Case study VIEW MEDIA

Viewmedia operates an infrastructure that is processing hundreds of linear channels. The channels are often received from different content providers located across the globe. Before sending a channel to the uplink facility all channel feeds are required to comply with a strict broadcasting standards. Unfortunately not all content providers are able to deliver content compliant with TR 101 290 norm and provide feeds in required resolution, framerate, GoP size etc. Therefore it is often required to receive and transcode channels before further distribution.

Viewmedia was looking for a new solution to replace old-fashioned, power inefficient hardware decoders and encoders. The company was looking for a software solution to:

• Receive linear channels and live events from content providers using SRT protocol
• Transcode tv feeds to desirable resolution and parameters and make sure the streams always meet all industry standards
• Better manage reception infrastructure and be able to change the configuration fully remotely
• Design new workflow so it is fully redundant with an ability for automatic switchover to backup feeds in case of any network or hardware problems

In preparation for the infrastructure upgrade Viewmedia build a highly reliable, fully redundant, and scalable virtual computing cluster. The cluster was planned to be used in the new infrastructure. Viewmedia needed to evaluate different software solutions for linear and live channel reception and transcoding. Various solutions were tested including open source tools (ts-duck, ffmpeg, srt-live-transmit) and professional broadcast software for a channel transcoding from the leading industry vendors.

Open-source tools did not meet Viewmedia expectations. srt-live transmit command line tool provided only basic srt to udp conversion with no transcoding support or any required features like monitoring, remote management, reporting, watchdog, active/backup switch over and others. Command line tools like fmpeg and ts-duck turned out to be very flexible but failed to properly transcode streams with stable CBR output and consistent IAT. Moreover many other management features were missing.

Commercial software solutions were lacking in features or the costs were too high for the relevant services and markets.

Quickstream solution was tested and met all expectations. Quickstream was able to transcode more than 40 streams to h.264 with MPEG-TS UDP stream output. The output met all expectations including stable IAT, contant bitrate (CBR) and compliance with TR 101 290 norm.

Features of Quickstream solution:

• Cost effective and flexible.
• The ability to run on windows/linux OS installed in a virtual environment.
• Compatibility with other SRT based solutions.
• Effective communication and support.
• Multi-channel transcoding.
• High density and energy efficient
• Ability to configure system without "single point of failure".

Viewmedia used Quickstream in the infrastructure and managed to:

• Save on the energy costs. Total calculated energy savings of up to 60%.
• Transcode more than 40 channels on the virtual cluster.
• Replace legacy infrastructure and saving data-center space.
• Improved reliability.
• Improved time efficiency by distribution network management from central web interface using Quickstream Cloud.