Documentation

Pro Video

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Contents

Overview

The Pro Video App builds on the Video Sharing App to provide a feature-rich video ingestion, encoding, and publishing solution with integrated support for advertising (on both individual videos and video players), analytics, and geo-blocking, along with the power and flexibility of the App Studio's video player customization capabilities.

Enabling the Pro Video App

To enable a free 30-day trial of the Pro Video App, log in to the Affiliate Center and browse to Configure > Add/Remove Apps, and select the Pro Video App. In order to enable the Pro Video App you'll also need to enable the Video Sharing App. With both enabled you will be able to support user-contributed videos, though you do not need to do so.

When your 30-day trial comes to an end, you'll be able to purchase a subscription on the Services page (Configure > Services), or simply revert to the standard Video Sharing App included in all accounts.

ActivatePV.png

Ingestion

While the Video Sharing App has an upload limit of 100mb/video, the Pro Video app doesn't have this restriction (though if you need to upload a video larger than 3GB, please contact us to arrange a more efficient transfer method than HTTP upload).


Uploading Videos from the Affiliate Center

To upload one or more videos,

  1. Log in to the Affiliate Center.
  2. Click the Manage tab.
  3. Click the Launch Video Manager button.
    LaunchPV1.png
  4. Clicking this button will open the Asset Manager.
    ProVideoManagerShot3.png
  5. Click the Upload Media button (on the left, near the top).
    UploadPvButton.png
  6. Select a single video from the file browser that appears, or hold down the SHIFT key to select multiple videos.
  7. The videos you select will appear in the Upload window, in which you can change their titles and add tags to all videos in your upload list. To add more videos, just click the Add Media button.
    UploadMultipleVideos.png


Upload videos from the video upload page

If you're using the Pro Video app in conjunction with the Video Sharing app and the KickApps-hosted video upload page, you can also upload videos from that page by following these steps:

  1. Log into your site.
  2. Click the Videos link in the tabs at the top of the page.
    UploadVideoFromMfs1.png
  3. Click the "add a video" link.
    UploadVideoFromMfs2.png
  4. Click the Browse button to select a video from your hard drive.
    UploadVideoFromMfs3.png
  5. Depending on how you've configured your site, there will be a number of different optional fields, including title, description, tags, categories, and more. Fill out any of the optional fields that you'd like.
  6. Click the "add video" button at the bottom of the page.


Your video will then be uploaded, encoded, and will either appear on your site, or enter your moderation queue, depending on how you have your Video Sharing App configured. Learn more about the Video Sharing app.


Encoding

The video upload screen contains an "Encoding Profile" dropdown. Use this dropdown to select which encoding profile to apply to the videos being uploaded. The "MP4 Profile" encodes videos to iPhone-compatible H.264 MP4 files, according to the specifications documented in our Video Technical Guide.

Asset_mgr_encoding_profiles.png

We can also provide custom encoding profiles, which will appear in this same dropdown box. Contact us if you're interested in purchasing a custom encoding profile.

Alternatively, if you already have your own ingestion and encoding workflow, you can still take advantage of KickApps' video Asset Manager and video players. Contact us to discuss integration options.


Managing videos

To manage videos, log in to the Affiliate Center, click the Manage tab, then click the Launch Video Manager button.

Ac_manage_videos_tab.png

Clicking this button will open the Video Manager:

ProVideoManagerShot3.png


Activating Videos

To activate a video, click on its row in the search results and then click the Activate button.

When a video is activated, it appears in the following places:


Deactivating Videos

To deactivate a video, click on its row in the search results and then click the Deactivate button. This will remove the video from your RSS feeds, video play pages, video list pages, your site's search, Sets, and Playlists.


Setting video metadata

To edit a video's metadata, search for its title, click on its row in the search results, and click the Edit button at the bottom of the search results area. The Video Details window will appear.

VideoDetailsWindow.png


General

Within the Video Details window you can modify the video's tags, admin tags, assign it to one or more categories, modify its description, and add geographic metadata. In addition to the metadata accessible from this screen, you can also add custom metadata to the videos in your library via our Custom Metadata API.


Images

Videos are associated with two images:

Thumbnail Image
The Thumbnail Image appears on KickApps-hosted video list pages, in feeds, and in the Auto List and Custom List components that are typically used to display video playlists.
Preview Image
The Preview Image is typically a larger image that is shown over a video player when the video player first loads. This kind of image is also sometimes called a "poster" image.

When you first upload a video, we capture a frame from it near the beginning, and use this image for both the Thumbnail and Preview images. To use a different image for the Thumbnail or Preview images, you can:

  1. Upload a new image by clicking the Upload button beneath the image.
  2. Drag the "Video Default Image" onto the image you'd like to replace.
  3. Click play on the video player, then click the Capture button to capture an image of the frame currently being shown in the video player. Then, drag this captured image onto the image you'd like to replace.


Georestrictions

Under the Georestrictions tab you can create white or black lists of countries to define either an inclusive list of the only countries from which the selected video can be viewed, or an exclusive list of countries from which the selected video cannot be viewed.


Comments

Members of your site can add comments to your videos if you enable Comments on your KickApps-hosted video play pages, let users add comments in your video player widgets, or add comments via our RESTful Comment API.

The Comments tab of the video details window displays a list of all comments that have been submitted for the selected video. Affiliate webmasters, Editors, and Admins can edit and delete comments here.

ManageComments.png


Groups

The Groups tab displays a list of all member Groups that have been created for your site. Checking or unchecking the box next to the Group name will associate or disassociate the selected video with the given Group.


Assign a video to a new video player

  1. Click the Videos tab in the left column of the Asset Manager.
    ProVideoManagerShot3.png
  2. Select the video you'd like to deploy by clicking on its row in your list of videos.
  3. Click the Widgetize button at the bottom of the screen.
  4. You'll be shown a window of widget templates. Double click on a video player or on a list widget to use it to display and/or play your playlist.
    WidgetizeVideo.png
  5. Customize the look and feel of your widget, and click File > Save when you're finished.


Once you've saved your widget, see the Publishing KickApps Widgets to learn how to publish it out to the web.


Assign a video to an existing video player

If you've already built a video player that you'd like to play your video in, follow these steps to change the content of that player to your video.

  1. Click the Videos tab in the left column of the Asset Manager.
  2. Select the video you'd like to deploy by clicking on its row in your list of videos.
  3. Click the Copy URL button. This copies the URL of the video's mRSS feed onto your clipboard.
    CopyUrlOfVideo.png
  4. Click the App Studio tab in the main navigation at the top of the Affiliate Center page. The App Studio will open to the Widgets & Video Players tab:
    AddVideoToExistingVideoPlayer.png
  5. Locate the widget you'd like to add this video to in the widget manager, and double-click its row (or single click its "edit" icon) to open it in the App Studio.
  6. Select the video player component you'd like to add this video to.
    PasteVideoUrl.png
  7. Several configuration panels will appear along the right side of the App Studio. Locate the one called "Content".
  8. In the Content panel, make sure that the Feed option is selected, then paste the contents of your clipboard into the "Feed/Media URL" input field.
  9. Click the Apply button in the same panel.
  10. Click the Preview button near the top left corner of the App Studio to confirm your changes.
  11. Customize the look and feel of your widget, and click File > Save when you're finished.


Once you've saved your widget, see the Publishing KickApps Widgets to learn how to publish it out to the web.


Advertising

All videos on KickApps can be monetized with player-level ads. Player-level ads are assigned to individual video players and run against all videos within those players, according to their frequency and targeting settings. In addition to player-level ads, Pro Video users can also assign ads to individual videos, as well as have individual videos "opt out" of any player-level ads that may be assigned to the video players in which they find themselves.


Video-level Ads

Video-level ad management takes place under the Ads & Bumpers tab of the Video Details window. You can create arbitrary pre-roll and post-roll ads, or leverage out-of-the-box integrations with DoubleClick, 24/7 OAS, and VAST2.

AdsAndBumpersTab.png


Create a new Ad

An Ad is basically the combination of an ad tag from your ad provider, the parser that should be used to understand the response given by your ad tag, and, optionally, when the ad should be run against the selected video (pre-roll, post-roll, or both). Ads can also be used to run any video before and/or after the selected video-- to use an ad in that way, just don't select a parser from the dropdown.

NewAdTag.png

To create a new Ad,

  1. Click the Create a new ad button.
  2. Enter a title for your Ad.
  3. Enter an ad tag or a URL to a video in the Ad Tag or Video URL field.
  4. If you've entered an ad tag, select the ad parser to be used from the dropdown.
  5. Click Save.


Apply an Ad to an individual video

To apply an Ad to an individual video,

  1. Open the Video Details window for the video to which you'd like to assign an ad.
  2. Select the Enable checkbox next to the ad(s) you wish to enable for the selected video.
    EnableAndSetAdPosition.png
  3. If applicable, select Pre-roll, Post-roll, or Both from the Position dropdown in your ad's row.
  4. Click Save.


Opt out of player-level ads

You can have an individual video opt out of player-level ads by deselecting the "Allow player-level ads" checkbox in the Ads & Bumpers tab of its video details window. NoPlayerLevelAds.png


Player-level ads

As of 12/15/10, player-level ads are handled differently for the regular Video Player Component than they are for the OSMF Video Player:


Playlists

Create a playlist

To create a playlist,

  1. Click the Create Playlist button:
    Createplaylist.png
  2. Enter a title for your playlist and, optionally, tags.
  3. You'll then see a window from which you can select videos for your playlist. Select as many videos as you like by holding down SHIFT.
  4. Click Save.
  5. Drag and drop videos in your playlist to change their order.


Assign a playlist to a new video player

To assign a playlist to a new video player,

  1. Click the Playlists tab in the left column of the Asset Manager.
  2. Select the playlist you'd like to deploy by clicking on its row in your list of playlists.
  3. Click the Widgetize button.
    Asset_mgr_widgetize_playlist.png
  4. You'll be shown a window of widget templates. Double click on a video player or on a list widget to use it to display and/or play your playlist.
    WidgetizeVideo.png
  5. Customize the look and feel of your widget, and click File > Save when you're finished.


Once you've saved your widget, see the Publishing KickApps Widgets to learn how to publish it out to the web.


Assign a playlist to an existing video player

If you've already built a video player that you'd like to play your playlist in, follow these steps to change the content of that player to your playlist.

  1. Click the Playlists tab in the left column of the Asset Manager.
  2. Select the playlist you'd like to deploy by clicking on its row in your list of playlists.
  3. Click the Copy URL button. This copies the URL of the playlist's mRSS feed onto your clipboard.
  4. Click the App Studio tab.
  5. The App studio will open to the Widgets & Players tab:
    AddVideoToExistingVideoPlayer.png
  6. Locate the widget you'd like to add this playlist to in the widget manager, and double-click it (or single click its edit icon) to open it in the App Studio.
  7. Select the video player or list component that you'd like to add this playlist to.
    PasteVideoUrl.png
  8. Several configuration panels will appear along the right side of the App Studio. Locate the one called "Content".
  9. In the Content panel, make sure that the Feed option is selected, then paste the contents of your clipboard into the "Feed/Media URL" input field.
  10. Click the Preview button near the top left corner of the App Studio to confirm your changes.
  11. Customize the look and feel of your widget, and click File > Save when you're finished.


Once you've saved your widget, see the Publishing KickApps Widgets to learn how to publish it out to the web.


Video Players

You can create completely customized video players in the KickApps App Studio, a drag and drop authoring tool for building Flash and HTML5 video players and other interactive, embeddable widgets. The easiest way to get started building video players is to create a new player using the Video Player Wizard, which will guide you through all the steps of selecting a skin, picking out and configuring plug-ins, and either publishing right away or dropping down to the App Studio to customize your player even more.

AppStudioOsmf.jpg

The App Studio is a powerful environment for creating rich, dynamic experiences, mashing up content from different sources, letting users log into your site and add comments within your video player itself, and much more-- all with point and click ease. Learn more about the App Studio by checking out the resources below:

General App Studio & Video Player resources


More technical docs

  • Widget JavaScript API
    • Change a widget's content and/or behavior via JavaScript in the page on which the player is embedded.
  • FlashVars
    • FlashVars let you change the content and behavior of players by passing variables into them in their embed code. Useful in the context of integrating players into a CMS.
  • App Studio Plug-Ins
    • Write your own plug-ins in ActionScript3 and include them in your players.


Delivery

You can choose whether to take advantage of KickApps' CDN, or use your own CDN. Additionally, all KickApps Flash video players support RTMPE and RTMPTE. Contact us if you're interested in distributing video with these or other protocols, or if you're using another CDN.


Use KickApps' CDN

The KickApps CDN supports both progressive download and RTMP streaming.


Progressive HTTP Download

By default all KickApps videos are distributed as HTTP progressive downloads, which means that the video will load into the player just like a regular file download-- if you want to skip to the end of the movie, you'll need to download the whole thing first. In contrast, streaming enables users to start playback from any point in a video without having to download the whole movie up to that point first. See the next section for more information on streaming with KickApps.


RTMP Streaming

When you enable Pro Video, you'll also have the opportunity to use RTMP Streaming instead of progressive downloads as the mode of delivery for your videos. RTMP Streaming lets your users click ahead to any point in your videos, without having to wait for the full video to download. Videos delivered to the iPhone, iPad, and iPod will always be delivered by progressive HTTP download, regardless of whether you enable RTMP Streaming.


Enable RTMP Streaming

To enable RTMP Streaming, log into the Affiliate Center, click Configure > Add/Remove Apps, then select the RTMP checkbox beneath the Pro Video app.

ActivateRtmpStreaming.png


Use your own CDN

Prefer to use your own CDN? No problem. You can use your own CDN with our out-of-the-box adapters for Akamai, Akamai HD, and Limelight. Contact us if you're interested in integrating with another CDN.

If you opt to use your own CDN, you'll need to set up a crossdomain policy file in order to take advantage of the thumbnail extractor in the video details window.


Live Streams

It may be helpful to think of live streaming in two parts: the first part consists of taking the data from a video camera, encoding it into a format suitable for distributing over the web, and streaming that encoded data from a server or CDN to video players embedded on web pages. The second part consists of the video player playing back the live video stream. KickApps handles the second part. Our Flash video players support playback of live streams in RTMP, RTMPE, and RTMPTE formats. If you already have a live stream in one of these formats, you can play it in one of your video players by following the directions for assigning a video to an existing video player, pasting in the URL of your live stream instead of a URL copied from the video manager.

On the other hand, if you don't have your live stream in one of these formats, you'll need to work with a service to handle this part for you. If you're in search of such a service, consider using Stream API. StreamAPI is a robust and cost-effective solution for handling live video, and best of all, they already have a plug-in for the App Studio that will let you both run live streams from your StreamAPI account, and host live video chat sessions via users' webcams. Once you have an account set up with StreamAPI, you can simply enter your StreamAPI Site ID into the StreamAPI plug-in's config panel.

StreamApiPlugin.png


Syndication

Your videos are available in mRSS feeds, which can be distributed to a number of video distribution partners and other hubs. You can create feeds by composing feed URLs manually with our RSS API or by pointing and clicking in the Feed Builder.


Additionally, KickApps has partnered with TubeMogul to provide KickApps customers the opportunity to automatically distribute videos ingested by KickApps through to any of the top video and social networking sites, including YouTube, Yahoo!, Vimeo, Howcast, 5min, and more. Contact us for more information on distributing your videos through TubeMogul.

TubeMogulLogo.png


Mobile

All videos ingested by KickApps are encoded into H.264 MP4 files that are compatible with iPhones, iPads, iPods, and all other Webkit-driven web browsers.

KickApps video players are available in both Flash and HTML5 versions. When you embed a video player using one of our universal embed codes, the embed code will automatically detect whether the device loading it supports Flash. If it does, the embed code will load up the Flash version of your player; if it doesn't, it will fall back to the HTML5 version of your player. As of December 2010, our HTML players make your videos available on iPhones, iPads, iPods, Androids, and Blackberries that use Webkit-based browsers.

To help you design for both HTML and Flash versions, the App Studio's Widget Preview lets you view the Flash and HTML versions of your widgets side by side:

Side_by_side_2.png

Learn more:


Reporting

KickApps

The search results area of the Asset Manager contains a Views column that represents the cumulative number of times each video has been viewed:

Asset_mgr_video_views.png

You can also access aggregate views across all the videos in your library, broken down by date range, by browsing to the Reporting tab, then clicking Traffic > Videos.

VideoViewsReporting.png


3rd Party

In addition to KickApps' video reporting, you can also take advantage of our out-of-the-box integrations with Omniture and Google Analytics.


Related Info

Video Technical Guide

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