StreamNova: High-Performance Video Infrastructure

StreamNova is an enterprise-grade video infrastructure platform designed to handle the complexities of distributed video processing. The platform provides high-volume ingestion, asynchronous transcoding, and Adaptive Bitrate Streaming (ABR) via the HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) protocol — enabling a resilient, scalable, and low-latency video delivery experience.

---

Table of Contents

1. System Architecture
2. Tech Stack
3. Engineering Highlights
4. Project Structure
5. Prerequisites
6. Installation
7. Environment Variables
8. Running the Application
9. API Reference
10. Contributing
11. License

---

System Architecture

StreamNova employs a decoupled architecture to ensure that the CPU-intensive transcoding layer scales independently of the user-facing API.

1. Ingestion Layer: A Node.js/Express gateway optimized for multipart, large-file uploads via the multipart/form-data content type.
2. Transcoding Engine: An asynchronous worker powered by FFmpeg that segments raw video files into HLS manifests (.m3u8) and media fragments (.ts).
3. Multi-Resolution Processing: Concurrent encoding pipelines generate 1080p, 720p, and 480p streams to accommodate varying network conditions and device capabilities.
4. Global Distribution: Processed assets are persisted to AWS S3 and served through AWS CloudFront CDN for geographically distributed, low-latency playback.

---

Tech Stack

Layer	Technology
Backend Runtime	Node.js (v18+), Express.js
Media Processing	FFmpeg, Fluent-FFmpeg
Database	MongoDB (Mongoose ODM)
Cloud Storage	AWS S3
Content Delivery	AWS CloudFront
DevOps	Docker, GitHub Actions

---

Engineering Highlights

• Adaptive Bitrate Streaming (HLS): Dynamic quality switching is implemented to ensure a buffer-free user experience across varying bandwidth conditions.
• Asynchronous Processing: Heavy encoding tasks are offloaded from the main event loop via a dedicated worker service, preserving high API throughput and responsiveness.
• Secure Asset Management: AWS Pre-Signed URLs are used to provide time-limited, authenticated access to private media assets stored on S3.
• Clean Architecture: A strict separation of concerns is maintained between request handling (controllers), business logic (services), and infrastructure providers (storage, database).

---

Project Structure

stream-nova/
├── src/
│   ├── controllers/    # HTTP request handlers and response formatting
│   ├── models/         # MongoDB/Mongoose data schemas
│   ├── routes/         # Express route definitions and middleware bindings
│   ├── services/       # Core business logic: FFmpeg transcoding and AWS S3 operations
│   ├── utils/          # Shared utility functions and helper modules
│   └── app.js          # Application entry point and server bootstrap
├── raw_uploads/        # Temporary local buffer for incoming video files (auto-created)
├── uploadService.js    # Standalone multipart upload microservice
├── docker-compose.yml
└── package.json

---

Prerequisites

Before running this project, ensure the following software is installed on your system:

• Node.js v18.0.0 or higher — Download
• npm v9.0.0 or higher (bundled with Node.js)
• FFmpeg — Installation Guide
• Docker and Docker Compose (optional, for containerized deployment)
• An active AWS account with an S3 bucket and CloudFront distribution configured

---

Installation

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/tirth707/stream-nova-Youtube-Clone.git
   cd stream-nova-Youtube-Clone

2. Install dependencies:

   npm install

3. Configure environment variables (see Environment Variables).

---

Environment Variables

Create a .env file in the project root directory. The following variables are required:

Variable	Description	Example
UPLOAD_PORT	Port on which the upload service listens	4001
AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID	AWS IAM access key ID	AKIAIOSFODNN7EXAMPLE
AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY	AWS IAM secret access key	wJalrXUtnFEMI/K7MDENG/...
AWS_REGION	AWS region for S3 and CloudFront	us-east-1
S3_BUCKET_NAME	Name of the target S3 bucket	streamnova-assets
CLOUDFRONT_DOMAIN	CloudFront distribution domain	d1234abcd.cloudfront.net
MONGODB_URI	MongoDB connection string	mongodb://localhost:27017/streamnova

Security Note: Never commit the .env file to version control. It is listed in .gitignore by convention.

---

Running the Application

Development Mode

Start the upload service with automatic restarts on file changes:

npx nodemon uploadService.js

Standard Mode

node uploadService.js

Docker Compose

To run the full stack using Docker:

docker-compose up --build

The upload service will be available at http://localhost:4001 by default.

---

API Reference

Upload a Video

Submits a video file for asynchronous transcoding and HLS packaging.

Endpoint: POST /api/v1/videos/upload

Content-Type: multipart/form-data

Request Body:

Field	Type	Required	Description
video	File	Yes	The video file to upload. Must be a valid video MIME type (e.g., video/mp4). Maximum size: 500 MB.

Success Response — 202 Accepted:

{
  "message": "Video uploaded and queued for processing",
  "videoId": "a1b2c3d4-e5f6-7890-abcd-ef1234567890",
  "originalName": "my-video.mp4",
  "status": "PROCESSING"
}

Error Responses:

HTTP Status	Reason
400 Bad Request	No video file was included in the request.
415 Unsupported Media Type	The uploaded file is not a recognized video format.
500 Internal Server Error	An unexpected server-side error occurred during upload.

---

Contributing

Contributions are welcome and appreciated. To contribute:

1. Fork the repository.
2. Create a new feature branch: git checkout -b feature/your-feature-name
3. Commit your changes with a descriptive message: git commit -m "feat: add your feature description"
4. Push to your fork: git push origin feature/your-feature-name
5. Open a Pull Request against the main branch, describing your changes in detail.

Please ensure that your code adheres to the existing style and that all relevant tests pass before submitting a Pull Request.

---

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for full details.