what is the best way to setup video streaming through a vlan?

[wstemmons1984]

I have video encoders and decoders that I would like to setup for video streaming across Campuses. I currently have a vlan segmented for the video traffic. When testing the traffic doesn't reach the various locations. Everything worked fine when the encoder and decoder were on the same switch. I can ping the default gateway from the switches, but still the signal doesn't reach the other decoders. My setup contains Meraki switches as cores, Cisco 2960x, 3560, and Meraki MS250  access switches. Should I use vlans or multicast to setup video streaming?

[Dennis Mink]

You would need to set up multicasting and more importantly if you are streaming and wanting endpoints on different subnets (so encoder and decoders on different subnets), you would need igmp configured as well.

[wstemmons1984]

Thanks for replying Dennis. Currently, we are going to have the encoders and decoders on their own network. I intend learn more about multicasting and how to set it up.

[Joseph W. Doherty]

"Should I use vlans or multicast to setup video streaming?"

It depends on the complexity of your network. For a small network, avoiding multicast (i.e. using the same VLAN) might be okay but for a larger network, setting up multicast routing (as suggested by Dennis) would probably be the better approach.

A possible reason why your video broke when you extended the VLAN might have to do with IGMP snooping. Many modern switches now enable this by default, but for it to work correctly, you need a IGMP querier on the same L2 network (normally a multicast router is the IGMP querier - if there's no multicast routing, it [the query function] needs to be enabled - IGMP snooping switch might also be enabled as a IGMP querier [when there's no available router]). BTW, disabling IGMP snooping would negate the need for a IGMP querier, but then your multicast stream would be flooded to all ports.

[wstemmons1984]

Hi Joseph!
Thanks for your advice. We have a small network. I will look into the IGMP setup. I will let you know how it works out for me.