Using the external transcoder support in Vidispine it is possible to use transcoders from other companies, or to perform transcodes in other ways. This is done using watch folders.

With transcoders that support watch folders directly, it’s simply a matter of configuring both Vidispine and the external transcoder to use the same watch folder.

Transcoders that do not support watch folders can still be integrated with by writing a service that monitors the watch folder and sends transcode request to the external transcoder accordingly.

See below on how to do that;

Add an external transcoder by creating an externalTranscoder resource using POST /resource. (Click on the linked text to see how to create a resource)

POST /resource/externalTranscoder/
Content-Type: application/xml

<ResourceDocument xmlns="http://xml.vidispine.com/schema/vidispine">
    <externalTranscoder>
        <source>file:///mnt/external-transcoder/source/</source>
        <destination>file:///mnt/external-transcoder/destination/</destination>
        <shapeTag>external-format</shapeTag>
        <timeout>60000</timeout>
        <regex>.*demo.*</regex>  <!-- Since Vidispine 4.0 -->
   </externalTranscoder>
</ResourceDocument>
CODE

When starting an import or transcode job, Vidispine will check if the given shape tag is defined to be handled by an external transcoder. If it is, then the source file (e.g. the original essence of the item) will be copied to the transcoder’s watch folder (e.g. <source> the external-transcoder ResourceDocument); then the job waits for one or more files to appear in the destination folder (e.g. <destination> in ResourceDocument), and perform the rest steps. Note: only the transcode step is handled by the external transcoder.

Before starting a transcode, make sure the shape tag referred to in the ResourceDocment has been defined:

POST /shape-tag/external-format
Content-Type: application/xml

<TranscodePresetDocument xmlns="http://xml.vidispine.com/schema/vidispine">
  <format>mp4</format>
  <audio></audio>
  <video></video>
</TranscodePresetDocument>
CODE

You can read more on how to setup external transcoders in the following link;

http://apidoc.vidispine.com/latest/system/integration/external-transcoder.html?highlight=external%20transcoder