The Ravnur Media Platform supports adding alternative audio tracks to VOD (video on demand) assets. This allows viewers to select a different audio language or a descriptive audio track during playback, directly within the Ravnur Media Player.

Two track types are supported:

• Alternative Language — a translated or alternate-language version of the video's audio.
• Descriptive Audio — a narrated description of visual content for accessibility purposes.

Tracks are uploaded by administrators and are processed and stored alongside the video asset. Viewers can switch between available tracks at any time during playback without interruption.

1   Where to Find Audio Tracks

Audio track management is available only for VOD assets. It is not available for live streams.

To access the Audio Tracks tab:

1. Open the Admin Panel and navigate to Videos.
2. Select a VOD asset to open its detail page.
3. Click the Audio Tracks tab.

The Audio Tracks tab displays a list of all tracks associated with the asset. The following columns are shown:

2   Adding an Audio Track

1. 1

   Open the Add Audio Track dialog

   On the Audio Tracks tab, click Add Audio Track. A dialog will appear with two methods: Upload File and Generate with AI. Select Upload File to proceed with a manually prepared audio file.

2. 2

   Select the track type

   Choose Alternative Language for translated or alternate-language audio, or Descriptive Audio for audio description tracks.

3. 3

   Select the language

   Choose the language of the audio track from the dropdown. The language is stored with the track and displayed in the Admin Panel, in the player's track selector, and in the video manifest.

4. 4

   Enter a display name (optional)

   You may enter a custom display name for the track. This name is shown to viewers in the player's audio track selector. Display names are limited to 50 characters and must be unique across tracks on the same asset.

   Note: If no display name is entered, the system will automatically generate one based on the track type and language — for example, Spanish — Alternative Language.
5. 5

   Upload the audio file

   Drag and drop an audio file onto the upload area, or click to browse. Accepted formats:

   MP3 M4A AAC MP4 (audio only) WAV FLAC OGG WMA

   The maximum file size is 2 GB. Files of unsupported types or above the size limit are rejected before the upload begins.

   Note: You can cancel an upload while it is in progress using the Cancel button.
6. 6

   Click Upload

   The track will appear immediately in the Audio Tracks list with a Processing status while the file is validated and encoded. Once complete, the status will change to Ready and the track will become available in the player.

3   Replacing an Existing Track

If you upload a new track with the same Language and Type as an existing track, the system will display a warning before proceeding:

If you confirm by clicking Upload, the existing track is replaced. All track metadata in the list — including status, duration, date added, and any warnings — is updated to reflect the new file. You cannot have two tracks with the same language and type combination on a single asset.

You can, however, have tracks that share a language but differ in type. For example:

• Spanish — Alternative Language
• Spanish — Descriptive Audio

And you can have multiple tracks of the same type in different languages. For example:

• Spanish — Alternative Language
• French — Alternative Language
• German — Alternative Language

4   Validation and Warnings

When a track is uploaded, the system validates the file and checks it against the video asset. Some issues block processing; others generate a warning icon in the track list without blocking playback.

Errors that block processing

The following conditions will cause the track to be set to an Error status and prevent the track from being used:

• The file is corrupt, zero-length, or does not match a supported audio format — including files with a renamed extension (for example, a PDF renamed to .mp3).
• Files larger than 2 GB are rejected before the upload begins.
• Files of unsupported formats are rejected before the upload begins.

When processing fails, the track is listed with an Error status and a description of the problem. You can retry processing without re-uploading the file — see Managing Tracks.

Warnings (non-blocking)

The following conditions generate a warning icon in the Audio Tracks list but do not block the upload, encoding, or playback of the track:

• Duration mismatch: The audio track duration differs from the video duration by more than 5 seconds. The warning tooltip shows both durations and their difference.
• Low bitrate: The audio track's bitrate is below 64 kbps.

5   Track Status Reference

6   Managing Tracks

Downloading a track

To download the encoded audio file for a track, select the track in the Audio Tracks list and click Download. Only tracks with a Ready status can be downloaded.

Deleting a track

To remove a track, select it in the Audio Tracks list and click Delete. Deletion is permanent: the track is removed from the player, from the video manifest, and from storage. It will no longer be available to viewers.

Retrying a failed track

If a track has an Error status, a Retry button is available in the track list. Clicking Retry re-attempts encoding and registration without requiring you to re-upload the file. The original uploaded file is retained for retry attempts.

7   Audio Tracks and Video Versioning

When the source video for an asset is changed — by uploading a new video version, trimming the video, or retranscoding — all audio tracks that were in Ready status are automatically moved to Unverified status. Tracks with Unverified status are not available in the player until an administrator verifies them.

This ensures that administrators have an opportunity to confirm that existing audio tracks are still accurate and correctly aligned with the updated video before making them available to viewers.

Verifying tracks after a video change

After uploading a new video version, trimming, or retranscoding, open the Audio Tracks tab. Tracks that need review will show an Unverified status. You have two options:

• Verify — verify a single track. Its status changes to Ready and it becomes available in the player.
• Verify All — verify all Unverified tracks on the asset in a single action.

8   Audio Tracks and Clips

When a clip is created from a video, audio tracks from the source video are not copied to the clip. The clip's Audio Tracks tab will be empty and no audio tracks will be available in the player for the clip. Audio tracks must be added to clips independently if needed.

9   Viewer Experience in the Player

When one or more audio tracks with Ready status are associated with a VOD asset, an audio track selector is displayed in the Ravnur Media Player. Viewers can use this selector to switch between available tracks during playback.

• Switching audio tracks does not restart playback. The audio changes to the selected track at the current playback position.
• Only tracks with Ready status are shown in the player. Tracks with Processing, Unverified, or Error status are not visible to viewers.
• The track selector displays the display name configured by the administrator, or the auto-generated name if no custom name was provided.

10   Filtering Videos by Audio Track Presence

On the Videos list page in the Admin Panel, a column indicates whether each video asset has audio tracks — Yes if at least one track exists (in any status), or No if there are none.

You can filter the video list by audio track presence using the filter options:

• Has audio tracks — returns only assets with at least one audio track.
• No audio tracks — returns only assets with no audio tracks.

11   Permissions

Audio track management — including uploading, deleting, and verifying tracks — follows the same permission model as video version upload. No additional permissions are required beyond those already granted to users who can upload video versions.