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Ravnur Knowledge Base

Create a live channel

Ravnur Support
  • Updated

 

What is a streaming channel?

A streaming channel is a dedicated, custom URL where your live stream will be published. Think of it like a television channel, where each channel has scheduled programs.

 

Why do I need a streaming channel?

In order to broadcast an Event, you need a channel to run it on. With a channel, you have a consistent URL for all your broadcasts, making it easy for your audience to find and view your content every time.

 

How to create a channel?

1. Open Live Streaming > Manage channels: This will bring you to the list view of the live channels.

Edit created channels, Assign 24/7 VOD playlist (simulated live stream), or delete the channels from “Manage channels” page.

2. Click on the “Create live channel” button:

live-cr-1.png

3. Fill in the information about the channel:

channel1.png

  • Title: Displayed on the channel’s page and tells the viewer where they are.

  • Description (optional): It's not shown on the channel’s page, but it is useful metadata for search engine optimization.

  • Select application: Choose the application to manage and view your live streams accordingly.

You’ll have the field displayed only if you own more than one application and access the creation from the root application of the “Admin Portal”.

  • Default live source: You must assign a streaming server to the channel, and these are set up in Live Streaming > Configure sources.

There are two types of live sources available:

1. Ravnur Media Services (RMS): Control the settings of the streaming server and the post-production pipeline, automatically converting live streams to VOD assets managed by the vCMS.

2. HTTP live stream URL: Use a .m3u8 playlist manifest URL to create a generic live source and stream it to the player.

Check the “Create a live source” to learn more.

If you need to change the live source for a particular Event (e.g. an Event will take place in a different location and another streaming server is closer), you can override the default live source when you schedule the Event.

  • Channel URL: Make the channel URL descriptive so that it is easily remembered and guessed by viewers. Insert the value that will be added to the pre-defined URL you see above the input field.

Channel URLs are permanent and cannot be overridden later.

  • Privacy: select the privacy level for your channel:

    • Public: Events created using your channel will be displayed on the Portal and accessible to everyone.

    • Unlisted: Events will not be listed publicly. Only those with the direct link will be able to view the Event.

  • Channel player splash image: A visual preview of your content. This image appears before the stream starts and can also be displayed when the player is embedded on other pages.

channel2.png

  • Settings:

    • Enable Q&A: add a mailbox for viewers to contact you.

You’ll have the “Enable Q&A” field displayed only if you access the creation from the root of “Admin Portal”.

If you are creating a channel from the Public Portal application in Admin, you will see a "Featured Channel" option instead, which allows you to attach the Live Channel player to the Home page of the Public Portal.

public-channel.png

 

  • Allow embedding: allow your live stream to be embedded on other websites or web pages.

 

RMS-source settings:

These settings will appear if your selected source has the “RMS” type. Learn more.

Enable viewing of recorded event immediately. The recorded live stream will be published immediately after the live stream is over, and it will be viewable as a VOD. Before the encoding is complete, the video will be streamed from the live archive (used for the DVR functionality) and when encoding of the live archive is complete, the stream will be using the MP4 versions. The video will have an "available" status immediately and will be accessible to users on the portals even during the processing phase.

Generate captions for the VOD asset. Selecting this will add automatic caption generation for the VOD to the processing pipeline. When you select this option, you need to select the language of the audio track.

Note: This feature is currently in development and is not yet available.

Do not convert to VOD after stream completion. This option will not prevent the creation of VOD, as VOD is always created after stream completion. However, selecting this option will disable the creation of previews, thumbnails, and closed captions. For Standard Passthrough encoding, it will trigger transcoding into various qualities if not selected. For 720p- or 1080p-encoded streams, multiple quality versions are already pre-encoded and available immediately. If you do not need previews, thumbnails, and closed captions for non-Standard Passthrough VOD, disable this field to skip unnecessary transcoding.

 

 

Multiple channels

You can create a large number of dedicated channels to match the complexity of your organization and the variety of your Events. Each channel can have a unique custom URL to make it easy to identify and navigate.

Example of use

This is particularly useful when you, for example, have standing committees and want to stream every Event on the same URL that is not shared by any other Event. You can also embed the channel on the committee’s webpage and thereby ensure that every live stream is also published on that page.

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