API Archives – The Broadcast Knowledge

Video: M6 France – Master Control and Playout IP Migration

Posted on 13th November 2019 by Adam K

French broadcast company M6 Group has recently moved to an all-IP workflow, employing the SMPTE ST 2110 suite of standards for professional media delivery over IP networks. The two main playout channels and MCR have been already upgraded and the next few channels will be transitioned to the new core soon.

The M6 system comprises equipment from five different vendors (Evertz, Tektronix, Harmonic, Ross and TSL), all managed and controlled using the AMWA NMOS IS-04 and IS-05 specifications. Such interoperability is an inherent feature of SMPTE ST 2110 suite of standards allowing customers to focus on the operational workflows and flexibility that IP brings them. Centralised management and configuration of the system is provided through web interfaces which also allows for easy and automated addition of a new equipment.

Thanks to Software Defined Orchestration and intuitive touch screen interfaces information such as source paths, link bandwidth / status, and device details can be quickly accessed via a web GUI. As the system is based on IP network, it is possible to come in and out of fabric numerous times without the same costs implications that you would have in the SDI world. Every point of the signal chain can be easily visualised which enables broadcast engineers to maintain and configure the system with ease.

You can see the slides here.

Watch now!

Speaker

	Slavisa Gruborovic Solution Architect Evertz Microsystems Inc.
	Fernando Solanes Director Solutions Engineering Evertz Microsystems Inc.

Video: WAVE (Web Application Video Ecosystem) Update

Posted on 8th October 2019 by Russell Trafford-Jones

With wide membership including Apple, Comcast, Google, Disney, Bitmovin, Akamai and many others, the WAVE interoperability effort is tackling the difficulties web media encoding, playback and platform issues utilising global standards.

John Simmons from Microsoft takes us through the history of WAVE, looking at the changes in the industry since 2008 and WAVE’s involvement. CMAF represents an important milestone in technology recently which is entwined with WAVE’s activity backed by over 60 major companies.

The WAVE Content Specification is derived from the ISO/IEC standard, “Common media application format (CMAF) for segmented media”. CMAF is the container for the audio, video and other content. It’s not a protocol like DASH, HLS or RTMP, rather it’s more like an MPEG 2 transport stream. CMAF nowadays has a lot of interest in it due to its ability to deliver very low latency streaming of less than 4 seconds, but it’s also important because it represents a standardisation of fMP4 (fragmented MP4) practices.

The idea of standardising on CMAF allows for media profiles to be defined which specify how to encapsulate certain codecs (AV1, HEVC etc.) into the stream. Given it’s a published specification, other vendors will be able to inter-operate. Proof of the value of the WAVE project is the 3 amendments that John mentions issued from MPEG on the CMAF standard which have come directly from WAVE’s work in validating user requirements.

Whilst defining streaming is important in terms of helping in-cloud vendors work together and in allowing broadcasters to more easily build systems, it’s vital the decoder devices are on board too, and much work goes into the decoder-device side of things.

On top of having to deal with encoding and distribution, WAVE also specifies an HTML5 APIs interoperability with the aim of defining baseline web APIs to support media web apps and creating guidelines for media web app developers.

This talk was given at the Seattle Video Tech meetup.

Watch now!
Slides from the presentation
Check out the free CTA specs

Speaker

John Simmons
Media Platform Architect,
Microsoft

Webinar: The Video APIs & SDK Revolution

Posted on 17th August 2018 by Russell Trafford-Jones

Date: Thursday August 23rd 2018, 11am PT / 2pm ET / 19:00 BST

Streaming Media are back with Bitmovin and MUX to talk about APIs.
After all, more APIs and SDKs than ever are available to developers, and they’re getting smarter—allowing businesses to advance their video development at a more rapid pace. APIs simplify everything from payment processing to content management, and SDKs allow for heretofore unheard-of customization for everything from formats and delivery protocols to player controls and features.

Learn how to leverage APIs and SDKs to grow your video business fast, as they dive into these issues:

How developers can use APIs and SDKs to build highly customized video streaming platforms, instead of relying on out-of-the-box OVPs
The implications and challenges of the APIs & SDK revolution for enterprise engineering teams
Best practices for relying on third-party APIs: testing, monitoring, etc.
What developers need to know about the video infrastructure layer
How to decide which video API fits your needs
What resources exist to help broadcast engineers, as well as “traditional” software engineers, advance their video development skills.

Register Now!

Moderator