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Table of Contents
Split ABR Encoding with Appliances
Feb 2019
Note
This document is for using split encoding when you have appliances (boxes with Controller and EL) for distributed/compact instructions, please check here.
As of v11 (v11.0.1.4) it is possible to do Split ABR Encoding using both IP TS and SDI inputs.
Overview
When encoding ABR Profiles, there can be times when the number and complexity of profiles exceeds the capabilities of a single server, for example:
3840x2160p50@20Mbs 1920x1080p50@6Mbs 1920x1080p50@3Mbs 1280x720p50@2Mbs 1280x720p50@1.5Mbs 720x576p50@1Mbs 544x576p50@800Kbs 384x576P50@300Kbs
This profile list could not be produced by a single server (at the time of writing) and so two or three servers might be required, but as this is ABR, and all the profiles need to be I-Frame aligned, we need a way to achieve this.
To overcome this we can use Split ABR encoding, where we can use several servers to encode different parts of the profile list, but still aligned in time. For this to work we need the following:
Requirements
Servers must be time synchronised
A multicast is used for synchronisation, if using the MGMT port the MGMT switch must support multicasts.
Interfaces on all servers must be identical in name and operation (so if eth1 is the IP input, all servers must use the name eth1 for the interface, and it must be the input interface)
While it is possible to do this on appliances, it is much simpler to do this on a distributed system with a centralised Controller
This guide assumes you know how to create a standard ABR output service
Configuration
General Tab
On the PRIMARY Encoding Live Add a new service as normal.
Set the following in your new Service:
Name (SplitABRDemo in this example)
Synchronization
Select Activate
Mode All
Network Interface for sync (eth0) (normally management interface) (switch has to support multicasts)
Address (239.1.1.1) (unique address for sync messages)
Port 1234
Server Variant Configuration
You can think of server variants as groups. Normally we would use something like UHD, HD and SD
Add two or three variants (HD and SD in this example)
Input Tab
There is nothing special to set on the input tab, just configure this as you normally would, either SDI or IP input will work.
Encoding Tab
Again this is fairly standard, couple of things to look out for:
General Parameters Export Type Internet TV
Video Encoding Create your desired UHD/HD/SD profiles (all of them, not just the ones for this server)
Audio Create your desired audio config
Create any other configs such as subtitles etc.
Sync Alarm
If you see this alarm, or similar
Timestamps synchronization messages are not being received or are not synchronize for service=2f73015aa94040ceb39b3cbffa37d2e3;;sdt=SplitABRTest
If everything is configured okay, and you are using SDI input, SDI sync is not supported before around v10.3, so check your Encoding Live version.