Ingestion

Ingestion brings media into Media Server so that it can be processed. For example, if you ingest video then Media Server must extract the video and audio from the container and decode the streams so that they can be analyzed and transcoded.

Your configuration must include exactly one ingest task. For example:

[Session]
Engine0=Ingest

[Ingest]
Type=Video

This example has a task named Ingest. The engine used to complete the task is specified by the Type parameter, in this case the Video ingest engine. Notice that no source file or stream is specified in the configuration. You provide the path of a file or the URL of a stream to Media Server in the Process action when you start processing.

Ingest engines produce one or more image tracks and possibly audio tracks:

  • Each image track is named taskName.Image_n, where taskName is the name of the task and n is a unique number. Tracks are numbered from 1.
  • Each audio track is named taskName.Audio_lang_n, where taskName is the name of the task, lang is the language, and n is a unique number. If the language is unknown, each track is named Audio__n (note the double underscore), where n is a unique number. The tracks are numbered from 1.

For example, if you ingest video from a TV broadcast, Media Server might produce an image track named taskName.Image_1, and three audio tracks: taskName.Audio_French_1, taskName.Audio_English_2, and taskName.Audio_German_3.

When you configure Media Server, the first image track produced by the ingest task can be specified by the alias Default_Image. The first audio track produced by an ingest engine can be specified by the alias Default_Audio.