High-capacity transcoding station and method

A method of signal-stream transcoding, implemented at a transcoding station employing a plurality of hardware processors, the method comprising:

• employing a plurality of heterogeneous workers, each worker comprising a processor and configured to perform a respective set of tasks of a plurality of predefined tasks, wherein the plurality of heterogeneous workers is organized into a predefined number of worker groups, each worker group comprising workers of a respective transcoding stage;
• receiving heterogeneous signal streams from multiple signal sources, each signal stream associated with respective metadata and organized into respective groups of pictures (GOPs), each GOP comprising a respective number of video frames;
• assigning, by an orchestrator, a respective set of heterogeneous workers of the plurality of heterogeneous workers to each GOP, wherein the orchestrator is coupled to one or more transcoding-stage controllers, each transcoding-stage controller communicatively coupled to a respective worker group, wherein said respective set of heterogeneous workers comprises one worker from each worker group, wherein each worker of each worker group has a dual control channel to the orchestrator, a first content-transfer channel from a content-transfer mechanism, and a second content-transfer channel to said content-transfer mechanism, thereby enabling transfer of control data and content data from a heterogeneous worker of any worker group to a heterogeneous worker of another worker group, wherein said content-transfer mechanism comprises:
• a worker-selection unit for each worker group having a respective upstream selector for transferring GOP content to a selected worker of said each worker group and a downstream selector for transferring output of the selected worker to a common memory;
• a first cyclical selector for supplying GOP content data from a network interface and from said worker-selection units to said common memory;
• and
• a second cyclical selector for transfer of GOP content data from said common memory to said worker-selection units and to said network interface;
• concurrently processing individual GOPs of all of said heterogeneous signal streams as independent entities, said processing comprising:
• identifying requisite tasks of said plurality of predefined tasks for each signal stream of said heterogenous signal streams according to said respective metadata;
• and
• allocating and activating compatible workers to perform said requisite tasks for each GOP of said each signal stream to produce a respective transcoded GOP;
• collating resulting transcoded GOPs according to signal-stream identity and sequential order within each signal-stream;
• and
• transmitting transcoded GOPs of each stream to respective designated destinations.