We are proud to announce the launch of our new video hosting service, fully based on Amazon Web Services and using Video.JS player.
Kinow offers a complete chain of fully automated and cloud-based video file ingestion, including transcoding, storage and delivery (CDN).
1.Video transcoding
Kinow offers the ingestion of video files from the admin panel (drag&drop) or automatically via upload on an S3 bucket.
Kinow is agnostic about the input format sent: master file IMF/DCP or classic formats MP4/MOV/MKV.
The transcoding service will then handle all the workflow: assets generation, DRM insertion and packaging in adaptive-streaming (DASH/HLS).
It’s possible to automate the source files delivery workflow by using a watch folder (S3 bucket) to automatically start transcoding and assets storage operations.
2. Transcoding presets
AWS Elemental handles transcoding, making it possible to massively encode an unlimited number of files via parallel tasks and without any scalability issues, regardless of the size of the source file, in several output assets.
The maximum resolution goes up to UHD/HDR (3840x2160), through 4:3 or 16:9 format.
We use the following output codecs:
- AVC (H264) for OTT web or set-top box
- HEVC (H265) for natives and compatibles players
It’s possible to have as many output formats as needed. For optimal adaptive-streaming playback, we recommend at least 5 different profiles, which can be set on the fly from the admin panel.
3. DRM protection
We provide video encryption during the transcoding processes allowing for content protection via standard DRM (AES 128 with Clearkey) or « Hollywood-grade » (Widevine, PlayReady, Fairplay).
Here is the available configuration with Dash and HLS containers:
- HLS/AES 128 for all devices/browsers
- Dash/Widevine for Chrome/Firefox browsers & Android applications
- Dash/PlayReady for Windows applications
- HLS/Fairplay for Safari browser & iOS application
4. Audio
The transcoding provides multiple audio channels (5.1) with Dolby Digital codec. The use of Dolby Digital+ (13.1) is possible but needs a paid license for each play/download.
5. Storage and delivery
Kinow provides a secure storage for the video files (source and post-transcoding) by using the AWS S3 service.
Video files delivery (EST & streaming) is handled by AWS CloudFront CDN, which delivers your content through a worldwide network of data centers called edge locations. When a user requests specific content via CloudFront, they are directed to the edge location that provides the lowest latency (time delay), so that content is delivered with the best performance possible.
The delivery is protected using a temporary token system.
To reduce delivery costs, we recommend, to the extent possible, to use the HEVC (H265) codec in order to compress the source files as much as possible before reading them on a client application.