We are pleased to announce the release of a set of new features relating to the Cloud Slicer Live (CSL) Ingest service. Collectively, these features support new protocols, extend use cases, and can lower the cost of usage.

New Features

• SRT Pull Mode (Caller Mode)
  Creates a slicer configured as an SRT caller. The slicer acts as the initiator of the SRT session, waits for the source to transmit a stream, and then behaves as the receiver once the session is established.

  For detailed usage instructions, see the
  CSL User Guide – Detailed Slicer Setup.

• Ability to Set SRT Latency
  This value is used in the SRT push scenario and contributes to the delay buffer size on the receiver side of the circuit. The delay buffer allows enough time to replace missing or corrupt packets via resend messages back to the sender.

  For detailed usage instructions, see the
  CSL User Guide – General Configuration.

• Auto Start / Auto Stop
  If auto start is enabled and the slicer is in a stopped state, the slicer will automatically start when an active stream is detected at the slicer address. A brief delay occurs while cloud resources are spun up and the slicer is configured.

  If auto stop is enabled and the slicer is running, the slicer will automatically stop when no stream is detected for the configured timeout period. A stopped slicer shuts down its cloud resources and incurs no charges.

  For detailed usage instructions, see the
  CSL User Guide – General Configuration.

• Input Sharing
  Allows a single source to be connected to multiple slicers, eliminating the need to duplicate sources or streams. Multiple slicers can be linked to the same source using the Input Sharing feature.

  Example use cases:

  • Upgrading to a new slicer release with minimal downtime using a failover group
  • Creating a second stream with a different profile for A/B quality testing
  • Creating multiple assets from the same source with different profiles (e.g., audio‑only)
  • Adding a bug or overlay while maintaining a clean copy of the original stream
  • Creating multiple language or regional overlays from a single source

  For detailed usage instructions, see the
  CSL User Guide – Advanced Configuration.

The "Ad Debug" page and associated tools in the Uplynk CMS have been renamed to "Ad Inspector." This is merely a name change in the CMS. Functionality has not changed, nor has the name of the Ad Server Debug API.

The CMCD (Common Media Client Data) specification is a standard developed by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) that defines how media player clients send playback and error status information to Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) with each object request.

Uplynk collects CMCD information from playback clients via its internal CDN when the clients support CMCD. Roku players generally support CMCD, as do other devices. If your playback clients do not support CMCD, Uplynk will not receive this data. It is recommended that you enable CMCD on your player to take advantage of this information.

What’s New?

• New CMCD Statistics in Analytics to be able to view player-provided CMCD information.
• At the current time, only v1 of the CMCD specification is supported.

Why This Matters

When you enable CMCD in your player, you can analyze what your end viewers actually experience such as slow video starts, rebuffering, and other playback impairments.

There are third-party services that provide similar data but these come at a cost. Using CMCD in your player in conjunction with our analytics can save you money.

Questions or Concerns?

More information on CMCD Statistics is here. If you have any questions, please reach out to our Support team - we’re here to help.

Downloads

• Mac build (intel)
• Mac build (arm64)
• Linux build
• Windows build

Changes since 260210.01.01-master slicer release

Fixes

• VOD slicer ingest of 10-bit HDR content, a regression introduced in the 250210.04.01 slicer release.
• Video frame census mis-attribution of buffered livepreview frames.
• livepreview_with_audio OOM issue when ingesting more than one audio track, a regression introduced in 260210.01.01-master slicer release.
• Liveslicer file mode support for multiple audio tracks.

Known issues

Apple M-series slicer build (mac_arm64) does not support Dolby AC3/EC3 encoding, or Nielsen options.

Prerequisites

• Due to CentOS 7 reaching EOL on July 1st 2024 this slicer release was built on Ubuntu 18.04.

• Nvidia driver 418 or later is required for HEVC 4K HDR/SDR.

• Mac intel build:

  Shell

  sudo xattr -d -r com.apple.quarantine uplynk_slicer_mac_64-260210.02.01-master

• Mac arm64 build:

  Shell

  sudo xattr -d -r com.apple.quarantine uplynk_slicer_mac_arm64-260210.02.01-master

If you are using FreeWheel via Uplynk, please note:

Previously, we did not report FreeWheel transactions as failures if no ad was returned but the communication with the ad server was otherwise successful.

We have changed this reporting to conform with our overall ad reporting scheme, and now report "no-ad" transactions that are otherwise successful as failures.

It is possible that FreeWheel users will see higher "failure" rates in Uplynk Ad Analytics due solely to this reporting change, but will have clearer insights into monetization performance when using FreeWheel.

Downloads

• Mac build (intel)
• Mac build (arm64)
• Linux build
• Windows build

Changes since 260108.03.01-master slicer release

Enables

• Individual TR 101-290 error thresholds for failover.

Fixes

• Fix -dasher .vtt subtitles output for cmaf_only assets.
• Fix livepreview lipsync regression introduced in 251027.01.01 slicer release.
• Fix use_brokers=3 slicer websocket connection failure when use_broker_tls is enabled.
• Fix liveslicer failure to reconnect when both no_signal_startup and reconnect_if_input_connection_fails are enabled.

Other changes

• Make -hwenc work for NetInt, if NetInt device exists.
• Enable NetInt by default.
• Pass-through original AC3/EC3 dialnorm metadata; do not apply loudnorm filter to Dolby audio.
• TR-101-290 slicer failover enhancements.
• Include squeezeback info in /state and /status responses.

Known issues

Apple M-series slicer build (mac_arm64) does not support Dolby AC3/EC3 encoding, or Nielsen options.

Prerequisites

• Due to CentOS 7 reaching EOL on July 1st 2024 this slicer release was built on Ubuntu 18.04.
• Nvidia driver 418 or later is required for HEVC 4K HDR/SDR.
• Mac intel build:
  Shell

  sudo xattr -d -r com.apple.quarantine uplynk_slicer_mac_64-260210.01.01-master

We have now added the abilty to preview your assets and channels from within the Uplynk CMS with your own playback URL parameters. This allows you to test out new Uplynk configurations without needing to make changes to your own viewer-facing platform.

An extra benefit of these previews is the ability to view the actual Uplynk HLS manifests live to help debug integration issues.

Check out our documentation here and here for more information, and if you have questions or feedback, our Support team is always here to help.

Accounts 2.0 has been enhanced to allow Org Admins the ability to view the Uplynk CMS as a member of a group. This can aid in debugging groups and roles.

If a workspace has been ported to Accounts 2.0, it may have a name that is no longer appropriate for its current use since it was previously the Uplynk Username. Changing the Uplynk Username may impact Slicer configurations.

We have introduced a Display Name which is how a workspace will be displayed in the Uplynk CMS without breaking any existing configurations.

Check out our documentation for more information, and if you have questions or feedback, our Support team is always here to help.

We are thrilled to announce the beta release of the new Uplynk Player. The Uplynk Player will eventually replace our existing LVP Player. The Uplynk Player is fully backwards compatible with the LVP Player to make migration to the new player very easy.

The Uplynk Player also introduces new functionality such as the ability to play linear streams in addition to VOD and the ability to play Uplynk tokenized URLs.

You can read more on the new Uplynk Player here.

Contact Support or your Technical Account Manager with any questions.

Accounts 2.0 has been enhanced to allow Org Admins the ability to view the Uplynk CMS as another member of their organization. This can aid in debugging user permissions and creating new groups and roles.

Check out our documentation for more information, and if you have questions or feedback, our Support team is always here to help.