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NMOS: What is it and why do we need it?

Find out the basics of NMOS, why it’s useful, and how you can find, connect, and configure media devices within your audio and video networks.

Leader has created this guide to give you a greater understanding of NMOS. In the guide, you’ll find out:

  • How to use NMOS to find senders and receivers on the network
  • What simplistic and advanced NMOS block diagrams look like
  • How to make an NMOS connection work to control devices
  • The ins and outs of looking at the NMOS node server with your browser
  • Useful NMOS terminology and interface specifications you can refer back to

Background:

With the widespread adoption of SMPTE ST 2110 and ST 2022-6 standards, it has been difficult to achieve useful interoperability in professional networked media environments without a way to specify the control or application planes.

To address this, the Advanced Media Workflow Association (AMWA) developed the Networked Media Open Specifications (NMOS) family of free and open specifications.

Now, rather than having to manually create and update host tables containing IP addresses and host names for complex broadcast systems, NMOS moves the industry toward a fully-networked architecture, where the specifications provide for the management of video, audio, and data streams through specifying how to discover, control, and connect to network elements, send tally information, control audio channels, and much more.