Knowledge base

You may chain multiple videos from your VOD space together (either an entire directory automatically, or by selecting individual videos) into a playlist of your choice, for example to create an "as-live" WebTV channel, where the stream is played back synchronously to all viewers, even though the stream is not actually broadcast live.

Actions to be carried out

You generate a playlist from videos located in a folder set up within your VOD space and playback will occur "as alive", and from then on incorporated into our video streaming system (but although the stream will be viewed synchronously by all viewers, the stream is not produced live).

Several display modes are available, allowing you to chose the most appropriate streaming method for your project. A distinction is made, for example, between:

• "Live" streaming (simulates "as live" broadcasting, synchronised to the current UTC time, and hence the playback position will be the same on all clients across different time zones)
• "Normale" streaming (videos are played back one after the other, with the timeline indicating the total duration)
• "Sequential" streaming (videos are played back one after the other, with the timeline indicating the duration of the current video)
  • every time a new video is uploaded (including via the SOAP API)
  • whenever a video is enabled/disabled
  • whenever a video or folder is deleted/restored
  • whenever a video is moved
  • whenever a video is copied
  • whenever a video is cut (both parts) or spliced back together
Videos may be sorted by various criteria (Date, Name, Duration, Hits, Random).

Playlists are dynamic: whenever you perform an action elsewhere in your VOD space, any playlists affected will be updated automatically. For example:
In all cases, any videos affected will be repositioned with respect to the specified sorting criteria for the playlist in question.



More information
Videos may be added to playlists with the usual criteria (choice of player, basic settings, etc).

Playlists are compatible with the option to toggle playback quality on the fly (except for "as live" streams) but the default quality setting in the player section still serves as a reference for encoding.
   
Exporting to Facebook, Twitter and via HTML is possible (provided the function is enabled in the corresponding player).

This guide explains how to transfer an Infomaniak product (domain name, Web hosting, etc.) from one client account to another.

Generating the transfer link for the product to be transferred

1. open the Manager (manager.infomaniak.com) with the login details for the account which owns the product to be transferred
2. go to Product management
3. in the left side menu click on Product transfers
4. click on Transfer products
5. choose the products to be transferred and confirm at the bottom of the page
6. copy the transfer code (it is also sent by email to your user account email address)

Importing the product to the client account you want

1. open the Manager (manager.infomaniak.com) using the login details for the account to which the product is to be imported
2. visit the link obtained when creating the product transfer

A transfer link is valid for 24 hours. You can cancel a transfer, provided it has not already been completed, from the homepage.

The maximum number of viewers is limited physically on the servers.

Excess is simply calculated per extra Terabyte bandwidth (the price of the exceeding is specified on the invoices and order), knowing that as a basis, all customers are entitled to 2 TB per month.

Automatic blocking of a stream because it might go over its limit isn't planned. However it is possible to accomplish this manually by adding restrictions and by lowering the stream bitrate at the end of the month in order to consume less bandwidth.

When playing a video embedded on a page, the "Suspended Account" message is displayed when a VOD/AOD product to which the video belongs, has been blocked. There can be various reasons for this suspension, therefore quickly contact the VOD/AOD space administrator for more information.

To manage the interface between your VOD/AOD space and your CMS, we have developed a plugin that is compatible with WordPress, Joomla and Drupal. It enables:

• retrieval and management of all your videos
• automatic updates when new videos are added
• automatic retrieval of existing players
• importing audio/video files directly from your CMS admin
• playlist management
• automatic video search while writing a page or article

Steps to be taken

Information concerning your VOD space and the external module adapted to your CMS is found in your admin interface.
Go to CMS/API Extensions in your VOD space

For security reasons, we strongly recommend that you do not supply the plugin with your existing VOD login details. It is much more advisable to create a new user from your VOD admin interface and assign it "API" rights only.

This is the login information (e-mail address and interface login password) that you will supply to the plugin, along with the unique login ID for your VOD space.(fig.1).

Images

Fig.1

WordPress Module (click here to download)

Joomla Module (click here to download)


Module Drupal (cliquez ici pour télécharger)

It is possible to add an image that will appear on your video. You can either accomplish this using some rules that are specific to an import folder or from a video player's configuration.

If you use the player (online video player), the logo appears superimposed over the video. The logo is only added by the player at the time it is displayed. The advantage of this method is that the logo can be changed whenever you wish, and this allows you to have several players directed to the same video without any problem. This is the recommended method in order to have a solution that is easy to work with and is upgradeable.

The overlaying of the logo that is present in the folder section is, as its name indicates, an actual overlay in the video. This is far less flexible since once it has been overlaid, you cannot change it at all. It goes without saying that there will be no point in regretting overlaying a logo once it changes a few years later...

These two methods are different and do not work at the same time, and so if you activate them simultaneoulsy, you will have the logo of the player on top of the overlaid logo.

It is possible to add chapters to a video that has been uploaded to your VOD/AOD and customise the menu display (small thumbnail, title + description, large thumbnail, etc.).

Actions to be carried out

Log into your control panel
Go to your VOD/AOD space in Media
Click on the video in question then go to the Chaptering tab
On the timeline (Fig. 1, pt. 1) or player (Fig. 1, pt. 2), drag the playback position
Once you have reached the desired position, click on 'New Chapter'
You may also double-click on the lower timeline to create a chapter
A chapter can only be positioned on a key frame (Fig. 1, pt. 3)
To view the key frames, click on the symbol (Fig. 1, pt. 4) and zoom in if necessary.
Step from one key frame to another (Fig. 1, pt. 5 and pt. 6) to fine-tune the position
Enter a title, description, set a thumbnail, etc.
Save the chapter and it is automatically added to the chapter list
Once all chapters are ready, click Publish on Line (as well as after any change)

Illustrated steps

Fig. 1


Adding a chapter to a video

More information

The video file must be MP4 encoded in order to edit (create + modify) chapters. Chapter editing will not be possible for FLV videos but these will still display chapters in the video player if the video has also been MP4 encoded alongside. If the MP4 video is deleted, chapters will still remain in place on the FLV but without the option to edit them.

As the iPhone (but not the iPad) handles video playback itself, chapters are not currently visible on iPhone.

It is not possible to use this tool for audio-only media.

For information ont he SOAP API, please read https://statslive.infomaniak.com/vod/api/#exemple7

Our administration interface remains a panel for webmaster/people in charge of the product and wasn't conceived as a content management system (CMS).

For a user to only be able to send videos and retrieve their integration code (without having access to other videos or to a player's settings for example), you need to work around the tools that are in place. There are two possibilities:

1. upload via FTP : simple to set up and can be automated but it's necessary to use FTP software
2. update via a flash/HTML form module: needs to be implemented via the API on a page of your site, but can be done very easily in a CMS or a pre-existing admin

The other advantage of this second method is that it enables you to define a different file name to the one sent by the user.

To retrieve the integration code, there are also various possible methods:

1. use the default integration code (under "Folders" -> "Integration" -> "3. Integration code", code which will always remain the same, and within which it is enough to insert the name of the video), but be careful because the name of the file may vary slightly from the one that was sent (cleaning of accents, special characters, ...)
2. use the callback to retrieve the video details, including the integration code
3. use the API once the encoding is over, so as to retrieve the integration code (getIFrameImplementation())

For the time being, only http-download is supported. This has the advantage of being compatible with a large number of phones/players, whereas RTMP or HTTP-Streaming solutions are proprietary and therefore only supported by certain specific devices.

• RTMP is compatible with Flash only, which excludes mobiles or HTML5, for example
• HTTP-Streaming does not exist in a unified form and several manufacturers produce their own implementation (Apple HTTP-Streaming for iPhone/iPad/iPod, Flash dynamic streaming or Adobe and Flash).

There is still no real standard agreed upon by the different manufacturers that would allow them to all support one single codec: MP4(h264) and WebM may or may not be supported depending on the browser in question; H264, for example, is not supported on Firefox, WebM VP8 and VP9 are not supported on Safari and IE11, etc. This is why it is necessary to juggle between the different encoding standards and the different players that may or may not be capable of reading them, depending on the device and hardware on which they are running.

As soon as a standard encoding is supported by Adobe Flash Player, Flash Player will be the preferred solution as it is significantly more advanced in terms of customisation, options and features (VAST, adsWizz, playlists, chapter indexing, etc.) than the HTML5 version. If the Adobe plugin is not installed in the browser, an HTML5 version will then be loaded, depending on the browser's level of HTML5 support and availability of a suitable decoder that is compatible with the browser in question.

It isn't possible to automatically generate two different sizes (738x388 and 131x70 for example) for video thumbnails.

By default, 2 different thumbnail sizes are generated for each video. However their sizes aren't directly cutomizable. The first thumbnail has a fixed size of 200x120 pixels and the second depends upon the encoding resolution you want. In other words:

1. Small sized thumbnail: 200x120
2. Big sized thumbnail: maximum output resolution requested

The size of these thumbnails doesn't depend upon the source but upon the exporting formats that have been set. The preload image takes the size of the largestt format to be encoded. This allows to have a preload picture corresponding to the video that you wish to integrate (same resolution, format, ...).

For the other resolutions, you can retrieve the maximum picture via Curl/wget and resize it on your website.