Configure channels and streams
Overview
This guide explains how to create and manage VoD or live channels in Serverside.ai, including adding a source, configuring encoding and ad settings, and enabling playback with ad insertion.
1. Create new channel
Go to your channel page and click on the Add Channel button.
2. Configure general settings
Decide whether the channel you want to add is VoD or live.
- Video on Demand (VoD) channels: these channels are built from one or more pieces of content, such as clips, recordings, or movies. You can provide an MRSS file in your manifest request to enable ad insertion for different pieces of content and specify the positions of your ad pods. For more information, see VoD: DASH and HLS.
- Live channels: these channels are continuous streams of media (audio or video) chunks, such as TV channels or live events. Your stream must comply with our stream specifications and include markers so we can detect when to insert personalized ads.
The name and API key can be freely chosen. If no API key is provided, a random key will be generated automatically.
3. Specify source
Depending on the type of stream you selected, that is VoD or live, different types of sources are expected:
| Type | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| VoD | The URL to a single content item from the MRSS used to request ad insertion. | https://ssaimediaservices-euwe.streaming.media.azure.net/62ec1234-fcf0-47d5-a4d4-ae463827dcfc/Cosmo_Laundromat.ism/manifest(format=mpd-time-csf) |
| Live | The URL to a live stream. | https://live.unified-streaming.com/scte35/scte35.isml/.mpd |
After entering your source URL, click the Analyse button so we can gather the encoding and packaging format from your source. If you skip this step, you won't be able to save your channel.
We are working hard to support all types of sources. However, it is possible that your source isn't currently supported by Serverside.ai. Refer to our source specifications for more information.
Don’t hesitate to contact our support if you encounter any issues while analyzing your source.
4. Configure profile
This section appears after your source is analyzed. It lets you adjust encoding profiles, bitrate settings, and packaging options. In most cases, you can keep the settings as analyzed by Serverside.ai and skip this section.
5. Configure ad server
If you don't have an ad server configured yet, or don't have the exact settings at hand, leave everything as is to use the default Serverside.ai Equativ ad server. You can update these settings at any time later.
You will receive an Ad Server URL after completing the setup of your account with Equativ, SpotX, FreeWheel, Google, or another ad server.
Depending on the ad server you select, default settings will be loaded to the Ad Source Parameters editor.
These settings have two purposes:
- They act as defaults that are added to every request to the ad server, as long as no specific options are provided by the client. This applies to all settings that can be configured on the client side. For more information, see the articles under Ad server integration.
- You can also add settings that cannot be changed by the client. These settings are used to configure the ad server connection.
If your ad server is not yet on the list of supported ad servers, contact our support team to have it added.
6. Configure preroll (only for live)
You can specify how many ads are displayed and how long the preroll will run.
If you want to use a different ad server for your prerolls, enable the Use dedicated ad-server toggle. Follow Step 5 for instructions.
To add a preroll to VoD channels, set an ad break at 0 seconds in your MRSS.
A preroll plays before the live stream starts.
7. Configure ad slate (only for live)
If the ads returned from the ad server don't exactly match the length of the ad break, there will be a gap before the program resumes. To prevent the stream from abruptly returning to the original content, we introduced a concept called ad slates.
An ad slate fills the missing seconds, ensuring a seamless transition between the ad block and the program. For example, if you have a 40-second ad pod but the ad server only provides ads totaling 30 seconds, an ad slate will fill the remaining 10 seconds.
Requirements
- After selecting or uploading an ad slate, an encoding and packaging job will start. Stay on this page and wait until it finishes, usually within 1–2 minutes. Otherwise, the encoded asset will not be assigned as an ad slate to the content.
- Ad slates should be in MP4 format, which is the same format we expect to receive from the ad servers.
- If you don't have an ad slate in place yet, you can use the Serverside.ai default and change it later.
8. Enable and play channel
In the list view, you can activate your channel by clicking the toggle button in the Actions section. After saving, the channel is not yet enabled.
You can test the playback of the channel using the example player, available via the Play icon in the Actions section. It allows you to view and compare your source and output.
Ad insertion does not work for the first ad block because ads must first be downloaded, encoded, packaged, and made available on a CDN. Depending on the number of ads, this can take some time.
For testing, we recommend using our example ad server, which has only a few ads that can be quickly prepared for your channel.