Appear X Gateway Overview

bilbycast-appear-x-api-gateway is a sidecar service that bridges the Appear X broadcast encoder/gateway platform to bilbycast-manager. It translates the Appear X JSON-RPC 2.0 API into the bilbycast WebSocket protocol, enabling centralized management of Appear X hardware alongside native bilbycast edge nodes.

How It Works

The gateway connects to two systems simultaneously:

1. bilbycast-manager — via outbound WebSocket (same protocol as edge and relay nodes)
2. Appear X unit — via HTTPS JSON-RPC 2.0 polling

bilbycast-manager ◄──── WebSocket ────► bilbycast-appear-x-api-gateway ◄──── HTTPS ────► Appear X Unit

The gateway:

• Polls the Appear X unit for inputs, outputs, services, alarms, and IP interfaces
• Translates stats and health into the bilbycast manager protocol
• Receives commands from the manager and translates them into Appear X JSON-RPC calls
• Appears as a managed device in the manager dashboard

Supported Commands

The command handler ships 73 distinct action arms. The most commonly used are:

Command	Description
get_inputs	List all input channels
get_outputs	List all output channels
get_services	List running services
get_alarms	List active alarms
get_ip_interfaces	List network interfaces
get_chassis	Chassis / board inventory
set_ip_input	Configure an IP input
set_ip_output	Configure an IP output

Beyond these, the handler also covers PTP and system-time status, licensing (install_license), redundancy groups, DPI / ESAM SCTE-35 config, audio profiles, coder and multi-service management, HIP encoders / decoders, SRT / PID / lock / PSI status, IP connections, card allocations, pool config, and clear_all_counters — 73 action types in total.

Quick Start

cargo build --release
./target/release/bilbycast-appear-x-api-gateway --config config.toml

See the Setup Guide for configuration details and the Architecture for the integration design.

Extending to Other Devices

The Appear X gateway serves as the reference implementation for the API gateway sidecar pattern. This same pattern can be used to integrate any third-party broadcast device with bilbycast-manager. See Adding New Device Gateways for the implementation guide.