Cisco® Transcode Manager (CTM) expands the revenue potential of content delivered to any device. Whether setting up a workflow to deliver IP video to a set-top box, PC, or mobile device - as a progressive download or as adaptive bit rate (ABR) over HTTP - Cisco can help you maximize your return on investment (ROI). Cisco Transcode Manager can simplify your workflow and eliminate the bottlenecks, starting with ingestion, encoding, and encryption and ending with quality check, transwrapping, packaging, and delivery to storage and a Content Delivery Network (CDN).
Post-Encode Node Summary
Within CTM's product suite, the Post-Encode Node performs the following jobs: transwrapping video files into any, or all, of the popular ABR formats; checking files for quality (QC); and delivering media assets. The Post-Encode Node license is optional for the Cisco Transcode Manager, but it is required for these described tasks.
CTM streamlines the steps required to target multiple formats. When preparing video for adaptive bit rate (ABR) delivery, one source file gets encoded into five-to-ten separate files, typically, in addition to their corresponding metadata files. Popular examples of HTTP-based ABR formats include Apple HTTP Live Streaming (HLS), Adobe HTTP Dynamic Streaming (HDS), Microsoft HTTP Smooth Streaming (HSS), and MPEG Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (MPEG-DASH). The ABR format(s) you choose depend on the devices you are targeting, and the limitations of your transcoding software and hardware. The number of layers in each format is a choice that is based partly on source resolution, but also on a business decision to balance storage costs and the end-user's quality of experience (QoE).
Let's look at an example use case, and then how CTM will make your operation more efficient. You want to deliver a 30-minute, high-definition video file to Apple "iDevices" using HTTP Live Streaming (HLS), and to personal computers using Adobe HTTP Dynamic Streaming (HDS). You are also considering Smooth. In the conventional method, an encoder would output ten different profiles for each ABR format, for a total of 30 different encodes. These would be spread out across multiple encoding servers. This is CPU intensive, costly, and in many ways redundant since your target compression profiles are so similar across formats.
CTM makes generating multiple ABR formats more efficient. This is done by separating the CPU-intensive encoding from the light transwrapping and segmenting that is handled by the Post-Encode Node. In our example, the source video is encoded into only one set of files, and then quickly packaged into HLS, HDS, and HSS. This method saves you 60-percent of your time, when compared against the total time required to encode to each ABR format separately. This reduces your OPEX and CAPEX, and gets your assets ready for QA or distribution quicker.
Checking the quality of every frame of every output file is tedious and painstaking, especially when outputting multiple files for adaptive bit rate (ABR). The Cisco Transcode Manager Post-Encode Node lends much-needed support for this tedious task.
Features and Benefits
The Post-Encode Node:
• Improves OPEX 60-percent by reducing encodes to a common set of ABR profiles and transwrapping them into your desired delivery formats
• Provides automated quality-control analysis on all ABR streams, making it easy to quality-check all ABR profiles
• Is a licensed component of Cisco Transcode Manager; no additional hardware or software is required to host
• Integrates into the Work Order feature of CTM, allowing for flexibility of use
• Packages and delivers output and companion files to locations outside the network, such as a CDN
• Fully integrates Inlet Technologies' award-winning quality control product, Semaphore, giving you confidence that your files will meet your standards, while saving time and headcount expense
• Adaptive Transport Stream (ATS) files can be transwrapped into the following formats:
• Apple HTTP Live Streaming (HLS), encrypted AES-128 or with PlayReady DRM
• Adobe HTTP Dynamic Streaming (HDS), Protected HDS or with Flash Access DRM
• Microsoft HTTP Smooth Streaming (HSS), with PlayReady DRM
Post-processing
• Digital rights management (DRM)
• AviSynth script management
• User-defined post-job process
• ASF-to-TS conversion
Integrated quality control
• Quantization
• Bit rate
• Frame size
• Dropped frames
• Skipped frames
• Buffer fullness
• Key frame size
• Audio
Quality Control Parameters
Frame quality
• Frame size
• Dropped frames
• Skipped frames
• Key frame size
Encoded data quality
• Quantization
• Bit rate
• Buffer fullness
Audio quality
• Audio level
Delivery
Compression types
• .zip
• .tar
Companion file examples
• Poster art
• Movie trailers
• XML files
Protocols
• FTP
• Network file transfer
System Requirements
Table 3 lists system requirements for the Cisco Transcode Manager Post-Encode Node. It is recommended that Cisco Transcode Manager be run on Cisco's Unified Computing System (UCS) blade or server hardware.
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