Please Note: We have thousands of documents accumulated over nearly 20 years in business. We're actively modernizing our documentation, focusing on the newest product updates first. Legacy documentation, including older PDFs, .CHM files, and historical product manuals, remains available through the Client Portal for our existing customers. We appreciate your patience as we work through our extensive library. Thank you for your understanding!

Technical Library

Whitepapers, field guides and engineering notes from the work behind the platform

WINK Forge: Enterprise Video Transcoding Platform Whitepaper
Comprehensive technical whitepaper on packet loss reconstruction and VMS integration
Unique technology • Architecture deep-dive • ROI analysis
Read Whitepaper
WINK Media Router: Universal Video Sharing Platform Whitepaper
How organizations share video across 20,000+ cameras with protocol translation and universal compatibility
Universal protocols • OTP authentication • Scale management
Read Whitepaper
We Tested Neural Super-Resolution for License Plate OCR. It Did Nothing. NEW Engineering Note
Does AI upscaling actually improve plate reads? We tested a 42K-parameter SR model and a 1.21M-parameter pretrained model on thousands of labeled production crops. Both did nothing.
By Michael McConnell • May 2026 • 0.0% exact match • Character hallucination • Why multi-crop voting beats single-image SR
Read Note
MP4 Packaging Showdown: FFmpeg vs MP4Box vs Bento4 NEW Blog Post
Practical ways to make MP4s seek instantly and stream smoothly—without re-encoding. Plus the performance quirks nobody talks about.
By David Brown • March 2025 • The 9x slowdown mystery • Concat disasters • Real production fixes
Read Post
Ultra Low Latency HLS: Breaking the Sub-Second Barrier NEW Deep Dive
How we achieved 900ms glass-to-glass latency with HLS. Spoiler: It works, but iPhones hate it.
By Michael McConnell • September 2025 • 200ms parts • Lock-free buffers • "iOS will always surprise you"
Read Experiment
CDN Reality Check: Engineering Around Network Failures Rant
Why video streaming requires 15 protocols and CDNs exist - the harsh, unfiltered truth about network failures.
November 2023 • Bufferbloat nightmares • "The internet is broken and will stay broken"
Read Rant
Why H.264 Is Almost Always The Answer Opinion
The codec debate nobody wants to have: Why H.264 beats H.265 for 99% of security cameras.
Real packet loss data • "H.265 marketing is a lie" • Why compatibility wins
Read Opinion
The End of the Compression Wars: Now What? NEW Musings
We've perfected video compression—now the real innovation begins. Why codec improvements are hitting diminishing returns and where the industry is headed next.
Codec evolution • Post-filter softening • Perception-based encoding • The Zipstream moment • Future of video innovation
Read Musings
The Streaming Protocol Wars: Why HLS Won Analysis
The definitive post-mortem: How MPEG-DASH lost the war and why we're all using HLS in 2025.
January 2025 • "DASH is dead" • Apple's accidental victory • LL-HLS revolution
Read Analysis
WebSocket Streaming vs WebTransport: The Safari Reality Deep Dive
Why we adopted RTWebSocket (RTMP-in-JavaScript) when Safari killed our WebTransport dreams.
The harsh Safari reality • "Dead on arrival" • Why 30% of users matter
Read Analysis
Improving H.264 in 2026: Why Optimizing Still Beats Switching Codecs Experiment
1,586 encodes to find how much is still left inside H.264. Half a second of lookahead cut bitrate 43-45% on roadway cameras at 1.1x the CPU. Switching to H.265 or AV1 costs 10-50x the encoding latency for 2-3% at camera bitrates.
1,586 encodes • 43-45% saved • Measured encoder delay • Codec cost comparison
Read Musing
The AV1 Backport Experiment: When Denoising Beats In-Loop Filters Experiment
We backported AV1's CDEF filter thinking it would help. A plain denoiser did better. What we measured and why we were wrong.
CDEF backport • Denoising comparison • Measured results
Read Musing
Visual Context: Why Video Transforms SCADA Case Study
How integrating video with SCADA reduces false alarms by 75%
75% alarm reduction • 60% faster resolution • Protocol integration
Read Study
Protocol Selection for Long-Distance Streaming Technical Brief
RTSP, RTMP, and SRT comparison for streaming across cities and states
Protocol comparison matrix • BBR2 optimization • Firewall considerations
Read Study
Beyond The VMS: Multi-Agency Video Sharing Case Study
Why getting video out of Genetec or Milestone is just the beginning
Authentication complexity • Protocol chaos • Complete architecture
Read Study
RTSP Stream Optimization for Cellular Networks Field Guide
Complete guide to optimizing RTSP video streams over 4G/5G cellular networks
TCP vs UDP • IPv6/NAT64 • MPTCP bonding • Carrier optimization
Read Guide
PCI-DSS Compliance for Video Streaming Security Guide
Complete security best practices for payment card industry environments
Protocol security matrix • Implementation checklist • Compliance validation
Read Guide
OTP vs JWT: Video Authentication Token Comparison Technical Brief
The definitive guide to choosing between OTP and JWT authentication
Head-to-head comparison • Security analysis • Decision framework
Read Study
Security Camera Optimization: KFI, FPS & Bitrate Balance Technical Brief
Why packet loss resilience trumps technical maximums in camera settings
KFI/FPS optimization • Packet loss resilience • Real-world examples
Read Study

Media over QUIC: Our Implementation and What It Cost

MoQ Implementation: Technical Achievement & Browser Reality NEW
We reached 200-300 ms glass to glass, roughly 10x better than HLS, and then wrote up why that may not be enough. Playing video through JavaScript is a workaround, Apple has not implemented WebTransport, and native <video src="moq://..."> support does not exist.
Reality Check: Why MoQ's success depends 100% on browser vendors • WebCodecs is a hack, not a solution • The Apple/Safari problem that could kill everything
Read Analysis
MoQ Technical Implementation Guide OPEN SOURCE
Deep technical dive into building MoQ for MediaMTX. How we discovered browsers can't use native QUIC, implemented dual transport (WebTransport + QUIC), and solved audio sync with Web Workers. Special thanks to JSMpeg for inspiration on JavaScript video decoding!
~10,500 lines of code: Go backend • JavaScript player • WebCodecs integration • Varint encoding • Stream multiplexing
View Source
Complete MoQ Implementation Guide FULL DETAIL
The long-form companion to the analysis above. Every technical detail and all the code from the implementation, including the parts that did not work.
Full protocol walkthrough • Server and client code • Browser support findings
View Guide
Live MoQ Demo - 200ms Latency LIVE NOW
See it to believe it. Real 200-300ms latency streaming in your browser. This is what the future looks like - if Apple ever implements WebTransport. (Chrome/Edge only - Safari users, blame Apple).
Note: Uses WebCodecs for decoding. Yes, we're playing video in JavaScript. Yes, it's ridiculous. Yes, it works.
Try Demo
WebSocket Streaming vs WebTransport: The Safari Reality NEW
Why we adopted RTWebSocket (RTMP-in-JavaScript) for Safari & iOS. The harsh reality: Safari shows zero interest in WebTransport, potentially killing MoQ for 30% of users. Our solution? RTWebSocket - bringing RTMP's flow control to JavaScript.
Achievement: 1-2 second latency that works everywhere beats 200ms that only Chrome users can see • RTWebSocket protocol (github.com/zenomt/rtwebsocket) • Flow control & backpressure • Why fMP4 might be unnecessary
Read Analysis

Also in this section

Product Documentation Manuals, API references and deployment guides
Software Downloads Tools and utilities for Windows, macOS and Linux

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