Picture this: content volumes are growing, engineers are drowning in routine tasks, and the risk of broadcasting defective video keeps increasing. Sound familiar? This is exactly the challenge we faced when a major VoD service reached out to us.
The Problem: When Manual Work Becomes a Bottleneck
Initially, the client had a classic content preparation workflow:
Input storage — where master files from content providers and the internal studio landed
VoD transcoder — transcoded files into multiple profiles and saved them to intermediate storage
Packager — packaged the ready profiles for publication
Sounds logical, but there was a problem: the system operated in manual or semi-automatic mode. The transcoder ran in watch folder mode, and quality control was performed selectively and manually.
As volumes grew, this approach started failing:
Engineers spent too much time on routine operations
Checking every file manually became physically impossible
The risk of defective content going live was increasing: With more files, the chance of a video with a black screen, frozen frame, or missing audio slipping through to the audience grew. The potential damage to the brand's reputation was significant.
The Goal: Automate Everything End-to-End
The client set an ambitious goal — fully automate the media file preparation and verification process. The solution had to:
✅ Centralize management of all stages
✅ Automate quality control
✅ Verify files at every stage — from input to publication
To achieve this, they acquired a complete stack: an orchestrator, a VoD transcoder, and our system — Boro VoD. All components needed to be integrated with the orchestrator.
First, a quick look at Boro VoD.
Simply put, Boro VoD is your personal media file quality inspector. It’s a software solution that automatically analyzes video files based on rules you define.
The solution is built on a client-server model. Probes analyze media files from storage, checking the container, video and audio metadata. A Central Server with a Web UI and API manages the probes, assigns validation tasks, collects the results, and generates detailed reports (in PDF, CSV, or JSON).
The magic happens through verification templates — sets of tests for analyzing parameters and detecting errors. Tests fall into two categories:
- Compliance Checks: Ensuring the container is MP4, the video codec is AVC, and the audio track is AAC.
- Defect Detection: Finding frozen frames, black screens, sections of silence, checking container integrity, and verifying that video and audio durations match.
Users simply select the necessary tests and set compliance conditions — the system does the rest.
Integration and the New Automated Workflow
For the first phase, the client decided to focus on the most critical pain point: validating files after transcoding. Our team successfully integrated Boro VoD with their orchestration system.
Here’s what the new, fully automated technical process looks like:
Step 1. The orchestrator detects a new master file in the storage. It immediately sends it for transcoding.
Step 2. As soon as the transcoder finishes creating the set of profiles, the orchestrator sends a command to our Boro VoD via API: "Validate these files using this template."
Step 3. Boro VoD accepts the task, and its probes begin the analysis. The orchestrator can check the task status at any time using its unique ID to see the progress percentage and a summary of errors found so far.
Step 4. Once the analysis is complete, Boro VoD generates a report. The orchestrator retrieves it and sees the final status: Passed, Warning, or Failed.
Step 5. Decision. From there, the logic is simple:
If the status is Passed, the file is good to go. The orchestrator passes it along for packaging and publication.
If the status is Failed, the file is rejected. It will not reach the viewer. A detailed error report is saved alongside the file, waiting for an engineer to review—freeing them to solve a specific, identified problem instead of performing manual checks.
The Outcome
Our client got exactly what they were looking for:
A fully automated workflow that runs 24/7 without human intervention.
100% coverage — every file is checked, not just a sample.
Engineers were freed up from monotonous work to focus on more complex and creative tasks.
The risk of publishing content with defects was reduced.
A scalable system ready to handle future growth in content volume.
This case is a perfect example of how smart quality control automation can transform potential chaos into a streamlined and reliable pipeline.
If you're facing similar challenges in your work, know that there is a solution. Learn more about the capabilities of Elecard Boro VoD on our product page.
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