As announced Bokbasen is working on changes to its Audio distribution in 2017. The key changes are:
- Removal of 128kps and 48kps format
- Introduction of 64kpbs
- Different types for secure inn-app usage and web-site downloads (important to look into this, selection of the right type is essential for performance and statistics)
The changes are available in our test environment from 14th August 2017, see section below for details on what is available.
Integration implications DDS
The changes in the integration are minimal, and from an API perspective the only difference is in the GET CONTENT end-point. There you will get some additional "type" attributes, one for each of the new format. The current ones will not change, but will be removed when support for 48/128 is phased out.
This will also be reflected in the OPDS-feed and HTTP 300 response of GET CONTENT so you can easily see the available combinations.
The technical change will in practise bee to replace your current parameter for "type" according to this mapping and also change bitrate to 64. The following table shows a mapping from the current values to new ones. It is important to use the correct type for each scenario, both for performance and statistics so if you are unsure on which parameter to use kontakt ketil@bokbasen.no.
| Current value | Is file for download (Can customer access the actual file, or is it closed in an app) | New value |
|---|---|---|
| audio/mpeg | Yes | audio/vnd.bokbasen.complete-public |
| audio/mpeg | Only for use for download in closed ecosystem where user cannot access file (e.g in app). If you are using complete file for streaming (progressive download) see audio/mpeg3 at the bottom. Do not use this for streaming. | audio/vnd.bokbasen.complete-private |
| application/zip | Yes | audio/vnd.bokbasen.zipped-public |
| application/zip | Only for use in closed ecosystem where user cannot access file (e.g in app). | audio/vnd.bokbasen.zipped-private |
| vnd.apple.mpegURL | HLS is only for use in closed ecosystems (e.g in app). | audio/vnd.bokbasen.hls-private |
| audio/mpeg3 | Complete progressive download is only for use in closed ecosystems (e.g in app). If you are simulating streaming in your app using progressive downloads, this option gives you better performance than the complete download as caching is adjusted to fit a streaming scenario. | audio/vnd.bokbasen.progressive-private |
(Note that there is a small adjustment in the new value column, compared to initial release of this documentation)
Changes to HLS
HLS will also be migrated to 64 kps, and will no longer be backed by Wowza streaming engine. Instead HLS will be available through a global Content Delivery Network (CloudFront). Testing so far shows that this is giving us considerable lower latency than the current solution. HLS on long books are behaving differently in different clients, so we urge partners that use HLS to pay some extra attention to HLS testing to see that you get expected behaviour.
Test environment
There are some limitations in the test environment to take note of when testing:
- There is not a 100% sync between publishing status and on what files are available in the new solution in test. There are about 1400 books available for testing on the new platform, so it should be sufficient for thorough testing. See below for a list of ISBNs that are available.
- The audible watermark is auto generated on most of the books available, this will be replaced by a recorded voice before we go live