Configure Cloud Slicer Live

Detailed Slicer Setup

This follows the same flow as the quick start but details the additional options available during the creation process.

Mandatory Steps

Select '+ Slicer' at the bottom of the Cloud Slicers main page.
Provide a Slicer ID. This name identifies this slicer in Cloud Slicer views and within Uplynk.
Select a streaming protocol from the Protocol pull-down selector. This must match the protocol used by the sending device.

Selecting the SRT protocol option exposes another required selection for Push or Pull mode. The default is Pull mode. Once the slicer is created, this mode cannot be changed. Modes are defined as follows:

Push Mode - Creates a slicer configured as an SRT listener, where the slicer waits for a stream to be initiated by a source and behaves as a receiver of the stream once initiated. The slicer only needs to know that it should listen for SRT packets on its IP address/port, and accepts a point-to-point connection initiated by a caller. The slicer is always the receiver of the SRT media stream.

Pull Mode - Creates a slicer configured as an SRT caller, where the slicer acts as the initiator to the SRT session, waits for a stream to be transmitted by the source, and behaves as a receiver of the stream once initiated. The slicer is always the receiver of the SRT media stream. This mode requires a URL for the slicer to find and handshake with the source, which can also be modified in the details screen.
Select the region closest to where your stream source will be. This selection cannot be changed later.
Check or uncheck the 'Edit after Creation' option. If deselected, default settings are used. If checked, default settings are also assigned, but the process brings you to a screen where you can modify, add, and save new settings.
Select the Create button.

General Configuration

Slicer ID

This is a property of all slicers in Uplynk, including Cloud Slicers. It can be any string of characters and numbers, but generally you should assign a name that relates to the stream itself to easily distinguish it from other streams in your account. Each Slicer ID must be unique within a customer account. It serves as the identifier that connects the slicer with a channel, live event, or failover group. It is used to reference your Cloud Slicer within the Cloud Slicing platform and is also used for the monitoring and analytics systems.

Stream URL [Shown if configuring a slicer initially selected as SRT Push]

When an SRT Push slicer is started, per the SRT specifications, it requires a URL to communicate with to initiate the stream. That URL is generally provided by the source administrators, was required during the initial creation process, and can be modified here. You can add additional parameters to the URL string such as a stream key or a latency value.

Software Version

Uplynk releases new versions of its slicer application from time to time, supporting new features and making other improvements as needed. We recommend that you always use the latest version. Exceptions include scenarios where you have been consistently using a specific release across numerous slicers and wish to continue using that release for new slicers. Uplynk recommends performing your own testing when upgrading existing slicers to a new release to ensure that there are no issues within your end-to-end offering. The version name reflects the year/month/day and released revision. Selecting the pull-down displays the available versions that may be used with the platform.

SRT Latency (ms) [Shown if configuring a slicer initially selected as SRT Pull]

This setting 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 a missing or corrupt packet via a resend message back to the sender. The buffer is intended to accommodate some processing time and the round-trip time of the circuit. International circuits generally have longer round-trip times than local circuits and therefore require higher latency settings. The higher the setting, the longer the delay added to the stream.

Latency-sensitive applications may need special care to use the proper value. Circuit latency is determined by the higher of the send and receive latency settings. Pull mode can set the latency as a URL parameter. Legacy instances show a default of 3000 ms and can be modified here. New slicers use 3000 ms as a default and can be modified here as well. See the SRT specification for more information and details relating to this parameter.

Encoding Profile

This specifies the profile used in the encoding of the input stream. It includes the resolutions, bitrates, and frame rates for each ray in the ABR ladder created during the slicing and encoding process. Your account has access to rate cards aligned with the service order. Each rate card can have a dozen or so profile choices, each with unique characteristics. Your account also has a default Live profile which automatically populates this selection, and some accounts may have only the default profiles available. Selecting 'change profile' produces the list of selectable profiles for your account, which may display as few as a single profile or up to several dozen.

Selecting the 'All Rates' pull-down allows you to select a family of profiles determined by the highest ray of a profile. For example, selecting the HD 720p25/30 rate card shows the profiles that have 720p resolution at 25 to 30 frames per second as their highest encoded ray. Variations such as b-frame support, number of passes, slice size, and other characteristics for each profile are listed, as well as the number of VOD assets in your account that were encoded with this profile. Generally speaking, unless there is a specific reason to not use the default profile, we recommend using the default. For assistance selecting a non-default profile, reach out to your account representative, or call or submit a ticket to the Uplynk Support team.

AutoStart / Autostop

If autostop is enabled and the slicer is running, and a period of time passes with no stream being sent to the running slicer that meets the Timeout value set during configuration/enablement, the slicer automatically stops running. A stopped slicer shuts down the resources that were being used. A stopped slicer incurs no charges, and the system reserves and preserves its configurations, profile data, addresses/passkeys, and other settings. Stopped slicers remain in the CSL slicer list (showing stopped status) and allow for configuration changes during that time. You can always stop a running slicer manually whether or not autostop is enabled.

If autostart is enabled and the slicer is in a stopped state, and an active stream is seen at the slicer address, the slicer automatically starts running. Note that the slicer has to spin up cloud resources, then build and configure the slicer. This may take several minutes (with the status showing as Initializing), during which time the source stream is being handshaked with but the data stream itself is not processed. Once established, the slicer syncs with the running stream and commences slicing. You can always start a stopped slicer manually whether or not autostart is enabled.

Note that autostart and autostop are enabled independently based on your preference. Also note that manually stopping a running stream that has autostart enabled will stop the slicer, but the autostart activates several seconds later and commences a restart of the slicer.

Notes

This allows you to enter notes about a slicer that are visible on this screen every time you open this view. Think of this as a place to write a reminder regarding the feed or slicer instance.

Advanced Configuration

Slicer settings are controlled and customized via a configuration file. The file is a set of key and value pairs as defined in the slicer documentation. The CSL platform supplies this configuration file to the slicer on your behalf, based on certain defaults associated with the Cloud Slicer platform, plus any specific key and value pairs that you may wish to add for customization. You can set key and value pairs via import from a file, manually adding them via the UI, or a combination of both. A common practice is to have a common set of customizations in a file, upload that file each time a new slicer is created, then add anything additional for that specific slicer.

Certain parameters require a restart of the slicer to become effective, and some may need additional resources that require a full rebuild of the slicer. During these time periods, any playback associated with this slicer will be negatively affected. We recommend making these changes in off-hours, or leveraging a failover mechanism to a redundant slicer for minimal impact to viewers.

Changes made to the configuration are collectively stored and displayed, and persist when switching between views and multiple edits. These stored and persisted customizations are only applied to the slicer when 'Save Slicer' is selected.

In the Advanced Config section of the single slicer view, the Cloud Slicer Live platform provides a simple method to manage customizations for this slicer. The following activities are supported:

View

When entering the Advanced Config view, a list of custom settings for the slicer is displayed. By default, a newly created slicer has no custom settings, so this display always appears empty until customizations have been added. Once a customization is added, it appears in this display. If the same key is added with multiple values, the last value takes precedence.

Import and Export

Importing allows you to import a text file containing custom settings key and value pairs. Imported text files use the same format as a live slicer configuration file, specifying each customization on a separate line.
Export creates a simple text file, in config file format, of all current customized configuration settings. You can save this for offline reference. It can also be used as a template file to import on other slicer imports, carrying those configuration settings to another slicer.

Add

Selecting + Add creates the ability to manually add custom settings to the existing settings displayed on the screen. Entries in the left box reflect the 'key' (the name of the setting) and the entry on the right reflects the value desired for that key. After entering the key/value pair, selecting '+ Add' presents another set of entry fields for your next customization. Select 'Save Slicer' when the configuration settings are complete. If this is a running slicer, it implements the settings and may disrupt the slicing process while updates are applied.

Modify or Remove

While a customization is displayed on the screen, its value may be changed at any time. Each line offers a - icon at the end. Selecting this removes the line. Selecting 'Remove All' removes all customization lines. Selecting and dragging the bar to the left of the line allows re-ordering of the lines within the configuration. Note that any changes are stored but not applied until 'Save Slicer' is selected.

The Cloud Slicer Live platform service manages certain slicer configuration settings. You should not manually assign these reserved settings to your Cloud Slicer:

Learn more about live slicer configurations

Plugins

Certain functionality within Uplynk, such as ad insertion for a live stream, requires you to signal ad breaks via API. To assist with this, Uplynk offers a SCTE plug-in module for a slicer that looks for SCTE markers within the source stream. Based on the information presented in the SCTE marker, the plug-in module can properly interpret and source the API signals that define the ad break, which allows the Uplynk ad insertion mechanisms to function properly.

There are a variety of ways that information can be conveyed within the inbound SCTE packets, and most customers that leverage this technology work with our services team to customize this logic for their streams. There are also some default plug-ins that may be deployed for a slicer. These plug-ins, whether defaults or custom, must be uniquely added to your account by the Uplynk team. Reach out to your account team or Uplynk support to enable and/or develop plugins for usage within your account.

ℹ️
If plugins are enabled for this account, they will be shown in this view. Selecting a plugin and saving the setting will include it for this slicer. This will cause the slicer to restart.

Input Sharing

In traditional slicer operations, the slicer has a virtual 1:1 connection to a stream source. CSL supplies an IP address and passkey to the source, and that address and passkey routes the single stream from the source to the CSL slicer.

Circumstances arise where you may wish to connect a single source to multiple slicers. To eliminate the need to create a second duplicated source and stream that to the CSL platform, the CSL platform allows you to link multiple slicers to a single source using the 'Input Sharing' feature. Some example use cases are as follows:

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

The following characteristics relate to Input Sharing:

Input Sharing between two slicers must happen in the same CSL region.
Input Sharing between two slicers must specify the same input stream type in both configurations (e.g., SRT).
Multiple secondaries can share the primary stream.
All shared instances of a stream must link to the original slicer/stream (no secondary to secondary sharing).
Stopping the original slicer has no effect on other slicers using the shared input.
Any linked slicer other than the original slicer/stream can be deleted without affecting other slicers sharing the same link.

If the original slicer/stream is deleted, any slicers sharing that original stream will also be deleted. Note that this delete operation is IRREVERSIBLE.

Link monitoring is only available on the primary slicer and is viewable whether that slicer is running or in a stopped state. Note that the preview is not available on the primary slicer if it is in a stopped state, and the link stats on secondaries always show no data.

Steps to establish input sharing:

Any stream that is not a secondary can serve as a primary. If a Cloud Slicer Live instance has already been created, it can be used. If this is a new stream being created for the primary, build the CSL instance as usual.

After selecting the Input Sharing sub tab of the desired primary slicer:

Go to the detailed view of the CSL instance of the slicer whose input will be the primary, and select the 'Input Sharing' sub-tab.

Any current secondaries (if any) linked to the shared input from the selected slicer are displayed here for reference.

Select + Slicer to initiate the process of linking a secondary slicer input to the primary slicer input.

A Create Slicer modal will appear and allows for the following configurations:

Slicer ID - This is the name that you wish to use to identify this new slicer being created.

(Note that the Protocol and Region are read-only fields and take on the values of the primary slicer sharing its input.)

Duplicate configurations - This checkbox allows the new slicer to have all the same configuration settings as the primary. These include slicer version, encoding profile, enhanced configurations, and other settings associated with the primary slicer. Note that configurations can be edited post-create and prior to starting the slicer, so you may elect to select the box and then modify anything specific that needs to change. Not checking the box uses default values unless modified post-create.

Edit after creation - This checkbox navigates directly to the detailed view of the slicer where you can view and make modifications to the configurations. Not selecting brings you to the list view of the slicers sharing the input from the slicer with the primary input.

Select Create to complete the modal view of the new slicer, and either go to the detailed view of the slicer or view the list of slicers sharing this input, as determined by the 'edit after creation' selection.

The slicer may be controlled identically to the primary slicer on the feed, and supports modifications, starting, stopping, restarting, and deleting. See the 'Actionable Options' in the 'Manage' section of this guide for details.

Note that the detailed view of the slicer supports the live preview and status of the slicer, but the link monitoring data is only valid when viewing the detailed view of the primary slicer.

Logs

A running slicer produces logs that are written to a file within the Cloud Slicer environment. Logs are helpful for debugging issues or gaining insight into what the slicer is seeing on the input side. Infrequent issues that may not impact the stream are also logged in this file. You cannot access files directly within the Cloud Slicer Live platform, but this screen provides a mechanism to view and download the content of the log file.

Viewing Window

After selecting 'Logs' from the Cloud Slicer Live single slicer view, you see a scrollable window showing retrieved lines that are the latest content in the log file. The viewable window is set by the browser height and width. The right scroll bar allows the view to go up and down within the retrieved lines, and the bottom bar allows left to right scrolling.

Lines

This setting dictates the number of lines retrieved and viewable in the display window.

Refresh

Selecting refresh updates the display window with the most recent number of lines specified in the lines setting.

Start/Stop

This starts or stops automatic refresh of the logging lines.

Download

This allows you to save the lines in the display window to a text file for permanent storage. The file can be easily searched and shared.