A hardware encoder for the sources that never speak IP on their own: HDMI and SDI feeds from cameras, switchers, medical equipment, and production gear, encoded to H.264 or H.265 and put onto the network in a format the rest of the platform can carry.
The product is in its end of life period. It remains supported, and this page documents what it does and where the role has moved.
Talk to Us About Migration Read the Technical BriefA dedicated appliance that turns a baseband video signal into a network stream, sitting at the point where the cable ends and the network begins.
Plenty of video still originates on a wire rather than an IP port. A broadcast camera outputs SDI. A surgical scope, a microscope, and a process control display output HDMI. A production switcher outputs both. None of that reaches a streaming platform without something in between doing the encode, and doing it with a stable clock and predictable latency.
WINK Encoder has filled that role since 2010. It takes HDMI 2.0 or SDI in at up to 4K60, encodes in H.264 or H.265 with hardware acceleration, and publishes over RTMP, SRT, HLS, MPEG-TS, or multicast UDP with embedded or discrete audio. Dual gigabit interfaces with bonding cover the cases where a single link is not something you want to bet a live event on.
New deployments are now generally better served by WINK Forge, which covers the same encoding and normalization work in software across cloud, appliance, and virtual deployments. Where a baseband input genuinely needs a dedicated box, we will tell you so and help you plan around the support window.
| Video Inputs |
|---|
| HDMI 2.0 at 4K60 |
| 3G-SDI at 1080p60 |
| HD-SDI at 1080i and 720p |
| SD-SDI at 576i and 480i |
| Automatic input detection |
| Encoding |
|---|
| H.264 / AVC |
| H.265 / HEVC |
| Multi-bitrate output |
| Adaptive bitrate control |
| Hardware acceleration |
| Streaming Outputs |
|---|
| RTMP and RTMPS |
| SRT |
| HLS |
| MPEG-TS |
| UDP and RTP multicast |
| Audio |
|---|
| Embedded HDMI and SDI audio |
| Balanced XLR input |
| AAC encoding |
| MP3 encoding |
| Multiple audio tracks |
| Network |
|---|
| Dual gigabit Ethernet |
| Network bonding |
| VLAN support |
| Static or DHCP addressing |
| IPv4 and IPv6 |
Nothing stops working on the end of life date. Here is the actual timeline and where the capability has moved.
Feature updates and bug fixes continue. Units in service are supported normally and remain available for replacement in existing deployments.
Security patches remain available. An installed unit can stay in service through that window without becoming an unpatched device on your network.
WINK Forge covers encoding, transcoding, and format normalization in software, on hardware you choose or in the cloud, and pairs with Media Router for distribution.
When this product line started in 2010, encoding live video in software was a specialist activity. If you needed an SDI feed on the network at a predictable bitrate with latency you could quote, you bought a box whose only job was that. Sixteen years later the constraint has largely dissolved, and it is worth being precise about what is left of it.
Baseband input, first: a software platform cannot accept an SDI cable, and a capture card in a server is an appliance with extra steps. Deterministic timing, second: a single purpose device has a latency profile that does not change because another tenant got busy. Placement, third: encoders live in operating theaters and transmitter rooms where nobody wants to run a hypervisor.
Everything to do with scale and change. Adding a stream to Forge is a configuration action rather than a purchase order, density is a function of the host, and upgrades happen centrally rather than as a firmware campaign across sites. More decisively, most video now arrives from an IP camera that already speaks RTSP, so the interesting work is no longer the encode. It is packet loss reconstruction, jitter absorption, and normalizing dozens of camera vendors into one predictable output.
Two questions sort most inventories. Is the source baseband or IP? If it is IP, Forge can absorb the work now. Is the latency requirement a production one or a monitoring one? Production chains deserve a like for like conversation; monitoring feeds usually do not. Output protocols are the same on both sides, so downstream players and recording paths do not change during a migration.
Feature support runs to 31 October 2026 and security patches to 31 December 2031, which is enough runway to align replacement with a normal capital cycle. Send us the unit list and we will mark up which boxes need replacing and which can simply be pointed at Forge.
Send us your unit list and what each one is connected to. We will tell you which need replacing and which can move to Forge as they are.
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