Create, Broadcast, and Publish a Live Event Create, Broadcast, and Publish a Live Event

Create, Broadcast, and Publish a Live Event

You want to make sure you turn on your Zype Cloud Encoder before creating your event. 

The Live Event wizard will guide you along when you create, broadcast, and publish a live event. To launch the wizard, you must first create a live event.

On the Zype navigation menu, select Live Events. Here you can create a live event, view current events, and view past events.

In the Current Events tab you can see all current live events listed. Once you have scheduled a live event to be shown at a future time, you can return to this page to Edit settings of the event (gear icon button at right) and Broadcast the event (camera icon button at right). 

To view your past live events, click the Past Events tab.

Select Live Events > Create Live Event to launch the Live Event wizard. 

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Step 1 - Edit Live Event details

  • Title: Zype will enter a default title for your event using the current date and time which you can edit by selecting this field. 
  • Description: Enter a description of your event.
  • Event Type: Select your event type from the dropdown menu.
    • On-Demand: This should be used for one-time events. On-demand events have a 12-hour DVR window and are recommended for scheduled events.
    • Linear: This should be used for 24/7 broadcasts. Linear events have a rolling 3-hour DVR window
    • No DVR: Please contact support@zype.com if you want a No DVR event. This can be used for linear or on-demand events, but there will be no DVR for archives. 
  • Off Air Image: Zype provides a default Off Air slate for your event. This image will be used over your player before the start and at the end of a broadcast, unless you've specified a custom thumbnail for the event. You may upload your own image in the live event creation flow or on the Settings Page > Live Slate tab, with the recommended size being 1920x1080 pixels.
  • Player Logo: You may brand your player by uploading a custom player logo. The logo will be displayed on the bottom right of the video player. You may customize the player logo by uploading your own image, with the recommended size being 48x48 pixels. 
    • NOTE: this player logo appears on all videos, not just live events

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Step 2 - Monetize your event

Select the monetization options that will be available for the event. You should have previously defined these options under the Monetization page (see Getting Started with Monetization for more details). Not choosing an option means that your live event will be free.

You can begin collecting subscriptions or transactions for an event before it has broadcasted, so long as you either curate your event into a playlist or embed your event on your website. Curating through the wizard is covered in the Step 3 of this article, and curating and embedding outside the wizard is covered in Step 5 of this article

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Step 3 - Curate with Categories, Broadcast now or Choose an event time

You may choose to assign category values in the wizard to curate your event into an existing category-based playlist. By default, all events that are not yet live are set to "inactive" and "off-air" meaning they will not appear to your consumers yet. Step 5 of this article cover this more in depth.

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You can select Broadcast Now to immediately start broadcasting your event. If you choose to start broadcasting your event at this step, you'll have the chance to test the steam in the next step. Once you approve of the stream and have begun your broadcast, you have nothing more to do except wait until the event ends.

Alternatively, you can select the start and end date and time of your event, then select Continue to test your broadcast.

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Step 4 - Test your broadcast

Before you broadcast, you need to turn ON your encoder.

You'll next be able to view the configuration settings for your live event, allowing you to preview your player and live stream by clicking the Show Player and Show Stream links below the video player. 

You can also enter the input, video, and audio URLs that are displayed here on your own streaming hardware or software tool. The Cloud Transcoder URL will allow your own streaming hardware or software tool to connect to the Zype streaming servers using the provided encoder username and password; the video and audio URLs will then allow you to broadcast the video feed and the optional audio-only feed using your own tool.

NOTE: You can enable multi-bitrate by broadcasting multiple RTMP streams.

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Step 5 - Curate your event and Embed to your site

Your live event has already been saved to your list of current live events. If you have not curated using category values in the Live Events wizard, you can curate your live event into a playlist by exiting the wizard and selecting the Library button on the left hand navigation bar.

NOTE: You can re-enter the wizard at any time by selecting Live Events and selecting the title of the event.

Once in the video Library, you'll see the event listed just like your VOD content. Select the event to open the video details page and assign category tags in the Metadata tab, or add the event to a playlist going through the Add Videos to a Playlist flow. 

By default, all events that are not yet live are set to "inactive" and "off-air". If you would like to upload a custom thumbnail in the thumbnails tab, keep in mind that the event thumbnail will only show in a playlist if the event is made "active". If you have chosen to use the live slate instead of a custom thumbnail, your event will need to be listed as "active" for your consumer to see it in a playlist. Once your broadcast begins, the event will be set to "on-air" and content will begin streaming. 

You can also embed your live event onto your site using the embed code. At the bottom, click the Copy to clipboard button to copy the broadcast’s embed code, then follow the steps to embed a video on your site. This will display the player on your website, ready to broadcast the event as it becomes available. Again, you may configure a custom thumbnail to show, a custom live slate, or go with a default live slate image.

On the bottom right, you will also see a few examples of how you can request live videos using the Zype API. For more details about the Zype API, go to the Zype Developer Portal.

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Step 6 - Broadcast & Trim Broadcast

Before you broadcast, you need to turn ON your encoder.

If the scheduled date and time for the event is days or weeks away, you may exit the wizard and return at the time of broadcast. Here you will select the camera icon to the right of the event title to Broadcast.

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If you are still in the Live Event wizard, proceed to Step 4 of the wizard and select Start Broadcast. Again, before you broadcast, you need to turn ON your encoder. Click Yes on the confirmation message to start broadcasting your event. You may need to wait for at least 30 seconds before your event starts broadcasting.

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Click End Broadcast once your event is finished. Click Yes on the confirmation message to end your broadcast. Remember to turn OFF your encoder when your broadcast is complete.

You can use Zype's trim tool to adjust the start and end time of your broadcast to remove unwanted segments from the live stream, thus creating VOD content for your video library. If you are satisfied with the trimming, select Looks Good to replace the full version of the live event with the trimmed version. This will also follow any curation set up in previous steps. 

NOTE: Trimming a live stream takes effect immediately. Once confirmed by selecting Looks Good, this cannot be reversed.

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Step 7 - Archive your event

On the last page of the Live Event wizard, click Create Archive to create an archived copy of the event video for on-demand viewing. You have 72 hours or until you overwrite it with a new event to archive the live event. To download a copy of your broadcast using FFmpeg, copy the command on the lower right box, then paste it into a terminal.

If you have already curated your event into a playlist, the live DVR will play as the video archives. Once the archive is complete, it will replace the live DVR. If you have not yet curated your event, you can view the video title for the live DVR in your library and open to edit metadata. 

If you do not plan to save your event but would like to edit the metadata on it, click the I don’t want an archive, just take me to Manage My Video link at the bottom.

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