This IS the Avid L2: Re: [Avid-L2] Re: remote client viewing?

Thursday, January 21, 2016

Re: [Avid-L2] Re: remote client viewing?

I'm in crunch mode, and will be for the next three or four weeks, but let me quickly address some of your questions:

The HDMI output of your I/O interface connects to the Slingbox HDMI input. The Slingbox also has an HDMI passthrough output for connecting to a local monitor -- however, I have not tested the signal integrity of that output. Slingbox is known to occasionally have problems with consumer-based HDCP -- but your interface will not be asking for that handshake -- so it shouldn't be a problem.

I have tested the Slingbox with a variety of Media Composer project types (raster sizes and frame rates) using Avid Mojo DX, AJA IO4K and AJA T-Tap interfaces, and have not had a problem. However, one does need to remember that the Slingbox is a consumer device that expects to see at its HDMI input a raster/frame rate combination that would typically originate from cable boxes, satellite boxes, Roku boxes, DVD players and Bluray players. For that reason, it is very possible that feeding it a 60 Hz computer graphics card output while running Media Composer in Full Screen Mode is possibly going to be problematic. However, you could certainly test this.

The client see a full screen of the video, and in some instances, I believe local caching with a DVR-type control is possible -- although I have not played with this. The client is also able to see remote controls for the consumer device that is connected to the Slingbox (cable box, satellite box, etc) -- but those can be hidden or disabled. Obviously, there will be latency between what is generated by your editing platform -- and what the client sees. And that latency will largely depend on the bandwidth and number of hops related to the connection. You will want to test this.

The color rendition of the box is serviceable, as are the compression artifacts. However, adequate bandwidth on both the transmission and receiving sides is critical to achieving good results. The audio quality is not bad -- but it could be better. I would qualify it too as serviceable.

Running the Slingbox within one's LAN is obviously the best possible scenario in terms of seeing what the box is capable of doing. When I do that at the "High Quality" setting (which is selected by the client app) the stream usually consumes 5-6 Mb/s. It's definitely not at the same level as a professional dedicated streaming device that allows for saturating the available data pipe -- but it isn't priced that way either.

You have to remember that you are not using a CDN or a live streaming service that has multiple, global points-of-presence all connected by a fat backbone -- but you are also not paying for an expensive bucket of Akamai bandwidth or a paying for a monthly streaming account. You are also not paying for multiple instances of Flash or Wowza Servers -- or saddled with the headaches of provisioning those adaptive streams. I believe Google live streaming is free, but my clients would never allow Google to have access to their media -- password protected or not)

The Slingbox is registered with the Slingbox website and uses a form of NAT traversal to allow the device to be accessed from within the Local Area Network -- or externally from the Web. This works well even when the Slingbox is behind one or more firewalls, however best practices suggest placing the Slingbox as close to your modem as possible. I keep mine behind one level of firewall, but frankly, there's nothing for the outside world to hack -- there's not even an internal admin page.

Slingbox is a point-to-point topology with no cost basis other than the cost of the device -- plus what your ISP charges you (or your viewer) for bandwidth. The number of hops that your stream takes makes a difference -- so it's best to minimize what little you can control.

The best way to administer the device is to create a number of your own "Guest Accounts" and then selectively hand out those email/passwords combinations to individual clients. You can then grant access to your Slingbox to those specific guests on an as-needed basis -- without the concern that an unauthorized guest will hijack a stream that they should not have access to (e.g.: think Coke and Pepsi clients).

If this sound interesting, you might consider buying a Slingbox 500 from an Amazon-type retailer that will easily allow returns. Spend some time with the box, test the audio and video quality with the Media Composer project types you are using, get some feedback from clients using the various platform apps, and consider how you would want to administer it.

As repeatedly mentioned, this is absolutely not a professional streaming server device -- not in any way, shape or form. It is a dumb and inexpensive consumer device that might provide enough functionality to satisfy some clients looking for a more collaborative viewing experience. At the end of the day, you will need to be the judge regarding its utility in your specific workflow.

---In Avid-L2@yahoogroups.com, <terrydop@...> wrote :

Thank you for the suggestions. I'm not familiar with Slingbox and curious about the specifics of how you set yours up. Are you taking the HDMI output of your interface? What does the client actually see? Does it register itself with a Slingbox service so the box can be discoverable from outside your network? For $300, it sounds like a potentially great solution.

-Terry

> On Jan 19, 2016, at 9:03 PM, blafarm@... [Avid-L2] <Avid-L2@yahoogroups.com> wrote:
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> I've experimented with a number of solutions, from expensive dedicated turnkey products coupled with major CDNs -- to labor intensive 'roll your own" solutions that require building-out your own web-based video infrastructure.
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> At the end of the day, the cheapest, easiest to administer, and most flexible solution ended-up being a Slingbox 500. The stream is encrypted (one viewer at a time), there are free player apps for every imaginable desktop or mobile device platform, and the system natively supports adaptive streaming -- which automatically throttles the stream bitrate to match the connection bandwidth.
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> Are there better systems out there -- hell yeah, there are!
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> But a Slingbox 500 is essentially a dumb appliance that can get the job done with little-to-no distraction from what you do for a living -- namely editing.
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