Low-code Audio and Video Factory migration guide-Apsara Video SDK(Apsara Video SDK)-阿里云帮助中心

Low-code Audio and Video Factory is an early aPaaS product from Alibaba Cloud for typical live streaming scenarios. As customer bases and business needs expand, integrators require higher stability, control, and flexibility from low-code application solutions. The AUI Kits low-code application solution—an ensemble method for ApsaraVideo Live—provides a better development experience for audio and video applications. This topic describes how to migrate from Low-code Audio and Video Factory to the AUI Kits low-code application solution.

Delisting Announcement

To provide a more stable user experience and support agile iteration:

Starting on February 16, 2024, Alibaba Cloud will suspend the creation of new Low-code Audio and Video Factory (Low-code 1.0) applications. Existing applications remain unaffected and fully operational.
Starting on August 16, 2024, you can no longer modify existing applications.
Starting on February 16, 2025, Low-code Audio and Video Factory will be discontinued, and all existing applications will become inoperable.

The ApsaraVideo Live product offers the new AUI Kits low-code application solution (Low-code 2.0):

It covers the core features of Low-code Audio and Video Factory and delivers a more stable, flexible, and cost-effective audio and video application experience.
If your business still uses Low-code Audio and Video Factory, consider migrating to AUI Kits or integrating directly with ApsaraVideo Live products to improve your service experience.

Migration notes

Why migrate to Low-code 2.0

Low-code 1.0 is an early aPaaS product from Alibaba Cloud for typical live streaming scenarios. As customer bases and business needs expand, integrators require higher stability, control, and flexibility from low-code application solutions.
Low-code 2.0, as an ensemble method for ApsaraVideo Live, provides a better development experience for audio and video applications. Its main advantages are as follows:
1. Built on ApsaraVideo Live, it leverages many CDN POPs to deliver a stable and reliable audio-visual experience.
2. It provides source code for both the server-side and client, enabling integrators to perform flexible iteration.
3. Atomic features are billed independently, which helps reduce operational costs.

Click to view the main differences between the old and new solutions

Comparison item	Low-code 2.0 (AUI Kits)	Low-code 1.0 (Low-code Audio and Video Factory)
Integration method	Server-side: Deploy to your own server or implement based on the source code. Client: Choose one of the following options as needed. Low-code (with UI) integration: Integrate AUI Kits to quickly reuse standardized business components. Standard integration: Integrate the Mediabox audio and video SDK to define custom business logic and draw UI components.	Server-side: Hosted on Alibaba Cloud. Client: Choose one of the following options as needed. Sample project integration. Standard integration.
Scenarios	Interactive Streaming Scenario Interactive classroom Remote proctoring Audio and video calls Short-form video drama	Interactive Stream Interactive classroom
Integration workload	Integrate the code and run through the business flow in one day or less.	Integrate the code and run through the business flow in one day or less.
Maintenance cost	Low. The underlying service is stable.	Medium.
Iteration flexibility	High. The application layer components and backend services are open source, which lets integrators perform custom development.	Low. This closed-source product relies heavily on Alibaba Cloud's schedule for feature iterations.
Supported regions	Supports only the Chinese mainland.	Supports the Chinese mainland and Singapore regions.
Products used	ApsaraVideo Live. Mediabox audio and video SDK. ECS (to deploy AppServer). Video on demand is available if recording is required.	Low-code Audio and Video Factory.
Price	Lower. Atomic features are billed on demand: Standard live streaming (on demand): Billed by traffic or bandwidth. For more information, see Standard live streaming pricing. Real-Time Streaming (RTS) (on demand): Billed by traffic or bandwidth. For more information, see RTS pricing. Co-streaming (on demand): Billed by specifications and duration. For more information, see Audio and video call pricing. Mediabox audio and video SDK: The stream ingest, co-streaming, and player modules are licensed for free. Retouching and effects are optional. For more information, see Billable items. Live playback (on demand): Billed by the storage size and duration of recording files, and the traffic or bandwidth generated by playback. For more information, see Billing overview.	Higher. Billed by duration: Billed by live streaming duration and co-streaming duration. For more information, see Billing methods.

Can the old and new solutions interoperate

No.

The technical architectures and data hosting models of Low-code 2.0 differ fundamentally from those of Low-code 1.0. The two solutions cannot interoperate.
We recommend preparing for business migration in advance to minimize impact on existing users.

What are the impacts of not migrating

Purchase suspension: Starting on February 16, 2024, new purchases of Low-code Audio and Video Factory and related packages will be suspended.
Existing users who purchased Low-code Audio and Video Factory and related packages before this date remain unaffected for now.
Important
If existing customers need refunds for unused resource plans, submit refund requests before the resource plan expires. Refund requests will not be accepted after August 16, 2024.
Renewal suspension: Starting on August 16, 2024, renewals of resource plans and subscriptions for existing users will be suspended. Pay-as-you-go billing remains unaffected.
Service termination: Starting on February 16, 2025, the Low-code Audio and Video Factory service will be terminated.
Before termination, console features and support for some Alibaba Cloud products and tickets will remain available.

Will billing change after migration

Yes.

The overall cost of Low-code 2.0 is lower than that of Low-code 1.0. Low-code 2.0 bills only for the atomic capabilities you actually use. You can purchase ApsaraVideo Live resource plans to obtain discounts.

Migration guide

Architecture diagram

Integrate the new solution

Alibaba Cloud currently offers two migration options. Choose one based on your business scenario:

Low-code (with UI) integration: This is a sample project integration solution comparable to Low-code 1.0. It provides complete business components for scenarios such as E-commerce live streaming, show-style live streaming, and interactive classrooms, allowing integrators to quickly build their own audio and video applications.
Standard integration: This solution is recommended if your business is complex and you need to define custom business logic and draw UI components.
Note
This solution requires you to integrate the Mediabox audio and video SDK and connect to ApsaraVideo Live and ApsaraVideo VOD services yourself.

Option 1: Low-code (with UI) integration

Take building an E-commerce live streaming application as an example. You need to integrate the AUI Kits low-code application solution for interactive streaming. The main integration steps are as follows:

Preparations: Activate the ApsaraVideo Live service and configure an accelerated domain name. For more information, see Preparations.
Server-side integration: Deploy the live channel backend management service (AUI Kits AppServer) to your business server. Use the accelerated domain name and other parameters obtained in the previous step to complete the service configuration. For more information, see Server-side integration.
Client integration: Download the source code of the client business components (AUI Kits). Integrate it into your application project and complete the configuration. After completing joint debugging with the live channel backend management service, you can run through the main live streaming process. For more information, see Client integration.
Business adaptation: Based on your actual business scenario, integrate modules such as the user account system and the e-commerce order system to form a complete application.

The integration methods for other scenario suites are similar. For more information, see:

Option 2: Standard integration

The product documentation for the main feature modules is as follows:

Category	Feature module	Corresponding product	Integration guide
Server-side	Start and watch standard live streams	ApsaraVideo Live	Quick Start
	Ultra-Low-Latency Real-Time Streaming (RTS): Starting and Watching
	Recording and playback	ApsaraVideo VOD	Quick Start_ApsaraVideo VOD-Alibaba Cloud Help Center
	Chit-chat and co-streaming	Interactive stream	Interactive stream_ApsaraVideo Live-Alibaba Cloud Help Center
	Signaling messages	Interactive messages for live streaming	Interactive messages for live streaming (New)
Client	Streamer client	MediaBox audio and video SDK - Live Stream Ingest SDK	Live Stream Ingest SDK
	Viewer client	MediaBox audio and video SDK - Player SDK	Player SDK

Migrate from the old solution

Low-code 1.0 will be officially discontinued on February 16, 2025. At that time, the product service will be terminated and all data will be deleted. To retain historical live streaming content, download your historical data and complete the solution migration as soon as possible. The steps are as follows:

Step 1: Get the list of existing live channels

Query the historical live channel information for a specified Low-code 1.0 application, such as live channel IDs and titles, to download historical data.

The query methods are as follows:

Scenario		API
Interactive stream		ListLiveRooms - Queries information about multiple live channels in a batch.
Interactive classroom		ListClasses - Gets a list of classes.

Step 2: Get the recording files of live channels

Query the recording file information for historical live channels of a specified Low-code 1.0 application to download the recording files.

The query methods are as follows:

Scenario		API
Interactive stream		GetLiveRecord - Gets the recording information of a live stream.
		ListLiveFiles - Gets the list of recording files for a live stream.
Interactive classroom		GetClassRecord - Gets the recording information of a class.

You can submit a ticket to contact us for migration assistance. We will use the cp (copy file) command of Object Storage Service (OSS) to copy the recording files to your specified OSS bucket.

Use the OSS cp command to copy recording files:

Preparations

Create an OSS bucket in the same region under your Alibaba Cloud account in advance.
Install ossutil on your local machine or server.
Note
When you install ossutil, you need to specify the AccessKey ID and AccessKey secret of your Alibaba Cloud account. For more information, see Install ossutil.

Perform operations

Submit a ticket to Alibaba Cloud. In the ticket, include the application ID, the newly created OSS bucket, and the numeric account used to install ossutil (the account information corresponding to the AccessKey pair, not the AccessKey pair itself). Set the title to Allow migration of recording files from Low-code Audio and Video Factory.
After an Alibaba Cloud engineer assigns the permissions, the migration command is provided in the ticket:
```
ossutil64 cp oss://{source_bucket}/{directory}/ oss://{your_new_bucket}/{directory}/ -r
```
After you execute this statement, all recording files (including M3U8 and TS files) from your Low-code Audio and Video Factory are copied to the new bucket you created. The directory structure remains the same.
You can request a new domain name and map it to the new bucket. This lets you dynamically replace the original domain name for a seamless transition.

Step 3: Get historical information of live channels

Query the historical live channel information for a specified Low-code 1.0 application to download and migrate the data.

The query methods are as follows:

Scenario	Content	API
Interactive stream	Data statistics	GetLiveRoomStatistics - Queries the statistics of a live stream.
		GetLiveRoomUserStatistics - Queries the statistics of users in a live stream by page.
	Chat and live comments	ListComments - Queries live comments in a batch.
Interactive classroom	Data statistics	GetRoom - Queries the details of a channel.
		ListRooms - Queries a list of channels.
	Chat and live comments	ListComments - Queries live comments in a batch.

Step 4: Consolidate old and new data

Use the APIs provided above to get all live stream and class information from Low-code Audio and Video Factory, and store this information on your server.
Get the recording files and store them in the new OSS bucket.
When a request for recording information is made, first determine whether the current live channel ID or class ID is from Low-code Audio and Video Factory. If it is, return the new OSS bucket address.

Migration strategy

You can choose one of the following migration methods as needed:

Coexistence required: The same version of your app needs to support both the old and new solutions at the same time. You can perform a grayscale release over a period of time before switching completely. Follow these steps for the transition:
1. Upgrade the Low-code 1.0 SDK to avoid conflicts with Low-code 2.0.
2. Integrate the Low-code 2.0 solution and pre-configure a switch on your own.
3. After the new app version reaches a certain coverage level, switch the live channels to Low-code 2.0.
Direct switch: The new version of your app uses only the new solution for live streaming. In this case, you can directly integrate the new solution. This method is suitable for web applications.

Contact us

If you have any questions about service migration, feel free to submit a ticket to contact our support engineers, or search for the DingTalk group number 10570030108 to join the group and provide feedback.