is a payload-agnostic transport protocol. However, in standard broadcast and streaming workflows, it is predominantly used to carry multiplexed MPEG-TS (Transport Stream) payloads.

MOQT is an end-to-end media transport protocol designed to operate in conjunction with a wide range of application-layer streaming formats (current drafts define MOQT Streaming Format (MSF) and CMAF MSF (CMSF). The streaming format and related container structure provides necessary media meta-data including timestamps. Therefore, a functional comparison for video delivery is best framed as SRT + MPEG-TS versus MOQT + CMSF.

Note: it is important to mention that MOQT occupies different use-case spaces, with overlap primarily on the contribution side – SRT is generally not considered for distribution at scale to end-consumers.

Packet Scheduling and Multiplexing

Under network congestion, transport protocols must manage how data is queued and transmitted through restricted bandwidth.

SRT Scheduling: SRT processes packets in a primarily First-In, First-Out (FIFO) sequence over a single UDP connection. Because it does not natively inspect the payload, it cannot differentiate between critical media (like base video layers or audio) and supplemental media (like video enhancement layers) without custom application layer multiplexing.
MOQT Scheduling: MOQT incorporates a prioritization model utilizing various priority parameters per stream. This allows the sender and intermediate relays to identify the relative importance of different media components. Under bandwidth constraints, an MOQT relay can use this logic to selectively delay or drop lower-priority streams to ensure the timely delivery of higher-priority streams.

Packet Loss Recovery and Head-of-Line Blocking

Both SRT and MOQT (via QUIC) use Automatic Repeat reQuest (ARQ) to recover lost packets. When a packet is dropped by the network, the receiver asks the sender to retransmit it. The operational difference lies in how this recovery impacts the rest of the data in transit.

SRT (Head-of-Line Blocking): SRT transmits its payload sequentially over a single connection. If a packet is lost, the receiver must hold all subsequent packets in a buffer until the lost packet is retransmitted and successfully arrives. However, if the retransmission delay exceeds the set latency buffer, SRT drops the packet entirely, allowing the stream to continue rather than waiting forever. This creates Head-of-Line (HoL) Blocking. Because all media (audio, video base layer, video enhancement layer) shares this single pipeline, a single lost network packet stalls the delivery of the entire transport stream, increasing latency across the board. Again this only “stalls” within the latency period, not forever.
MOQT (Independent Stream Recovery): MOQT relies on QUIC’s multiplexed stream architecture. Because different media components (e.g., audio and video) are mapped to independent QUIC streams, packet loss is isolated. If a packet containing video data is lost, only the specific video stream waits for a retransmission. The audio stream, operating on a parallel QUIC stream, continues to deliver data to the application without interruption. This prevents a single network packet loss from stalling the entire media presentation.

Handling Late Data under Congestion

When network delays cause data to arrive past its intended playback deadline, the two protocols use different mechanisms to discard that data.

SRT (Network-Level Dropping): SRT utilizes a configured latency buffer. If a packet cannot be delivered within this timeframe, SRT’s Too-Late Packet Drop (TLPKTDROP) mechanism discards it. Because SRT drops data at the network packet level without payload awareness, this can result in the delivery of partial media frames. In an MPEG-TS workflow, this fragmentation can lead to decoder errors or visual artifacts, potentially persisting until the next keyframe.
MOQT (Application-Aware Dropping): MOQT relies on a feedback loop between the application’s Streaming Format and the QUIC transport layer. The application layer evaluates the Presentation Timestamp (PTS); if a frame exceeds its playback deadline, it instructs the transport layer to issue a QUIC STOP_SENDING frame. MOQT then discards the complete, semantic media unit via a RESET_STREAM operation. This preserves the structural integrity of the remaining video streams and avoids corrupting the decoder.

Support for Video Adaptation (ABR and SVC)

Modern video delivery relies on Adaptive Bitrate (ABR) and Scalable Video Coding (SVC) to adjust to changing network conditions.

SRT and SVC: Because SRT typically carries a single, multiplexed MPEG-TS stream, all SVC layers (base resolution and enhancement details) share the same transport queue. If the network drops a base layer packet while successfully delivering an enhancement layer packet, the enhancement data cannot be decoded, limiting the practical effectiveness of SVC over a standard SRT link.
MOQT and SVC/ABR Integration: MOQT maps SVC layers to independent QUIC streams (Subgroups), facilitating two types of adaptation:
1. Layer Dropping (SVC): During transient network drops, MOQT relays autonomously discard low-priority enhancement Subgroups. The player experiences a temporary reduction in quality while maintaining uninterrupted playback.
2. Track Switching (ABR): For sustained changes in network capacity, the client can issue a SUBSCRIBE command for a lower-bitrate MOQT Track. MOQT processes these switches at defined Group boundaries (Keyframes), providing clean transitions between quality tiers.

Integration with Transcoding Workflows

The integration of these protocols into transcoding pipelines involves a tradeoff between current ecosystem support and architectural efficiency.

SRT Ecosystem Maturity: SRT combined with MPEG-TS is a mature, widely adopted standard. It possesses extensive support across legacy hardware encoders, software transcoders (e.g., FFmpeg), and existing cloud broadcast infrastructure.
MOQT Processing Efficiency: SRT’s monolithic payload requires transcoders to ingest, demultiplex, and decode the entire Transport Stream before processing. By contrast, MOQT’s architecture separates media into independent Tracks and Subgroups. This allows a modern transcoder to selectively ingest only the required streams (e.g., processing a 1080p base layer while actively ignoring higher-resolution streams), offering a more compute-efficient pipeline as the software ecosystem matures.

Conclusion

In summary, the SRT vs MOQT comparison highlights the difference between a mature contribution protocol built around a single transport stream and a newer architecture designed for multiplexed, media aware delivery. SRT remains widely used and reliable, while MOQT introduces transport level capabilities that align better with modern scalable video workflows and adaptive streaming models.

If you want to explore how MOQ compares with other real time delivery approaches, read our related blog on MOQ vs WebRTC.

Why The Term “Smart City Surveillance” Needs An Update In The Era Of AI And 5G

Maria Artamonova — Wed, 04 Mar 2026 14:19:56 +0000

Smart city surveillance is rapidly evolving beyond traditional monitoring, thanks to real-time streaming technologies, AI, and 5G. In this blog, based on my recent LinkedIn post, you’ll learn the definition of smart cities and how the concept is evolving in 2026, gain an overview of the market, see how AI is revolutionizing this space, and discover what technology capabilities are now available to transportation agencies, public safety departments, disaster response teams, and other groups using smart city solutions.

What Is A Smart City?

A smart city is an urban area that uses smart technologies like ICT, IoT, and real-time streaming to enhance services and improve quality of life. With connected cameras, sensors, and software, cities can monitor feeds, detect incidents, and balance safety with privacy. These technologies integrate data-driven decision-making into everyday operations.

Smart City Market Overview

According to Statista, the United States is at the forefront of smart city development, with cities like New York and San Francisco leading the way in implementing advanced technologies for efficient infrastructure and improved quality of life. In terms of global comparison, the United States is projected to generate the highest revenue, with US$27.06 billion expected in 2025. It is anticipated that the revenue will demonstrate an annual growth rate (CAGR 2025–2029) of 7.27 percent. This growth will lead to a market volume of US$35.84 billion by 2029.

The U.S. government is also putting real momentum behind smart city innovation. Congress passed the Smart Cities and Communities Act of 2024 and followed with the 2025 version, both designed to fund projects, create standards, and boost cybersecurity. The Department of Transportation is running the SMART Grants Program, channeling resources into connected transportation and safety. On top of that, agencies like NIST and NSF are pushing research that takes these ideas well beyond big cities and into the communities where people actually live and work.

The Future Of Smart Cities

I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately as we’ve worked on projects that go well beyond the traditional “smart city” pitch deck.

With modern AI and real-time video infrastructure combined with growing 5G connectivity, we’re no longer limited to passive surveillance or slow post-event analysis. Today, systems can detect critical conditions as they unfold, so humans can intervene faster, or in some cases, not intervene at all.

One problem I have with the term “smart cities” is that so many of the use cases have nothing to do with cities at all. We’re not just talking about big city surveillance. These “smart city” systems are already being used by regional transportation agencies, public safety departments, and disaster response teams which cover rural areas too. Smart Cities was probably the right term when it was created, but times have changed. With today’s low-cost cameras, 5G connectivity, and cloud-hybrid infrastructure, it’s possible to put intelligence at the edge everywhere.

How Does AI Improve Smart City Surveillance?

In these new deployments, AI-based video analytics does a lot of the heavy lifting in video surveillance. The job of the operator becomes less about staring at feeds and more about responding to actionable insight. For example:

Cameras detect crowd congestion in a stadium and reroute foot traffic.
A traffic feed flags a stopped vehicle inside a tunnel and alerts rescue teams in real time.
Edge-based systems detect early signs of wildfires or floods and trigger rapid response, potentially saving lives.
Teams can even record and share key footage as on-demand video with law enforcement to aid in investigations.

I talked about at the RTC.On conference in Poland in September 2025. My talk, “The Future in Focus: AI and the Next Wave of Real-Time Video Intelligence”, explored large language models (LLMs) and Red5 Pro’s Brew API can be used to detect everything from crowd control issues and forest fires to firearms and inappropriate content in live user streams. I also walked through real-world architectures and what’s coming next in this space. If you’re interested to know more, watch this recording on Youtube:

Cameras Everywhere? Finding The Right Balance

“What about big bother?” you might ask. “Should we have cameras like this everywhere?” This is honestly a difficult question. There’s a saying that with every new technology it can be used for good and for evil. Plus, it’s pretty clear that the cat is out of the bag, and we aren’t going back. I prefer to embrace the possibilities and do what we can to prevent the bad stuff while enabling life saving use cases that make a difference. Cameras everywhere can actually be a good thing if we use them with the right intent, the right architecture, and the right safeguards.

At Red5, we’ve built streaming infrastructure for smart cities that supports all of this:

Ultra-Low Latency Streaming. Our sub-250 ms latency and ability to ingest video at the edge, feed it directly into GPU-powered AI models, and share results instantly, whether live or as on-demand content.
Cross-Department Sharing. Seamlessly share video feeds across traffic management, emergency services, and public safety departments while maintaining secure access controls.
Scalable City-Wide Deployment. Support thousands of cameras across urban environments while maintaining sub-250ms latency for real-time monitoring and response.
Automated Alert System. AI-powered detection automatically alerts relevant departments to incidents, from road hazards to emergency vehicle deployment.
Flexible Infrastructure Integration. Integrate with existing urban infrastructure and camera systems while enabling future expansion and technology adoption.

Conclusion

Smart cities are no longer just about urban infrastructure. With AI, 5G, ultra-low latency streaming, and edge-powered analytics, surveillance systems can now detect issues as they unfold and support faster, safer decision making. Follow me on LinkedIn to keep up with my latest #ChrisAllenTalks posts and videos. Learn more about the AI technology is changing live streaming in our next blog.

The Future of News Broadcasting Is Real-Time, Decentralized, and Participatory

Maria Artamonova — Mon, 02 Mar 2026 14:37:49 +0000

In this blog, based on my recent LinkedIn post, you’ll learn how the future of news broadcasting is being shaped by real-time video in a world of misinformation, how decentralized and participatory models are redefining coverage, what streaming technologies leading newsrooms are adopting, and how these shifts set new standards for speed, authenticity, and audience engagement.

Through our integration, we can connect directly to those existing streams. This makes it easy to add real-time multi-view layouts and give teams instant access to live feeds, all without requiring a complete overhaul of their current workflow.

In major newsrooms, producers are using Red5’s TrueTime MultiView™ to build real-time monitoring walls. These setups help teams track multiple breaking stories at once while keeping every feed in perfect sync. It’s a game changer for fast-paced editorial decision-making.

Field reporting has gotten a boost too. With Red5’s adaptive bitrate streaming, news organizations are keeping clean, stable connections with on-site reporters, even in remote areas or on unreliable networks. Reporters stay connected, editors stay in control, and the audience gets coverage that feels truly live.

It’s been rewarding to watch these teams move beyond patchwork tools and start building systems that actually support the speed and complexity of today’s news cycle.

Conclusion

If you’re a product lead or technology decision-maker inside a traditional broadcast news organization, this is your moment. Real-time infrastructure and participatory models are no longer fringe experiments. They are quickly becoming the standard. Audiences expect immediacy, interactivity, and authenticity. If your stack still relies on delayed workflows and closed-loop production, you’re going to lose relevance fast.

To stay competitive and credible, it’s time to embrace the shift. Real-time video, real audience participation, and real agility in your newsrooms. The future won’t wait.

5 Major Use Cases for Video Surveillance Streaming

Maria Artamonova — Tue, 24 Feb 2026 14:56:53 +0000

Video surveillance streaming plays a wide role in modern-day society — and not just traditional security-based monitoring; a variety of other applications use surveillance technology in our everyday lives: Safety systems guide emergency response tactics, monitoring systems ensure smooth day-to-day operations, and, of course, security systems encourage stability.

These mission-critical applications require gathering all the necessary information to mount a response as quickly as possible. Effective surveillance solutions use real-time latency to synchronize video and data elements as events unfold. Even with advanced analytics, a high-latency system forces operators to await extraction and pooling of critical tidbits of information from individual video streams to formulate what amounts to an after-the-fact view of developments. In situations where there may be more of a commercial concern (such as factory production, oil drilling, and perimeter security), real-time response is still important to prevent costly damages or thefts.

This high degree of responsiveness is only possible with the recent development of experience delivery network (XDN) technology. An XDN supports the delivery of live streaming video with under 250 milliseconds of latency. A flexible, cloud-based server architecture creates full scalability as well as wide geographic distribution. This is especially useful for surveillance as it is often conducted in different environs such as warehouses, tunnels, buoys, and underwater.

Here are a few different use cases and companies that are using XDN to conduct effective surveillance.

Law Enforcement

Police need to be able to respond as fast and as knowledgeably as possible to emergencies. Guidance from surveillance administrators tracking wrongdoers in real time can save lives, especially when they can rely on advanced analytics to derive useful information faster from all the relevant points of video coverage.

In a real-time surveillance environment, 911 dispatchers and action coordinators can immediately match the caller’s location with the nearest camera feeds to provide a comprehensive perspective on the perpetrator’s whereabouts. In cases where video content analytics (VCA) is in play, guidance can be enhanced through the automated perusal of multiple live video streams. This provides more information than performing a manual review.

For example, in the event of vehicular flight from a crime scene, the video feeds along multiple routes and from hovering drones can be instantly searched and analyzed to pinpoint a license plate or a vehicle of a certain make or color. When drones are in play, once the fleeing vehicle is found, they can be assigned to track it wherever it goes even using air-gapped networks.

Public Safety and Traffic Management

Real-time surveillance will contribute greatly to municipalities’ ability to track accidents, crowd behavior, traffic patterns, and other activities in public spaces. Immediate responses to violations of social distancing and other preventive measures in the COVID-19 era have become an especially significant facet of live video surveillance.

With the application of VCA across multiple live feeds, the smart city vision comes to life. For example, leveraging actionable video intelligence, cities can dynamically update traffic light schedules in response to traffic flows, manage use of high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes, and deliver more timely messaging through digital highway signs. VCA identification of anomalous events as they crop up across a city’s perusal of live camera feeds can trigger preventive action against incipient fires, threatening behavior, robberies, and other emergencies.

FLIR is a leader in surveillance technology that relies on thermal (infrared) as well as visible light captures to provide around-the-clock visibility into the monitored situations. When these components are combined with AI-assisted analytics in real-time surveillance (enabled by an XDN infrastructure), FLIR customers in public safety, transportation, industrial operations, and other use cases gain the situational awareness essential to effective responses to events, noted FLIRs project manager David St. Claire.

Whether surveillance managers are engaged in monitoring and reacting to the “natural flow of traffic and fender benders or major emergencies like fires, hurricanes, and earthquakes, we have a growing need for this kind of [analytics-generated] metadata combined with video to enable real-time reactions to the overarching situation,” St. Claire said. Recognition of such needs is new in some areas like traffic management, he noted.

“The transportation sector has adopted video technology predominantly disseminating video for situations where latency doesn’t matter,” he said, in reference to the widely deployed analog CCTV devices that dot the world’s streets and highways. But conversions to digital cameras are gaining momentum, driven in part by the “opportunity to employ instant management in emergency operations,” he added.

A case in point is the work underway at the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), which is using FLIR technology with XDN support for real-time traffic surveillance in the highly congested District 7 area of operations serving Los Angeles and Ventura Counties. The benefits to the state are amplified by FLIR’s Cameleon Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) software solution, which supports control over all ITS devices, including dynamic message signs (DMSs), gates, detector stations, and other elements.

The management software also allows Caltrans operators to easily share information with other agencies while maintaining control over their systems. Caltrans has recommended broader conversion to such capabilities across the state.

Emergency Response, Border Patrol, and Military Operations

Real-time intelligent video surveillance becomes more difficult with the volatility and size of target areas in these scenarios. Drones are a big part of the solution.

They are playing major roles in efforts to combat fires, floods, and other emergencies, providing coverage outside the range of fixed cameras and, in the case of smoke-choked air space, outside the range of helicopters and airplanes. And reliance on real-time responses to drone-delivered video has become intrinsic to military and border patrol operations worldwide.

But drones raise the bar in terms of the precision that must be applied with their video output. Synchronous aggregation of those feeds is essential to avoid errors in situational analysis that can occur even with minute distance-related time disparities in ingestion by distribution servers. Again, this is where the real-time streaming of an XDN comes into play.

Matrox provides a wide array of components for surveillance applications, including IP cores, application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), circuit boards, as well as a variety of imaging-related products such as video controllers, frame grabbers, and 3D sensors. The 3D sensors enhance surveillance performance by applying a dual-camera, single-laser design with embedded vision algorithms in laser triangulations to represent objects and scenes through the generation of individual profiles and depth maps.

Customers of Novetta, a provider of actionable intelligence solutions, are using the XDN platform with systems employed in defense, federal law enforcement, and government intelligence. U.S. Border Patrol units as well as a major U.S. military branch are among the high-profile entities that use Novetta’s real-time multi-intelligence solution, Ageon ISR, to deliver actionable insights derived from sensors and radar as well as video feeds from drones, Humvees, underwater vehicles, body cameras, and even canine patrols to remotely dispersed command centers.

Business Operations

Video surveillance in business has moved beyond security to uses in myriad other applications where real-time visibility will play an ever-greater role.

Video-aided insight complementing data readouts from sensors, meters, and machine components have become essential to tracking and analyzing operational performance in large-scale industrial scenarios such as factories, construction, mining, drilling, nuclear plants, and agriculture. The same is true when it comes to responding to supply chain disruptions at loading docks, storage facilities, and other points of vulnerability to fire, accidents, and other events.

The Finnish company Aiforsite Oy offers real-time construction site management. The firm’s AI for Construction (AIC) software-as-a-service solution enables data-driven site management and remote work, relying in part on video streams from fixed cameras and drones flying over construction sites.

Clients obtain real-time situational awareness through 360-degree visibility, which enables them to analyze overall project progress in comparison to 3D images developed from construction industry Building Information Modeling (BIM) tools. Streaming over an XDN infrastructure also helps them monitor and manage productivity of workers, tools, and materials in real time.

Commercial space operations, too, call for access to feeds from video cameras as well as sensors and other sources onboard spacecraft. Large flows of video and data from myriad monitoring points need to be captured by terrestrial systems and distributed in sync at ultra-low latency to all observation centers.

Where security is concerned, real-time visibility with heavy video coverage indoors and out will not only help catch bad actors but also contribute to deterrence, especially if workers and others understand activities are being viewed in real time.

Residential Applications

The same principles regarding security maintenance in government and commercial operations apply with use of real-time video surveillance in and around households. Whole neighborhoods served by a given surveillance provider will generate high volumes of live video feeds that can be ingested for real-time distribution to providers’ monitoring stations.

Real-time surveillance is also a key component to growing reliance on remote monitoring of the elderly and others in need of regular medical scrutiny. Live video will be an essential complement to sensor data when it comes to keeping tabs on people’s well-being 24/7. Learn more about live streaming technology used by smart cities and why the term “smart city surveillance” needs an update in the era of AI and 5G.

Conclusion

As you can see, surveillance is more than just security — although that certainly is a large use case as well. Along with traditional applications like law enforcement and military patrols, video surveillance streaming is used to ensure that traffic is flowing smoothly, daily business operations are progressing efficiently, and at-risk populations receive the support they need. At some level, all surveillance is about maintaining safety. It’s important that information moves quickly and gets to where it needs to go. Compiling information in real-time with a high degree of accuracy is essential for safety and damage mitigation.

To learn more about the Red5 Pro XDN platform and the role it can play in real-time intelligent video surveillance, read this blog. Also check out our white paper on surveillance.

What Is Air-Gapped Streaming and How Government Streams Without Internet

Maria Artamonova — Fri, 20 Feb 2026 16:31:13 +0000

Chris Allen here, co-founder and CEO of Red5. I’ve been building live streaming solutions for 20 years and want to start sharing more of what I’ve learned. Oh, and my marketing team thinks this is a good idea. 🙂

The live streaming space is constantly shifting. New protocols, demands, and use cases keep shaping how we think about latency, scale, and reliability. I recently started the #ChrisAllenTalks segment on my LinkedIn profile, where I talk about the trends I’m seeing and the challenges our team is tackling. Many of you are working on the same kinds of problems, just from different angles.

I’d truly value your perspective, even if it doesn’t align with mine. Truth emerges from debate. Connect with me on LinkedIn and let’s put some ideas on the table.

Today I want to cover a topic that’s come up a lot lately – air-gapped streaming.

What Is Air-Gapped Streaming?

If you’re unfamiliar with “air-gapped” in the context of streaming, you’re not alone. Even some seasoned folks I’ve spoken with recently hadn’t heard the term before.

In simple terms, an air-gapped streaming solution is one where an environment, often used by government agencies or critical infrastructure teams, is completely isolated from the public internet, yet still needs to stream video, audio, or data in real time. Think traffic monitoring, drone streaming for public safety or law enforcement. For these teams, it’s not just about privacy or caution. Strict regulations around security, access control, and data sovereignty make this kind of setup non-negotiable.

The term “air gap” originally described a literal physical separation – the “gap of air” between two systems. In computing, it evokes the idea that the only thing between secure and insecure systems is air, with no data bridge between them. Over time, the term was formalized in cybersecurity to describe environments that intentionally lack any wired or wireless connectivity to external systems.

Who Uses Air-Gapped Video Streaming

Systems that require this type of streaming include:

Military or government infrastructure where security is non-negotiable
Financial networks, such as those powering stock exchanges
Industrial control systems in oil and gas fields, including SCADA setups
Lottery systems, where preventing manipulation is critical
Life-critical systems like: Nuclear power plant controls, Avionics and air traffic control systems, Computerized medical equipment.

Why Are More Teams Asking For It?

We’ve been seeing more questions around how to securely bridge a disconnected environment to a secure cloud while maintaining sub-250 millisecond latency. These agencies want to

view camera feeds in real time,
access content on demand through intuitive interfaces,
and run AI-driven analysis to surface insights quickly.

It’s complex, but with the right architecture and software, it’s very doable.

How Red5 Solves the Air-Gapped Streaming Challenge

We’ve built a plugin for Red5Pro that allows the system to run completely off-line bypassing our standard licensing checks. We call the plugin Castaway. Castaway and the ability to deploy on on-prem hardware is fairly unique in the WebRTC-based real-time streaming space, and to my knowledge we are one of the only vendors allowing this without having to use antiquated USB dongles plugged into the servers.

Our Castaway plugin allows the Red5 server software (which is configured per customer) to run in this environment bypassing our standard licensing check. Then the system just runs normally connecting to IP addresses locally on the air-gapped network just like it would on an internet-connected system. We’ve actually set up very simple networks like this at trade shows like NAB where we want to run the system and in that case, not rely on the internet.

Real-World Applications

Caltrans

One of the new and exciting projects we are working on with an offline system using Castaway is in the traffic monitoring space. Red5 and Nomad Media have partnered with AWS to make Caltrans traffic camera footage running on an air-gapped network available to law enforcement in real time. Using Red5 for WebRTC streaming, the California Department of Transportation also achieved latency well below 500ms, reducing overall latency by 14 to 29 seconds. This is one of a number of really exciting projects like this that are happening.

One of the most impactful outcomes has been cross-agency content sharing. For example, when an accident occurs, traffic monitoring teams can pass footage directly to law enforcement as video-on-demand content to support investigations. That level of inter-agency collaboration, delivered in real time, makes a big difference.

What’s worth noting is that we’re not forcing these teams to abandon their existing workflows. They are still able to continue to use their isolated trusted on-premises systems. We’re just expanding what they can do with those systems by adding secure, real-time capabilities without sacrificing compliance or control.

Conclusion

In this post, I break down what air-gapped streaming means and why more organizations are asking for it. These are fully offline environments, often used by government or critical infrastructure teams, that still need real-time video and data without touching the public internet. To solve this, we created a plugin called Castaway that lets Red5 Pro run entirely offline without needing internet-based license checks. One example is our work with Caltrans and Nomad Media, where we made real-time traffic footage available to law enforcement without disrupting their secure, on-prem systems.

Traffic Monitoring Systems Guide 2026: How They Work and the Latest Innovations in This Space

Maria Artamonova — Thu, 19 Feb 2026 14:35:13 +0000

In this blog, based on my recent LinkedIn post, you’ll learn everything about traffic monitoring systems: what they are, how they work, and who uses them. You’ll also get real technological insights into how these software solutions function in 2026 and the latest innovations making secure real-time traffic monitoring possible.

What Are Traffic Monitoring Systems?

Traffic monitoring systems are government technology software solutions designed to analyze and manage vehicle flow on roads. They rely on streaming data from thousands of cameras, sensors, and connected devices to give authorities immediate insights into road traffic conditions. These systems help reduce congestion, increase road safety, and improve decision-making by transforming raw video and sensor feeds into actionable intelligence. Read this traffic monitoring technology guide from the Federal Highway Administration of U.S. Department of Transportation. It covers theory, terminology, methods, equipment, etc.

Traffic monitoring systems are used for

Tracking traffic flow to detect or prevent congestion early.
Enforcing road safety rules, such as catching speeding or overweight vehicles.
Supporting emergency response through real-time alerts to police or first responders.
Assisting in planning road maintenance and infrastructure improvements.
Gathering long-term data for urban development and smart city projects.

These video surveillance solutions are typically located

At major intersections and traffic lights.
Before and inside infrastructure like bridges and tunnels.
At truck and commercial vehicle inspection centers.
Along highways, rest stops, underpasses, and on-ramps.
In smart city projects where connected devices are integrated into urban planning.

Road traffic flow monitoring systems are mostly used by

Departments of Transportation (DoT).
Law enforcement and highway patrol agencies.
Emergency response teams and public safety organizations.
City planners and smart city authorities.

To learn about real-world examples of how IoT monitors vehicle traffic, read this blog by Digi.

How Do Traffic Monitoring Systems Work?

Traffic monitoring systems collect real-time data from cameras, sensors, and connected devices installed along roads, highways, and intersections. This data is streamed into central platforms where it is processed and analyzed. Video analytics, drones, AI, and pattern recognition help identify incidents such as accidents, congestion, or rule violations. The system then alerts relevant authorities or automatically triggers responses like adjusting traffic signals, dispatching emergency teams, or updating electronic road signs.

The State of Traffic Monitoring Systems in 2026

Most traffic monitoring systems in the U.S. are stuck in the past. We’re talking legacy cameras, buggy software, and fragile setups that crash if you breathe on them wrong. Departments of Transportation across the U.S. rely on private data centers and custom-built systems that make it nearly impossible to share streams, even within the same state.

We’ve seen it firsthand. Some are still using RTMPT or misconfigured SDPs. Others keep streams on 24/7 just to avoid crashing media servers like Wowza Streaming Engine. It’s wild.

2026 Technology Trends in Traffic Monitoring Systems

But there’s good news. We’re working with partners helping modernize live streaming in public infrastructure.

Secured Real-Time Road Traffic Monitoring

With Nomad, we upgraded Caltrans’ traffic monitoring system. During the first stage it was deployed on-prem, now it’s leveraging AWS to share streams beyond their closed network via AWS direct connect. Video from thousands of cameras across all 12 districts can now be streamed through this custom real-time traffic monitoring solution using Red5 Pro, giving Caltrans and third party organizations like law enforcement instant access. Nomad adds secure login and access to live and recorded video, with three days of footage available. AI features like redaction and incident detection improve response time and privacy. Agencies are able to share clips on demand, all while keeping their existing on-prem systems intact. One of the biggest wins? Agencies can now share footage directly with detectives as on-demand content to support investigations and solve crimes quickly.

Deployment diagram of the real-time traffic monitoring system built by Red5 and Nomad Media.

Cost-Effective Us Traffic Monitoring Capabilities

Lumen’s new edge infrastructure is also opening up cost-effective, high performance options with no bandwidth charges. By partnering with Red5 we are now able to launch Red5 instances on Lumen hardware providing incredibly performant low-latency connectivity throughout the US getting the streams to users within 100ms. Better yet deployments of this type are incredibly cost effective, comparable to running your own data centers, but with a fully managed platform.

Conclusion

Real-time traffic monitoring systems are no longer a nice-to-have. It’s a necessity for public safety and efficient traffic management. While many legacy setups still struggle with outdated cameras and fragile infrastructure, 2026 innovations are changing the game. With secure real-time streaming, AI-driven analytics, and cost-effective hardware-solution solutions, agencies can detect incidents faster, share data across organizations, and keep costs within the budget. The bottom line: modern traffic monitoring is moving from reactive systems to proactive, intelligent solutions.