How To Use the Multi Consumer With Melted

Often times you want to output from the same unit in two different ways at the same time. For example, SDI and a network stream for monitoring within a software client or at a desktop computer somewhere on the network. The multi consumer provides this capability.

We create a definition for the multi consumer using a YAML Tiny file so we can more easily use melt to test, prototype, and refine it before using it with melted. Create a text file named “multi-decklink-udp.yml” and paste the following into it:

- mlt_service: decklink
- mlt_service: avformat
  mlt_profile: square_pal_wide
  real_time: 1
  deinterlace_method: onefield
  target: udp://224.224.224.224:1234?pkt_size=1316&reuse=1
  f: mpegts
  vcodec: mpeg2video
  vb: 4M
  acodec: mp2
  ab: 256k

You must make sure that the 2-space indent is preserved on all of the lines under “- mlt_service: avformat”!

Next, we use it in melted by issuing the following MVCP commands either in some console or within the melted.conf startup file:

UADD multi:/path/to/multi-decklink-udp.yml
201 OK
U0 USET U0 consumer.mlt_profile=atsc_1080i_50
200 OK
USET U0 consumer.terminate_on_pause=0
200 OK
USET U0 consumer.real_time=1
200 OK

After you start playback on the Melted unit, then you can start playing the stream with a client such as melt, ffplay, Shotcut, or VLC with the URL udp://@224.224.224.224:1234.

Here is some information about those MCVP commands. A Melted unit essentially consists of a playlist and a consumer. By default USET sets a property on the playlist, and the “consumer.” prefix lets you instead set a property on the unit’s consumer. The multi consumer’s defaults are setup for file transcoding. Therefore, we must change real_time and terminate_on_pause to something suitable for live playout. Also, instead of using the MLT_PROFILE environment variable it is possible to set the profile on the consumer using consumer.mlt_profile. Finally, the mlt_profile and terminate_on_pause properties on the multi consumer automatically propagate to the child decklink and avformat consumers, but not real_time and in the avformat consumer we change the profile on this particular output and relax the quality level of the deinterlacing that occurs because we are changing the vertical resolution in the process.

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