Plug-ins as microservices

Plug-in software modules for a media processing application are deployed in a service-oriented architecture as microservices within a Web-scale environment. Each plug-in module registered within a distributed service hosting environment runs as an instance within a gasket that mediates the interaction of the plug-in instance with the environment. The gaskets convert media essence that is input to or output from the plug-in instances from media files to buffers and vice versa as required. Media essence representing intermediate results may be streamed as media essence channels on a data bus, enabling microservice-based processing to be applied in a live environment. Gaskets subscribe to specific media essence channels on the data bus, and output processed media to a media essence channel corresponding to the function of the plug-in module. The use of plug-in associated media channels on a data bus supports decoupled media processing by the plug-in modules.