MANAGING PLAYLISTS

1. INTRODUCTION

Each DVB service has a playlist containing the items that are queued to be played in that service (also known as an active playlist). If an active playlist is empty, the default video is played until new items are added to the playlist. Playlists can also be created in the playlist repository for later use. Playlist items are either AV files or empty time, i.e. time when the default video is played.

2. ADDING NEW PLAYLISTS

To add a new playlist to the playlist repository, right click on the Playlist repository icon and select Add Playlist.

3. EDITING PLAYLISTS

Note that you can not edit the first two items in an active playlist (currently playing item and queued item).

To add a new item to a playlist, select a playlist from the repository or a service from the server tree if you are editing an active playlist. The content of the playlist is shown in the playlist panel on the right.

4. SKIPPING ITEMS

You can skip the currently playing item in an active playlist by right clicking on the playlist panel and selecting Skip Current Item from the pop-up menu.

ENCODING VIDEO FILES

MPEG-2

Use the following parameters when you encode MPEG-2 files to be used with
Icareus Playout. Receivers may support various other settings as well, but
these should work with most of them.
• MPEG-2 profile and level: Main level and main profile.
• Video size: 720 x 576 for PAL (or 720 x 480 for NTSC).
• Video frame rate: 25 Hz for PAL (or 29.97 Hz for NTSC).
• Video aspect ratio: 4:3, 16:9 or 2,21:1
• Video data rate: Use constant bit rate (CBR).
• Video sequence headers: Insert sequence header in every GOP (Group
Of Pictures). (Decreasing the frequency of sequence headers will increase
channel hopping time.)
• Audio format: Use MPEG Layer I or Layer II audio (Layer II is preferred).

MANAGING RTP LIVE INPUT

REQUIREMENTS FOR THE INPUT

• Constant bitrate transport stream
  
• RTP Multicast
  
• Recommended to use a separate ethernet/network card than the one used for the input
  
• Video format: MPEG-2
  
• Audio format: MP2
  
• PCR PID required
  

ADDING A VALID INPUT TO A CHANNEL ON PMC

Select 'AV repository' from the left-hand list, and then click the 'Add RTP Source' icon. 

• Name: Name of the source (can be anything)
  
• Bit rate: Should match the bit rate of the input
  
• IP address: Address of the RTP stream (a valid ipv4 multicast address)
  
• Port: Port of the RTP stream
  
• PCR PID / Video PID: These should match the video PID of the RTP stream
  

• Audio PID: Should match the Audio PID of the RTP Stream 
  

Once the source has been created in AV Repository, the stream can be added to a channel.

METHOD 1: ADDING AN RTP SOURCE TO A PLAYLIST

1. To add an RTP Source to a channel's playlist, first select a channel from the left-hand menu under 'DVB services'.
   
2. Make sure the  'Active playlist' tab is selected.
   
3. Click the 'Insert RTP source to this playlist' button.
   
4. In the pop-up that opens, click the dropdown menu after 'Select RTP AV source' and select the RTP source from the list. The dropdown lists RTP sources by name, so select the source that has the name you entered when adding the source to the AV Repository.
   
5. Insert a duration for the playlist item (Note: the source will only be played for a time defined in duration, after which it will stop until you create a new playlist item .
   
   
   
   

METHOD 2: ADDING AN RTP SOURCE AS THE DEFAULT AV SOURCE FOR A CHANNEL

1. Right click on a channel in the left-hand menu under 'DVB services' and select 'Edit service'
   
2. Make sure the 'Service properties' tab is selected
   
3. Make sure the 'Send AV' check box is ticked.
   
4. In the dropdown titled 'Default AV source', select the RTP Source from the list. The dropdown lists RTP sources by name, so select the source that has the name you entered when adding the source to the AV Repository.
   
5. Make sure the 'Reserved AV bit rate' value matches the bit rate of the RTP stream. 
   
   
   
   

EXAMPLE: HOW TO GENERATE CORRECT INPUT USING FFMPEG

In this example we will take a HLS stream as the input and using FFMPEG generate a correct RTP Input for Playout out of it.

HLS Stream: https://geofree-epsilonlivehls.akamaized.net/hls/live/683532/stream1a/master.m3u8

RTP Output: rtp://239.1.1.1:2424

FFMPEG command to generate correct RTP stream:

FFMPEG options explained:

• -re
  Read input at native frame rate. Mainly used to simulate a grab device, or live input stream (e.g. when reading from a file).
• -i
  Input file URL
• -c:v
  Sets the video codec (Should be: mpeg2video)
• -b:v
  Specifies the target (average) bit rate for the encoder to use. (3M)
• -minrate
  Specifies a minumum tolerance to be used (3M)
• -maxrate
  Specifies a maximum tolerance. This is only used in conjunction with bufsize. (3M)
• -muxrate
  Sets a constant muxrate. Note: this is what you should match when adding the RTP source to AV Repository for bit rate. (4500000.0)
• -r
  Set the framerate of the output.
• -mpegts_copyts
  Preserve original timestamps, if value is set to 1.
• -bufsize
  Specifies the decoder buffer size, which determines the variability of the output bitrate
• -acodec
  Set the audio codec. (Should be 'mp2')
• -ac
  Set the number of audio channels
• -b:a
  Set the audio bit rate
• -f
  Force the output file format

Running the above FFMPEG command will output an RTP Stream at rtp://239.1.1.1:2424 which can be used as an RTP Source in the AV Repository.

Note that setting the PCR PIDs using FFMPEG does not seem to work. So after running the FFMPEG command you should make a .ts recording of it and check the Video/Audio PIDs from that. These are needed when adding the RTP Source to the AV Repository as they need to match the input.