Glossary - Common Terms & Acronyms

zixi specific terms content analysis zixi broadcaster includes analysis of video content in addition to existing transport and network analysis including audio clipping detection detects clipped audio upon occurrence on aac or mpeg audio audio levels – detects audio volume level for every channel on aac or mpeg audio the analysis of the various audio tracks is available in the audio tree the volume is presented in dbfs (decibels relative to full scale) audio silence detection (aac/mpeg audio) – detects silence (dbfs< 90) on aac or mpeg audio with a duration of about 30s or longer blank video detection detects blank frames of any color for a duration of about 60s or longer frozen video detection detects frozen video, i e no motion, for a duration of about 60s or longer i frame quantization parameter – this indicator detects cases where the source encoder configuration is creating excessively lossy content the analysis does not rely on the bitrate, but rather extracts the global quantization parameter, which is a parameter that indicates how much information was lost during encoding, from the elementary stream fec (forward error correction) a method of error correction that adds redundant data to help recover lost packets without needing retransmission fec block latency the fec block latency (ms) parameter sets the number of milliseconds that zixi protects with a single fec block hitless failover a feature in zixi that allows seamless switching between redundant feeds for uninterrupted streaming without packet loss or viewer interruption ifb (interruptible foldback support) ifb or switched talkback is a monitoring and cueing system for one way communication allowing the decoder to send audio back to the encoder with a zixi zec or feeder ifb support hast been implemented in zixi broadcaster pull & udp outputs latency mode settings within zixi that balance between ultra low latency and resiliency, depending on network conditions lor (loss of redundancy) loss of backup systems designed to ensure continuous playback and fault tolerance onair a zixi app for remote contribution from mobile devices zaas (zixi as a service) zaas is a cloud based offering of zixi’s platform in which zixi provides and manages the zixi broadcasters, allowing the customer to focus entirely on managing content and distribution zen zixi enabled network zen master zen master is the live video orchestration and telemetry control plane that enables zixi users to manage large scale configuration and monitoring of the zixi enabled network, zixi’s live streaming platform, devices and appliances zixi broadcaster a gateway server that can receive and redistribute streams to multiple endpoints, supporting protocol conversion, transcoding, and routing zixi protocol a proprietary protocol developed by zixi for reliable, low latency, error corrected transport of live video over ip networks general broadcasting & streaming terms transport protocols and audio/video formats aac (advanced audio coding) a widely used audio compression format that provides better sound quality than mp3 at similar bit rates it's commonly used in streaming, digital music, and broadcasting dash (dynamic adaptive streaming over http) an mpeg standardized adaptive streaming protocol that delivers video over http by dynamically switching bitrates based on network conditions, similar to hls but codec agnostic and not natively supported on apple devices h 264 (also known as advanced video coding \[avc]) a widely used video compression standard designed to deliver high quality video at lower bit rates h 265 (also known as high efficiency video codec \[hevc]) a video compression standard designed to improve efficiency over its predecessor, h 264 (avc) it offers 25% to 50% better compression while maintaining the same level of video quality, making it ideal for streaming, broadcasting, and high resolution video formats like 4k and 8k hls (http live streaming) an adaptive bitrate streaming protocol developed by apple that delivers video over standard http connections by breaking content into small chunks, enabling playback across a wide range of devices with high compatibility and higher latency mp3 (mpeg 1 audio layer iii) a digital audio compression format that reduces file size while maintaining sound quality mpeg ts (transport stream) a standard container format for transmission and storage of audio, video, and data, widely used in broadcasting rist (reliable internet stream transport) an open standard streaming protocol built on udp that adds features like error recovery, packet retransmission, and encryption to enable reliable, low latency video transport over lossy or public ip networks rtmp (real time messaging protocol) a streaming protocol originally developed by adobe for low latency video, audio, and data transmission, commonly used to ingest live video streams into content delivery networks (cdns) srt (secure reliable transport) an open source transport protocol similar to zixi, designed for low latency, secure video delivery over ip udp (user datagram protocol) a connectionless transport protocol that transmits data without error correction or retransmission, prioritizing speed and low latency, often used for live video streaming over reliable networks webrtc (web real time communication) a real time communication protocol that enables direct, low latency audio, video, and data transmission between browsers and devices without plugins, commonly used for video conferencing and interactive live streams general network terms for streaming asi (asynchronous serial interface) a method for transmitting mpeg transport streams (mpeg ts) over coaxial cable or optical fiber it is widely used in broadcasting and video distribution to transport compressed digital video and audio signals between equipment baseband baseband is considered the near zero compression of video being routed around the broadcaster facility typically a broadcaster will standardize on one type of standard to route video through the various equipment bonding network bonding is a process of combining or joining two or more network interfaces together into a single interface smpte 2022 the standard from the society of motion picture and television engineers that describes how to send digital video over and ip network transport stream optimization and error correction arq automatic repeat query or automatic repeat request arq is an error control strategy used in a two way communication system these protocols are responsible for automatic retransmission of packets that are found to be corrupted or lost during the transmission process contribution the process of sending live video from a remote location (e g , a field camera or event) to a central broadcast or streaming facility decoder the counterpart to an encoder; it decompresses video/audio streams for playback or further processing encoder a device or software that compresses raw video/audio into a specific format for distribution (e g , h 264, hevc) mtu (maximum transmission unit) the largest size of a data packet that can be transmitted over a network without fragmentation it plays a crucial role in network performance and efficiency, affecting how data is transmitted across different network interfaces ott (over the top) delivery of video content directly to consumers via the internet, bypassing traditional cable or broadcast systems pid (packet identifier) a 13 bit field in an mpeg transport stream (mpeg ts) that helps receivers distinguish between different types of data packets each stream—such as video, audio, subtitles, or metadata—is assigned a unique pid so that decoders can correctly process the data rca (root cause analysis) analysis of problems anywhere in the ingest, processing, and distribution of streams to determine the exact underlying cause tr 101 transport stream analysis standard transcoding the process of converting a video file or stream from one encoding format or bitrate to another stream delivery abr (adaptive bitrate streaming) a technique in streaming where the video quality is adjusted in real time based on network conditions and device performance cdn (content delivery network) a network of servers that distributes and caches content geographically to reduce latency and improve delivery distribution sending the final, produced video stream from a central location out to viewers or affiliates dmvpd (digital multiple video programming distributor) a term used to describe services that provide multiple tv channels over the internet, rather than through traditional cable or satellite society of cable telecommunications engineers multicast a method of broadcasting video over ip where one stream is sent to many receivers without duplicating the stream per recipient mvpd (multiple video programming distributor) a service provider that delivers multiple television channels to consumers unicast a one to one stream delivery method where each receiver gets a unique copy of the stream vod video on demand signaling, security, scheduling, ad placement esam (event signaling and management) a standard interface used primarily for dynamic ad insertion (dai) and content management in live and vod (video on demand) workflows it’s especially relevant as broadcasters transition to ip based and hybrid environments where targeted and personalized streaming and broadcast becomes a key revenue opportunity esni (event scheduling and notification interface) part of the scte 224 standard, which helps manage event scheduling, blackout enforcement, and content replacement in ip based video delivery esni enables broadcasters and content providers to dynamically adjust video streams based on predefined rules, ensuring compliance with licensing agreements and distribution policies pois (placement opportunity information service) a component of scte 130 that manages available ad slots in video streams this allows for the customization of scte 35 messages, which are used in downstream dynamic ad insertion and linear feed decoration scte (society of cable telecommunications engineers) a professional organization that focuses on advancing broadband and cable technology through standards development scte 35 a standard for signaling ad insertion and content switching in digital video streams it defines a way to embed cue messages within a transport stream, allowing broadcasters and streaming platforms to mark specific points where ads or alternate content can be inserted scte 130 a standard for digital program insertion in advertising systems it defines interfaces and protocols that allow broadcasters and streaming platforms to manage ad placement efficiently scte 224 the event scheduling and notification interface ( esni ) standard, designed to help broadcasters and streaming platforms manage content distribution dynamically it enables precise control over blackouts, regional restrictions, ad insertions, and alternate content delivery in ip based video workflows sds (signal decision service) used in broadcast and streaming workflows to manage ad insertion, content switching, or emergency alerts based on predefined rules two examples are esni and pois spe (signal processing event) the xml message that is sent to the sds when triggered by a relevant scte message spn (signal processing notification) the xml message that is returned from the sds outlining any stream switches or scte35 manipulation that should occur