Methods for generating video-and audience-specific encoding ladders with audio and video just-in-time transcoding

A method comprising:

• ingesting a video;
• extracting a set of video features representing properties of the video;
• generating a set of bitrate-resolution pairs for the video based on the set of video features, each bitrate-resolution pair in the set of bitrate-resolution pairs:
• defining a bitrate;
• and
• defining a resolution predicted to yield a quality score within a target quality score range for the video encoded at the bitrate and the resolution;
• accessing a distribution of audience bandwidths representative of likely viewers of the video;
• selecting a subset of bitrate-resolution pairs, from the set of bitrate-resolution pairs, based on the distribution of audience bandwidths;
• generating an encoding ladder comprising the subset of bitrate-resolution pairs;
• segmenting the video into a set of mezzanine segments;
• publishing a manifest file representing the encoding ladder prior to transcoding the set of mezzanine segments;
• for each bitrate-resolution pair in the encoding ladder:
• assigning the set of mezzanine segments to a set of machines for transcoding into a set of video segments according to the bitrate-resolution pair;
• and
• storing the set of video segments in a video cache;
• during a first time period, in response to receiving a first request for a first playback segment, at a first bitrate-resolution pair in the encoding ladder, of the video from a first playback device:
• identifying a first set of video segments, corresponding to the first playback segment at the first bitrate-resolution pair, in the video cache;
• and
• releasing the first set of video segments to the first playback device;
• and
• during a second time period succeeding the first time period, in response to a first request frequency for playback segments, at the first bitrate-resolution pair in the encoding ladder, of the video falling below a threshold frequency, clearing the first set of video segments from the video cache.

A method for streaming an audio-video file comprising:

• storing a set of mezzanine segments corresponding to the audio-video file, each mezzanine segment in the set of mezzanine segments defining a portion of the audio-video file;
• generating a manifest file for the audio-video file representing:
• a first rendition of the audio-video file characterized by a first bitrate and a first resolution;
• and
• a second rendition of the audio-video file characterized by a second bitrate less than the first bitrate and a second resolution less than the first resolution;
• transmitting the manifest file to a first playback device prior to transcoding a first playback segment, in the audio-video file, in the first rendition;
• receiving a first playback request for the first playback segment in the first rendition from a first playback device based on the manifest file;
• in response to detecting absence of the first playback segment in the first rendition in a rendition cache:
• transcoding the first playback segment in the first rendition from a first mezzanine segment in the set of mezzanine segments at a first worker;
• initiating a first stream between the first worker and the first playback device;
• and
• storing the playback segment in the first rendition in the rendition cache;
• predicting a change from the first rendition to the second rendition in a second request from the first playback device by:
• identifying a second mezzanine segment in the set of mezzanine segments subsequent to the first mezzanine segment;
• transcoding the second playback segment in the second rendition from the second mezzanine segment at a second worker;
• and
• storing the second playback segment in the second rendition in the rendition cache;
• and
• in response to receiving a second request for the second playback segment in the second rendition from the first playback device based on the manifest file, transmitting the second playback segment in the second rendition to the first playback device from the rendition cache.