Creating a transport stream flow that uses a standard source - AWS Elemental MediaConnect
PrerequisitesProcedureNext stepsAdditional resources

Creating a transport stream flow that uses a standard source

Transport stream flows transport compressed content that is muxed into a single stream.

A flow uses a standard source when the content comes from anywhere other than a VPC (VPC source) or another AWS account (entitled source).

Prerequisites

Before you begin, make sure you've completed the following steps:

Encryption setup (if required)

If the source of your flow requires encryption, you'll need to set up encryption.

NDI® configuration (for NDI use cases only)

We recommend reviewing the NDI outputs documentation to familiarize yourself with this feature before getting started.

If you want to add an NDI output to your flow, you need a VPC with NDI discovery servers provisioned in your network. MediaConnect connects to these servers, but it doesn't create them for you.

  • For a quick start with VPCs, you can use our AWS CloudFormation VPC template to automatically create a VPC with public and private subnets. For more information about VPCs, see the Amazon VPC User Guide.

  • For NDI discovery server deployment, AWS provides guidance on automated setup across multiple Availability Zones using AWS CloudFormation, including best practices for installation and configuration. For instructions, see Setting Up NDI Discovery Servers for Broadcast Workflows.

  • We recommend that you configure your security groups with a self-referencing ingress rule and egress rule. You can then attach this security group to the EC2 instances where your NDI servers are running within the VPC. This approach automatically allows all necessary NDI communication between components in your VPC, and all required network traffic is permitted. For guidance on setting up self-referencing security group rules, see Security Group Referencing in the Amazon VPC User Guide.

Procedure

Create a transport stream flow that uses a standard source (console)

  1. Open the MediaConnect console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/mediaconnect/.

  2. On the Flows page, choose Create flow.

  3. In the Details section, for Name, specify a name for your flow. This name will become part of the ARN for this flow.

    Note

    MediaConnect allows you to create multiple flows with the same name. However, we encourage you to use unique flow names within an AWS Region to help with organization. After you create a flow, you can't change the name.

  4. For Availability Zone, choose an Availability Zone for your flow. Use this option when you are setting up redundant flows. Otherwise, you can leave this as Any. If you leave the default, the service will randomly assign an Availability Zone within the current AWS Region, or if your source comes from a VPC, the service will assign the Availability Zone of the VPC subnet to the flow.

  5. Under Flow size, select the size that matches your use case. For more information about flow sizes, see Flow sizes and capabilities.

    For medium flows:

    • Proceed directly to step 6.

    For large flows:

    • If you don't need NDI outputs for your flow, proceed directly to step 6.

    • If you want to add NDI outputs to your flow, configure the NDI settings as follows:

      1. Set Flow NDI support to Enabled.

      2. (Optional) Enter an NDI machine name.

        • This name is used as a prefix to help you identify the NDI sources that your flow creates. For example, if you enter MACHINENAME, your NDI sources will appear as MACHINENAME (ProgramName).

        • If you don’t enter a name, MediaConnect generates a unique 12-character ID as the prefix. This ID is derived from the flow's Amazon Resource Name (ARN), so the machine name references the flow resource.

          Tip

          Thoughtful naming is especially important when you have multiple flows creating NDI sources. For example, a production environment with 100 NDI sources would benefit from clear, descriptive machine name prefixes like STUDIO-A, STUDIO-B, NEWSROOM, and so on.

      3. Add up to three NDI discovery servers. For each server, provide the following information:

        • Enter the server IP address from your existing NDI infrastructure.

        • Select the VPC interface adapter to control network access.

        • (Optional) Specify a port number. If you leave this blank, MediaConnect uses the NDI Discovery server default of TCP-5959.

          Tip

          You can add up to three discovery servers. Having multiple discovery servers improves reliability and helps ensure your NDI sources are discoverable across your network.

  6. Determine which protocol your source uses.

    Note

    If you want to specify redundant sources for failover, create the flow with one of the sources. After the flow is created, update it to activate failover on the source, and add the second source to the flow. Because MediaConnect treats both sources as the primary source, it doesn't matter which one you specify when you first create the flow.

  7. For specific instructions based on your source type and protocol, choose one of the following tabs:

    RIST

    1. In the Source section, for Source type, choose Standard source.

    2. For Name, specify a name for your source. This value is an identifier that is visible only on the MediaConnect console.

    3. For Protocol, choose RIST.

    4. For Ingest port, specify the port that the flow will listen on for incoming content.

      Note

      The RIST protocol requires one additional port for error correction. To accommodate this requirement, MediaConnect reserves the port that is +1 from the port that you specify. For example, if you specify port 4000 for the output, the service assigns ports 4000 and 4001.

    5. For Allowlist CIDR, specify a range of IP addresses that are allowed to contribute content to your source. Format the IP addresses as a Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) block, for example, 10.24.34.0/23. For more information about CIDR notation, see RFC 4632.

      Important

      Specify a CIDR block that is as precise as possible. Include only the IP addresses that you want to contribute content to your flow. If you specify a CIDR block that is too wide, it allows for the possibility of outside parties sending content to your flow.

    6. For Maximum bitrate, specify the maximum expected bitrate (in bits per second) for the flow. We recommend that you specify a value that is twice the actual bitrate.

    7. For Maximum latency, specify the size of the buffer (delay) that you want the service to maintain. A higher latency value means a longer delay in transmitting the stream, but more room for error correction. A lower latency value means a shorter delay, but less room for error correction. You can choose a value from 1-15,000 ms. If you keep this field blank, the service uses the default value of 2,000 ms.

    RTP or RTP-FEC

    1. In the Source section, for Source type, choose Standard source.

    2. For Name, specify a name for your source. This value is an identifier that is visible only on the MediaConnect console. It is not visible to anyone outside of the current AWS account.

    3. For Protocol, choose RTP or RTP-FEC.

    4. For Ingest port, specify the port that the flow will listen on for incoming content.

      Note

      The RTP-FEC protocol requires two additional ports for error correction. To accommodate this requirement, MediaConnect reserves the ports that are +2 and +4 from the port that you specify. For example, if you specify port 4000 for the output, the service assigns ports 4000, 4002, and 4004.

    5. For Allowlist CIDR, specify a range of IP addresses that are allowed to contribute content to your source. Format the IP addresses as a Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) block, for example, 10.24.34.0/23. For more information about CIDR notation, see RFC 4632.

      Important

      Specify a CIDR block that is as precise as possible. Include only the IP addresses that you want to contribute content to your flow. If you specify a CIDR block that is too wide, it allows for the possibility of outside parties sending content to your flow.

    6. For Maximum bitrate, specify the maximum expected bitrate (in bits per second) for the flow. We recommend that you specify a value that is twice the actual bitrate.

    SRT listener

    1. In the Source section, for Source type, choose Standard source.

    2. For Name, specify a name for your source. This value is an identifier that is visible only on the MediaConnect console. It is not visible to anyone outside of the current AWS account.

    3. For Protocol, choose SRT listener.

    4. For Source description, enter a description that will remind you later where this source is from. This might be the company name or notes about the setup.

    5. For Allowlist CIDR block, specify a range of IP addresses that are allowed to contribute content to your source. Format the IP addresses as a Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) block, for example, 10.24.34.0/23. For more information about CIDR notation, see RFC 4632.

      Important

      Specify a CIDR block that is as precise as possible. Include only the IP addresses that you want to contribute content to your flow. If you specify a CIDR block that is too wide, it allows for the possibility of outside parties sending content to your flow.

    6. For Inbound port, specify the port that the flow listens on for incoming content.

    7. For Source listener address, enter the address MediaConnect will use for the SRT connection. The address can be an IP address or a domain name.

    8. For Source description, enter a description that will remind you later where this source is from. This might be the company name or notes about the setup.

    9. For Maximum bitrate, specify the maximum expected bitrate (in bits per second) for the flow. We recommend that you specify a value that is twice the actual bitrate.

    10. For Minimum latency, specify the minimum size of the buffer (delay) that you want the service to maintain. A higher latency value means a longer delay in transmitting the stream, but more room for error correction. A lower latency value means a shorter delay, but less room for error correction. You can choose a value from 10–15,000 ms. If you keep this field blank, MediaConnect uses the default value of 2,000 ms.

      The SRT protocol uses a minimum latency configuration on each side of the connection. The larger of these two values is used as the recovery latency. If the transmitted bitrate, multiplied by the recovery latency, is higher than the receiver buffer, the buffer will overflow and the stream can fail with a Buffer Overflow Error. On the SRT receiver side, the receiver buffer is configured by the SRTO_RCVBUF value. The size of the receiver buffer is limited by the flow control window size (SRTO_FC) value. On the MediaConnect side, the receiver buffer is calculated as the maximum bitrate value multiplied by the minimum latency value. For more information about the SRT buffer, see the SRT Configuration Guidelines.

    11. If the source is encrypted, choose Activate in the Decryption section and do the following:

      1. For Role ARN, specify the ARN of the role that you created when you set up encryption.

      2. For Secret ARN, specify the ARN that AWS Secrets Manager assigned when you created the secret to store the encryption key.

    SRT caller

    1. In the Source section, for Source type, choose Standard source.

    2. For Name, specify a name for your source. This value is an identifier that is visible only on the MediaConnect console. It is not visible to anyone outside of the current AWS account.

    3. For Protocol, choose SRT caller.

    4. For Source description, enter a description that will remind you later where this source is from. This might be the company name or notes about the setup.

    5. For Source listener address, enter the address MediaConnect will use for the SRT connection. The address can be an IP address or a domain name.

    6. For Source listener port, enter the port MediaConnect will use for the SRT connection.

    7. For Maximum bitrate (optional), specify the maximum expected bitrate (in bits per second) for the flow. We recommend that you specify a value that is twice the actual bitrate.

    8. For Minimum latency, specify the minimum size of the buffer (delay) that you want the service to maintain. A higher latency value means a longer delay in transmitting the stream, but more room for error correction. A lower latency value means a shorter delay, but less room for error correction. You can choose a value from 10–15,000 ms. If you keep this field blank, MediaConnect uses the default value of 2,000 ms.

      The SRT protocol uses a minimum latency configuration on each side of the connection. The larger of these two values is used as the recovery latency. If the transmitted bitrate, multiplied by the recovery latency, is higher than the receiver buffer, the buffer will overflow and the stream can fail with a Buffer Overflow Error. On the SRT receiver side, the receiver buffer is configured by the SRTO_RCVBUF value. The size of the receiver buffer is limited by the flow control window size (SRTO_FC) value. On the MediaConnect side, the receiver buffer is calculated as the maximum bitrate value multiplied by the minimum latency value. For more information about the SRT buffer, see the SRT Configuration Guidelines.

    9. For Stream ID (optional), enter an identifier for the stream. This identifier can be used to communicate information about the stream.

    10. If the source is encrypted, choose Activate in the Decryption section and do the following:

      1. For Role ARN, specify the ARN of the role that you created when you set up encryption.

      2. For Secret ARN, specify the ARN that AWS Secrets Manager assigned when you created the secret to store the encryption key.

    Zixi push

    1. In the Source section, for Source type, choose Standard source.

    2. For Name, specify a name for your source. This value is an identifier that is visible only on the MediaConnect console. It is not visible to anyone outside of the current AWS account.

    3. For Protocol, choose Zixi push.

      Note

      MediaConnect assigns the inbound port for Zixi push sources at the time of creation. A port number of 2088 will be assigned automatically.

    4. For Allowlist CIDR, specify a range of IP addresses that are allowed to contribute content to your source. Format the IP addresses as a Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) block, for example, 10.24.34.0/23. For more information about CIDR notation, see RFC 4632.

      Important

      Specify a CIDR block that is as precise as possible. Include only the IP addresses that you want to contribute content to your flow. If you specify a CIDR block that is too wide, it allows for the possibility of outside parties sending content to your flow.

    5. For Stream ID, specify the stream ID set in the Zixi feeder.

      Important

      If you leave this field blank, the service uses the source name as the stream ID. Because the stream ID must match the value set in the Zixi feeder, you need to specify the stream ID if it is not exactly the same as the source name.

    6. For Maximum latency, specify the size of the buffer (delay) that you want the service to maintain. A higher latency value means a longer delay in transmitting the stream, but more room for error correction. A lower latency value means a shorter delay, but less room for error correction. You can choose a value between 0 and 60,000 ms. If you keep this field blank, the service uses the default value of 6,000 ms.

    7. If the source is encrypted, choose Activate in the Decryption section and do the following:

      1. For Decryption type, choose Static key.

      2. For Role ARN, specify the ARN of the role that you created when you set up encryption.

      3. For Secret ARN, specify the ARN that AWS Secrets Manager assigned when you created the secret to store the encryption key.

      4. For Decryption algorithm, choose the type of encryption that was used to encrypt the source.

    Zixi push for AWS Elemental Link UHD device

    To use an AWS Elemental Link device as a source for MediaConnect, you must create a Zixi push flow using the following procedure. After creating the Zixi push flow, you must configure the AWS Elemental Link device using MediaLive. See the following MediaLive setup instructions to complete the process after you have created the flow: Using a device in a flow in the MediaLive User Guide. Ensure you have access to both MediaConnect and MediaLive to complete these steps.

    1. In the Source section, for Source type, choose Standard source.

    2. For Name, specify a name for your source. This value is an identifier that is visible only on the MediaConnect console. It is not visible to anyone outside of the current AWS account.

    3. For Protocol, choose Zixi push.

      Note

      MediaConnect assigns the inbound port for Zixi push sources at the time of creation. A port number of 2088 will be assigned automatically.

    4. For Allowlist CIDR block, specify a range of IP addresses that are allowed to contribute content to your source. Format the IP addresses as a Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) block, for example, 10.24.34.0/23. For more information about CIDR notation, see RFC 4632.

      Important

      If you know the range of public IP addresses that your Link device uses to connect to the internet, enter that CIDR block. Note that this is not the same as the IP address of the AWS Elemental Link device. If you cannot obtain this information, it is possible to configure the CIDR block to be open to all possible IP addresses by using 0.0.0.0/0. Typically, it is not best practice to assign a CIDR block that is open to the entire internet (0.0.0.0/0). However, if this method must be used, the data being transferred is encrypted using AES-128 encryption.

    5. For Maximum latency, specify the size of the buffer (delay) that you want the service to maintain. A higher latency value means a longer delay in transmitting the stream, but more room for error correction. A lower latency value means a shorter delay, but less room for error correction. You can choose a value between 0 and 60,000 ms. If you keep this field blank, the service uses the default value of 6,000 ms. The Maximum latency value should match the Latency value configured on the AWS Elemental Link device. For information on configuring the Link device's latency, see: Configuring the device in the AWS Elemental MediaLive User Guide

    6. For Decryption, choose Activate and do the following:

      1. For Decryption type, choose Static key.

      2. For Decryption algorithm, choose AES-128. AWS Elemental Link requires AES-128, do not select another algorithm.

      3. For Role ARN, specify the ARN of the role that you created when you set up encryption.

      4. For Secret ARN, specify the ARN that AWS Secrets Manager assigned when you created the secret to store the encryption key.

  8. Under Source monitoring configuration, choose which monitoring features you want to enable.

    1. Turn on Thumbnails state to generate source thumbnails that you can preview in the console.

    2. Turn on Content quality analysis state to monitor for the following audio and video quality issues.

      1. (Optional) Turn on Black frames to detect periods of black video frames in the stream.

      2. (Optional) Turn on Frozen frames to detect periods of unchanging video frames in the stream.

      3. (Optional) Turn on Silent audio to detect periods of audio silence in the stream.

      4. (Optional) Set a duration threshold between 10 and 60 seconds for each metric that you enable. The default is 30 seconds.

  9. At the bottom of the page, choose Create flow.

Create a transport stream flow that uses a standard source (AWS CLI)

  1. Create a JSON file that contains the details of the flow that you want to create.

    The following example shows the structure for the contents of the file:

    {
  "Name": "AwardsShow",
  "Outputs": [
    {
      "Destination": "198.51.100.5",
      "Description": "RTP output",
      "Name": "RTPOutput",
      "Protocol": "rtp",
      "Port": 5020
    }
  ],
  "Source": {
    "Name": "AwardsShowSource",
    "Protocol": "rtp-fec",
    "AllowlistCidr": "10.24.34.0/23"
  }
}

  2. In the AWS CLI, use the create-flow command:

    aws mediaconnect create-flow --cli-input-json file://rtp.json --profile PMprofile

    The following example shows the return value:

    {
  "Flow": {
    "EgressIp": "203.0.113.0",
    "AvailabilityZone": "us-east-1d",
    "Name": "AwardsShow",
    "Status": "STANDBY",
    "FlowArn": "arn:aws:mediaconnect:us-east-1:111122223333:flow:1-23aBC45dEF67hiJ8-12AbC34DE5fG:AwardsShow",
    "Source": {
            "SourceArn": "arn:aws:mediaconnect:us-east-1:111122223333:source:3-4aBC56dEF78hiJ90-4de5fG6Hi78Jk:AwardsShowSource",                                       
            "Name": "AwardsShowSource",
            "IngestPort": 5000,
            "AllowlistCidr": "10.24.34.0/23",
            "IngestIp": "198.51.100.15",
            "Transport": {
                "Protocol": "rtp-fec",
                "MaxBitrate": 80000000
            }
        },
        "Entitlements": [],
        "Outputs": [
            {
                "Port": 5020,
                "Name": "AwardsShowOutput",
                "OutputArn": "arn:aws:mediaconnect:us-east-1:111122223333:output:2-3aBC45dEF67hiJ89-c34de5fG678h:AwardsShowOutput",                                          
                "Description": "RTP-FEC Output",
                "Destination": "198.51.100.5",
                "Transport": {
                    "Protocol": "rtp",
                    "SmoothingLatency": 0
                }
            }
        ]
    }
}

Next steps

Now that you've created a flow, complete these steps to start delivering your content:

Additional resources

For more information about source monitoring options for your flow, see the following pages in this guide: