What Is API ? What Is Application Programming Interface ? APIs For DVB

what is api

Introduction

We all have heard about API already many times. Because it have rapidly adopted in each and every sector for better user experience. As we can see industry is moving from Analog Headend to Digital Headend to IPTV Headend and OTT Headend we need to have more knowledge about software programming and its applications.

Earlier a Headend Engineer. needs to know the basic technical facts of Digital Headend. But now its not like that. Because industry is moving rapidly he needs to upgrade himself towards software programming skills for his carrier growth.

Because heart of OTT headend is based on terms like DRM, Transcoders or streaming servers, Protocols, HTML, Direct Content Feed From Broadcasters and APIs etc. So today in this article we are going to cover What Is API ? How API Works ? and What Are Uses of APIs in Digital Video Broadcasting ?

What Is API?

what is an api

API stands for Application Programming Interface. It is a programming code that establish a connection between two different Applications for accessing of data.

In other words,

API is a medium for accessing of content from third party to enhance our services. Which saves lot of time for Software Developers.

Thus API is a list of different functions with description which software developer needs to call these functions according to their requirement.

Now a days APIs are widely used because everyone wants to enhance their services by providing lots of information to their subscribers. So APIs are using everywhere.

So APIs can be used for to access third part hardware as well as software. Where security is the prime concern.

What are Private APIs & Public APIs

private api public api

There are thousands of public APIs easily available in the market. Which you can embed in your system to get benefits of it. Here is the some examples of these APIs,

(1) Twitter APIs

(2) Youtube APIs

(3) Google MAPS APIs

(4) Amazon Product Advertising APIs

On the other hand,

Private APIs are used for confidential information. Many organizations uses it for their personal use only.

What Are Types Of APIs ?

types of apis

Broadly APIs have divided into three types mentioned below,

(1) Web APIs

(2 ) Local APIs

(3) Program APIs

(1) Web APIs

It is designed to use HTTP protocol to access the HTML pages. It is known as REST API. REST stands for Representational State Transfer. It does not required library support. Multiple actions can be performed on this single resource. But it is little bit complex to use for developers.

Google Cloud Video Intelligence is also a API used to define the metadata of videos. It is a REST API.

know more about  Google Cloud Video Intelligence 

(2) Local APIs

It was designed to provide OS services to Applications.

(3) Program APIs

It works of RPC Technology to make Remote Program Component. RPC is easy for developers to use. Where RPC stands for Remote Procedure Call.

How Does API Work?

how does api work

You can understand the working of APIs from two examples described below,

If you want to develop a iOS application. Then developer need to have permission to access the camera of smartphone. This access of camera is taken by use of Camera API. This camera API have already developed by the iOS developers. They have done lot of work to develop it in more efficient way for best camera experience.

Now software developer need to call this camera API only if his App wants to get access of camera. So what if API is not available?

If API is not available then this software developer needs to write code to access the iPhone camera hardware. Which is long and time consuming process. Which now can be done by APIs in more smart way.

Likewise,

We visits lot of websites in a day. We generally see a Sign Up button of website. We click on that then we sign Up into website through our Social Media Accounts like Google, Facebook and LinkedIn. Now the question arises here is that how does it work?

The answer is very simple that is through API. So when you press a signup button then selects a social media account like google. Then this site open a box where you need to enter your user name and password. After entering it this site takes a permission from google API to access your profile detail. Which you need to accept then you gets a successful sign up for a website.

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How API Is Useful In DVB Services?

api in digital video broadcasting dvb

APIs can be useful in each and every sector for enhancement of services. So it can also be useful in Digital Video Broadcasting services.

In Digital Headend System or OTT Headend System we need to insert the EGP guide manually or automatically. The traditional method is that you need to get EPG information on your email and then download it on regular basis. This EPG information can be on various format like .XML that depends upon the support of your PSI Server.

Then import it your PSI server for EPG up-gradation. Which is very time consuming process. Because you need to update it on regular basis.

On the other hand,

Video services providers uses the API , provided by EPG Service Providers.  This API needs to embed in your headend then it fetches the EPG information from EPG providers on a specified time of interval. This specific time of interval is defined in the headend. So API done this task very easy and fast.

Conclusion

API is a piece of code used to fetch the information from other systems to our system for better user experience. This information can be anything like weather,reservation of train, Google Map, EPG Information and profile detail etc. It also saves the developer time in developing a software.

A API sends a request to fetch a particular information to server. Then server receive the request and gather the required information. Then server respond only the requested information to the client.

It is just like embedding a Google Map on your website for location of your office. Where Google MAP API is used.

Suggested Articles

What Is DRM ?

What Is Cloud Transcoding ?

What Is OTT Cloud Headend ?

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