Ingest is the first stage of the pipeline, where source content enters the platform for processing. For VOD that means uploading a mezzanine file (or pulling it from a MAM/storage); for live it means receiving a contribution feed over a protocol such as RTMP, SRT, RIST, or Zixi from a venue, OB truck, or remote encoder. Ingest is where the platform first takes responsibility for the content.
A robust ingest layer validates and normalizes whatever arrives: checking format, resolution, frame rate, audio configuration, and timecode; rejecting or flagging bad input; and handing a clean, known-good source to transcoding. For live, ingest also handles redundancy — dual feeds, automatic failover, and reconnection — because the source link is the most fragile part of a live event.
Getting ingest right matters disproportionately: every downstream stage inherits whatever problems slip through here, and a corrupt or mis-specified source is far cheaper to catch at the door than after it has been encoded into dozens of renditions.
