MediaX

MediaX

MediaX is a lightweight embedded video streaming library for military vehicle and soldier systems, fully compliant with DEF STAN 00-082. It provides high-speed, low-latency RTP video streaming with a modern C++17 API and hardware acceleration support for NVIDIA, Intel, and AMD platforms.

MediaX with ToolX GUI

For the full product page visit astutesys.com/mediax.

Key Features

Feature Description
DEF STAN 00-082 Compliant Meets military standards for secure, reliable video streaming
High-Speed, Low-Latency Optimised for real-time military applications where split-second decisions matter
Cross-Platform Runs on Windows and Linux with seamless integration
Modern C++17 API Clean, developer-friendly API with Qt6 wrappers and Python bindings
Hardware Acceleration NVIDIA CUDA/NVENC, Intel VAAPI, AMD, and OpenMAX (embedded SBCs)
Scalable Stream across a wide range of devices and resolutions

Quick Start

Send a video stream in two lines of C++:

#include "rtp/rtp.h"

int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {
    mediax::RtpSapTransmit rtp(
        "238.192.1.1", 5004, "test-session-name", 640, 480, 30, "RGB24");
    std::vector<uint8_t> &data = rtp.GetBufferTestPattern();
    while (true)
        rtp.Transmit(data.data(), false);
}

Switch to H.264 hardware-accelerated encoding by changing the codec:

mediax::RtpSapTransmit rtp(
    "238.192.1.2", 5004, "test-session-name-compressed", 640, 480, 30, "H264");

Supported Codecs

Generic Vehicle Architecture (GVA)

Codec Standard Notes
RGB 24-bit RFC 4175 Uncompressed, full colour depth
YCbCr 4:2:2 RFC 4175 Uncompressed, mandatory per DEF STAN 00-082
Mono 8-bit / 16-bit RFC 4175 Thermal imaging sensors
JPEG RFC 2435 Compressed
H.264 RFC 6184 Near-lossless, fits on 1 GbE backbone

Generic Soldier Architecture (GSA)

Codec Standard Notes
H.265 / HEVC RFC 7798 Bandwidth-constrained tactical links
AV1 — Next-generation compression

Hardware Acceleration

MediaX selects the best available encoder backend automatically:

Backend Platform Notes
VAAPI Intel GPUs Default on Intel hardware
NVENC / CUDA NVIDIA Jetson / desktop Embedded and server deployments
OpenH264 Any Portable software fallback
OpenMAX Raspberry Pi, SBCs Embedded single-board computers

Architecture

MediaX provides the transport layer for video in GVA systems, sitting alongside DDS for data distribution:

graph LR CAM[Camera / Sensor] -->|Raw frames| MX[MediaX Library] MX -->|RTP multicast| NET[GVA Ethernet Backbone] NET -->|RTP multicast| HMI[GVA HMI / Display] NET -->|SAP/SDP| TX[ToolX Discovery]

Integration with LDM SDK

MediaX works alongside the DDS middleware to form the complete GVA communication backbone:

  • DDS (via Astute DDS) handles command, control, and data topics
  • MediaX handles real-time video streaming over RTP multicast
  • ToolX provides the GUI for diagnostics and monitoring

See Also