How can RIST Forum help you?

As many of you know the RIST Forum, which is dedicated to helping the industry to adopt an interoperable standard, Reliable Internet Transport Stream (RIST), for transporting live video over unmanaged networks, is very close to our Cobalt hearts. Our Senior VP of Sales & Marketing Suzana Brady is Chairperson of RIST Forum and our CTO Ciro Noronha is President, and at IBC 2022 we were delighted to discuss the latest RIST Forum news with customers, potential customers and the press, to highlight how RIST can assist M&E companies across the industry, which we’ve summarised in this latest blog.

We’re proud to announce that the RIST Forum is growing fast and we now have 210 members, a number of which exhibited RIST enabled products at IBC, including: Ammux, Ateme, Cobalt Digital, Netinsight, Open Broadcast Systems, Sencore and Sienna.

In Amsterdam, the Video Services Forum (VSF) announced the release of the 2022 versions of the Reliable Internet Stream Transport (RIST) Protocol Specifications: Main Profile, TR-06-2, and Advanced Profile, TR-06-3. The updates include support for EAP-SRP Authentication as well as the recently launched VSF EtherType. The updated documents are freely available from the VSF website (vsf.tv) for all to download and to use.

This update means that RIST can be used to securely create a multicast content distribution system which is completely open source and a free alternative to proprietary DRM systems. It uses vetted and known protection methods to keep content secure without the need for external keys or devices. Only authorized receivers will be able to decrypt the multicast content.

The new EAP-SRP authentication mechanism removes the need to generate and maintain complex SSL certificates. It also includes mechanisms to de-authorize receivers on-the-fly without disturbing the content. As well as enabling broadcasters and video content providers to create a multicast content distribution system, this authentication method can work as a standalone method for any industry and use case. It can also be encapsulated in both RIST Main Profile and RIST Advanced Profile.



RIST is developed jointly by a large group of experts, pouring hundreds of years of real-world experience into the specifications. It’s also built on top of existing RFC standards. With this approach, RIST benefits from a broader range of real-world experiences than a single-vendor solution ever does, leading to a more technically robust solution no matter the application, use case or environment it is deployed in.

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