• Mac build (intel)

• Mac build (arm64)

• Linux build

• Windows build

Fixes:

• Fix slicer behavior when every broker on its list has told the slicer to goaway, leaving the slicer with an empty brokers list.

• Fix an edge-case and 2 race conditions that could cause slicer to lose some slices when switching brokers, leaving the slicer stuck waiting for unfinished slices and unable to shutdown.

• Fix a defect in /reload_remote_slicer_config slicer API which always included error: 1 in the respose.

• Fix handling of overlapping cues in rollup captions TTML.

• Restore -nielsen support in mac intel slicer build, a recent regression.

• Fix some issues with new async uplynk API and web request support in SCTE plugins.

• Fix liveslicer preview crash on slicer shutdown.

• Fix a rare bug where video encoder could sometimes produce output with PTS < DTS.

• Fix SCTE plugin async uplynk API call authentication issue.

• Fix SCTE plugin avail descriptor identification issue.

• Fix an issue ingesting .umf file where trim start aligns exactly with the slice start boundary.

• Fix a liveslicer entitlements issue with ssl_port: support on mac.

• Fix AC3 pass-through issue when there are more input tracks than output tracks.

• Fix slicer shutdown issue when input signal is lost and AC3 pass-through is enabled.

Enables:

• Add support for additional timestamp formats in TTML subtitles.

• Add support for more SCTE descriptors.

• Add VU meter to livepreview and livepreview_with_audio video output.

• Add scte_call_queue_size and scte_call_timeout_ms configuration options, for async web calls or uplynk API calls from within the SCTE python plugin.

• Add uplynk_log_keeper_capacity liveslicer configuration option, add /get_last_n_logs, /get_logs, and /upload_logs slicer APIs.

• Add -show_nv_devices and -nv_use_uuids slicer options.

• Add -cmaf_only option.

• CEA-608 XDS content rating pass-through to the Beam via parse_XDS: yes liveslicer config option.

Other changes:

• Remove support for python2 SCTE plugins.

• Ship CA bundle as a separate file included in the slicer package.

• Update sample SCTE plugins to python 3.

• Shutdown liveslicer according to no_signal_shutdown_time if no audio has been decoded within that time.

Known issues:

• Apple M1 slicer build (mac_arm64) does not support Dolby AC3/EC3 encoding, or Nielsen options.

• It is still possible (but rare) for video encoder to produce invalid output with PTS < DTS. This will be fixed in the upcoming 23092000 hotfix release.

Prerequisites:

• Due to CentOS 6 reaching EOL in November 2020 this slicer release requires CentOS 7 or newer.

• Due to the slicer being built on CentOS 7 it picks up some new library dependencies which are not included in the base install of Ubuntu 18.04. Ubuntu users may need to pre-install them: sudo apt install libnl-3-200 libatomic1.

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

• Mac intel build: sudo xattr -d -r com.apple.quarantine uplynk_slicer_mac_64-23090500-master.

As of 23020901-rc1 VOD slicer no longer requires a CPU with AVX instruction set support, and is compatible with rosetta on Apple M1.

By Thursday, Uplynk users will be able to create custom ad integrations with the Universal Ad Config (UAC). The UAC enables integration with any compliant 3rd party Ad Server using a self-serve tool available in the Uplynk Control Center.

Navigating to the Settings Tab, you will see a new format for the Ad Server section. Additionally, Universal Ad Config will be available as an option when creating a new Configuration.

To learn more about the UAC please read our user documentation

Today we launched 3 new Ad Delivery data points in Uplynk’s Ad Analytics report;

• Requested Break Duration

• Response Break Duration

• Ad Server Fill Rate

These new metrics will help you track your ad server’s ability to honor requests, providing important insight into ad optimization.

More information can be found in our user docs

Live Timeshifting 1.0 is now available.

This first release allows viewers to fast-forward, rewind, pause or resume live playback up to one hour from the time they join the stream. This capability is achieved by expanding the live manifest window up to 60 minutes utilizing HLS Playlist Delta Updates, keying off standards to minimize implementation effort.

Support for Historical Ads, DRM, and DASH will be added in future version updates.

Please reach out to your account manager or [email protected] to enable Live Timeshifting on your account.

More information is available in our User Documentation.

We have just enhanced VOD Uploader 1.1 to remove the 5 GB file size limit for local file uploads. The maximum file size for VOD Uploader for any type of upload is now 90 GB.

Contact Support with any questions.

Starting today, you will find a new report in the Uplynk Analytics portal called Error Detail.

The Error Detail Report surfaces new insights into the performance of your 3rd party ad providers.  With metrics on error and timeout types, you can dive into dimensions such as date/time, channel, event and demand partner (VOD will follow in the coming months).

These analytics will help uncover areas for optimization, providing critical telemetry when escalating issues to 3rd party ad providers or diving into data with our Ad Debug tool.

You will now see Ad Analytics listed on the vertical navigation bar in the Uplynk Analytics Portal.  The Ad Analytics page will contain 3 tabs - Ad Delivery, Error Summary and the new Error Detail report.

More information can be found in our user docs or by contacting support

The following new data elements are now available in Ad Debug queries

• Selected? -  "true" if an ad was sent to be inserted, "false" if it was not ready for insertion.
• Initial Ad Id - Ad ID from the initial ad response associated with the ad
• Fallback? -  "true" if the ad is a fallback ad, "false" if it is not
• Asset Status - Ingest status of each ad asset
  Ok / ready: Ready to play
  Pending: Currently being ingested
  Error: Not inserted, there was an issue ingesting

Test Player - For users with test player access, ads in the OK or Ready state, can be viewed via a test player link in the status column

We are excited to announce the release of VOD Uploader 1.1, which is being made available on our Uplynk platform for accounts that have been used for content creation. VOD Uploader 1.1 allows the definition of VOD Uploader Templates which can be used to configure the VOD Uploader when uploading local files. Users can also have per file customizations to define items such as metadata and ad breaks.

To access VOD Uploader 1.1, simply navigate to the "Content" section and select "VOD Uploader". VOD Uploader Templates themselves are found under Settings. If your account has never been used for content creation, please contact Support to have this feature enabled.

Documentation available below: * VOD Uploader

Contact Support with any questions.

• Mac build (intel)

• Mac build (arm64)

• Linux build

• Windows build

Fixes:

• Fix a rare race condition affecting use_brokers=3 and use_brokers=4 slicers that sometimes caused the slicer to crash during a broker upgrade.

• Fix accumulating lipsync error on secondary audio tracks due to timeline discontinuities and 33-bit PTS rollover.

• Fix slicer not obeying brokers goaway directive when slicer is in an Ad break or blackout.

• Fix a blackout_timeline_on_boundary_break_start regression.

• Fix an old regression in handling portrait/landscape input vs encoding profile mismatch.

• Fix use_brokers=4 losing slices when switching brokers, causing a deadlock followed by an involuntary_blackout several hours later.

• Prevent a race condition that could result in losing an unfinished slice when switching brokers, causing a stalled live channel.

• Signal ad_start at the start of warm stand-by failover state to avoid triggering stalled live channel alert.

• Fix debugoverlay flicker caused by deinterlace: doubler with SDI input.

• Fix handling of "failover_id": null response.

• Fix mac CameraSlicer microphone and camera entitlements issues.

• Improve exception handling in slicer API component.

• Fix secondary audio issues caused by a tug-of-war between injecting blank audio and dropping late audio frames.

• Do not parse SMPTE 2038 stream if it’s not listed in pids.

• Handle SMPTE 2038 parser exceptions.

• Fix SMPTE 2038 DID/SDID configuration and parity checking.

• Fix -use_all_audio_tracks creating an empty audio track description.

• Fix liveslicer failure to start when DVB teletext pid is specified in slicer config pids.

• Fix rtmp slicer crash when rtmp_url is not specified in slicer config.

Enables:

• Runtime update of liveslicer failover configuration, without slicer restart.

• Runtime update of liveslicer profile, without slicer restart.

• UDP/TCP signal capture in unicast mode.

• Add VMNU output to python SCTE plugin.

• Add slicer_upload_backlog_threshold config option with range [5, 80], default value 10.

Other changes:

• Reimplement Dolby ATMOS pass-through.

• Reimplement delay: liveslicer option.

• Reimplement UDP capture.

• Liveslicer will fetch and process remote slicer config after the local config has been processed:

• This allows local failover_id to be specified after enable_remote_config.

• This ensures that the remote slicer config is authoritative.

• Log failover health evaluation faults.

• Update root CA bundle to the latest version.

• Refer to rollover_external_id slicer config option when involuntary blackout ends to optionally rollover external_id, description, and metadata.

• Log the broker list, and improve JSON data formatting in the log.

• Codesign slicer builds for mac intel and arm64.

Known issues:

• Apple M1 slicer build (mac_arm64) does not support Dolby AC3/EC3 encoding, or Nielsen options.

• Slicer response to /reload_remote_slicer_config includes error: 1 even when there was no error.

• Live preview is currently not possible with CameraSlicer.app.

Prerequisites:

• Due to CentOS 6 reaching EOL in November 2020 this slicer release requires CentOS 7 or newer.

• Due to the slicer being built on CentOS 7 it picks up some new library dependencies which are not included in the base install of Ubuntu 18.04. Ubuntu users may need to pre-install them: sudo apt install libnl-3-200 libatomic1.

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

• Mac intel build: sudo xattr -d -r com.apple.quarantine uplynk_slicer_mac_64-23062600-master.

As of 23020901-rc1 VOD slicer no longer requires a CPU with AVX instruction set support, and is compatible with rosetta on Apple M1.

A new job export feature is now available to export all job details with a single click.  The new "Export Job Details" button will appear on the right side above job details after clicking into a specific job from the query results list page. When clicked, a zipped file containing 3 folders will be downloaded:

• Transactions - JSON
• Ads - JSON
• Beacons - CSV

Note that individual tab export buttons will no longer be available since they have been consolidated into the new Export Job Details function.