Table of Content

1. Introduction

2. Setup Origin Server

• Microsoft Azure Media Services (AMS) As Origin
• VIDIZMO Streaming Server As Origin
• Wowza, Multicast or Other Streaming Servers As Origin

3. Setup Locations

4. Origin Server (ECDN) Health

5. Setup Publishing Point

6. Push Stream Using Wirecast

1. Introduction

CDN or Content Distribution Networks are used to improve user experience and for the users to achieve efficiency in their network resource utilization. CDN or ECDN (Enterprise Content Distribution Networks) is a globally distributed network of servers deployed for the purpose of faster content delivery by replicating the digital content across all the servers in the ECDN. The digital content is then available in many places all at once and when a user accesses it, the content from the nearest server is delivered to the user.

VIDIZMO uses the ECDN to distribute Live as well as On-Demand video content. It is important to mention here that VIDIZMO ECDN caches and locally serves only those files that can be published in the VIDIZMO application.

To learn more about ECDN, click here on Understanding VIDIZMO ECDN.

2. Setup Origin Server

Steps

1. In VIDIZMO, Origin Servers and Edge Nodes can be setup from the ECDN tab. The ECDN screen also has a Quick Help section on the right-hand side to help you understand what each field represents.

Note: ECDN setup is a one-time setup and does not require additional configuration unless you plan to add another node, in which case, you will have to configure the settings specific to the node (Edge) being setup.

Quick Help  

To setup an Origin, click on Admin from the top menu bar and go to Control Panel:

1. Select the ECDN tab, and then 

2. Click on the Add ECDN button.

2. Provide the information for the Origin you are setting up

VIDIZMO Application has provided some pre-configured options in this dropdown to select from if you are using any other Stream Server. VIDIZMO will then automatically show only those fields which are required for the configuration of the selected Streaming Server. In addition to these, a "General" option is also available which allows you to provide a Streaming URL only and setup your Origin Server.

The pre-configured options in the dropdown are shown in the image below:

Here is a description of each field that show up against the selected Streaming Server:

Microsoft Azure Media Services (AMS) As Origin

The following fields are displayed when Azure Media Services is selected from the dropdown as the Stream Server:

• Title:  This is a mandatory field. Enter a name for the ECDN and this name will show up in the dropdown when setting up Publishing Point. 
• Login: Not applicable here. This field is used to provide login credentials if authentication is required.
• Password: When AMS is selected as the streaming server, it requires an Account Key, which is provided here. 
• Streaming Server Type:  Depending upon the way the ECDN Server will perform, select Origin or Edge option from the dropdown. The field shows Origin by default when AMS is selected. 
• Access Token:   Not applicable here.
• Location: Not applicable here.
• Publishing Point Type: Not applicable here.
• API Server Address: AMS also provides Media Services for Azure Government Cloud. If Azure Government Cloud is used, you will have to provide API Server Address in this field. 
• Streaming URL: This is a mandatory field. Enter the URL from where the stream will be pulled. Make sure to use the complete URL including the "http://" e.g. "http://192.168.1.116", otherwise the field will give you an Invalid URL message. 
• Accessible to VIDIZMO: Not applicable here.
• Origin: Not applicable here.
• Server: Provides connection information of the Streaming Server. Provide the service name when Azure Media Services is used as the Streaming Server.

• Enable Stream Type: Select the appropriate check box to enable HLS, HDS, MDASH, MSS stream. 

Enable HLS/MSS/RTMP options allows you to target different devices. These options may or may not be available depending on the streaming server used. Click on the Show Advanced link to list all options for the selected server.
Microsoft Azure Media Services (AMS)
When the Azure Media Services streaming server is used to set up a publishing point, the following options are displayed:
  - Enable HLS
  - Enable HDS
  - Enable MDASH
HLS, HDS, and MDASH are not applicable here.

• Enable Channel
  Clicking on the "Show Advanced" link expands the Enable Channel settings. Keep the default settings here, unless a specific selection is required. 

Following are the advanced options for the Enable Channel feature:

- Encoding Type:

Options: Standard, Pass-Through
Standard Channel transcodes live input stream using configured Encoding Preset. Pass-Through, on the other hand, does not process input stream. Standard also shuts down after 12 hours of inactivity while Pass-Through does not.

Also, ensure that Pass-Through is selected when setting up ECDN for Azure Government Cloud.

- Encoder:

Select between Standard and Premium Encoder to use for transcoding live input stream. 

When setting up Azure Government Cloud ECDN in VIDIZMO, the Encoder should be set to "Standard" because it will use Media Services to encode your single bitrate live stream to multi-bitrate live stream. 

Specify "None" if you plan to use an on-premise live encoder to output multi-bitrate stream so that the incoming stream is passed through to the output without any encoding.

Note: In Azure, there is a billing impact for live encoding and the AMS Channel should not be left in "Running" state. Avoid being charged extra by stopping your running Channels immediately after your live event has ended.

- Encoding Preset
Options: Default 720p

Specifies the preset to be used by the live encoder within this Channel. Currently, the only allowed value is Default 720p (default). For custom presets, you should contact AMS Live at Microsoft.com. This is applicable only in case of Standard Channel.

- Ingest Protocol:

Options: RTMP/ RTPmpeg2ts/ Fragmentedmp4

Ingest Protocol for the input stream. In the case of Pass-Through Channel, it is always set to RTMP.

- Allowed IP for Ingest:
You can define the IP addresses that are allowed to publish video to this channel. Allowed IP addresses can be specified as either a single IP address (e.g. 10.0.0.1), an IP range using an IP address and a CIDR subnet mask (e.g. 10.0.0.1/22), or an IP range using an IP address and a dotted decimal subnet mask (e.g. 10.0.0.1(255.255.252.0)).

- Allowed IP for Preview:
You can define the IP addresses that are allowed to connect to the preview endpoint. If no IP addresses are specified, any IP address will be allowed. Allowed IP addresses can be specified as either a single IP address (e.g. 10.0.0.1), an IP range using an IP address and a CIDR subnet mask (e.g. 10.0.0.1/22), or an IP range using an IP address and a dotted decimal subnet mask (e.g. 10.0.0.1(255.255.252.0)).

- Fragment per Segment:
Options: 1 to 5

You can change the fragments per segment ratio by configuring channel’s output and setting Fragments Per Segment on Channel Output HLS.

- Program Duration:
Options: 1 to 25

You can specify the number of hours you want to retain the recorded content for the program by setting the Archive Window length. Archive window length also dictates the maximum amount of time clients can seek back in time from the current live position. Programs can run over the specified amount of time, but content that falls behind the window length is continuously discarded. This value of this property also determines how long the client manifests can grow.

VIDIZMO Streaming Server As Origin

The following fields are displayed when VIDIZMO Streaming Server is selected from the dropdown as the Stream Server:

1. & 2. On the top, use the checkboxes to select "Enable On-Demand Caching," "Enable Live Streaming" or both, depending on how you would like your ECDN to perform.

- Enable On-Demand Caching: This option allows you to cache On-Demand content.

- Enable Live Streaming: By selecting this option, you will be able to use this ECDN for Live Streaming.

3. Stream Server: Select VIDIZMO Streaming Server as your Stream Server from the drop-down menu. 

4. Title: Enter a name for the ECDN. This name will show up in the dropdown when setting up Publishing Point. This is a mandatory field.

5. Access Token: The Access Token gets generated automatically here when the ECDN is setup and is used to activate the ECDN. 

6. Recording Folder: Provide the location where you would like to save the recorded content. This is used to define the storage location for server-side recordings and is applicable only when you select the VIDIZMO Streaming Server. This is a mandatory field. The location folder defined here should match with the actual location of "CDN" folder, otherwise, the ECDN node you are setting up will not work.

7. Streaming Server Type: Depending upon the way the ECDN Server will perform, select Origin or Edge option from the dropdown.

8. Location: If a location was setup previously from the Admin >> Control Panel >> Manage Locations tab, it will show up here in the dropdown. Select an appropriate location for your ECDN.

9. Publishing Point Type: Select Push or Pull type Publishing Point, based on how the stream will be treated. Selecting Pull will fetch the video stream from a remote server, while the Push type expects a video stream to be provided to it.

10. Streaming URL: The URL from where the stream will be pulled. Make sure to use the complete URL including the "http://" e.g. "http://192.168.1.116", otherwise the field will give you an Invalid URL message. This is a mandatory field.

11. Accessible to VIDIZMO: Selecting the checkbox tells VIDIZMO if the streaming server is accessible to VIDIZMO on the network. If it is, VIDIZMO will try to connect to the Streaming Server when a publishing point is set up.

12. Port: Enter the port used by VIDIZMO Streaming Service deployed on Streaming Server. The default port used by the service is 7777. This is a mandatory field.

13. Origin: If you are configuring an Edge Node, select the Origin for it from the dropdown list, otherwise you will not be able to save the information and the Save button will show up as grayed out.

14. Server: Provide an IP of the server from where the stream will be pulled. This is a mandatory field and lets you provide connection information of the Streaming Server. Use IP Address/FQDN when VIDIZMO Streaming Server is used.

15. Quality: Select appropriate qualities to generate corresponding ingest points on the Publishing Point screen.

16. Enable Stream Type: As shown in the image above, select the appropriate check box to enable HLS, MSS, Multicast Playback, or an RMTP stream.

Using the arrow icon ">" or the "Show Advanced" link against each option, to further setup how the stream will be handled by the ECDN:

- Enable HLS

- Keep Alive:
Options: 1, 2, 3

If true, the stream will attempt to reconnect if the connection is severed. Select a number corresponding to the number of attempts to make.

- Overwrite Destination:
Options: True/ False

If true, it will force overwrite of destination files, provided forced overwrite was enabled during HLS creation.

- State Retention Count:
Options: 10, 15, 25, 50

The number of old files kept beside the ones listed in the current version of the playlist. Only applicable for rolling playlists.

- Create Master Playlist:
Options: True/ False

If true, a master playlist is created. It is always set to True.

- CleanUp Destination:
Options: True/ False

If true, all *.ts and *.m3u8 files in the target folder will be removed before HLS creation is started.

- Playlist Type:
Options: Appending/ Rolling

Select the playlist type as either "Appending" or "Rolling". 

Appending playlist will create a playlist continuously while rolling playlist will depend on the playList Length.

- Playlist Length:
Options: 5, 10, 20, 50

The length (number of elements) of the playlist. Used only for "rolling" playlist type, otherwise ignored.

- Playlist Name:
The filename of the playlist (*.m3u8). For HMS it is .imc.

- Chunk Length:
Options: 1, 5, 10-60

The length (in seconds) of each playlist element (*.ts file). The minimum value is 1 (second).

- Chunk Base Name:
The base name or prefix used for naming the output HLS chunks.

- Chunk on IDR:
Options: True/ False

If true, chunking is performed ONLY on IDR. Otherwise, chunking is performed whenever chunk length is achieved.

- DRM Type:
Options: None/ EVO/ Verimatrix

Sets the type of DRM encryption to use.  Options are: None (no encryption), Evo (AES Encryption), SAMPLE-AES (Sample-AES), Verimatrix (Verimatrix DRM). For Verimatrix DRM, the “DRM” section of the config.lua file must be active and properly configured.

- AES Account Key:
Options: 0, 5, 10

Specifies the number of keys that will be automatically generated and rotated over while encrypting this HLS stream.

- Enable MSS

- Keep Alive:
Options: 1, 2, 3

If true, the stream will attempt to reconnect if the connection is severed. Select a number corresponding to the number of attempts to make.

- Overwrite Destination:
Options: True/ False

If true, it will force overwrite of destination files, provided forced overwrite was enabled during HLS creation.

- State Retention Count:
Options: 10, 15, 25, 50

The number of old files kept beside the ones listed in the current version of the playlist. Only applicable for rolling playlists.

- CleanUp Destination:
Options: True/ False

If true, all *.ts and *.m3u8 files in the target folder will be removed before HLS creation is started.

- Playlist Type:
Options: Appending/ Rolling

Select the playlist type as either "Appending" or "Rolling". 

Appending playlist will create a playlist continuously while rolling playlist will depend on the playList Length.

- Playlist Length:
Options: 5, 10, 20, 50

The length (number of elements) of the playlist. Used only for "rolling" playlist ype, otherwise ignored.

- Manifest Name:
The file name of the manifest (*.m3u8). For HMS the file type is ".imc".

- Chunk Length:
Options: 1, 5, 10-60

The length (in seconds) of each playlist element (*.ts file). The minimum value is 1 (second).

- Chunk on IDR: 
Options: True/ False

If true, chunking is performed ONLY on IDR. Otherwise, chunking is performed whenever chunk length is achieved.

- Enable Multicast Playback

Enable Multicast Playback has only one field for providing the URL of the playback stream.

- Enable RTMP

- Keep Alive:
Options: 1, 2, 3

If true, the stream will attempt to reconnect if the connection is severed. Select a number corresponding to the number of attempts to make.

- TOS:
Options: 1-7

Sets the IP_TOS (Type of Service) option on the socket.

- TTL:
Options: 1-25

Sets the IP_TTL (time to live) option on the socket.

- RTMP Absolute Time Stamps:
Options: True/ False

Forces the timestamps to be absolute when using RTMP.
RTMP time stamp can be divided into the absolute time stamp and relative time stamp to record the time information of the audio and video. Relative time stamp refers to the time interval between the two RTMP packets. While the absolute time stamp refers to the current packet transmission time.

- SWF URL:
The location of the Flash Client that is generating the stream (if any). When specified, this value will be used to set the originating SWF URL in the initial RTMP connect invoke.

- Page URL:
A link to the page that originated the request (often unused). When specified, this value will be used to set the originating web page address in the initial RTMP connect invoke.

- TC URL:
An RTMP parameter that is essentially a copy of the URL. When specified, this value will be used to set the TC URL in the initial RTMP connect invoke.

Wowza/ Amazon/ Akamai/ Edgecast/ Multicast As Origin

A "General" settings option is available to define any streaming server by providing the following details:

• Stream Server: Select General, Wowza, Amazon, Akamai, Edgecast or Multicast. 
• Title:  This is a mandatory field. Enter a name for the ECDN and this name will show up in the dropdown when setting up Publishing Point. 
• Streaming Server Type:  Depending upon the way the ECDN Server will perform, select Origin or Edge option from the dropdown.
• Origin: If the VIDIZMO Streaming Server is not the Origin, select Origin from the available servers in the dropdown.
• Location: Optional field. Select from the available locations in the dropdown   to bind the ECDN to a specific location.                
• Streaming URL: This is a mandatory field. Enter the URL from where the stream will be pulled. Make sure to use the complete URL including the "http://" e.g. "http://192.168.1.116", otherwise the field will give you an Invalid URL message.
• Enable Stream Type: Here, select the appropriate checkbox to enable HLS, MSS  and RTMP stream. For Edgecast Streaming Server type, you can also enable Multicast Playback but for Multicast, you just have Multicast Playback and Multicast Ingest URL option.

The example below shows settings when Wowza is used as the Origin:

i. & ii. Navigate to the ECDN Edit screen from Admin >> Control Panel >> ECDN >> Add ECDN

iii. Enter only the Server URL (Host Server in Wowza).

iv. Select Enable HLS and expand the Advanced Settings. In this Playback URL field, enter the complete URL from Wowza's Playback URL as shown in the example below. VIDIZMO Player uses this information from Wowza to generate the URL for media playback.

Once all the information has been provided, click on the Save button to add the new ECDN. 

3. Once the information has been saved, click on the ECDN tab:

1. A new ECDN appears in the list.

2. The Heartline icon is grayed out. This indicates that the server is not healthy.

3. Use the Chain Link icon to open the Edge Client where the ECDN has been set up.

If the ECDN has been set up on a new Server, you will first have to activate the VIDIZMO Software. 

The ECDN also needs to be activated using an Authentication Key, which is generated automatically when the ECDN is setup. This Key is used to activate and to make the ECDN healthy.

3. Setup Locations

Locations are useful for customers with a large audience spread over multiple regions, for overcoming bandwidth challenges or if a specific range of IP addresses is to be served during Live or On-Demand Streaming. VIDIZMO Edge Servers can optionally be bound to locations, which are in turn linked to specific IP ranges defined in their Subnets for this purpose.

To learn more about how locations work, click here on Understanding Locations.

To learn how to set up locations, click here on How To Setup Locations.

4. Origin Server (ECDN) Health

2. Once you are successfully logged in, enter the Authentication Key during ECDN setup and enter it in the ECDN Token field. Then click on the Submit button.

3. Upon successful activation, the Edit ECDN screen will come up. If required, review and edit the information.

4. Navigate to the ECDN tab by clicking on Admin >> Control Panel from the top menu bar, then select ECDN. The health indicator next to the ECDN shows up as green, indicating its active/healthy state.

5. Setup Publishing Point

A Publishing point refers to the physical location of the streaming server that the live video feed is first delivered to (ingest) via encoder and the playback URLs the VIDIZMO player uses to playback live stream (egress), effectively hosting the stream for all viewers. A publishing point allows you to fine tune and re-use your Playback URLs for frequent live events.

Click here to learn on How To Setup Publishing Point For Live Streaming In VIDIZMO.

6. Push Stream Using Wirecast

To learn more, click on How to Capture Live Streams Using Wirecast.

If the configurations have been set up correctly, the stream will be pushed successfully from the ECDN.

Permissions

Subject: Content Server

Action: Get, Add, Update, Delete

Subject: Location

Action: Get, Add, Update, Delete

Roles

Administrator, Manager