An apparatus is configured to process at least one of video data, audio data and ancillary data to generate an output for broadcast. The apparatus includes a plurality of processing components and a control engine configured to receive at least one topology from a host system, each of the at least one topology provides a grouping of the plurality of processing components to process the at least one of the video data, the audio data and the ancillary data received by the apparatus, respectively. For each of the at least one topology, the control engine is configured to determine commands for execution by the processing components on a frame-by-frame basis, to generate the commands for execution by the processing components, and to send commands to the processing components to process the data.