stanag4609

stanag4609 is an MIT-licensed Python toolkit for Full Motion Video (FMV). It reads, writes, verifies, transforms, and displays MPEG transport streams with MISB KLV metadata.

Use it to build ingest services, metadata processors, AI enrichment pipelines, GIS exports, and synchronized video applications without starting from raw MPEG-TS packets or hand-written KLV codecs.

Try it

Install the package from PyPI. Python 3.10 or newer is required.

python -m pip install stanag4609

If FFmpeg is installed, this command generates a small FMV stream and opens the reference player:

stanag4609-player --demo day

The demo includes H.264 video, an audio channel, ST 0601 telemetry, and a map. It is generated locally and does not download sample footage.

What you can build

• Inspect an FMV stream and explain malformed transport, KLV, metadata, timing, and media declarations.
• Decode and update ST 0601 metadata while preserving fields your application does not understand.
• Demultiplex, process, and remultiplex live MPEG-TS without transcoding the video or audio.
• Convert model detections to ST 0903 VMTI metadata and keep them synchronized with video frames.
• Export timed sensor, frame, target, and footprint geometry as GeoJSON or an ArcGIS-compatible CSV sidecar.
• Serve a local video, map, telemetry, activity-feed, and detection-timeline UI.
• Carry MPEG-TS over UDP or RTP and describe RTP sessions with SDP.

The core package has no required third-party Python dependencies. FFmpeg, PyAV, Ultralytics, ONNX Runtime, and Triton support are optional integrations.

Read a stream from Python

Generate two short sample streams:

stanag4609-demo-samples demo --duration 4

Then inspect the synchronized timeline:

from stanag4609.player import scan_transport_file

timeline = scan_transport_file("demo/stanag4609-day-demo.ts")
sample = timeline.samples[0]

print(f"metadata samples: {len(timeline.samples)}")
print(sample.fields["Sensor Latitude"]["value"])
print(sample.fields["Sensor Longitude"]["value"])

The quickstart walks through the generated stream, the player, the verifier, and the Python API.

Choose a workflow

I want to…	Start here
Inspect or troubleshoot an FMV file	Verifier guide
Decode or update MISB metadata	ST 0601 API
Process KLV in a live stream	Live transform pipeline
Add AI detections	AI and VMTI sidecars
Build a browser application	Web clients
Export metadata to another system	Ecosystem interoperability

See the workflow chooser for end-to-end paths and the example gallery for runnable applications.

Standards support at a glance

Status	Standards and profiles
Complete software-verifiable profile	MISB ST 0102.12 Security; ST 0107.5 KLV baseline; ST 0806.4 RVT; ST 0902.8 Minimum Metadata; ST 1002.3 Range Imagery; ST 1010.3 SDCC-FLP; ST 1201.5 IMAP; ST 1204.3 MIIS Core IDs; ST 1206.1 SAR; ST 1303.2 MDAP; ST 1402.2 MPEG-TS metadata carriage; ST 1601.2 Geo-Registration; ST 1602.2 Composite Imaging; ST 1607.2 Segment/Amend
Substantial, intentionally partial	NATO STANAG 4609 Ed. 5 and MISP-2019.1; MISB ST 0601.19; ST 0603.5 MISP time; ST 0604.6 video timestamps; ST 0804.4 RTP/RTCP; ST 0903.6 VMTI; ST 1001.1 audio; ST 1202.3 image transformations; SMPTE ST 336 KLV; SMPTE RP 217 asynchronous carriage; common H.222.0, H.262, AVC, and HEVC profiles
Future or separate profiles	MISB ST 0801 / ST 1107 photogrammetry; elementary-stream RTP and RTSP; complete MXF and SDI profiles; a native GStreamer element; whole-MPTS rewriting; uncommon codecs

“Complete” covers requirements that software can determine from the supplied data and context. Sensor accuracy, security policy, and other producer-owned facts remain outside that label. See the conformance matrix for requirement-level scope.

Design principles

• Parse files, sockets, and pipes incrementally.
• Put limits on retained input, queues, histories, and reordering.
• Preserve original bytes and unknown KLV fields during lossless updates.
• Make timestamp, discontinuity, truncation, and backpressure behavior visible.
• Keep codec and inference runtimes behind optional adapters.
• Tie standards claims to a named edition and executable evidence.

Documentation

The documentation includes a user guide, tutorials, a generated API reference, and detailed standards coverage.

The public API is still pre-1.0. Review the API stability policy before depending on less common extension points.

Contributing

Development is specification-led and test-driven. See CONTRIBUTING.md for environment setup, standards provenance, tests, and pull-request guidance.

License

MIT