What we're working on - TAK Video Restreamer (TVR)

What we're working on - TAK Video Restreamer (TVR)

The TAK Video Restreamer (TVR) is a drop-in solution that enables operators to view live video streams from multiple networks. It supports commonly used streaming protocols and includes a video wall that can display several streams simultaneously.

Figure 1 - TVR Dashboard

The Problem

TAK users often face challenges when sharing live full motion video across networks. Setting up an ad hoc video server can be time-consuming and expensive, and many commercial-off-the-shelf options are lack user-friendly interfaces or support for the protocols TAK operators rely on.

Our Solution

With the TAK Video Restreamer (TVR), operators can:

  • Share live video streams across multiple networks

  • View live feeds in TVR’s video wall, the WinTAK or ATAK video player, or third-party tools (with adaptive bitrate support)

  • Record live video

  • Extract KLV metadata from video

TVR is designed for quick setup and deployment, while still offering enough flexibility to adapt to a variety of operational environments.

Figure 2 - Recording video

How It Works

Built on MediaMTX and designed with TAK operators in mind, TVR follows a simple workflow:

  1. An operator using HelmCam, UASTool, ICU, or another video source streams live video to TVR.
  2. TVR distributes the stream using commonly supported protocols, including RTSP and SRT.
  3. End users can view the feed(s) directly in TVR or through their preferred client.

Figure 3 -Viewing a stream using a preferred protocol

Status and What’s Next

The TAK Ops team has released an initial version of TVR, available on GitHub. Upcoming updates will focus on improving the video wall interface and completing additional performance testing. 

Get Involved

If you’re interested in testing TVR or have feature suggestions, contact us at tak@rtx.com.

 

This material is based upon work supported by the United States Air Force under contract number FA8750-24-S-B079 (Prime Contractor Smart Information Flow Technologies (SIFT)). Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the United States Air Force. Copyright (c) 2026 RTX BBN Technologies. Licensed to US Government with unlimited rights.

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. This is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but without any warranty, without even the implied warranty of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. See the GNU General Public License for more details. https://www.gnu.org/licenses/

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