SmartPlay: Ingest

To create playable content within Uplynk, content can be ingested, encoded, and prepared for the Smartplay engine via the Uplynk Slicing, Encoding, and Storage pipeline.

Alternatively, pre-encoded content may be ingested and optionally stored within the Uplynk platform via the Smartplay: Ingest pipeline.

The Uplynk Smartplay engine provides a number of powerful features, the most powerful being the ability to manage each user playback session independently, at scale. Effectively, each viewer of a playback stream receives their own uniquely created manifest (list of media segments) to be played. This is extremely valuable in the case of Server Side Ad Insertion (SSAI), where ads are effectively ‘spliced’ into the playback stream under the direction of the manifest. Unique session management with SSAI means that each viewer of a stream can be supplied an ad that is meant for that viewer. In an ever-increasing ad-supported business market, this functionality supports the highest level of ad targeting and can maximize the ad revenue available to the service provider.

The manifest engine additionally handles regional blackouts, alternate content services, streaming protocols matched to device, selective bitrate capabilities, DVR timing references, controls latency, supply dynamic manifest markers out-of-band, support for multiple CDNs, logging, and can insert slate to keep streams continuous. Combined with high scalability, DRM licensing support, and tight integration with the CDN, the Uplynk Playback engine has proven to be 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, and this users guide will be updated as more Smartplay functionality is supported with pre-encoded content ingested via Smartplay: Ingest.

Smartplay: Ingest capabilities are generally differentiated 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 has many benefits including:

Allows Smartplay to issue AES keys in the manifest for HLS playback
Allows ingest of assets that are 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 that are not stored in Uplynk must be in the clear. They will be delivered in the clear, with no AES encryption. They cannot be processed into different formats, and must be available and scalable during playback.

VOD vs. Live Workflows

Aside from the storage options, Smartplay: Ingest has different workflows associated with VOD and Live assets. Both are designed to accept the URL of the master m3u8 for the asset. The reason for treating them differently is that VOD assets are fully ingested and placed in a ‘content’ library, whereas live stream will continuously ingest until instructed to stop.

Live streams can be configured to create VOD assets in the content library (8hr segments unless otherwise influenced), but 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 directed by user control or account defaults to auto-delete.

Smartplay Ingest is designed to accept multi-bitrate pre-encoded content pre-prepared for HLS distribution. Providing a pointer to the HLS m3u8 manifest for a pre-encoded asset is the key to this process. All variants included in the manifest will be 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 will look 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.