Video Stitching Service Peak Bit Rate Estimation
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Solution Overview
Problem
The HLS protocol faces challenges in accurately determining and managing the peak segment bit rate for live and VOD content, leading to potential issues with playback quality and rebuffering, especially when combining different content sources like primary and advertising streams, which have varying bit rate constraints.
Innovation Solution
Implementing techniques to estimate the peak segment bit rate for both live and VOD content and harmonizing the BANDWIDTH tag values by ensuring the peak bit rate of inserted VOD content conforms to the constraints set by the live content, using logic within the video stitching service to generate playlists that align the bit rates and prevent rebuffering.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the BANDWIDTH tag value is set too high for live content, then the media player can operate more conservatively and avoid rebuffering, but the time required to begin playback increases and visual quality may be reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary analysis of live content to estimate the peak bit rate before streaming begins. By pre-calculating the BANDWIDTH tag value based on content characteristics and historical data, the system avoids the need to set an excessively high conservative value, thereby reducing playback start time while still preventing rebuffering events.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements a feedback mechanism that continuously monitors actual bit rate consumption during playback and dynamically adjusts the BANDWIDTH tag value. This allows the media player to optimize its buffering strategy in real-time, achieving reliable playback without requiring an initially overly conservative bandwidth setting that would delay playback start.
2Loss of time
If the BANDWIDTH tag value is set too low for live content, then playback can start quickly, but rebuffering events increase due to improper anticipation of peak bit rate
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary analysis of live content to estimate the peak bit rate before streaming begins. By pre-calculating the BANDWIDTH tag value based on content characteristics and historical data, the system avoids the need to set an excessively high conservative value, thereby reducing playback start time while still preventing rebuffering events.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements a feedback mechanism that continuously monitors actual bit rate consumption during playback and dynamically adjusts the BANDWIDTH tag value. This allows the media player to optimize its buffering strategy in real-time, achieving reliable playback without requiring an initially overly conservative bandwidth setting that would delay playback start.
3Adaptability or versatility
If VOD content with different bit rate constraints is inserted into live streaming sessions, then content variety is improved, but bit rate constraint violations occur leading to playback issues
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically adjusts the BANDWIDTH tag value based on the content type being played. When VOD content is inserted into a live streaming session, the system detects the content type and modifies the bandwidth parameter accordingly, allowing VOD content with different bit rate characteristics to be seamlessly integrated without violating constraint requirements.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements dynamic bandwidth management where the BANDWIDTH tag value is not fixed but adapts in real-time based on the content being streamed. This allows the system to handle mixed content types (live and VOD) with different bit rate constraints by continuously adjusting the bandwidth parameter to match the current content requirements.
Data Source
AI summary
Methods and apparatus are described for estimating the peak bit rate for content and specifying the BANDWIDTH tag value for HLS content. This disclosure also describes techniques by which live content and VOD content can be stitched together in a way that harmonizes the different requirements for the BANDWIDTH tag for the different types of content.