Catena Quick Start Guide

When you start using Catena, you need to conigure it for working with channels and users:

1. Adding Flussonic Media Servers into Catena
2. Adding pipelines
3. Adding channels into Catena
4. Adding subscribers into Catena

Adding Flussonic Media Servers into Catena

Catena uses one or more servers with Flussonic Media Server for processing channels.

To add a server into Catena:

1. Go to the Servers tab and click Add server.

2. In the dialog that appears, enter information about the Flussonic Media Server instance you want to add and click Save:

   • Address. Your Flussonic Media Server address – http://flussonic_ip:port
   • Input interface and Output address (optional). Used for multicast. If you do not plan to multicast channels, leave it blank.
   • Login and Password. The username and password to access the Flussonic Media Server you want to add.
   • Timeout seconds (optional). The time interval (in seconds) after which Catena assumes that the server, if it is not answering, is down. By default, Catena sends requests about server state every minute.
   • Channels limit and Total bandwidth (optional). Used to set limits on the number of channels and the bandwidth.

   

Adding pipelines

A pipeline is a scenario for Catena that determines what to do with a stream and on which server.

Technically a pipeline is a sequence of steps, each step has one or more servers (streamers) dedicated for a specific role. Roles can be, for example, ingest, transcoding, writing to archive, or delivery to client devices.

If you assign several servers to a step, Catena can, depending on the configuration, choose only a certain server or add the stream to all of the servers and migrate it if the initial server is down.

To add a pipeline:

1. Go the Pipeline tab and click the New Pipeline button.

   

2. Enter the pipeline name and submit it. The page of the pipeline appears.

   

3. Add at least one step to the created pipeline for ingesting the stream on Flussonic Media Server.

   

The following data can be added about a step:

• Seq num. The number of a step in the pipeline.
• Role. Defines the role of the server(s) added to the pipeline.
• Options. Sends required stream options on Flussonic Media Server.
• Single capture. The option is useful for ingesting Internet streams on the steps with trancoder role.
• Automigrator. Migrates a stream to another server in the pipeline if the original server is down. Works together with the Timeout seconds options in the server configuration.

• Ondemand. Makes a stream on-demand (rather than live).

  

• Add the server to the created step. Select a server from the list. When you will add channels to the pipeline, they will be listed in this server.

  

See also: Load balancing in Catena

Adding channels into Catena

You can add the channels manually or by importing an M3U file.

To add a stream manually:

1. Go to the Stream tab and click the New Stream button.

1. After you have clicked Submit, the green button appears.

2. Click Add to pipeline and select the pipeline where you want to add the stream.

   

To import channels from an M3U playlist:

1. Go to the Import tab.

2. Choose a file from your computer and send it to Catena.

   The channels will be uploaded to Catena and become available on the Streams tab.

   

Adding subscribers into Catena

The list of existing subscribers is found on the Subscribers tab.

To add subscribers into Catena:

1. Go to the Subscribers tab and click Add subscriber.

2. Fill in the form and submit it.