Cloud Slicer Live

Cloud Slicer Live allows you to run a slicer in our cloud. This allows you to ingest and encode content without on-premise hardware. You may customize this slicer in the following ways:

• Choose an ingest point that defines where it will be hosted and the streaming protocol for the audio / video feed that will be ingested.
• Select the version of the slicer software that it will run.
• Define a slicer configuration that determines how the audio / video feed will be ingested and processed.

Create and delete slicers as required by your business needs.

Quick Start

Set up a streaming workflow by performing the following steps:

1. Create an ingest pointAn ingest point identifies the URL and ports at which a CSL slicer may ingest your audio/video feed. in the region where your CSL slicer will be hosted.

   The purpose of an ingest point is to persist your ingest URLs even when switching to a different CSL slicer. This means that you will not have to update your encoder's publishing configuration when switching to a different CSL slicer.

2. Create a CSL slicer in the same region as the above ingest point.
3. Add the CSL slicer to the desired live channel, live event, or failover group.
4. From your encoder, push a video feed to the ingest point created in step 1.
5. Point your player to your live channel or live event's playback URL.

Ingest Point Administration

An ingest point identifies a URL and ports to which an encoder should push an audio / video feed.

Upon creating a CSL slicer, you must associate it with an ingest point from which it will ingest an audio / video feed.

Key information:

• An ingest point is restricted to a specific region and streaming protocol.

• An ingest point can be in either of the following states:

  • IN_USE: This state indicates that it has been associated with a CSL slicer.
  • NOT_IN_USE: This state indicates that it is available for assignment to a CSL slicer.
• Deleting a CSL slicer changes the state of the ingest point that was associated with it from IN_USE to NOT_IN_USE. This allows you to reuse the same ingest point with a different CSL slicer.

To create an ingest point

1. Navigate to the Ingest Points page. How?From the main menu, navigate to Slicers | Ingest Points.
2. Click + Ingest Point.
3. In the Endpoint Name option, assign a name to the ingest point.
4. In the Type option, select the streaming protocol for the feed that will be ingested.
5. In the Region option, select the region where the CSL slicer that will ingest this feed will be hosted.
6. Optional. In the Endpoint Description option, type a description for this ingest point.
7. Click Create.

To modify an ingest point

You may not reassign an ingest point to a different region. Create an ingest point if you require one for a different region.

1. Navigate to the Ingest Points page. How?From the main menu, navigate to Slicers | Ingest Points.
2. Click on the desired ingest point
3. In the Name option, modify the name assigned to this ingest point.
4. Optional. In the Description option, modify the description assigned to this ingest point.
5. Click Save.

To delete an ingest point

1. Navigate to the Ingest Points page. How?From the main menu, navigate to Slicers | Ingest Points.

2. Check the ingest point's status.

   • IN_USE: You cannot delete an ingest point that is in this state. You must first delete the CSL slicer associated with it.
   • NOT_IN_USE: Proceed to the next step.
3. Click on the desired ingest point
4. Click Delete Ingest Point.
5. Click Yes, Delete to confirm the deletion.

Cloud Slicer Live Administration

Before creating a CSL slicer, you must first perform the following steps:

1. Identify the region (e.g., Oregon or Ohio) where your CSL slicer will be created.

2. Identify the streaming protocol through which your feed will be published to a CSL slicer. A CSL slicer supports the following protocols:

   RTP | RTMP | SRT | RIST

   The SRT streaming protocol requires slicer version 22060200 or higher.

3. Create an ingest point within the region identified in step 1.

Key information:

• You may assign a custom slicer configuration to your CSL slicer. You can define this custom slicer configuration by importing settings from a file, manually adding settings, or a combination of both approaches.

• You may import settings from a file. We support the following formats:

  • Text File: You may import a file that uses the same format as a Live Slicer configuration file. Specify each desired setting on a separate line.

  • JSON: You may import a file that contains settings defined as key-value pairs using JSON notation.

  Learn more.

• Our service manages certain slicer configuration settings. You should not manually assign these reserved settings to your CSL slicer.

To create a CSL slicer

1. Navigate to the Hosted Slicers page. How?From the main menu, navigate to Slicers | Hosted Slicers.
2. Click + Create Slicer.

3. From the Ingest Point section, select an ingest point that corresponds to the region where this slicer will be hosted and the streaming protocol for the feed that it will ingest.

   1. Click Select Ingest Point.
   2. Select the ingest point that will be assigned to the CSL slicer.
   3. Click Save.

   4. RTP, SRT, and RIST

      In the Source IP Address option, type the IP address from which your feed will be pushed. Our service will only ingest feeds served from this IP address.

      Allow your feed to be pushed from any IP address by setting this option to 0.0.0.0.
      Regardless of how this setting is configured, the encoder pushing the feed to our service must authenticate to our service by passing the CSL slicer's streaming key.
      Learn more.

4. From the Slicer Software Version section, assign a slicer software version to the CSL slicer.

   1. Click Select Version.

   2. Select the desired slicer version.

   3. Click Save.

   If this CSL slicer's ingest point uses the SRT streaming protocol, then you must select slicer version 22060200 or higher.

5. Optional. From the Encoding Profile section, select the encoding profile that will be assigned to the CSL slicer.

   1. Click Change Profile.
   2. Select the encoding profile that this CSL slicer will use to encode content.
   3. Click Save.

6. Optional. From the Slicer Configuration section, import, add, or remove Slicer settings to your slicer configuration.

   Define this slicer's ID through the slicerID setting.

   1. Click Customize.
   2. Optional. Import slicer configuration settings.

      1. Click + Import.
      2. Set the Source option to File. Select the desired file by clicking Browse, navigating to the directory that contains the desired slicer configuration file, selecting it, and then clicking Open.

      3. From the Import Mode option, choose one of the following options:

         • Append after configuration settings: Choose this option to place all of your imported settings below your existing slicer configuration settings.
         • Prepend before configuration settings: Choose this option to place all of your imported settings above your existing slicer configuration settings.
         • Replace all configuration settings: Choose this option to remove all of your existing slicer configuration settings and replace them with your imported settings.

         Appending or prepending slicer configuration settings may result in duplicate settings. It is strongly recommended to avoid duplicate settings by immediately removing them from your slicer's configuration.

      4. Click Import File.
   3. Optional. Add or remove settings as needed.

      • Add a setting by performing the following steps:

        1. Clicking + Custom.

           Alternatively, add a commonly used setting by clicking + Standard instead.

        2. In the Key option, type the name of the desired Live Slicer configuration setting.
        3. In the Value option, assign a value to that setting.
        4. Click Add Custom Setting.
      • Remove settings by marking them and then clicking x Remove.
   4. Click Save.
7.  
8. Optional. From the Slicer Notes option, briefly describe the purpose of this CSL slicer.
9. Click Create.

To modify a CSL slicer

1. Navigate to the Slicers page. How?From the main menu, navigate to Slicers | Slicers.
2. Click on the desired CSL slicer.

3. Update this CSL slicer as needed.

   • Optional. From the Slicer Configuration section, review your slicer configuration. Import, add, or remove Slicer settings as needed.

     Define this slicer's ID through the slicerID setting.

     1. Click Customize.
     2. Optional. Import slicer configuration settings.

        1. Click + Import.
        2. Set the Source option to File. Select the desired file by clicking Browse, navigating to the directory that contains the desired slicer configuration file, selecting it, and then clicking Open.

        3. From the Import Mode option, choose one of the following options:

           • Append after configuration settings: Choose this option to place all of your imported settings below your existing slicer configuration settings.
           • Prepend before configuration settings: Choose this option to place all of your imported settings above your existing slicer configuration settings.
           • Replace all configuration settings: Choose this option to remove all of your existing slicer configuration settings and replace them with your imported settings.

           Appending or prepending slicer configuration settings may result in duplicate settings. It is strongly recommended to avoid duplicate settings by immediately removing them from your slicer's configuration.

        4. Click Import File.
     3. Optional. Add or remove settings as needed.

        • Add a setting by performing the following steps:

          1. Clicking + Custom.

             Alternatively, add a commonly used setting by clicking + Standard instead.

          2. In the Key option, type the name of the desired Live Slicer configuration setting.
          3. In the Value option, assign a value to that setting.
          4. Click Add Custom Setting.
        • Remove settings by marking them and then clicking x Remove.
     4. Click Save.
   • Optional. From the Slicer Version section, update the CSL slicer's slicer version.

     1. Click Customize.

     2. Select the desired slicer version.

     3. Click the x in the upper-right hand corner of the dialog box.
   • From the Additional Details section, add, modify, or delete notes as needed.
4. Click Save.

5. Changes to your CSL slicer's slicer configuration require restarting your CSL slicer. Restart your CSL slicer.

   If you modified the CSL slicer's slicer version, then we will automatically restart the CSL slicer. No further action is required to apply changes to your CSL slicer's slicer configuration.

To delete a CSL slicer

1. Navigate to the Slicers page. How?From the main menu, navigate to Slicers | Slicers.
2. Click on the desired CSL slicer.
3. Click Delete Hosted Slicer.
4. When prompted, click Delete to confirm the deletion.

To restart a CSL slicer

Restarting a CSL slicer typically takes around 60 seconds.

1. Navigate to the Slicers page. How?From the main menu, navigate to Slicers | Slicers.
2. Click on the desired CSL slicer.
3. Click Restart Hosted Slicer.
4. Click Restart to confirm this action.

Slicer Status Information

Use a CSL slicer's status to find out whether it is ready to stream your content. Core CSL slicer statuses are described below.

• pending: Indicates that our service has not started provisioning your CSL slicer.
• initializing: Indicates that our service is in the process of creating your CSL slicer.
• created: Indicates that your CSL slicer has been created, but is not in use.
• running: Indicates that your CSL slicer is active. An active CSL slicer can be in any of the following states: capture, replace, ad, or blackout.
• failed: Indicates that our service could not create your CSL slicer.

Reserved Slicer Configuration Settings

You may not use the following settings with a CSL slicer:

Slicer Configuration File

You may import a slicer configuration file when defining your CSL slicer's slicer configuration. You may format this slicer configuration file using either colon-separated values or JSON.

You may not define a reserved slicer configuration setting within a slicer configuration file. Attempting to import a file that contains a reserved setting will generate an error.

Our service automatically detects the format when importing your slicer configuration file. It does not rely on the file extension when making this assessment.

Colon-Separated Values (Live Slicer Configuration File)

You may define slicer configuration settings using the same format as a Live Slicer configuration file. Specify each desired setting on a separate line.

Syntax:

Example:

JSON

You may define slicer configuration settings using JSON format. Define each slicer configuration setting as a key-value pair using JSON notation.

Syntax:

Example:

{
	"remote": "on",
	"description": "Sports",
	"input": "rtmp",
	"autoexpire_age": "3",
	"slicerID": "sports_slicer"
}

Encoder

Your encoder must push an audio / video feed to an ingest point. If you have assigned that ingest point to a CSL slicer, then that CSL slicer will automatically encode your content.

Our service will only ingest your feed when the following conditions are met:

• Your encoder is configured to push an audio / feed to the CSL slicer's streaming URL.

  Sample publishing URL:

  rtmp://ingest-prod-1-us-east-1.mss.aws.oath.cloud/slicer12345

• RTP, SRT, and RIST

  Your encoder's IP address matches the one defined in the ingest point's Source IP Address option.

  You may bypass this restriction and allow your feed to be pushed from any IP address when this option is set to 0.0.0.0.

• SRT Only

  You must configure your encoder to pass the CSL slicer's streaming key along with your feed. This configuration varies by encoder. If your encoder does not provide a password option when defining a SRT publishing target, then you should include the passphrase query string parameter in the publishing URL.

  Syntax:

  ?passphrase=Streaming Key

  You can find this streaming key by viewing the desired CSL slicer's Streaming Information section.

  Sample publishing URL:

  srt://ingest-prod-1-us-east-1.mss.aws.oath.cloud:48120?passphrase=7b4777ca-c0de-410b-913e-a011607ef525

Link Health Monitoring

A link is established when an encoder starts pushing an audio / video feed to an ingest point. CSL slicer performance relies on this link and therefore we track key link health metrics. These metrics are measured by:

• Session: Provides link health, aggregated in some cases, from the moment at which the link was established. Use session statistics to assess the overall health of the link between the encoder and the CSL slicer.
• Recent Interval: Provides the most recent link health measurement. Use these statistics to identify recent trends (e.g., link health improvements or degradation)

View these metrics from within the Link Monitor section of the desired CSL slicer.

Link health metrics are described below.

Name	Description
Round Trip Time	Indicates the round trip time between the encoder and the CSL slicer in milliseconds.
Link Uptime	Indicates the duration, in hours, for the connection between the encoder and the CSL slicer.
Latency Setting	Indicates the length of time, in milliseconds, that the CSL slicer will wait before processing data packets. This delay provides time for packet correction to take place.
Stream Bitrate	Indicates the rate, in Kbps, at which data is being transferred from the encoder to the CSL slicer.
Packets Inbound	Indicates the number of data packets received by the CSL slicer.
Packets Outbound	Indicates the number of data packets sent to the encoder by the CSL slicer.
Percent Link Success	Indicates the percentage of data packets that were successfully received by the CSL slicer.
Packets Errored	Indicates the number of data packets that were not successfully delivered.
Percent Errored	Indicates the percentage of data packets that resulted in an error.
Packets FEC Corrected	Indicates the number of data packets that were successfully delivered after being corrected by Forward Error Correction (FEC).
Percent Fixed by FEC	Indicates the percentage of data packets that were successfully delivered after being corrected by Forward Error Correction (FEC).
Packets ARQ Corrected	Indicates the number of data packets that were successfully delivered as a result of automatic repeat request (ARQ).
Percent Fixed by ARQ	Indicates the percentage of data packets that were successfully delivered as a result of automatic repeat request (ARQ).
ARQ Requests	Indicates the number of requests that triggered ARQ.
ARQ Fails	Indicates the number of requests that were unsuccessful after triggering ARQ.
Percent Failed ARQ	Indicates the percentage of requests that were unsuccessful after triggering ARQ.