Many broadcast video feeds are now being processed and distributed in the Cloud. As regular readers of this blog will know, our low-latency encoders and decoders are ideal for transmitting feeds to and from the cloud (especially from ST-2110).
But how do you process and subsequently distribute these feeds in the cloud? Cerberus Tech’s Livelink solves this problem as a powerful platform for occasional use processing and distribution of broadcast video feeds.
Receiving feeds
Livelink supports a myriad of broadcast protocols such SRT, Zixi and RIST meaning it can ingest feeds from a variety of broadcast-grade encoders, ours of course being one of them. Livelink also supports ingest from our 5G Flyaway solution, providing a solution that can transmit from locations without wired connectivity, or as a broadcast quality backup path without the need for satellite.
The screenshot below shows several feeds from our encoders being ingested into the platform. Our encoders of course have strict broadcast standards compliance such as compliant PCR (Programme Clock Reference) measurements.
Scheduling
Many organisations may want to schedule live events to destinations automatically without the need for human operated routing. The scheduling functionality in Livelink allows this. The screenshot below shows how events can be scheduled to different destinations, making sure that destinations only receive events they have the rights to.
Transcoding and other processing
Many “takers” of content are now web streaming platforms with a huge range of different formats they might want to receive, be that progressive, interlaced, RTMP, SRT, DASH, HLS etc. Livelink has advanced transcoding features that allow for simple creation of destinations,each with varying formats. As a result, Livelink avoids having numerous physical devices that may not be used very often.
In addition, broadcast takers in some parts of the world may not have the bandwidth or equipment to receive high quality contribution feeds. Often this means the feed at source needs to be reduced in quality to compensate for the taker with equipment or connectivity limitations. Livelink has a broadcast compliant transcoder that allows lower quality variants to be delivered to takers while high quality variants can still be delivered to the majority of takers.
Audio shuffling is another consideration, especially in protocols like RTMP that can only support a single track. Many takers would like their language first, or no commentary. Livelink supports audio track shuffling without the need for re-encoding.
Monitoring
Livelink allows for easy monitoring of takers connection status around the world. In this simple instance there are two takers, one in Paris and one in London but often there can be dozens. This page allows easy monitoring of large numbers of takers.
There are also standard packet loss statistics available.
Multiviews
One of the unique features of Livelink is the ability to spin up a TAG multiviewer on an hourly basis. TAG provides the detailed monitoring to provide confidence that feeds are being processed correctly.
In this instance a 1080i25 feed is being delivered to broadcast takers and a 1080p50 feed to web takers. A single multiviewer can monitor these feeds and be viewed at site or in an MCR. The ability to spin multiviewers up and down saves substantially in traditional multiviewer infrastructure.
Edge Devices
Our decoders fit seamlessly into a Livelink workflow and, in particular, our high density allows for large numbers of feeds to be decoded to SDI or ST-2110. In this example, dozens of small form factor four channel decoders were deployed for a major sporting event this summer.
Conclusion
Open Broadcast Systems’ encoders and decoders are a great fit with the Livelink platform owing to their flexibility, density and wide range of form factors. Their strict compliance means they will interoperate with a myriad of devices around the world. They can even be built in-country using off-the-shelf existing hardware for fast-turnaround takers. Livelink can then process the broadcast transport streams to deliver to web destinations all in one interface.
