Diving in Deep with Digital Rapids Kayak and Azure Media Services

当我们讲到 Windows Azure媒体服务 at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) show a month ago, one partnership highlighted in the mock-up demonstration that caught our eye was 数字急流” 新皮艇技术.

在本周的流媒体东部展上, 我们问迈克·南, Digital Rapids市场总监, 来扩展一下Kayak和Azure之间的关系.

“在逮捕, we demonstrated our solutions working with Windows Azure媒体服务 in two different ways,南说。. “一种方式是在Transcode Manager的背景下, and one is in the context of the Kayak workflow platform itself. While Kayak is our new workflow platform, Transcode Manager 2.0 is a specific solution built on the much-broader Kayak platform that can also run on Windows Azure."

Nann explains that Digital Rapids sees the tie-in to AMS taking on two forms when Transcode Manager 2.0 and Azure Media Services (AMS) are both launched later this calendar year.

"The first way we integrate with Windows Azure is what we'd refer to as the 'built-on' approach,南说。. "Windows Azure媒体服务 enables Transcode Manager 2.0 to launch Kayak-based transcoding engines in the cloud as an extension of on-premises processing capacity. This provides dynamic and elastic compute power and resources that Transcode Manager 2.0可以用来完成任务."

第二种形式, 南恩称之为“内置”方法, offers a broader exposure to Kayak beyond the typical Digital Rapids customer.

"With Kayak's workflow and media processing capabilities 'built-in' under the Windows Azure媒体服务 umbrella of services, we are able to make our technologies accessible to Microsoft customers and ecosystem partners for creating their own cloud-based applications,南说。. 正如NAB所预测的那样, users building solutions on Windows Azure can select Kayak engines for the media processing workflow, alongside other third-party technologies -- such as DRM -- available within Windows Azure媒体服务."

使用Kayak平台, Nann says that Digital Rapids has introduced a workflow platform that is incredibly modular and granular.

“每个功能都被分解成离散的组件, 每个代表一个特定的动作,南说。. “这些功能可能是像‘编码到H’这样的东西.264', “紫外多路复用”, “应用DRM #7”, 'send an e-mail notification' or 'decode format #9' in any order the workflow demands. There will literally be hundreds of such components -- most our own, 再加上许多第三方——在幕后, although the typical user will be largely abstracted from that set of choices to make it simpler."

南所指的抽象概念是, 在某些方面, similar to the hardware abstraction layer (HAL) that is used by complex computing systems to allow for simple tasks, 比如在笔记本电脑上看DVD. Yet Kayak performs both a HAL and a software abstraction layer to allow business rules to be converted in to performance requests without necessarily requiring an expertise in the performance areas that high-performance computing solutions like Azure might add to the mix.

So is the component catalog just a glorified set of presets, like other transcoding solutions offer? Nann says that transcoding is just one part of the larger workflow, 这些组成部分包含了实际的行动.

“预设并不是一个准确的描述，”南说. "A preset implies, in my opinion, an easier way to access functionality that exists within software. 例如，预设编码H.264 for Blu-ray means you don't have to manually configure the H.264编解码和多路复用的软件.

"In our case, the components aren't just presets to access the functionality," he added. “它们就是功能本身, 所以如果这个分量不存在, 你做不到, 手动与否."

Given this underlying functionality in the workflow-creation platform, Nann says one of 数字急流” main tasks after the NAB preview of Kayak is filling out the catalog of components for early customer adopters prior to general availability later this summer.

“转码管理器2.0目前处于预发布状态, and a number of existing and potential customers are already assessing it for production work using its current functionality -- in Kayak terminology, a particular set of components -- so that they can take advantage of that functional efficiencies even before the official ship date,南说。.

Expected to ship this summer with its full range of initial functionality, “转码管理器2.0's component set will always continue to grow to meet customer workflow demands,南说。.