NETINT VPU Transcoder Installation

overview netint vpu (video processing unit) integration in broadcaster v19 enables asic based hardware acceleration for high density transcoding these vpus deliver ultra efficient encoding for hevc, h 264, supporting up to dozens of hd streams per card at a fraction of the power and cost of gpu or cpu based solutions broadcaster v19 supports netint vpus natively, allowing seamless deployment on prem or in cloud environments broadcaster v19 with netint integration reduces capex and opex significantly , lowering hardware footprint and energy consumption while scaling transcoding capacity for live workflows this guide covers the steps required to install and configure a netint quadra vpu (t1u/t1a/t2a) for use with zixi broadcaster's hardware accelerated transcoding note for cloud implementations, netint can also be set up on a linode instance the akamai/linode setup is basically, spin up a linode instance with the desired netint "accelerator card" and the instance has all the drivers/firmware match/sdk all ready to go prerequisites hardware netint quadra t1u (u 2) or t1a/t2a card installed in a pcie gen 4 x4 slot os ubuntu 22 04/24 04 lts or centos/rocky linux 9 cpu x64 intel/amd, 6+ cores recommended ram 16 gb minimum broadcaster v19 0 or later with netint vpu support step 1 verify hardware detection after physically installing the card, confirm the system recognizes it lspci | grep i netint expected output 01 00 0 non volatile memory controller netint technologies inc quadra video processing unit (vpu) if no output appears, check that the card is properly seated in a pcie gen 4 slot and reboot step 2 download the netint release package obtain the quadra release package from netint (e g , quadra v5 1 1 zip) extract it sudo apt install unzip # if not already installed unzip quadra v5 1 1 zip cd quadra v5 1 1/ step 3 run the quick installer the netint release includes an interactive installer that handles all software and firmware setup sudo /quadra quick installer sh this presents a numbered menu run the following steps in order menu option 1 — setup environment variables configures system paths and permissions adds /usr/local/lib to the linker search path (/etc/ld so conf) adds /usr/local/bin to the sudo secure path adds the current user to the disk group (required for non root vpu access) sets pkg config path and runs ldconfig important you must log out and log back in after this step for the disk group membership to take effect without it, broadcaster cannot access the vpu device menu option 3 — install os prerequisite packages installs required build dependencies on ubuntu pkg config, git, gcc, ninja build, python3, python3 pip, flex, bison, libpng dev, zlib1g dev, gnutls bin, uuid runtime, uuid dev, libglib2 0 dev, libxml2, libxml2 dev, meson, yasm menu option 4 — install nvme cli builds and installs nvme cli v1 16 from source required for firmware management and device identification verify after installation sudo nvme list expected the quadra card appears as a device (e g , /dev/nvme1n1 with model quadrat1u or quadrat2a) menu option 5 — install libxcoder builds and installs the netint codec library that broadcaster links against library /usr/local/lib/libxcoder so headers /usr/local/include/ni h tools ni rsrc mon, ni rsrc list, ni rsrc update in /usr/local/bin/ this is the core requirement — broadcaster uses libxcoder to communicate with the vpu hardware menu option 7 — firmware update updates the vpu firmware to match the software version the installer runs the firmware upgrade and reinitializes the device important a reboot is required after firmware update after reboot, verify firmware/software compatibility sudo ni rsrc list | grep compatibility # expected f/w & s/w compatibility yes menu options to skip option 2 (unlock cpu governor) — optional sets cpu to performance mode recommended for production but not required option 6 (install ffmpeg) — not required for broadcaster this is only needed for standalone vpu testing with ffmpeg broadcaster has its own integration with libxcoder step 4 verify installation after completing the installer and rebooting, verify everything is working \# 1 confirm vpu is detected sudo nvme list | grep quadra # 2 check firmware/software match sudo ni rsrc list # 3 verify libxcoder is installed pkg config modversion xcoder # 4 monitor vpu (should show 0 load, 0 instances) sudo ni rsrc mon # 5 confirm user has vpu access without sudo ni rsrc list # if "permission denied" → user is not in the disk group (re run step 3, option 1) expected ni rsrc list output device #0 serial number q2a325a11dc085 0271a model number quadrat1u f/w & s/w compatibility yes deviceid /dev/nvme1n1 decoder #0 — h 264 (up to 8k), hevc (up to 8k), vp9 (up to 8k), jpeg encoder #0 — h 264 (up to 8k), hevc (up to 8k), av1 (up to 4k), jpeg scaler #0 — crop, scale, pad, overlay, rotate ai #0 — roi, background replace step 5 configure broadcaster once the vpu is verified, broadcaster will automatically detect it when hardware transcoding is enabled configure transcoding profiles in zen master or the broadcaster ui to use netint vpu encoding/decoding summary of required steps \# action required? 1 physical card installation + verify with lspci yes 2 download and extract netint release package yes 3 installer → setup environment variables yes 4 installer → install os prerequisites yes 5 installer → install nvme cli yes 6 installer → install libxcoder yes 7 installer → firmware update + reboot yes 8 verify with ni rsrc list and ni rsrc mon yes installer → unlock cpu governor recommended installer → install ffmpeg not needed troubleshooting problem solution lspci shows no netint device card not seated properly or slot is not pcie gen 4 reseat and reboot permission denied on ni rsrc list user not in disk group run sudo usermod a g disk \<user> and log out/in f/w & s/w compatibility no firmware and libxcoder versions are mismatched run firmware update from the installer and reboot vpu not visible in nvme list check nvme driver is loaded lsmod | grep nvme if missing sudo modprobe nvme broadcaster doesn't see vpu verify libxcoder is installed (pkg config modversion xcoder) and /usr/local/lib is in the linker path (ldconfig p | grep xcoder) multiple libxcoder versions present check symlink ls la /usr/local/lib/libxcoder so — ensure it points to the version matching your firmware references netint quadra installation guide https //docs netint com/vpu/quadra/installation/ quadra quickstart guide v5 1 1 (pdf) https //releases netint com/quadra/fvsvr59zxanknxn/quickstartguidequadra v5 1 1 pdf quadra installation guide v5 3 (pdf) https //releases netint com/quadra/75l4hhuz7zxyoni/installationguidequadra v5 3 pdf