NMOS

What it is

NMOS (Networked Media Open Specifications) is a family of open standards from the Advanced Media Workflow Association (AMWA). It standardises how media-over-IP devices announce themselves, describe what they can do, and negotiate connections between sources and receivers.

The two specs you meet most

• IS-04 (Discovery & Registration) — devices register with a network registry and publish their senders, receivers, and node capabilities. Replaces ad-hoc service discovery (mDNS, vendor-specific sweepers).
• IS-05 (Connection Management) — a control plane uses RESTful HTTP to bind a receiver to a sender. Replaces SDP push and SNMP for IP-AV connection control.

Why it matters

Without NMOS, every SMPTE ST 2110 and IPMX deployment would need a custom orchestration layer per vendor. NMOS is the discovery + control glue that makes open-standard AV-over-IP actually multi-vendor in practice. Modern control-room tenders that mention IPMX almost always mention IS-04 / IS-05 in the same paragraph.

Beyond IS-04 and IS-05

Newer specs cover Authorization (IS-10), Audio Channel Mapping (IS-08) and Event & Tally (IS-07). Worth tracking if your buyers ask, but the operational floor is set by IS-04 + IS-05.

Related terms

• IPMX
• SMPTE ST 2110
• AV over IP