SmartPlay: Ingest

To create playable content within Uplynk, you can ingest, encode, and prepare content for the Smartplay engine through the Uplynk Slicing, Encoding, and Storage pipeline.

Alternatively, you can ingest pre-encoded content and optionally store it within the Uplynk platform through the Smartplay: Ingest pipeline.

The Uplynk Smartplay engine provides powerful features. The most significant is the ability to manage each user playback session independently, at scale. Each viewer receives a uniquely created manifest (list of media segments) for playback. This is extremely valuable for Server Side Ad Insertion (SSAI), where ads are spliced into the playback stream under the direction of the manifest. Unique session management with SSAI means each viewer can receive an ad targeted specifically to them. In an ever-increasing ad-supported market, this functionality supports the highest level of ad targeting and maximizes available ad revenue for service providers.

The manifest engine also handles regional blackouts, alternate content services, streaming protocols matched to device, selective bitrate capabilities, DVR timing references, latency controls, dynamic out-of-band manifest markers, support for multiple CDNs, logging, and slate insertion to keep streams continuous. Combined with high scalability, DRM licensing support, and tight CDN integration, the Uplynk Playback engine is unique in the marketplace - powerful, versatile, and extremely valuable for inclusion in an OTT video provider workflow.

Smartplay: Ingest coupled with Smartplay will support all these scenarios over time. This guide will be updated as more Smartplay functionality is supported with pre-encoded content ingested via Smartplay: Ingest.

Smartplay: Ingest capabilities differ depending on whether an encoded asset has been ingested and stored, or simply ingested by reference. The ingested/stored asset (VOD or Linear) functionality is recommended. In this scenario, the ingest job reads the manifest to find the segment locations and then ingests the pre-encoded segments. Ingested assets are repackaged, re-encrypted with AES-128, and stored in Uplynk storage. Storing the asset within Uplynk provides many benefits:

• Allows Smartplay to issue AES keys in the manifest for HLS playback.
• Allows ingest of assets protected by HLS Key AES 128 encryption.
• Eliminates potential access issues with the original storage location at a later date.
• Allows Uplynk Studio to process the asset if needed - modify ad-breaks, clipping, etc.
• Enables Uplynk to serve as origin for Multi-CDN functionality, and by default becomes part of a highly scalable global playback solution.
• Formatting for CMAF, DASH, and DRM support (when available).

Assets not stored in Uplynk must be in the clear. They will be delivered with no AES encryption, cannot be processed into different formats, and must be available and scalable during playback.

VOD vs. Live Workflows

Aside from storage options, Smartplay: Ingest has different workflows for VOD and Live assets. Both accept the URL of the master m3u8 for the asset. VOD assets are fully ingested and placed in a content library, whereas live streams continuously ingest until instructed to stop.

You can configure live streams to create VOD assets in the content library (8-hour segments unless otherwise influenced). Live streams can also become part of an Uplynk Live Channel. Live Channels have their own identity within Uplynk and can run indefinitely as long as a source is available.

VOD assets can persist indefinitely, but live-to-VOD assets are generally governed by user control or account defaults to auto-delete.

Smartplay: Ingest accepts multi-bitrate pre-encoded content prepared for HLS distribution. You provide a pointer to the HLS m3u8 manifest for a pre-encoded asset. All variants included in the manifest are ingested into Uplynk during the ingest process.

Supported media packaging and codecs:

• H.264
• MPEG-2 TS
• AAC

To leverage Smartplay's SSAI technology, the ingest process looks for:
#EXT-X-CUE-OUT and #EXT-X-CUE-IN tags

VOD assets can support pre and post-roll advertising via URL params without markers.

Note: For ad insertion details, refer to Smartplay documentation.

Smartplay: Ingest incurs no charges for the ingest process. Storage and Smartplay are billed based on the profile group of the ingested asset per the Uplynk Service Order (SO). SSAI is included in Smartplay rates.

Using the Smartplay: Ingest Interface

You can ingest a pre-encoded VOD asset or live stream through the Ingest side-tab in the Uplynk CMS under the "Live Encoded Jobs" or "VOD Jobs" tab.

From the Live Encoded and VOD jobs tabs, you can:
• Create, delete, and manage Smartplay: Ingest jobs
• View a list and status of jobs
• Start, stop, and reset jobs
• View job settings and parameters
• View live preview (if available)

If the tabs are not visible, contact your account manager or submit a support ticket.