RGB Networks Announces an Open Source Software Transcoder Initiative

RGB Networks has announced that it is developing an open source version of its popular TransAct Transcoder. Called ‘Ripcode Transcoder’, after the company Ripcode, which was acquired by RGB Networks in 2010 and which originally developed TransAct, the new, cloud-enabled software transcoder will provide RGB Networks’ customers with greater control, integration and flexibility in their video delivery workflows.

In a pioneering move, and harnessing the industry momentum toward developing cloud-based solutions, RGB Networks is actively welcoming operators and vendors to be part of a community of contributors to the open source project.

RGB Networks’ CloudXtream solution for nDVR and dynamic Ad Insertion for Multiscreen (AIM) environments, launched in October 2013 and built on the industry standard open source cloud operating system OpenStack, has paved the way for this latest innovation. The company intends to build on this success with Ripcode, which will be an “open core” project, where the core technology from the TransAct Transcoder is being used to create the foundations of the open source project.

Suitable for a variety of applications, the Ripcode Transcoder will include the full feature set expected of an industrial-strength, professional transcoder, leaving customers open to select and integrate the packaging solution of their choice necessary to produce their desired Adaptive Bit Rate output formats.

The intended feature set of the open source Ripcode Transcoder will include:

• Both Linear (live) and Video on Demand (VOD) transcoding
• Full cluster management, load balancing, and failover
• Linear and VOD transcoding of MPEG2, H.264, H.265, AAC, AC3, and other industry leading video and audio codecs
• File-to-File watch folders
• Full reporting and logging of events
• Commercial-grade GUI
• RESTful APIs

Unlike other open source projects, an open source transcoder is more difficult to release due to built-in professional codec licensing. RGB Networks will release Ripcode Transcoder with only the codecs that can be legally used with open source software. Additionally, in order to facilitate use of the transcoder in professional environments that require licensed, third party codecs and pre/post processing filters, the Ripcode transcoder will include a plug-in framework, that will allow use of best-of-breed codecs and filters.

A number of vendors of such components and related technologies have expressed interest in participating in the Ripcode initiative including the following:

• Video Codecs (including H.264/AVC and H.265/HEVC): eBrisk Video, Intel Media Server Studio, Ittiam Systems, MainConcept (A DivX company), Multicoreware, NGCodec (providing HW acceleration for H.264/AVC and H.265/HEVC), Squid Systems, Vanguard Video
• Audio Codecs: Dolby Laboratories, Fraunhofer IIS
• Video Optimization: Beamr

The release of the first version of Ripcode Transcoder – 1.0 – with all the appropriate licensing is targeted for Q1 2015.

Source: RGB Networks

SMPTE Publishes Archive eXchange Format Standard

The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers published a standard that codifies the Archive eXchange Format. An IT-centric file container that can encapsulate any number and type of files in a fully self-contained and self-describing package, AXF supports interoperability among disparate content storage systems and ensures content’s long-term availability, no matter how storage or file system technology evolves.

Designed for operational storage, transport, and long-term preservation, AXF was formulated as a wrapper, or container, capable of holding virtually unlimited collections of files and metadata related to one another in any combination. Known as “AXF Objects,” such containers can package, in different ways, all the specific information different kinds of systems would need in order to restore the content data. The format relies on the Extensible Markup Language to define the information in a way that can be read and recovered by any modern computer system to which the data is downloaded.

AXF Objects are essentially immune to changes in technology and formats. Thus, they can be transferred from one archive system into remote storage—geographically remote or in the cloud, for instance—and later retrieved and read by different archive systems without the loss of any essence or metadata.

AXF Objects hold files of any kind and any size. By automatically segmenting, storing on multiple media, and reassembling AXF Objects when necessary, “spanned sets” enable storage of AXF Objects on more than one medium. Consequently, AXF Objects may be considerably larger than the individual media on which they are stored. This exceptional scalability helps to ensure that AXF Objects may be stored on any type or generation of media. The use of “collected sets” permits archive operators to make changes to AXF Objects or files within them, while preserving all earlier versions, even when write-once storage is used.

The nature of AXF makes it possible for equipment manufacturers and content owners to move content from their current archive systems into the AXF domain in a strategic way that does not require content owners to abandon existing hardware unless or until they are ready to do so. In enabling the recovery of archived content in the absence of the systems that created the archives, AXF also offers a valuable means of protecting users’ investment in content. By maintaining preservation information such as fixity and provenance as specified by the OAIS model, AXF further enables effective long-term archiving of content. Resilience of data is ensured through use of redundant AXF structures and cryptographic hash algorithms.

AXF already has been employed around the world to help businesses store, protect, preserve, and transport many petabytes of file-based content, and the format is proving fundamental to many of the cloud-based storage, preservation, and IP-based transport services available today.

Source: TV Technology

DASH AVC/264 Support in GPAC

This article shows you how to setup GPAC for your OnDemand and Live contents.