Ingest (contribution) → Live encoder (ABR ladder) → Packager/Origin (makes HLS/DASH manifests + CMAF/fMP4 segments) → CDN → Player

  • Contribution protocols upstream: SRT/Zixi/RIST/RTMP/RTP(SDI/SMPTE-2110 in plant).
  • ABR ladder: multiple bitrates/resolutions, 2–6s segments (or chunked for LL).
  • SSAI: manipulate manifests server-side; use SCTE-35 → ad decisioning.

When to choose what

  • Need widest device support (iOS/tvOS) → HLS (CMAF/fMP4 preferred).
  • Multi-platform with standardization → DASH (CMAF/fMP4).
  • One pack, two protocols (simplify storage, multi-DRM) → CMAF.
  • Legacy/broadcast compatibility → TS HLS.
  • Lowest practical latency at scale → HLS LL or DASH LL with CMAF and small chunk durations, tuned CDN, and player that supports partial segment fetches.

Cloud services mapping (AWS / OCI / GCP)

Common building blocks across clouds:

  • Compute/orchestration for encoders/packagers (VMs, Kubernetes).
  • Object storage for segments/manifests (origin).
  • Managed packager/origin (optional).
  • CDN for global delivery.
  • Transcoding (VOD & live).
  • Observability (logs/metrics/traces).
  • Secrets/DRM key exchange (via partner key servers; CENC/SPEKE-like APIs).
  • Queues/streams for SSAI & real-time signals.

AWS

  • Live ingest/encode: Elemental MediaLive (or your own on EC2/EKS), MediaConnect for contribution (Zixi/RIST/SRT).
  • VOD/live transcode: MediaConvert.
  • Packager/origin: MediaPackage (HLS/DASH/CMAF, LL-HLS, DRM via SPEKE to partners).
  • Storage: S3 (+ S3 Transfer Acceleration).
  • CDN: CloudFront (origin shield, signed URLs, LL optimizations).
  • Observability: CloudWatch, OpenSearch, Kinesis.
  • Serverless/SSAI glue: Lambda, Step Functions, API Gateway.

Oracle Cloud (OCI)

  • Transcode/packaging: Media Flow (transcode/workflows), Media Streams (packager/origin for HLS/DASH + DRM with partners).
  • Compute/orchestration: Compute, OKE (Kubernetes).
  • Storage: Object Storage.
  • Edge: OCI CDN / WAF.
  • Integration: Functions, Streaming (event pipeline), Monitoring/Logging.

Google Cloud (GCP)

  • Transcoding: Transcoder API (VOD; used in many live pipelines via partners/custom encoders).
  • Origin/Storage: Cloud Storage.
  • CDN: Media CDN (edge HTTP/LL features, signed tokens).
  • Compute/orchestration: GCE, GKE, Cloud Run.
  • Observability: Cloud Monitoring/Logging, Pub/Sub for SSAI pipelines.
  • DRM: Integrate with Widevine license services (via partners) and multi-DRM key providers.

Practical tips

  • Aim for CMAF (fMP4) segments so you can serve both HLS and DASH from one mezzanine; choose cbcs to satisfy HLS FairPlay.
  • Latency is mostly a function of: chunk/segment duration, player buffer, CDN caching/TTFB, and playlist update cadence. For LL, use partial segments/preload hints (HLS) or chunked transfer (DASH) + tuned CDN.
  • SSAI: carry SCTE-35 from contribution → map to HLS (ID3/DATERANGE) or DASH (EventStream), do manifest conditioning at the origin/edge.
  • Captions: prefer IMSC1 for rich features; keep WebVTT for broad HLS compatibility.