© 2011 AmberFin Limited Loose Coupling for Multipurpose Distribution Bruce Devlin Chief Technical Officer

© 2011 AmberFin Limited Some Words … Wrapper MXF, GXF, QuickTime, AVI Codec Encoder, Transcoder Format Conversion Up conversion, Down conversion, Cross Conversion Standards Conversion Frame rate conversion 50Hz  60Hz, 60Hz  50Hz API Some programming interface like web services, C++, Java SOA Service Oriented Architecture – a methodology

© 2011 AmberFin Limited File Based Workflows Why?

© 2011 AmberFin Limited The best way to explain Loose Coupling is to look at … Tight coupling … 4 Loose Coupling … what ??

© 2011 AmberFin Limited Start easy … Simple Business Web Page Let’s make a web page It will say “Hello World” Nicely(ish) styled.html

© 2011 AmberFin Limited Tightly coupled web page Tight Coupling function img(){ document.body.background="smpte.png" }; Message Hello World.html

© 2011 AmberFin Limited Time passes... Requirements change Someone invents –iPhone, gPhone, iPad, gPad, dPad Our business grows –Spanish, Italian, French, German, British English etc. Our web page must change with our business

© 2011 AmberFin Limited Tightly coupled web page Tight Coupling function img(){ document.body.background="smpte.png" }; Message Hello World Business Rules Language Sensitive Content Look & Feel Language Insensitive Content Structure.html

© 2011 AmberFin Limited Tightly coupled web page Quick to develop Quick to deploy A pain to update A pain to maintain A pain to scale Tight Coupling makes change expensive!

© 2011 AmberFin Limited Loosely coupled web page Structure is defined in HTML Styling in CSS Logic in some language Data in some database.html.css.js.dB.java.php.asp

© 2011 AmberFin Limited Loosely coupled web page Change language but don’t touch styling Change styling but don’t touch structure Add new content safely Replicate and scale using existing IT tools (database replication etc).html.css.js.dB.java.php.asp

© 2011 AmberFin Limited How loose is loose? This stuff ain’t trivial Explore probabilities of change Explore consequences of change Explore costs of change Explore system stability of change

© 2011 AmberFin Limited Business Layer Pg: 13 Generic State of the Art Facility SD Playout HD CDN Delivery CDN HD Playout SD Multi-rate Web Streaming IPTV Versioning International Captioning Accessibility © 2010 AmberFin Limited MAM, DAM, BPM, frys? Web Services

© 2011 AmberFin Limited Day #1 – it goes live Business Process system Manages which jobs to run Media Management system Manages where the content is and which transcoder to use Transcoder Has profiles configured for all the deliverables Receives instructions from above and just works

© 2011 AmberFin Limited Time passes …

© 2011 AmberFin Limited Day #n – it gets fun  The business enters a new territory A new language needs to be added The new Avocado zPad is selling well … Every asset is needed in a new transcode profile … Many assets need new language and captions adding … What needs to change? Plan A Update existing system with a new profile

© 2011 AmberFin Limited Pg: 17 Generic State of the Art Facility © 2010 AmberFin Limited Business Layer SD Playout HD CDN Delivery CDN HD Playout SD Multi-rate Web Streaming IPTV Versioning International Captioning Accessibility Business Layer New format New profile New API parameter New MAM move rule New MAM process New BPM rule $$

© 2011 AmberFin Limited Tight coupling alert !

© 2011 AmberFin Limited Day #n – it gets fun  The business enters a new territory A new language needs to be added The new Avocado zPad is selling well … Every asset is needed in a new transcode profile … Many assets need new language and captions adding … What needs to change? Plan B Throw in a new brand of transcoder

© 2011 AmberFin Limited Pg: 20 Generic State of the Art Facility © 2010 AmberFin Limited Business Layer SD Playout HD CDN Delivery CDN HD Playout SD Multi-rate Web Streaming IPTV Versioning International Captioning Accessibility Business Layer New format New profile structure Brand New API New MAM integration New MAM process New BPM rule $$$

© 2011 AmberFin Limited Even tighter coupling alert !

© 2011 AmberFin Limited Wouldn’t it be nice … To have a standard Transcode API Change friendly – it expects system change over time Codec neutral – cheaply add a new codec variant Vendor neutral – add a new vendor to the mix cheaply Loosely coupled – tries to localise the impacts of change

© 2011 AmberFin Limited AmberFin Proposal to FIMS & VCOForum Focussed on … How a job is described What stays constant between jobs What changes job by job Ignores the compute complexity of the job Assumes existence of … transcode() function via RPC, SOAP, RESTful

© 2011 AmberFin Limited Wake up, it’s Quiz time Which of the following are transcodes? MPEG2 to MPEG4 conversion Rewrap MXF to QuickTime IMX50 to Long GOP SD VoD IMX50 to XDCAM50 Motion Compensated Standards convert from 50i to 60i

© 2011 AmberFin Limited System diagram view Other B Transcode API Work orders

© 2011 AmberFin Limited The Work Order Layer Business Layer (Business Process Management paradigm) Media Asset Management (Media Logistics Management) Media Manipulation / Transform (Media Manipulation Paradigm) Work orders KPIs

© 2011 AmberFin Limited The Work Order Interface Goals Allow a MAM / business system to make business decisions Allow a MAM / Automation system to make logistics decisions Pass those decisions to the Transcoder Don’t rely on 2 transcoders having the same capabilities Don’t make it company specific Orient the API towards the Business System needs The API is an abstract transcode API provides a Work Order Interface enables the creation of a SOA Media Manipulation Service

© 2011 AmberFin Limited Transcode() transcode( param ) This section describes param

© 2011 AmberFin Limited AbstractTranscode API Transcode Request Structure Input Specification Segment List Specification Transcode Output Override

© 2011 AmberFin Limited Simple Example asset

© 2011 AmberFin Limited Simple Splice Example trailer feature

© 2011 AmberFin Limited Cut and Splice Example asset 00:15:00:00 black asset 00:15:00:00

© 2011 AmberFin Limited Audio Channel Alignment example Aligned Audio Lead (+offset) Audio Lag (-offset)

© 2011 AmberFin Limited Closed Caption (CC) Streams

© 2011 AmberFin Limited Closed Caption (CC) Streams Spanish English

© 2011 AmberFin Limited Input Cropping top bottom left right 4:3 2,2,1,1

© 2011 AmberFin Limited Output Scaling width height 16/9

© 2011 AmberFin Limited Output Positioning voffset hoffset width height 240,500

© 2011 AmberFin Limited Output Blanking top bottom 240,500 10,10,10,10 leftright

© 2011 AmberFin Limited Encoding Attributes audio mode in bps in bps in bps in Hz in s

© 2011 AmberFin Limited Watermarking <watermarking type=“civolution” index=“2” payload=“1379” />

© 2011 AmberFin Limited But it’s more than just codecs High Energy video Encoder compressed video 1% of incoming bitrate is “good energy” 99% of incoming bitrate is discarded

© 2011 AmberFin Limited Interlace is Evil – why broadcast this?

© 2011 AmberFin Limited Interlace is Evil – when you can broadcast this?

© 2011 AmberFin Limited Loosely coupled APIs allow Business Quality choices High Energy video Encoder compressed video Interlace pollutes outputs Use API to select quality based on Business Need

© 2011 AmberFin Limited The Work Order Layer Stable, abstracted business oriented communications Independent of transcoder vendor Independent of delivery specification Transcoder specific comms One or more transcoders behind interface

© 2011 AmberFin Limited Stay loose! This stuff ain’t trivial Explore probabilities of change Explore consequences of change Explore costs of change Explore system stability of change Play “What if …” with the business folk before designing

© 2011 AmberFin Limited Business Layer SD Playout HD CDN Delivery CDN HD Playout SD Multi-rate Web Streaming IPTV Versioning International Captioning Accessibility Business Layer What do I store here?

© 2011 AmberFin Limited What do I store here? SD HD What are you trying to optimise (the caching strategy problem) ? Playout centric Edit centric Acquisition centric Facilities house – bit of everything

© 2011 AmberFin Limited Pg: 50 extra asset media asset.mxf asset_v0.mxf asset_a0.mxfasset_a3.mxfasset_vanc0.mxf Media is forward referenced from the version file version file Loosely coupled essence – AS02, IMF

© 2011 AmberFin Limited Loose Coupling – a joy Stable, abstracted business oriented communications Independent of transcoder vendor Independent of delivery specification Transcoder specific comms One or more transcoders behind interface (FIMS) (profiles) (IMF)

© 2011 AmberFin Limited Stay loose! This stuff ain’t trivial Explore probabilities of change Explore consequences of change Explore costs of change Explore system stability of change Play “What if …” with the business folk before designing

© 2011 AmberFin Limited Stay Loose! Bruce Devlin CTO, AmberFin