Encoder configuration

Press the <Edit> icon to access details about the encoder.

Figure: Encoder sections

Each encoder has eight configuration subsections.

• Encoder: configures specifics of name and display icons.

• Input: streaming ingest settings, this varies by stream type and how it is ingested by MIS.

• Output: configures specifics of how MIS stores each channel and sub- encoders.

• Storage: configures storage location and duration.

• Features: enable loudness, thumbnails and NAVE.

• Alerting: sets error detection thresholds.

• Captions: configure Closed Captions and subtitles.

• More: configures miscellaneous settings.

At the bottom of each page is a <Save> button. MIS will prompt you to save changes if you attempt to leave the section without saving changes.

Figure: Unsaved change warning

Encoder - encoder section

Figure: Encoder settings

Table: Encoder information

Encoder source	Indicates input type: video capture card, transport stream, OTT cloud, or device direct
Encoder status	Real time encoder status: running or stopped
Display name	Encoder name presented to users, used to create a user-friendly name for the channel
Encoder name	Read-only name created by Volicon
Probe name	Probe server on which the encoder is installed
Color	Dropdown used to color code the player
Icon	Used to add an icon to channel name: <Browse File> icon used for workstation access to upload the desired icon; typically the channel logo, but may be any JPG or PNG image
Diagnostic	Opens media player for the channel

RPM settings

This section is configured when an encoder input is part of the Volicon Remote program monitor (RPM) suite or the encoder is equipped with the STB remote control feature.

Figure: STB remote control feature

Table: RPM – STB configuration section

Bouquet	A bouquet is a logical group of channels. If the encoder has been configured for STB remote control the dropdown associates a Bouquet with this STB. If more than one bouquet has been defined use caution when changing bouquets to insure the services are available on this STB.
Primary lineup	List of station dial numbers (services) associated with the input
Secondary lineup	Alternate station list
Reviewer	A Reviewer is used to attribute a fault to the originating STB or to a broader service issue. When an Encoder is assigned a Reviewer (of another Encoder on the same Probe with the same Bouquet), the Reviewer will verify if the fault is repeatable on a separate STB. If the fault is repeatable, then the fault will be reported, if not, then the fault will be squelched.

Encoder – input section

This section is dependent on how the program is ingested by the MIS. Currently, there are four types of video acquisition.

Video Input: capture card used to interface MIS to program source, typically a set-top box

Transport Stream (TS): IP based direct program access

Cloud: IP based, typically via CDN streaming

Device direct: tethered cell phone acquisition

Figure: Video and audio input profile (capture card and transport stream)

Table: Video input (capture card and transport stream)

External switch output	If external A/V switcher used, entry specifies which switcher output port feeds associated encoder input, assuming the switcher has more than one output port set value to 1 if external input switch not used
Restart on input recovery	Automatically restarts encoder when its input is recovered; relevant for Blackmagic cards only, to avoid time stamp issues
Signal loss restart interval	During periods of no input, encoder automatically restarts at specified interval, to avoid time stamp issues
Video device name	Text string with the card name and channel ID if the card supports multiple channels
Name	Required text field
Connector type	Dropdown to select video connector
Format	Dropdown to select type: i.e., PAL-B 1080i, frame rate and resolution
Add format	Used to open dialog to create another format

Table: Audio input (capture card & transport stream)

Name	Card name and additional information about audio input type
Profile	Audio profile in XML format

Figure: Transport stream input

Table: Transport stream input

TS input name	Stream name
Program name	Program ID and name within the stream
Host	IP address or URL of the program source
Port	IP port address to access the program
HTTP node name	The name of the HTTP node, as configured in the Media Hub, for streaming data of the required PID
Storage node name	The name of the storage node, as configured in the Media Hub, where data for the required PID is stored
Program name	Name of the program used to encode the TS stream
Close gaps from cache	If encoder loses feed, it keeps recording black screen, until feed returns; allows downtime to be represented in the recorded data
Detect PAT/PMT events	Depreciated, no longer used
Handle PAT/PMT events	Depreciated, no longer used
Handle XDS events	System to process Extended Data Services events and log them
Stop on scrambled	Ignores encrypted streams so MIS does not generate erroneous alerts
Enable low bit rate streams:	Enable/Disable handling of low bit rate streams; usually disabled due to slowing down recovery in event of connection loss; if nearly no payload. (e.g., black video) this should be enabled

Figure: Cloud input

Table: Cloud input

Type	Dropdown to select program source server: No Authentication, Akamai, Uplynk CMS
ACL	Akamai parameter
Shared key	Akamai parameter
CT	Uplynk parameter
API secret	Uplynk parameter
Proxy	URP or IP of proxy server if used
URL	Channel-specific URL
Load data	Saves profile data
Rendition	Bitrate and resolution
Video format	Normally, set automatically based on input feed, but may be set manually
Audio format	Normally set automatically based on input feed, but may be set manually

Figure: Encoder device direct input

Table: Encoder device direct input profile

Devices	Smart phone used to capture the program
Device ID	ID of the device as the Media Hub configured it
Device manufacturer	Smart-phone manufacturer
Device model	Smart-phone model name
Device name	The name of the device to be shown in Media Hub
Device serial number	The hardcoded serial number of the device, automatically detected
Devices	A list of all devices connected to the server
Display height	Height in pixels
Display orientation	Landscape or portrait; if left blank defaults to portrait
Display width	Width in pixels
Media Hub host	Media Hub IP address typically: localhost
Media Hub port	IP port typically 8080 to avoid conflicting with other web servers
VMN port	Port used to stream content from the device

Encoder – output section

Unlike inputs, the output settings are the same for all encoders, regardless of how the program is ingested into MIS.

Figure: Encoder output

Table: Encoder output - video output profile

Video codec	Dropdown to specify how MIS encodes the program for storage. MIS supports; H264, WMV3, WMVA, and WVC1
H264 encoder type	MIS supports multiple implementations: x264, MainConcept, MFT, CUDA
Bitrate (Kbps)	Dropdown to specify program bitrate for storage
Resolution	Dropdown to specify screen resolution for storage
Compression quality	Compression quality is a tradeoff: the higher the level of the less storage required at the expense of greater CPU processing
Force minimum GOP size	Optional field to set MPEG group of picture structure; setting defines amount of frames dependent on preceding frames before another I frame; MPEG removes redundancy, spatially within a frame and temporally among frames; I frames (key frame) is the only frame that can be decompressed without reference to other frames
Reduce frame rate	Reduces frame rate to reduce output bandwidth consumption
Reduce frame rate target FPS	Output frame rate value

Table: Encoder output - audio output profile

Audio codec type	Dropdown to specify how MIS encodes audio for storage: AAC, WMA and WMApro; when configuring audio codec type that describes the audio codec used by this encoder, codec changed for each audio streams feed
Audio Languages	Specifies one or more audio channels

Table: Encoder output -live stream profile

Enable

Live stream used to view low-latency video on monitor page; note: this feature CPU intensive

Sub encoders

Each encoder has a primary video codec that creates the channel stream digital multimedia archive. If desired, additional sub encoders may be configured. Sub-encoders are typically set for lower resolution and bit rate, in comparison to the primary codec that serves specific monitoring or file exchange requirements.

Sub-encoders have the same server requirements as the identical setting for the primary codec sequentially ; CPU cycles are needed for the compression engine and disk storage is needed for the resulting file.

Table: Encoder output -sub encoders

Name	System created name derived from bit rate and resolution
Bit rate (Kbps)	Dropdown selection of bit rates
Resolution	Dropdown selection of screen resolution
Add/Delete	Adds or deletes a sub encoder

Encoder - storage section

This section defines where video is stored, how long it is saved and the disk threshold.

Figure: Encoder storage

Table: Encoder storage - general

Main index path	Example: C:\Video\indices\AB1.idx; normally set by Volicon to default path on main HDD
Free disk space threshold	Space not be used by MIS, kept free for other use; value to be between 0 and 0.9, where 0 means no free space reserved and 0.9 means 90% of storage location kept free
History depth	Specifies how long programs are stored; numeric value specifying how many unit intervals video will be stored. Example: value of 30 and Interval of days will store video for 30 days

Table: Encoder storage - storages

Path	Absolute path to the storage location
MaxUsage	The maximum percentage of the total size of the storage location used by the channel
Add/Delete	Add/remove storages

Table: Encoder storage - long term storage (LTS)

History depth	Specifies duration of program storage, streams normally stored in local storage; if inadequate, contact Volicon support to configure LTS; numeric value of unit intervals video will be stored: dropdown specifying minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years; setting value to 0 means data not saved
Path	LTS storage location; typically C:Video\LTS\ if LTS is running on the same computer
Min free disk space	Minimum disk space available on archive machine before archiving: value is in Gigabytes
Slave	Specifies if this encoder is a backup encoder for another system
Master encoder name	The name of the master encoder; only relevant when backup encoder is used
Master encoder path	Absolute path to the storage location of the master encoder; only relevant when backup encoder is used
MaxGap size	The maximum gap size between files
Slave lag	Specifies how long slave will wait before starting to archive its content; setting this to less than 1 week not recommended may cause master and slave to archive needlessly

Encoder - features section

This section specifies audio loudness monitoring, DPI and AFD metadata processing, thumbnails and NAVE.

Loudness monitoring

Figure: Encoder features - loudness

Table: Encoder features - loudness

Loudness	With optional loudness module enabled, MIS performs loudness meter measurements to meet following standards: EBU R 128, BS-1770-1, BS-1770-3, ATSC A/85 and EBU Tech 3341/2/3; MIS loudness module accurate per each video frame and takes measurement every 100 milliseconds; measurements able to be done with/without gating windows (-10 dB but adjustable)
Gating mode	Dropdown to select: ATSC1, ATSC3 or EBU
Input adjustment	Adjustment to input level for fine tuning; a floating point value will be added to the input measurement
LRA	Loudness Range Measurement (LRA) quantifies variation in time-varying loudness measurement; supplementary to main audio measure, program loudness, of EBU R 128; measures variation of loudness on macroscopic time-scale loudness units (LU); LRA computation based on measurement of loudness level specified in ITU-R BS.1770 - with different gating threshold; LRA not to be confused with other measures of dynamic range
Long IM	Long-form Integrated measurements: greater than two minutes; total of seven user-defined, configurable measurements (e.g., 1 hour, 6 hour, 1 day, 5 day intervals); long-term default setting: 60, 360, 1440, 0 , 0 , 0, 0
Short IM	Short-form integrated measurements two minutes or shorter; total of seven user defined, configurable measurements (e.g., 10s, 30s, 60s); short-term default: 10, 15, 20, 30, 60, 120, 0
Pre dialnorm	Dialnorm indicates level of average spoken dialogue within encoded audio program; short and long-term values are often factory preset; Dialnorm not to be enabled when an encoder ingesting digital audio stream (e.g., optical, s/pdif or Dolby AC-3)
True peak	Enables monitoring the value of the audio signal waveform of a program in the continuous time domain; detects peak loudness that otherwise would escape the sampling process

Table: Encoder features AC-3

AC-3	Dolby – Adaptive Transform Acoustic Coding 3 enable/disable
Enable DRC	Dolby – Dynamic Range Compression

Figure: Encoder features – DPI and AFD

Table: Encoder features - digital program insertion (DPI)

DPI	Digital Program Insertion
Events interval	List of intervals to be monitored for in/out DPI events
Log events	Enable/disable logging of DPI event to a database
Stream IDs	List of DPI streams to be monitored
DPI offset	Offset of DPI event relative to A/V (in milliseconds)
Default local avail durations	Default location available duration to use (in milliseconds)
Default pre-roll	Default pre-roll time before local avail (in milliseconds)
Indexing settings	New feature not yet implemented.

Table: Encoder features - active format description (AFD)

AFD profile	AFD profile in XML format
Type	Not used in MIS

Table: Encoder features - interactive services

Enable

Only applies to RPM systems – identify objects and images on screen; used for channel change verification.

Figure: Encoder features - thumbnails

Table: Encoder features - thumbnails

Thumbnails enable	Checkbox to enable/disable thumbnails
MSMQHost	IP address or URL of Microsoft Message Queuing used to access video clip thumbnails
Resolution	Dropdown used to specify thumbnail image resolution
Sampling rate	Every x seconds, saves an image to the storage

Figure: Encoder features - text overlay

Table: Text overlay

Text	Enable/display of embedded text
Height	Number of free text lines
Width	Number of characters in a free text line
Score line	Line on which the scores will be burnt in 1-based index system
Status line	Line on which scores to be burnt in a 1- based index system; if using default height, this is line before last
Video input line	Setting for the video input line burnt into the video

Table: Timestamp

Timestamp enable	Turn on timestamp overlay for this encoder channel
Alignment	Dropdown to position the info on player screen
Auto calculate offset from UTC	Based on probe’s time setting
Format	Specifies how time is displayed: %month%-%day%-%year%%hour%:%minutes%:%second%/%frame%
Offset from UTC	Manually sets a time zone offset; setting overrides probe O/S time zone setting; MIS uses value instead of offset in probe

NAVE

Encoding of television signals, such as in the Nielsen system, is used for audience measurement (e.g., to accurately identify television distributors, including broadcast stations or cable networks). The Nielsen Media approach installs metering devices at the user’s premises. This device identifies stations and networks to which the end user tunes. By encoding content with a NAVE unit, ratings data for programming can be provided, whether it is received in a digital, analog, or combined viewing environment. Reading the aforementioned watermarks or other codes inserted into the television signal at the distribution source through the NAVE unit captures this end user data.

Figure: NAVE watermarking

NAVE is a system capable of inserting Nielsen Media Research proprietary NAVE source identification watermarking directly into the audio portion of compressed digital ATSC transport streams prior to broadcast. NAVE devices can simultaneously insert watermarking data on multiple independent digital television programs being broadcast, whether they are standard definition (SDTV) or high definition (HDTV). The watermark is capable of identifying the Provider Content (PC), the network the content was distributed to (NT) and the final distributor (FD), say in the case of local broadcast station or cable channel. The watermarks include a timestamp, so if content viewed is time shifted (VOD) within a reasonable time frame, that usage data is also captured.

If any station’s NAVE encoder is interrupted, the meter device installed in Nielsen sample premises collects and stores passive signatures for all non-encoded programming viewed. These signatures are downloaded each night to Nielsen’s operations center. To identify viewing, the passive signatures collected from the meter device in the premises are matched against the signatures in the library.

The feature allows you to define the watermarks to be accepted, and the faults/recoveries to occur, by configuring the watermark’s creation time and the number of good watermarks that should be received per period.

Figure: Encoder features – NAVE

Table: NAVE

Enable	Enable/disable Nielsen Audio Video Encoder monitoring; requires subscription to Nielsen service
Score line	Percentage of good watermarks in the monitored window; labeled “Error Percent” in early versions of MIS
Levels	Filters watermarks by level: Final Distributor (FD): entity that delivered content to customer Provider Content (PC): entity that originated content Video on Demand (VoD): time shifted viewing Network (NT): Network that delivered the content
Minimum good watermarks	If number of good watermarks during sliding window is lower than minimum value, fault detected
Station IDs	List of good watermarks you intend to accept; if field is left empty, all watermarks will be detected; if some channels support more than one station ID (SID) insert into the SID array all IDs you intend to accept; a single SID is sufficient to satisfy Minimum Good Watermarks and Watermark Percentage recovery variables to avoid faults and stay recovered
Warning percent	If value greater than score line but less than warning percent, warning message will be sent; other cases to result in recovery
Watermark age	The watermark’s time from its creation
Watermark max age	Filters out watermarks older than threshold and reports no faults on these; if left at 0, variable watermark age taken; example: if watermark is 10 days old, any older watermarks to be ignored; if the watermark’s age less than threshold, it will be processed as regular watermark
Window interval	Faults detected and recoveries enabled during sliding window interval; example: if you define 30-second window, for each second, 30-second window will be checked (0-30, 1-31, 2-32…) against parameters used

Table: Quality Monitoring

Video Quality

Requires optional module to monitor video quality

Encoder - alerting section

The alerting feature configures MIS to constantly monitor program streams. If the stream does not meet the monitoring criterion for the duration specified, an alert is generated. A single alert is dispatched for each event. If the stream returns to normal in excess of the recovery time, a new alert is generated if the stream once again falls outside monitoring parameters.

Figure: Encoder alerting - video

Table: Encoder alerting - video

Video loss	When video framing loss (commonly known as “sync”) detected by hardware and persists over video duration threshold, then a VIDEOLOST alert generated; only duration threshold is configurable; not threshold level; example: video lost signal = TRUE over duration of 31 sec exceeding cycle time and duration threshold; when notification enabled, SNMP trap and email messages sent (if configured by the admin)
Detection	Default: 30 seconds
Recovery	Default: 10 seconds
Black screen	When percentage of black pixels (BS) in video frames of incoming signal exceeds certainty threshold and persists over duration threshold; when notification enabled, SNMP trap and email messages sent (if configured by the admin)
Detection	Default: 30 seconds
Recovery	Default: 10 seconds
Threshold	Default: 95%
Static screen	Detected when video frame pixels at same frame location are compared (for color and luminosity) to pairs of consecutive video frames; and percentage of matching pixels that match exceeds static screen (SS) threshold and duration threshold; when pixel color, luminance and locations matching between pairs of consecutive video frames exceed 95% of all video frame pixels for longer than 30 seconds, a video static alert is declared; when notification is enabled, SNMP trap and email messages sent (if configured by the admin)
Detection	Default: 30 seconds
Recovery	Default: 10 seconds
Threshold	Default: 95%

Figure: Encoder alerting – slate

Generates an alert when matching slate ID is detected.

Figure: Encoder alerting - audio

Table: Encoder alerting - audio

Audio high:	Audio high fault is detected when the incoming audio stays above the high-level threshold long enough to exceed the audio duration threshold Audio high alert example: Audio alert is configured on a channel; certainty threshold = -1 dB; duration set to default of 30 seconds; audio input signal detected = 2 dB (above certainty) for six minutes (exceeding the cycle time for the lineup plus the duration threshold); media fault is detected, generating an audio alert and automatically creating a fault clip, which is stored under the clips (Fault Clips section on the MIS media player); when notification is enabled, SNMP trap and email messages sent (if configured by the admin); if you wish to change certainty, duration, or recovery levels, please contact MIS support.
Detection	Default: 30 seconds
Recovery	Default: 10 seconds
Threshold	Default is -1dB
Audio low	Low audio fault is detected when the incoming audio stays below the low-level threshold and fault duration fault exceeds the duration threshold; when notification is enabled, SNMP trap and email messages sent (if configured by the admin) Note: disable audio alert detection on channels with frequent silence.
Detection	Default: 30 seconds
Recovery	Default: 10 seconds
Threshold	Default: -40dB

Figure: Encoder alerting - metadata

Table: Encoder alerting - metadata

Metadata	Monitors embedded channel metadata
Detection	Default: 30 seconds
Recovery	Default: 10 seconds
Threshold	Defines number of metadata instances missed in detection threshold duration; example if threshold set to 5, and more than 5 instances missed during 30-second window then alert is generated
PSIP/XDS frozen	Monitors if PSIP/XDS content hasn’t changed for a prescribed period of time.
Detection	Default: 1800 seconds
Recovery	Default: 0 seconds
Threshold	Default: 95
PSIP/XDS missing	Monitors if PSIP/XDS information isn’t present for a prescribed period of time.
Detection	Default: 60 seconds
Recovery	Default: 0 seconds
Threshold	Default: 95

Encoder captions section

This section determines how MIS processes closed captioning and subtitles.

Figure: Encoder captions

Table: Encoder captions - closed captioning

CC Adjust	Not currently relevant to MIS
Metadata enabled	Enable/disable CC monitor
Metadata type	Dropdown to specify which data format the channel is using
TS teletext stream ID	The ID of the Teletext stream inside the transport stream program

Table: Encoder captions - indexing profile

Database URLs	Host and profile name
Add/Delete	Add or remove metadata database URLs

Table: Encoder captions - profile

File name

The database name; <Select File> to add additional profiles

Table: Encoder captions - DVB subtitles language

Name	Name of the language
StreamID	Stream ID of the subtitle language
Millisec. delay	Delay of subtitles in relation to video; used to synchronize subtitles to video
Add/Delete	To add/remove subtitle language

Encoder - more section

This section configures MIS to recover from encoder errors and sets encoder hibernation time.

Figure: Encoder more section

Table: Encoder more - error recovery

Maximum restart retries	The maximum number of times watchdog will attempt to restart the encoder
Maximum service recoveries	The maximum number of times watchdog is allowed to restart the entire service

The restart period can be used to force the encoder to restart based on uptime or at a specific date and time.

Table: Encoder more - restart period

Off	No forced restart
Maximum up time	Restarts encoder when elapsed run-time is exceeded
Restart schedule	Force restart at specific date and time

Table: Encoder more - hibernation

Start	Hibernation start day/time
End	Exit hibernation day/time
Add/Delete	Add and remove hibernation events