This document is a guide to setting up BLOX VMS live stream events and channels in the BLOX content management system, with a focus on items that need to be configured in order to more quickly publish in breaking news situations.
The BLOX VMS video management system offers flexible configuration options for users live streaming. This document goes through several possible workflows.
Background information
This article assumes the user knows how to work with Events and Channels in BLOX VMS. It may be helpful to review these articles before you begin:
BLOX VMS live stream publishing options using BLOX CMS
There are three different methods of publishing a live stream: One-time-use Events, 24/7 Events, and using Channels and Events together.
One time events
At a basic level, you can publishing any individual piece of live programming, that has a specific start and end time, by creating an Event in BLOX VMS and associate it with an Asset in BLOX CMS. To do this, first create your Event in BLOX VMS. Next, copy the embed code for the Event. To copy from the calendar view, click on the Event to view the event details, and then click on the “Embed” button near top right.
To copy the embed code from the Event list view, either hover on the item and click “Copy Embed” from the gear dropdown on the right, or click on the Event and then click on the “Embed” button near top right.
Next, go into BLOX CMS and create a new Article asset.
Under the Related tab, choose New > More Editorial > HTML.
Paste the embed code for the 24/7 Event. Save the HTML asset.
Save and close the HTML asset popup, then drag the HTML asset inline into the Body of your Article asset. It’s recommended to always use an HTML asset inline in an article — Copy-pasting code directly into an article can fail or display unpredictably.
Finally, target the asset to the section where you want it to live, save and you’ve created your asset.
Setting up for Breaking News
In a breaking news situation, time is of the essence. Getting a live stream published on your site needs to be achieved in as few clicks as possible. In this situation, a little one-time prep work can go a long way toward reducing setup “in the moment”. Here’s a couple methods we recommend for more quickly publishing BLOX VMS live streams in BLOX CMS:
24/7 Events
You can set up an Event inside an HTML Asset in BLOX CMS that is “always on” and therefore, whenever published in BLOX CMS, the player is already always available for the end viewer to access and view your stream content. To do this, set up a 24/7 live stream in BLOX VMS. To do this, create an Event like normal, but leave the End date/time blank. Do not set this event to record. Upon saving, it will create an event/player that is always active from the moment the user hits save. You can easily view this by clicking on the calendar view under Events).
Next, copy the embed code for the 24/7 Event you just created. To copy the embed code from the calendar view, click on the Event to view the event details, and then click on the “Embed” button near top right.
To copy the embed code from the Event list view, either hover on the item and click “Copy Embed” from the gear dropdown on the right, or click on the Event and then click on the “Embed” button near top right.
Go into BLOX CMS and create a new HTML asset.
Paste the embed code for the 24/7 Event. Save the HTML asset.
If you do all of the above once, then all you’ll need to do to drive traffic to a BLOX VMS live stream each time you have a breaking news situation is to use this HTML asset in whatever method you wish to use to alert viewers to your live stream (new Article with it as a Child, link to it from another piece of content, add it to a Block, etc.)
(Note: If you’d like to record your breaking news stream, you would still need to set up a one-time Event with a distinct begin and end time, to tell the live cloud what times to record your stream, but you won’t need to do anything with that event in BLOX CMS — you’ll already have published your HTML Asset containing the 24/7 Event. If you aren’t sure when the event will end, make your best guess. You can always hit the “Stop Now” button when the breaking news event is over, or you can continue to extend the End Time of your event by editing it as it’s ongoing. BLOX VMS will record until the End Time is reached or the Stop Now button is selected.)
If you leave your HTML asset always published, a viewer who finds this asset on your site will always be able to view your live stream. This may or may not be desired depending on the content you are sending to the encoder in non-breaking news situations. If you’d like to limit viewer access to your BLOX VMS live stream during non-programmed times, read on for an alternative workflow.
Channels + Events
Another method would be to set up a Channel player in BLOX VMS and publish it via BLOX CMS. A Channel player is a playlist of Events. The Channel player is only active when there is an active Event publishing to that Channel.
To do this, create your channel and set it to look for a distinct keyword that you’ll be adding to all your breaking news events (such as “breaking”).
Next, create your one-time Event in BLOX VMS. Add the distinct keyword that you set in your Channel, so that your Event will publish to that Channel. Copy the embed code for the Channel. To copy the embed code from the calendar view, click on the Channel and then click on the “Copy” button near top right.
To copy the embed code from the Channel list view, either hover on the item and click “Copy” from the gear dropdown on the right, or click on the Channel and then click on the “Copy” button near top right.
Go into BLOX CMS and create a new HTML asset.
Paste the embed code for the Channel. Save the HTML asset.
Finally, publish the HTML asset containing the channel embed code somewhere that you can easily use/link to from other places (Article with Child asset, Block on a section, etc).
If you do all of the above once, then all you’ll need to do to drive traffic to a BLOX VMS live stream each time you have a breaking news situation is create an Event in BLOX VMS with a keyword that matches the keyword you set your Channel.
Unlike the 24/7 Event workflow, the Channel player will only be active during times you are publishing an Event that has the same keyword. This means if you are planning to leave your BLOX CMS HTML asset always published, you don’t need to worry about what content is being broadcast in non-streaming times because the player won’t be able to be initiated except when there’s a matching keyword. On the other hand, using a Channel does require the step of creating a new Event in BLOX VMS each time (though you have to create an Event in both workflows if you want to record a set period of time.)