Unified Remix

Introduction

Unified Remix 'mixes' media from various origin into a single stream. Clients and playback devices see the stream coming from a single origin and having a timeline without any discontinuities.

Remix uses a playlist, in SMIL format, as its single input format. It transforms this SMIL file into a remixed MP4 (ISOBMFF) for Unified Origin to use.

Since Unified Origin delivers all playout formats from this remixed MP4, we now have a unified approach to deliver to all devices from a single SMIL playlist!

Resolving a playlist server side has the following benefits:

  • It works everywhere, on all devices, as they see only one stream.
  • No player development is required, so larger audience can be reached as it 'just works'.
  • Flexibility. Changes can be made server side, without having to update devices or apps.
  • Ad blockers are circumvented.

Streams can be personalized on any level. From a personalized stream for every viewer, streams to groups of viewers (e.g. based on geolocation, subscription model), and even a single stream for all viewers. Just think of Remix as a just-in-time video editing suite.

Flow diagram

The following flow diagram depicts components and their relations.

            cms   unified transcode (jit)                              rule sets
             |             |                                         /
 player --> cdn --> unified origin --> unified remix --> smil origin - ad networks
    |                      |                                         \
[metrics]             a/v sources                                      broadcast epg

All components are HTTP based. Results are easily proxied and cached.

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