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Ingest
Ingest is the act of copying a package from its carrier into the server's own storage and hash-checking it, so the film plays from local disk rather than from a drive someone could unplug.
It is a copy, and then a check
Nothing plays from the delivery drive. The package is copied into the server's storage and then verified against the hashes in the PKL — every asset, byte for byte. That second step is the one people skip when they are in a hurry, and it is the one that catches a failing carrier before an audience does.
Time is the constraint. A feature is 100–300 GB. Over a decent connection to a healthy drive that is tens of minutes; over a tired USB dock it can be several hours. Multiply by a Thursday changeover with four new titles and ingest stops being a background task and becomes the thing that determines whether Friday works.
Storage is the other constraint. Servers hold a finite library and somebody has to delete things. The title that will not ingest because the disk is full is a weekly event in cinemas with no deletion routine.
A changeover routine that holds up
- Ingest as early as the package arrives. Not the night before. Electronic delivery often lands days ahead — use the time.
- Always run the verification. An unverified ingest is a guess about a hard drive you did not buy.
- Check keys at the same time. Content and key are separate deliveries and either can be missing.
- Build and test the playlist on the actual screen. Ingested is not the same as scheduled, and scheduled is not the same as tested.
- Delete finished runs on a schedule. Free space is the difference between a calm changeover and a full one.
- Watch the first minute and the last minute. Most package faults are at a boundary, and the last minute is where an expiring key shows up.
Frequently asked questions
How long does ingest take?
Tens of minutes for a feature over a good connection; several hours over a slow dock. Size and interface decide it, not running time.
Can I ingest while a film is playing?
Generally yes — the systems are built for it — but on older hardware a large ingest can compete with playback. Avoid it during a full house if you can.
What does verification actually check?
It recomputes a hash for every asset and compares it with the packing list, so it catches a truncated or corrupted copy. It does not tell you the content is correct — only that it is intact.
Keep reading
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