On-Demand Signaling Server

The On-Demand Signaling Server is a sophisticated software application packaged in a single RU server that manages and controls the On-Demand Transcoding operations and workflows supporting a single or cluster of RipCode transcoding appliances. The On-Demand Signaling Server interfaces directly with the web services layer providing back-end intelligence to route On-Demand transcode requests to available RipCode transcode appliances, balancing the workload and ensuring the On-Demand Transcoding application is always available by delivering fail over and redundancy capabilities.

The On-Demand Signaling Server provides customers with a more efficient video transcoding environment that fully optimizes the power of the RipCode appliance and allows customers to easily scale the processing capacity of the On-Demand Transcoding solution by simply adding more appliances as additional processing power is needed.

Through a patent-pending content caching technique, the On-Demand Signaling Server gives operators the ability to retain recently transcoded content in cache for subsequent requests. This enables another request for the same video to immediately be delivered to the user without re-transcoding. And, in the event of duplicate requests RipCode’s On-Demand Signaling Server will instruct the RipCode Transcoding Appliance to begin delivering multiple streams or downloads even while the content is still in the process of transcoding.

The On-Demand Signaling Server also interfaces directly with RipCode’s Client Detection and Ad Selection applications giving customers options to enhance the On-Demand Transcoding solution for their specific needs.

On-Demand Signaling Server Advantages

Load Balancing and Transcode Management - manages and controls on-demand transcoding operations and workflows, supporting a single or cluster of RipCode transcoding appliances; delivering multiple simultaneous streams
Low Latency Delivery - notifies the RipCode transcoding appliance to immediately begin streaming or downloading a file once the first frame is transcoded
Content Distribution - once a transcode is complete, provides notification of file availability and stores content as cache for future distribution upon subsequent requests via HTTP
Application Integration - provides integration with a full set of RipCode on-demand transcoding or third-party applications via intuitive XML-based API

RipCode On-Demand Signaling Server Cluster Management Functionality

File-to-File Transcoding - provides a set of XML APIs that enable an application to request On-Demand file-to-file transcodes
Streaming of Transcoded Files to Mobile Handsets, PCs or IPTV - provides streaming workflow management across multiple applications
Cache Management - manages various types of content including transcoded files, SDP files, advertisement clips, unique RTSP URL folders
Cluster Load Balancing - responsible for balancing workload across all transcoding appliances in the cluster based on demand
Cluster Workflow Configuration - workflow cluster configuration is easily performed via the Web UI configuration tabs
Cluster Software Update - provides the capability to update software across a cluster of transcoding appliances
Cluster Database Backup/Restore - manages backup of the Cluster Workflow Configuration Database to a remote TFTP server
On-Demand Signaling Server Failover - one or more standby On-Demand Signaling Server appliances can be installed per On-Demand cluster providing a warm failover capability