Zoom SRT ingest support adds professional video workflows to Events and Webinars

The addition of Secure Reliable Transport (SRT) allows Zoom Video Communications to better compete for high-end corporate events that require broadcast-grade stability. By moving beyond standard RTMP, Zoom addresses the latency and jitter issues common in remote production, particularly for hosts operating on public internet connections. This shift signals a broader move by video platforms to integrate open-source transport protocols that were previously reserved for dedicated hardware environments. As professional-grade features become standard in enterprise meeting tools, the distinction between webinar platforms and broadcast streaming services continues to blur. Watch for whether Zoom expands this protocol support to its standard Pro and Business meeting tiers to support broader third-party hardware integration.

SRT has become the de facto open-source transport protocol for professional video contribution, and Zoom's integration places it alongside a growing list of platforms that have adopted the protocol for ingest. Haivision, which originally developed SRT and open-sourced it in 2017, reported in its fiscal 2025 results that SRT ecosystem adoption continued to grow across broadcast and enterprise video workflows, with the protocol now supported by more than 100 hardware and software vendors through the SRT Alliance. OBS Studio, one of the encoders Zoom explicitly supports for its new SRT ingest, added native SRT output support in version 28.0 released in September 2022, and vMix has offered SRT as a streaming destination since version 25. The convergence of encoder-side and platform-side SRT support means that end-to-end SRT workflows no longer require dedicated hardware appliances, lowering the barrier for corporate event producers who previously relied on bonded cellular or dedicated fiber links.

On the competitive landscape, Zoom's SRT move arrives as rival platforms differentiate on production quality and protocol flexibility. Microsoft Teams introduced RTMP-in and custom streaming ingest capabilities for Teams Town Halls in early 2025, allowing organizers to bring in external encoder feeds, though it has not publicly announced SRT-specific support. Meanwhile, Restream added SRT ingest to its multistreaming platform in mid-2025, positioning itself as a protocol-agnostic distribution layer for creators and enterprises alike. The broader trend reflects a market where enterprise video platforms are borrowing infrastructure patterns from broadcast contribution, and Zoom's decision to support H.264 at up to 1080p30 over SRT aligns with the codec and resolution constraints that most corporate AV teams already manage through their existing encoder fleets.

From a technical standpoint, SRT's advantages over RTMP center on its ability to recover from packet loss without introducing the multi-second buffering that plagues TCP-based protocols. Haivision published benchmark data showing SRT maintaining stream integrity at packet loss rates up to 20% with latency as low as 120 milliseconds, compared to RTMP streams that typically degrade or drop at loss rates above 2-3%. For Zoom Events specifically, this means keynote speakers connecting from hotel Wi-Fi or convention center networks can maintain broadcast-quality output without the visible artifacts that have historically made webinar platforms unsuitable for high-stakes corporate productions. The protocol's built-in AES encryption also addresses enterprise security requirements that RTMP's unencrypted transport cannot meet without additional tunneling infrastructure.

For related background, see StreamingMeme's prior coverage of Netskrt and Oracle demonstrate end-to-end MOQ delivery at IBC 2026.