Awesome Broadcasting

A curated list of amazingly awesome open source resources for broadcasters.

• Awesome Broadcasting
  • Clocks & Studio Screens
  • Codecs
  • Companion Screens
  • Connected TVs
  • Control Systems
  • Distributed Media Processing
  • Documentation
  • DVB & WiFi
  • Animation, Graphics & Video Playout
  • Hybrid Radio
  • LiveIP
  • Media Players
  • Metadata
  • Monitoring & Quality Control
  • Multimedia content processing
  • Network & Storage Testing
  • NMOS
  • Radio Production
  • Software-defined radio
  • Subtitling
  • Video Production
  • Streaming
• Resources
  • Blogs
  • Websites
• Contributing

Clocks & Studio Screens

• OnAirScreen - Cross-platform “OnAir Lamp” solution targeted for use in professional broadcast environments.
• PiClock - Customisable network based displays of clocks, on-air, mic live and other studio indicators.
• PiRSClock-Full - Radio Studio Clock with studio indicators for mics, telephones etc.

Codecs

• FLAC - Free Lossless Audio Coding, used by some broadcasters for audio exchange, storage.
• Lame - A high quality MPEG Audio Layer III (MP3) encoder.
• opencore-amr - Audio codecs extracted from Android Open Source Project, including AAC.
• Opus - A totally open, royalty-free, highly versatile audio codec.
• Turing Codec - An H.265/HEVC open source software encoder designed for fast and efficient video compression.
• TwoLame - An MPEG Audio Layer 2 (MP2) encoder.

Companion Screens

• dial-discovery-ios - A library for the discovery of devices via the DIAL protocol on the iOS platform.
• dvbcss-synckit-ios - iOS libraries for companion screen applications that are synchronised frame-accurately to a TV.
• dvbcss-synctiming - A system for measuring how accurately a TV or companion are synchronised.
• pydvbcss - Implementation of the DVB Companion Screens and Streams protocols for synchronised media playback.

Connected TVs

• Cross-Platform Authentication - CPA offers an open standard for associating any media device with an online identity.
• HbbPlayer - An HbbTV and W3C specifications compliant application that can playback media from a URL.
• TAL - The TV Application Layer (TAL) is an open source library for building applications for Connected TV devices.

Control Systems

• Lawo EmberPlus - Ember Plus - open protocol for interfacing to / from broadcast control systems.
• MIDIMonster - Lightweight adapter tool for common show control protocols.

Distributed Media Processing

• StormCV - Apache Storm + OpenCV = large scale distributed image and video analysis.

Documentation

• Kronekeeper - A web based application for recording and managing Krone frame records.

DVB & WiFi

• DTT 2 IP - Broadcast to IP conversion for Wifi indoor coverage.
• DVB Inspector - An open-source DVB analyzer.
• DVBlast - A simple and powerful MPEG-2/TS demux and streaming application.
• dvbshout - Tool to send DVB audio to a shoutcast server or a RTP stream.
• Opencaster - A free and open source MPEG2 transport stream data generator and packet manipulator.
• Project X - DVB demux tool.
• ts2mpa - Simple tool to extract MPEG Audio from a MPEG Transport Stream (TS).
• TSDuck - Extensible toolkit for MPEG/DVB transport streams testing, monitoring, integration, debugging, and more.
• WiFiBroadcast - Analog-like transmission of live video data.

Animation, Graphics & Video Playout

• Aurena - A network distributed media playback system.
• Blender - 3D creation suite supporting 3D modelling, animation, motion tracking, video editing, and more.
• CasparCG - A professional graphics and video play-out software, proven in 24/7 broadcasts since 2006.
• ffplayout - Python and FFmpeg based playout from folder or playlists.
• Macadam - Blackmagic Node.js bindings that support HTML/CSS (via Electron) and SVG (via Sevruga) graphics.
• Nebula - Media asset management and broadcast automation system.
• NodeCG - Broadcast graphics rendered in a browser using Node.js.
• Open Playout Automation - A CasparCG-based MCR play-out system.
• ossia - A free and open-source intermedia sequencer.
• Sofie - TV Automation - MOS-driven automation system for news casts, with many libraries for e.g. device control.

Hybrid Radio

• RadioDNS for Node.js - Perform RadioDNS resolutions and service lookups in node.js.
• RadioDNS Manager - Platform to manage Hybrid Radio services, e.g. RadioVIS, RadioEPG and Service Following.
• RadioTag.js - RadioTag client library in JavaScript.
• RadioVIS Demo - RadioVIS client application in Python.
• RadioVIS Html Player - RadioVIS Player using WebSocket.
• RadioVIS Stomp Server - RadioVIS STOMP server written in node.js.

LiveIP

Audio/Video over IP & Streaming

• butt - broadcast using this tool (butt) is an easy to use, multi OS streaming tool. It supports SHOUTcast and Icecast.
• Cool Mic - Android audio livestreaming Icecast source client app.
• DarkIce - Live audio streamer that records and encodes from an audio interface and sends to a streaming server.
• EBU LIST - Live IP Software Toolkit to assist EBU members in the implementation of IP based facilities.
• Icecast - Streaming media (audio/video) server which supports Ogg (Vorbis and Theora), Opus, WebM and MP3.
• IRIS Broadcast - A project founded in Sweden to publish Open Source software for professional radio broadcasts.
• Kamailio - Open SIP server, commonly used for Audio contribution over IP using SIP (EBU ACIP).
• See the NMOS list for the AMWA Networked Media Open Specifications and open source implementations and tools.
• OpenOB - Open Outside Broadcast project for radio contribution links and studio-transmitter links based on Opus.
• PJSIP - Open Source multimedia library implementing SIP, SDP, RTP, STUN, TURN, and ICE.
• trx - A simple toolset for broadcasting live audio from Linux.

Media Players

• Dash.js - A reference client implementation for the playback of MPEG DASH via Javascript and compliant browsers.
• GPAC - Multimedia player, packager and tools.
• IDJC - A GTK+ Shoutcast/Icecast client with two main media players.
• Kodi - A software media player and entertainment hub for digital media.
• Media4DPlayer - HTML5 player focused on accessibility.
• MPD - A flexible, powerful, server-side application for playing music.
• mpg123 - A fast console MPEG Audio Player and decoder library.
• Mixxx - A free, open source DJ software.
• Peaks.js - Browser-based audio waveform visualisation.
• rx-player - HTML5/Javascript video player that supports MPEG-DASH and SmoothStreaming.
• VLC - Simple, fast and powerful media player.

Metadata

• BMXlib - Library and utilities to read and write broadcasting media files. Primarily supports the MXF file format.
• EBUCore - The Github for maintenance of the EBUCore schema.
• jebu-core - Java port of EBU Tech 3293 EBU Core metadata, including the Audio Definition Model.
• libadm - Audio Definition Model (ITU-R BS.2076) handling C++11 library.
• libklvanc - C library for ancillary data extraction from SDI and SMPTE ST 2110-40 (CEA-708, AFD, SCTE-104, etc.).
• MAJ API - Pure Java library for reading and writing MXF and AAF files.
• SDPoker - CLI tool and library for testing SMPTE ST2110 SDP files.
• TV-Anytime - The TV-Anytime schema github maintenance page.

Monitoring & Quality Control

• BeaqleJS - A framework to create browser based listening tests for subjective audio quality assessment.
• Jack Meter - Text console based DPM (Digital Peak Meter) for JACK.
• JACK Meterbridge - A collection of graphical Audio meters for JACK (ballistics may be incorrect).
• Jmeters - A collection of graphical audio meters for JACK, including VU, PPM and EBU R 128 Loudness meters.
• LTC-tools - A collection of tools to handle Linear Timecode (LTC) and convert to MIDI Timecode (MTC).
• MediaConch - Implementation checker, policy checker, & reporter for Matroska, FFV1, & PCM.
• MediaInfo - A convenient unified display of the most relevant technical and tag data for video and audio files.
• MXF Inspect - A Windows tool to display the internal structure of an MXF (Material eXchange Format) file.
• Pi Audio Monitor - Audio Monitoring for Raspberry Pi, supports S/PDIF, AES3, AES67, Livewire and Ravenna.
• Photon - Implementation of the SMPTE Interoperable Master Format (IMF) standard.
• QCTools - Quality Control tools for video preservation to analyse digitized video files.
• Rotter - Recording of Transmissions / Audio Logger for JACK.
• silan - Audiofile silence analyzer.
• SilentJack - Dead-air / Silence detector for JACK.
• Sonic Visualiser - An application for viewing and analysing the contents of music audio files.
• VMAF - Perceptual video quality assessment based on multi-method fusion.
• Wisual - A web service for Visual Quality Assessment, which supports PSNR, SSIM, VQM, etc.

Multimedia content processing

• AvTranscoder - FFmpeg/LibAV-based high-level API to re-wrap or transcode media, with bindings for Java and Python.
• Beam Coder - Node.js native bindings to FFmpeg, with support for asynchronous processing via promises and streams.
• Bento4 - Full-featured MP4 format and MPEG DASH C++ class library and tools.
• Brave - Basic Real-time AV Editor - lets you preview, mix, and route live audio and video streams on the cloud.
• Codem-isoboxer A small browser-based MPEG-4 (ISOBMFF) parser.
• Dynamorse - IT swiss army knife - a Node-RED media pipeline builder, adding professional media processing nodes.
• EBU ADM Renderer - Reference implementation of the EBU ADM Renderer (EBU Tech 3388)
• FFmbc - FFmpeg customized for broadcast and professional usage.
• FFmpeg - A cross-platform solution to record, convert and stream audio and video. Supports SMPTE ST 2110.
• Flowblade - A multitrack non-linear video editor.
• GStreamer - A library for constructing graphs of media-handling components.
• Kelvinadon - Node.JS pure Javascript module for streaming MXF files to and from JSON.
• KFR - Fast, modern C++ DSP framework, DFT/FFT, Audio resampling, FIR/IIR, Biquad, EBU R 128.
• L-SMASH - A rigidly spec-compliant ISOBMFF library, which has full DASH muxing support.
• LibAV - Open source audio and video processing tools.
• libbw64 – Header-only Broadcast Wave 64 (ITU-R BS.2088) C++11 library.
• libear - A C++11 library to render ADM content according to Recommendation ITU-R BS.2127.
• Libebur128 - A library that implements the EBU R 128 standard for loudness normalisation.
• Loudness Validator - A set of applications to analyse, visualise and correct the loudness.
• MP4Box.js - JavaScript library to process MP4 files in the browser (and in NodeJS).
• MXFLib - A multi-platform C++ library for reading and writing MXF files.
• OBS-Studio - Software for live streaming and screen recording.
• Open Broadcast Encoder - Broadcast encoder built from Open Source components.
• rgain - Tools and Python library to read, write and calculate Replay Gain.
• rtmp - Server implementation of Adobe’s RTMP 1.0 protocol in Go.
• Snowmix - Live Video Mixer.
• SoX - The Swiss Army knife of sound processing programs.
• TuttleOFX - An open source image processing framework based on OpenFX plugin standard.
• UPipe - Primarily designed to be the core of a multimedia player, transcoder or streamer.
• VideoContext - Experimental HTML5/WebGL library for creating interactive and responsive web videos.
• Voctomix - Customizable conference recording/mixing/streaming software based on Python and GStreamer.

Network & Storage Testing

• BBC Media Storage Meter - An application for the testing of network attached (professional media) storage.
• Fio - Flexible I/O Tester
• iPerf3 - The TCP, UDP and SCTP network bandwidth measurement tool.
• SMPTE 2110-20 Analyzer - Analyzer to inspect network packets generated in accordance with SMPTE ST 2110.

NMOS

The Networked Media Open Specifications are themselves open source.

• AMWA NMOS Testing Tool - Automated test suites for the AMWA NMOS family of specifications, as used in the JT-NM Tested programme
• BBC NMOS Joint Reference Implementation - A Vagrant provisioning to build 4 virtual machines, an IS-04/IS-05 Node, IS-04 Registry, BCP-003-02 Authorisation Server, and the NMOS Testing Tool.
• Easy-NMOS - A starter kit that allows the user to launch a simple NMOS setup with minimal installation steps, composed of three Docker containers: an NMOS Registry, a virtual NMOS Node, and the AMWA NMOS Testing Tool.
• nmos-cpp - An implementation of the AMWA Networked Media Open Specifications in C++, including an NMOS Registry and a toolkit and example of building an NMOS Node.
• nmos-js - A simple browser-based NMOS Client/Controller with an IS-04 Registry browser and IS-05 Connection Management.
• NVIDIA NMOS Docker - Docker container with Registry and Controller, IS-04/05/08/07/09, BCP-003-01

Radio Production

• Airtime - Radio management application for remote broadcast automation (via web-based schedule).
• Ardour - A digital audio workstation.
• Audacity - Cross-platform software for recording and editing sounds.
• AzuraCast - A self-hosted web radio management suite.
• LibreTime - Radio broadcast & automation platform (fork of Airtime).
• Liquidsoap - A Swiss army knife for multimedia streaming (documentation).
• OpenBroadcaster Open Source LPFM IPTV Broadcast Automation. Server and Player code here.
• RAAR - A ruby application to manage and browse an audio archive.
• Rivendell - Complete radio broadcast automation solution, translated to many languages and used worldwide.

Software-defined radio

• GNU Radio - A software development toolkit that provides signal processing blocks to implement software radios.
• Gqrx SDR - An open source software defined radio receiver (SDR).
• ODR-mmbTools - Fork of CRC-mmbTools. Adds live, DAB+, associated data, distributed infrastructure, SFN.
• rtl-sdr - Turns a Realtek RTL2832 based DVB dongle into a SDR receiver.
• welle.io - An open source DAB and DAB+ software defined radio (SDR) with support for airspy and rtlsdr.

Subtitling

• CCExtractor - A tool that analyzes video files and produces stand-alone subtitle files.
• EBU-TT-D Subtitling within dash.js - dash.js fork with EBU-TT-D subtitles in HTML/CSS overlay. Later added to dash.js.
• EBU-TT-D W3C XML Schema - Informative EBU-TT-D XML Schema to support the implementation of EBU Tech 3380.
• EBU-TT Live Interoperability Toolkit - Components for generating, testing and distributing EBU-TT Live subtitles.
• GStreamer TTML subtitling package - A means for GStreamer pipelines to parse and render EBU-TT-D (TTML) subtitles.
• imscJS - JavaScript library for rendering IMSC1 Text and Image Profile documents to HTML5.
• IRT EBU-TT-D Application Samples - EBU-TT-D sample files, PNG images and mp4 videos as rendering references.
• Subtitle Edit - An editor for subtitles.
• Subtitling Conversion Framework (SCF) - Modules for converting subtitle formats, incl. EBU STL and EBU-TT files.
• Timed Text Toolkit (ttt) - Tools that support/use the W3C Timed Text Markup Language (TTML).

Video Production

• MOS-connection - A JavaScript library for connection and MOS messaging either as MOS device or NRCS.
• Open Lighting Architecture (OLA) - Travel adaptor for the lighting industry, for interconnecting DMX-512, IP and USB.
• Q Light Controller+ (QLC+) - Cross-platform control of DMX or analogue lighting systems (heads, dimmers, etc.).
• TallyArbiter - Cross-platform Tally interfacer & tally lights for any camera via phones or low-cost hardware.
• Teleprompter - Web browser and standalone Electron app prompter.

Streaming

• Owncast - Selfhosted video streaming plattform (https://owncast.online/)

Resources

Various resources, such as books, websites and articles, for improving your skills and knowledge.

Blogs

• BBC News Labs - Open Source projects from BBC News Labs.
• BBC R&D - BBC Research and Development. Checkout the weekly notes.
• 3D CineCast - A curation about new media technologies.
• Canal+ - CANAL+ Open Source Community.
• IRT Lab - IRT blog posting developments and demos for all digital audiovisual media technology.
• The Netflix Tech Blog - A Netflix blog focused on technology and technology issues.
• Youtube Engineering and Developers Blog - What’s happening with engineering and developers at YouTube.

Contributing

Please see CONTRIBUTING for details.