coralbay.tv releases enhanced live input handling over IP

Leeds, UK, 9th January, 2024 – Cloud playout specialist coralbay.tv Ltd announced today that the company has released a new framework for handling live inputs when working in IP.

One of the fundamental requirements of a playout system is to enable the switching to live sources, both automatically via the playlist or manually by a playout operator using a control panel. When working in SDI this is relatively straightforward as live sources can easily be selected via an upstream router. Each source has its own dedicated connection and is available for users to monitor and switch to at all times. When working in IP however, many sources share the same connection, and inputting requires not just switching but also decoding. The problem is that decoding takes time and to be able to switch from one live source to another without delay requires the decoding of multiple sources in advance. If there are many sources, it becomes impractical to decode all the incoming signals to cover the case that somebody may want to switch to any source instantly. The more decoding that is required the more compute resources are needed and this means additional cost.

coralbay.tv’s new framework deals with this issue by pre-empting via the playlist schedule. If any live events are scheduled in the playlist, the system decodes those sources in advance in the order that they are needed so that they are available at the right time. Other resources are not decoded until they are either scheduled or there is a request by an operator.

The new framework also allows for “degradable inputs”. It is now possible to define a primary source and up to 2 backups. If the primary source were to fail or degrade, the system would switch automatically to the next backup with the highest priority. If the backup were to fail there would be an automatic switch to the 2nd backup.

“We are pleased to release this new live input framework”, says Peter Hajittofi CEO of coralbay.tv “It enables our customers who have chosen to work in IP to handle live events in almost the same way as they did in SDI. There’s also the added benefit of the degradable live input feature, which provides more resilience to input signal failures.”

About Coralbay.tv Ltd
Based in the United Kingdom, coralbay.tv offers next-generation real-time playout, workflow and media preparation solutions. All products are cloud-native and are a suite of microservices that are containerized using docker and deployed and orchestrated using Kubernetes. They are optimized to take advantage of the inherent elasticity, redundancy and flexibility that hosting in the cloud offers. Systems can be hosted in any public cloud as well as on-premises.

Media Contact Details
Gavin Smith, coralbay.tv
London, United Kingdom
+44 113 873 0002
gavin.smith@coralbay.tv