Executive Summary
The European Parliament works with the Council of the European Union to debate and pass legislation on topics from artificial intelligence and defense to deforestation and human rights. With 720 members from 27 member states, the Parliament required a sophisticated streaming solution that could handle multiple languages, high-density inputs, and flexible deployment across on-prem and cloud environments. G&L Systemhaus, a leading systems integrator specializing in video and audio streaming solutions, successfully implemented a powerful platform using Norsk as a critical technological component. This case study explores how Norsk helped G&L overcome complex technical challenges while delivering a future-proof solution for streaming parliamentary proceedings to citizens across Europe.
The Challenge
The European Parliament’s streaming requirements presented several complex technical challenges:
- Hybrid deployment needs: The solution needed to work seamlessly both on-premises and in the cloud, as the exact distribution of workloads was not predetermined at the project’s outset.
- High-density SDI input: The system required support for up to 32 SDI inputs per machine to handle the numerous video sources from different parliamentary rooms and multiple levels of redundancy.
- Multilingual audio complexity: Each video channel needed to support up to 32 audio language tracks, exceeding the 16-track limit of SDI and requiring creative signal management.
- Hardware acceleration requirements: The transcoding workload was substantial, requiring specialized hardware acceleration rather than pure CPU processing.
- Linux compatibility: The solution needed to run efficiently on Linux-based systems.
- Flexibility for custom integrations: The unique requirements called for a system that could be adapted and extended to support specialized hardware.
“We needed something that works both on-prem and in the cloud,” explains Alexander Leschinsky, co-founder and CEO of G&L Systemhaus. “At the beginning of the project, we did not know how much we would eventually solve on-prem, how much we would move to the cloud, which workloads we would move to the cloud. So we needed something that works in both worlds.
“Norsk enabled us to deliver a complex and sophisticated media processing architecture in record time with a high level of system availability and resilience,” Alexander says. “Working with alternatives would have cost us both more time and money.”
The Solution: Norsk SDK as the Technological Backbone
G&L Systemhaus selected the Norsk SDK as a key component of their solution for several compelling reasons:
Custom Hardware Integration
One of the primary advantages Norsk offered was the ability to integrate with specialized hardware. “It was part of the appeal of Norsk that you can do custom integrations,” Alexander says. “If there’s something not there and you see some business value in it, you can integrate it, even if it involves some pretty advanced engineering.”
For the European Parliament project, this meant Norsk could be adapted to work with Deltacast SDI input cards, which offered the highest density of SDI inputs available—a critical requirement for the project.
Hardware Acceleration Support
The project required extensive transcoding capabilities, and G&L wanted to leverage NETINT hardware accelerator cards rather than relying solely on CPU processing. Alexander highlights this advantage: “The support for NETINT cards was also something that was a great plus for Norsk, because, of course, you could use FFMPEG, but the support of FFMPEG in NETINT would have required more work for us in comparison to what Norsk does with NETINT.”
Proven Reusability
G&L had previously used Norsk for other projects, including work for WDR (Westdeutscher Rundfunk). This prior experience meant they could reuse components they had already developed. “We could simply take a lot of what we have built for WDR, such as the Playout Manager, and just reapply it to the European Parliament,” Alexander says.
Cross-Platform Consistency
Norsk SDK provided consistent functionality across both on-premises and cloud environments, allowing G&L to use the same codebase regardless of where specific workloads would ultimately be deployed. This flexibility was crucial as the deployment strategy evolved throughout the project.
The Implementation
The European Parliament streaming platform implementation involved several technically complex components:
Multi-Channel Audio Management
The Parliament’s requirement for up to 32 audio language tracks per video feed presented a unique challenge, as SDI only supports 16 audio channels. Alexander explains the solution: “We get each video signal twice, even in a non-redundant way. If we get it redundantly, we get four video channels, because then the first transports audio 1 to 16, and the second one transports audio 17 to 32. And then we have to decode the audio from both videos, and then recombine them.”
This challenge was complicated by the need to process hundreds of audio channels: “If you have 20 video channels and they have 32 audio channels, that’s 640 audio channels that you have to transcode in CPU,” says Alexander. Norsk SDK helped manage this complexity efficiently.
Mixed Hardware Processing
The solution utilized a sophisticated mix of hardware components:
- NETINT cards for video encoding
- CPU processing for audio encoding (as NETINT handles video only)
- Ampere ARM CPUs with 128 cores for de-interlacing and audio transcoding
- Deltacast SDI input cards for high-density input
Cloud Integration
While the core media processing runs on-premises, the management components are deployed in the cloud:
- Kubernetes clusters running in two Linode (Akamai Cloud) locations (Amsterdam and Frankfurt)
- Content management system interface
- User rights management and access control
- Clipping and publishing functionality for social media
Content Delivery
For content delivery, the solution leverages Akamai’s CDN services, providing:
- Global distribution of parliamentary content
- Web application firewall for security
- Access control mechanisms
- Edge IP binding for network traffic identification
The Results
The implemented solution has enabled the European Parliament to effectively stream its proceedings to citizens across Europe with unprecedented flexibility:
Norsk’s Role & Integration with Other Components
Within the European Parliament workflow, Norsk is responsible for key elements of the media processing:
- Recording incoming 1080i50 video signals with up to 32 audio tracks into a 7-day ring buffer
- Encoding incoming 1080i50 video signals with up to 32 audio tracks into SRT live streams, sent to both transcoders and an EP-internal Multicast platform
- Transcoding these SRT streams into ABR streams, packaging into HLS, push to Akamai MSL4
- Remuxing the SRT video stream and a selected audio track into an RTMP live stream to social media networks
- Clipping selected time periods from live streams into VoD files
Norsk integrates directly with other key components in the workflow:
- Capturing from Deltacast Flex SDI capture cards
- Encoding and transcoding with NETINT Quadra T1U cards
- Storing recordings on G&L’s AVPU, Ampere Altra Max based rack servers with large NVMe storage capacity
- Pushing SRT, RTMP, and HLS live streams through the multi-site network G&L has created between Brussels, Strasbourg, Frankfurt, and Düsseldorf
- Receiving event metadata and job instructions from the G&L CMS and orchestration backend, which runs on two Akamai Connected Cloud clusters in Frankfurt and Amsterdam
- Integrated in the modular G&L media processing applications
- Pushing telemetry data into G&L’s Hydrolix cluster for observability
By using Norsk SDK for the media processing, G&L was able to focus on enterprise-level features. “Norsk allows us to step back and just focus on the architecture, on the integration, on the enterprise features like single sign-on, and role-based access control, and all that stuff that you need in a business or enterprise environment,” explains Alexander.
Ready for Future Projects
The project aligns with G&L’s “atoms and molecules” approach to building modular workflows. Alexander describes their philosophy: “We wanted to do very productized atoms that do one thing very well, but that we can develop even if no customer is buying them, just so that we know it’s working, we can pull it out of the drawer and it works and is documented.”. The customization in bespoke projects thus is reduced to the combination of well-defined and battle-proven components, and does not mean developing from scratch all the time.
For the media processing components of these modular “atoms,” Norsk SDK provides the underlying functionality, creating a symbiotic relationship between G&L’s high-level workflow components and Norsk’s media processing capabilities.
Conclusion
The collaboration between G&L Systemhaus and Norsk has resulted in a powerful streaming platform that serves the European Parliament’s complex needs. By leveraging Norsk SDK’s capabilities, G&L was able to address challenging technical requirements while focusing on enterprise integration and user experience.
“We are very happy with Norsk and will definitely continue to use it as a backbone of what we do,” says Alexander, highlighting the successful ongoing partnership between the companies.
The European Parliament now benefits from a flexible, scalable streaming solution that makes parliamentary proceedings accessible to citizens across Europe in their preferred languages, furthering the goal of transparent and accessible democratic governance.
