I am excited to announce the release of a new utility in the VMA Video Analyser Package: the VMA UDP TS Hub.
This compact, high-performance tool is designed to act as a central switchboard for MPEG-TS over UDP traffic, ideal for IPTV and broadcast environments where multiple applications need access to the same incoming transport stream.
What Is It?
The VMA UDP TS Hub is a lightweight Windows-based application that receives a single UDP Transport Stream (in Unicast or Multicast) and redistributes it to multiple local or remote clients—each on their own UDP port, NIC and/or IP.
Think of it as a local repeater or multicast proxy for unicast environments: it listens on a defined UDP port (e.g., 1234) and replicates the exact MPEG-TS packets to every registered output socket (e.g., 127.0.0.1:5000, 127.0.0.1:5001, etc.).
Why?
In many testing, monitoring, or playout scenarios, multiple tools or analyzers need access to the same live transport stream.
However, most sources (e.g., satellite receivers, tuners, or IP inputs) only allow one Unicast consumer at a time. The VMA UDP TS Hub solves this limitation by forking a single input stream to multiple consumers, without requiring Multicast infrastructure.
- You may prefer to not use UDP Multicast to avoid saturating your network…
- Your receiver only supports UDP unicast, but you need to forward the Transport Stream to multiple appliances (software or hardware)…
- Your appliance (software or hardware) only supports Unicast or Multicast, but your TS in the wrong format…
VMA UDP TS Hub solves your problem!
Key Features
- ✅ Real-time UDP replication
Receives a single input and rebroadcasts it to multiple outputs with minimal delay. - ✅ Flexible configuration
Configuration can be saved and retrieved. - ✅ Low overhead
Designed for performance and minimal CPU usage—suitable for 24/7 operation. - ✅ Compatibility-first design
Works seamlessly with all VMA tools, but also with third-party software that expects standard MPEG-TS over UDP.
Use Cases
1. Parallel Analysis Pipelines
Want to run multiple analyzers on the same stream? Pipe it through the VMA UDP TS Hub and let each tool receive an identical copy.
2. Hybrid Analysis and Viewing
Send one stream to the VMA Transport Stream Analyser for PID monitoring, one to VMA Mosaic for visual rendering, and one to VMA Video Analyser for signal diagnostics.
3. Stream Duplication Without Multicast
If your environment doesn’t support Multicast or your source only allows a single Unicast connection, the TS Hub acts as a fan-out repeater using Unicast or Multicast output.
4. Controlled Load Testing
Test how multiple decoders behave under simultaneous load by routing the same stream to them in parallel.
Getting Started
The VMA UDP TS Hub is available as a standalone tool or as part of the VMA Video Analyser Suite.
How to use it:
- Launch the VMA UDP TS Hub.
- Specify the incoming stream (e.g.,
udp://127.0.0.1:1234). - Define the output sockets in Unicast (e.g.,
127.0.0.1:5000,127.0.0.1:5001, …) or Multicast (e.g. 239.0.0.1:1000). You can mix Unicast/Multicast and independently configure each of the four output channels. - Start your appliance (like the VMA Transport Stream Analyser, Dektec StreamXpert, TSReader Pro, 4T2 Content Analyser, etc.) on those output ports.
That’s it—your stream is now centralized and accessible from anywhere on your network.
✅ Final Thoughts
Whether you’re monitoring live satellite feeds, running diagnostic pipelines, or testing software/hardware decoders, the VMA UDP TS Hub gives you the flexibility and control to manage your UDP streams efficiently.
If you have feedback or feature requests, I’d love to hear from you.