Technologies and workflows behind the first live 4K stream from space

1. April 26, 2017
Reaching for the stars
Technologies and workflows behind the first live 4K stream from space

2. 2
TAKEAWAYS
 How we designed the workflow
 How we utilized ground and cloud solutions
 LIVE and Delta settings that optimized our final outcome
 Your 4K workflow
 Q&A

3. 3
Aug. 6, 2012: Going where no one had gone before
Curiosity Landing

4.  Getting an encoder into space
 Assuring failovers and redundancies every step of the way
 Testing, testing, testing – from live 4K signal tests with Station to
continual load testing with AWS
 Amount of data and maintaining the quality
 Last mile: bandwidth required for the 4K UHD stream
4
Zero G in 4K: The challenges

5. 5
Getting the Elemental Encoder into space
Initial discussion 20 months ago:
How do we get this on ISS in a smaller package?
Data Center class machine
Velcro to ISS “rack wall”

6. 6
Results

7. 7
Amount of data per frame is significantly larger
Courtesy: 4k.com

8. 8
Showtime!
So How Did We Do It?

9. 9
So how did we do it?

10. 10
International space station Setup

11. 11
International space station – Content Acquisition

12. 12
International space station – video encoding

13. 13
ISS to Johnson Space Center
18Mbps
JSC
ISS UHD ENCODING WORKFLOW
RED EPIC DRAGON
SOURCE
4K HEVC
Transport
Stream
AWS Elemental
LIVE
LIVE VIDEO PROCESSING
Small form factor system on-board the ISS
Quad 3G SDI

14. Johnson Space Center
14

15. Johnson Space Center
15
ISS
JOHNSON SPACE CENTER
4K Feed
HD Feed
BUILDING 30
18 Mbps
HD Video
with Audio
4K Video
H.265/UDP
LVCC
Audio
4K
Baseband
HDMI
Combined
Audio
BUILDING 8
T21
Decoder
Decode with Audio Delay
HOUSTON ACR (BUILDING 2)
POTS
HD-SDI
Embedded
Audio with
Delay
AWS Elemental LIVE
AWS Elemental LIVE
Las Vegas Convention Center

16. Johnson Space Center to Las Vegas Convention Center
16

17. Johnson Space Center to Las Vegas Convention Center
17

18. 18
Testing …

19. 19
Testing … and more testing!

20. Las Vegas Convention Center
20
JOHNSON SPACE CENTER LAS VEGAS CONVENTION CENTER
AWS Elemental
LIVE
ENCOMPASS ATLANTA
SATELLITE ROBERTS COMMUNICATIONS TRUCK
Decoder
Decoder
AWS Elemental
LIVE
AWS Elemental
LIVE
4K Projection
Dedicated Fiber
HEVC UDP
POTS
Dedicated Fiber
HEVC UDP
AWS Elemental
LIVE

21. “Mission control”
21

22. NAB 2017: super session
22

23. Las vegas Convention Center - Output
23

24. NAB 2017: super session
24
426x240@528kbps (400k video+128k AAC Audio) - SD
640x360@928kbps (800k video+128k AAC audio) - SD
960x540@1,628kbps (1500k video+128k AAC audio) - SD
1280x720@3,628kbps (3,500k video+128k AAC audio) - HD
1920x1080@5,628kbps (5,500k video+128k AAC audio) - HD
2560x1440@12,128kbps (12,000k video+128k AAC audio) - UHD
3840x2160@18,128kbps (18,000k video+128k AAC audio) – 4K
Streaming Profile
HLS H.264 30fps

25. AWS delivery tools
25
AMAZON WEB SERVICES CLOUD
Amazon
ROUTE 53
DESCRIPTION
NETWORK
Amazon
CLOUDFRONT
DESCRIPTION
REGIONAL EDGE CACHES
Amazon
ELASTIC LOAD
BALANCER
OREGON REGION
AWS Elemental DELTA
Amazon
ELASTIC LOAD
BALANCER
CALIFORNIA REGION
AWS Elemental DELTA
Amazon
CLOUDFRONT
DESCRIPTION
CDN

26. Architecture plan for Streaming the Show
26
More detailed view of our AWS architecture

27. Bandwidth Consumption to Delta
27
Bandwidth Questions… Are we going to have enough?

28. Bandwidth Consumption to Delta – changes
28
Bandwidth Questions… NONE

29. Bandwidth Consumption From Delta
29
As the show started

30. Egress bandwidth from Delta
30
Egress traffic during the show

31. highlights
31

32. Highlights
32

33. Highlights
33

34. 34
A perfect show!
 “This is awesome. The closest the general
population can get to something like this is at
planetariums, which show video with grainy
quality.” –
Monica Daniel, film editor (Las Vegas Review-Journal)

35. 35
A perfect show!

36. 36
Viewable on Amazon Prime Video

37. 37
EXAMPLE 4K WORKFLOWS
On-Premises Cloud Deployment
S3 storage
Live-to-VOD & JITP
Live
Input
CDN
Amazon
CloudFront
Devices
SDI
IP
On-Premises
CDN
Amazon
CloudFront
DevicesLive
Input
SDI
IP
Direct
Connect
ISP

38. Takeaways
38
 Live 4K proven across space, ground and cloud systems
 A workflow that you too can utilize and customize for your operation
 Settings changes can go a long way: encoder optimization, chunked
transfer and segment sizes from encoder to JIP as a few examples
 Ensuring 4K is easily viewable for your audience by using H.264 for
final delivery and HEVC for internal movement of content.
 You can provide 4K content delivery as well!

39. Thank you
Josh Winstead – joshwin@elemental.com