Review: Media Excel HERO 6000

This review will highlight Media Excel’s HERO 6000 and walk readers through the process of configuring streaming using the HERO platform. You’ll learn how to deliver live streams, create encoding presets, add audio presets, create channels, and add outputs for playback. The article will also cover how to add roles and play streams.

About the HERO Platform

The HERO platform (see Figure 1) is available as an on-prem hardware appliance, virtual appliance, commercial cloud solution, and hybrid orchestration solution. It can be used for encoding, transcoding, decoding, live streaming, file/VOD delivery, and playout. It can deliver streams using Smooth Streaming, MPEG-TS, HLS, MPEG-DASH, and Low-Latency CMAF. Supported codecs include HEVC, H.264, AV1, and VVC. The HERO platform also supports many other features. For this article, I used the HERO platform running on a server in the cloud.

Figure 1. Media Excel HERO 6000 platform overview

The HERO platform is designed for broad compatibility, running seamlessly on any Intel or AMD CPU architecture. Its efficient software design minimizes processor load, enabling operation even on modest systems. For increased channel density, additional cores or higher clock speeds deliver greater channel counts. To further enhance scalability and cost efficiency, HERO also supports GPU acceleration using NVIDIA GPUs.

The platform provides synchronized outputs from multiple camera inputs and ad insertion workflows. HERO supports real-time HEVC compression up to UHD/4K60p and 8K with HDR for on-prem, virtual, and cloud archi­tectures. The platform powers the most high- profile services worldwide, including AT&T, Verizon, Disney, CNN, the UFC, the NFL, the NBA, MTV, FIFA, ESPN, Lockheed Martin, Level3, LG, Encompass, Akamai, QVC, and many more.

Using the HERO Platform

To get started with using the HERO platform, you log in via the HERO Management System. This system serves as the user interface to navigate and manage encoding on the HERO platform, as well as setup, configurations, and other tasks.

For encoding, you can create encoding presets and add them to channels. The first step to get started is to create your video encoding presets (Figure 2).

Figure 2. Creating a video encoding preset

You create a video preset by navigating to the Configure tab and then clicking the Video Presets button. Next, click the Add button at the bottom of the page to create and start editing the preset. Figure 3 shows the various encoding settings you have available.

Figure 3. Adjusting HERO 6000 encoding settings

As you prepare to create your video encoding presets, you’ll need to understand the details about the source you’re encoding or using for playing your streams. If you happen to have a value wrong, you’ll see an error message appear at the top of the screen in the HERO Management System. These messages guide you through correcting any issues you may encounter. The HERO platform gives you a range of encoding options you can adjust and tweak.

For my testing, I created an adaptive bit­rate encoding ladder with four video presets. To do so, I needed to produce individual encoding pre­sets for each rung. Figure 4 shows the encoding presets I made for my encoding ladder. The presets for audio are configured separately by creating audio presets within the HERO Management System.

Figure 4. Video presets for my encoding ladder

Testing the HERO Platform

Here’s how I tested the HERO platform. When I first witnessed a live demo of the HERO platform walking me through the product and all that was involved for setup, I was curious about whether I could set up all of the configurations correctly on my own. There is a significant amount of work involved with HERO platform setup, and various items created are used in tandem.

Here’s a summary of what I tested:

• Creating a channel
• Adding an output to a channel
• Adding adaptive bitrate streams to a channel
• Adding a channel to a Live role
• Monitoring live streams
• Starting a channel
• Getting a URL for playback
• Playing an HLS stream in VLC

To create a channel (Figure 5), navigate to the Channel tab and click the Add button at the bottom of the page. Next, name your channel and select a video source. For my source, I used the Big Buck Bunny video that was available as a playlist item on the HERO platform.

Figure 5. Creating a channel

To do this, I needed to choose Playlist for Source, Local Static Playlist for Type, and the playlist name, which is listed as BBB.

Next, scroll down to the bottom of the screen and select Add Output. For the next box that appeared at the top of the page, I needed to reference a video called “bunny” that is located in the videos folder. I referenced this on the line for Primary Master playlist path. This is the same video shown for the playlist in the previous step. Additionally, I needed to add m.m3u8 on the line for Master playlist name (Figure 6).

Figure 6. Adding m.m3u8 as the Master playlist name

At the bottom of the page, I clicked Add Stream and then added each of my video presets and also the audio presets four times. Figure 7 shows what it looks like once the streams are added.

Figure 7. Adding adaptive bitrate streams to the channel

The next step is to add the channel to a Live role so you can start playing the stream (Figure 8). You can accomplish this by clicking on Live role, adding the channel to the list of channels, and clicking Save.

Figure 8. Adding a channel to the Live role

Next, click on the green box for the monitor for your live streams shown in Figure 9.

Figure 9. Monitoring live streams

You start the channel by clicking the Start button. Once the channel starts, you can click the arrow to the left of the #5 to get a URL to the play the Master playlist (Figure 10).

Figure 10. Starting your channel

Once you have the URL, you can paste it in VLC to play the stream. Now, the live-streaming channel is up and running.

Closing Thoughts

For my review, I tested creating channels, adding output to a channel, and adding adaptive bitrate streams to a channel. All of these tasks were simple to perform in the HERO 6000 platform. I really like the ease of being able to create adaptive bitrate streams. Adding a channel to a Live role was also easy to do, and I like the many options available for viewing the feedback for the monitoring section. Having easy access to the Master playlist was also beneficial.

The HERO platform is an interesting product with a significant number of capabilities. I appreciate the HERO Management System, as it simplifies the process of configuring video encoding settings and makes adding adaptive bitrate ladders a straightforward process. It is important for new users to get some hands-on training with an expert to learn all of the ins and outs of using the HERO platform.

One element I like about the HERO platform is the number of adjustable video encoding settings it offers. Novice users may not appreciate them as much, but advanced video encoding experts and professionals will be pleased with what’s available. I also like all of the options available under the Sources drop-down menu for channels.

The error dialogs that appear at the top of the screen when users make adjustments are also useful. They help guide users toward making the right adjustments to their video encoding settings. I also appreciate the quick access to the Master playlist in the Monitor section.