Flussonic

Transcoding hardware thread

IPTV/OTT services Transcoding
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#1

I’d like to share the spec of Flussonic transcoding server:
Dell R720 server with
CPU 2x E5-2660 v2 (2x10 core)
RAM 64GB
GPU 2x Quadro P4000 cards.
SSD Intel
NIC Intel

All channels are 720x576 at 25fps
The system is stable with 80 channels GPU transcoded from MPEG2 (5-6 Mbit/s each) to HEVC (around 1.3 Mbit/s).

40 channels are on one GPU card and 40 on another.
System load is around 30-40 and CPU idle is around 60% with periodic drops
to 40% idle.
RAM usage is below 20GB
Each GPU can actually handle around 55 to 60 channels, but the CPU simply can’t handle it (too old).

And what hardware do you use for transcoding?

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#2

I am currently transcoding on a Supermicro Microcloud Cluster 24 dedicated servers on E3-1240v3 each.

The price was about $15k USD (bought a couple of years ago) and I can run about 10 channels/dedicated server @ 720x576 which comes to 240 channels in total for $15k USD.

I transcode using ffmpeg and x264.

62$/channel approximately.

@pavel.tuchkov
What does your system cost to build approximately?

#3

Each GPU can actually handle around 55 to 60 channels, but the CPU simply can’t handle it (too old).

Which process is it that uses the CPU in this case? Deinterlacing? Decoding? Would it be the same if it was H264?

#4

CPUs costs smth like $135 each. From here for example.
GPUs are $1k each.
The platform itself + mobo + RAM costs smth like $3k total in my local area.

So nowadays this config consists of:
$3000 - platform
$270 - 2x CPUs
$2000 - 2x GPUs
$5.3k roughly

So it’s rather competitive. As I’m able to directly restream that content.
But this particular configuration is rather trashy.

I know some guys go even deeper and search workarounds to use GTX cards.

#5

I suppose it’s about taking the frames from network, pushing it to the GPU, pulling back and sending into the network.
That’s what causes the load.
And you use CPUs for audio. When you have a couple of streams its miserable, but you start to notice it soon.

Another thing about the load is that stable load with flussonic is better than jumping load with something else.

#6

I’ve tested Ryzen Threadripper 1950x with Flussonic.

IMG_20180718_160131
IMG_20180718_1601311024×956 361 KB

And it gives you 20 FHD 8 Mbit/s streams transcoding into 3 profiles out of the box.
System price is like $3.5k but it’s more suitable for VoD content 2 pass transcoding I suppose.

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