Often applications require the ability to respond to asynchronous events that occurred on the Kaltura server. For example, when a Media Entry was uploaded, finished transcoding or any other status update. This guide will take you through the steps of listening to these events, called Server Notifications, how to parse the data carried in these notifications and respond properly in your applications.

Kaltura Notifications are HTTP POST requests that are sent by the Kaltura server to any defined accessible web URL whenever specific Kaltura events happen (e.g. Entry added, deleted, etc.).

Utilizing Kaltura Server Notifications allows applications to achieve the following:

• Easily respond on a "push form" whenever media events occur on the Kaltura server.
• Implement a synchronized local management instance of media related metadata and thumbnails for improving website performance. This may include local media searching and caching capabilities.

The full list of notifications sent by the Kaltura server are available on the Kaltura Notifications API docs.

Configuring The Kaltura API Notifications PHP Client

The KalturaNotificationClient was developed by Kaltura. It is a helper class that was created to simplify the creation of the notification handler. 

The KalturaNotificationClient constructor takes in the $_POST params array and the Kaltura account Admin Secret. When created (instanced), the KalturaNotificationClient object verifies that the given $_POST array is a valid Kaltura Notification Object, builds a native PHP object and performs a basic checksum check to verify that the Notification signature is valid (this procedure verifies that the given $_POST array was not modified by a "man in the middle" using the admin secret). 

Set up the Notifications Handler endpoint

The last step is to indicate the endpoint URL that will listen to the Kaltura Notifications.

  To setup the Notifications endpoint, follow these steps:

1. In the Kaltura Management Console (KMC).
2. Enter the Settings tab.
3. Enter the Integration Settings sub-tab.
4. In the "Enter Notification URL" field, paste the URL to your notifications handler script.

Kaltura version Eagle and below don't support more than a single site distribution of notifications per publisher account.

multi-notifications 

Publisher accounts with high activity (many entries are being added and updated all the time), may opt to enable multi-notifications.

When multi-notifications is enabled, if a large amount of notifications for the same publisher account are aggregated in the queue and needs to be sent – the server can send all (or few) of them in a single combined HTTP request ("multi") to protect the publisher server from over-load, and potentially to reduce the delays.

multi-notifications is disabled by default on all publisher accounts. 
Kaltura SaaS edition customers - If you suspect that your account require multi-notifications, consult your Kaltura Account Manager on enabling multi-notifications.

Enabling multi-notifications on Kaltura Community and On Prem Editions

  To enable multi-notifications for a publisher account, follow these steps:

1. Edit the Publisher Account Configuration Settings in the Admin Console (Choose Configure in the Actions menu)
2. Check the box for "Allow multi-notifications" under the "Advanced Notification Settings".

The splitMultiNotifications method

When multi-notifications is enabled on the publisher account, the KalturaNotificationClient object will parse the multi-notifications received from the Kaltura server into an array of notifications, according to the prefixed POST parameters (for example: "not1_entryId={},not1_mediaType={},not2_entryId={},...").

The KalturaNotificationClient calls the splitMultiNotifications function in the constructor to create an array of notifications. Each element in the array is an associative array of the notification fields and values.

Getting started with the Kaltura API

• Start by reading about Kaltura's Architecture.
• For Interactive Code Recipes and Examples, visit https://developers.kaltura.org.
• As a reference for understaning technical terms related to Online Video, Media Asset Management and Kaltura - use the Kaltura Knowledge Center Glossary.
• For more information about using api_v3 refer to the Introduction to the Kaltura API Architecture.
• For further information on the API calls for Partner Services 3 (api_v3), please refer to the api_v3 API documentation (API Docs).
• Use the API Client Libraries to easily perform the API callbacks in your programming language of choice - Refer to the Kaltura API Client Libraries Guide for more.
• Learn about the differences between api_v2 and api_v3, and learn how to use the TestMe Console - read the Kaltura API and TestMe Console Introduction.
• If you use a CMS like Drupal and WordPress or an LMS such as Moodle, Sakai or Blackboard, make sure to check the Kaltura Exchange for a Kaltura integration to your CMS of choice.

Kaltura API Guides

The series of guides below are what we recommend as proper training steps in using Kaltura's API to integrate Kaltura functionality to websites and applications and create custom Kaltura applications.

Read the guides in-order, or find the specific answers you are looking for and let us know if we're missing a guide.

Sample Applications with Source Code

The Kaltura GitHub profile features various applications with full open source code, that can be used as reference samples.

The following links review few of the selected sample applications:

1. Listing Kaltura Entries, PHP. (featuring the use of Filters and Pagers) 
2. Creating a Paid-for Content Gallery with Access Control and PayPal API
3. Implementing a Smarter Archive Tags Management - The Tags Editor
4. Mobile App for Moderation – The “kModerate” Case Study (HTML5 Mobile App using Sencha Touch)
5. Facebook Page Tab Application with Kaltura Video Gallery
6. Automating Content Migration using Kaltura's XML Bulk Upload Ingestion - Sample Scripts
7. Listing (Dumping) All Content in a Kaltura Account and Export to Excel - Advanced Archive Listing
8. How To Increase Video SEO Using In-Video Chapters Driven By Cue-Points 

Common API Related Questions

• Create A New Kaltura Entry And Upload Video File Using The Kaltura API
• Getting Started with the Kaltura API - Blog post and Webinar.
• How to retrieve the Partner ID, API Admin Secret and API User Secret?
• How to retrieve the download or streaming URL using API calls?
• How to retrieve a media entry details and metadata?
• How the Search in Kaltura Works (How to perform AND, OR, NOT and Exact Match searches in API).

Got a question that is not answered above?

The following topics are described:

• Search Behavior in the Kaltura Management Console
• Search Behavior in Kaltura MediaSpace
• Search Behavior for the Kaltura API

Search Behavior in the KMC

1. The Kaltura search engine will match the search term within the KMC search box against the following entry attributes:
   • Entry Name 
   • Entry ID
   • Entry Tags
   • Entry Description
   • Entry Reference ID
   • Entry owner ID
   • Entry ID of origin entry for clips created in Kaltura
   • any Entry custom data fields of type: text that was set to be searchable
2. Search criteria may include alphanumeric as well as special characters such as: `, ~, @, #, $, %, ^, &, (, ), -, _, =, +, [, ], {, }, ;, :, ', \, |, /, ?, <, >. 
3. The spacebar is treated as an AND search operand.
   For example, searching for” hello world” will result with all entries that include both the word hello and the word world in one of the searchable entry attributes.
4. The comma (,) character is treated as an OR search operand.
   For example, searching for hello, world will result with all entries that include either the word hello, or the word world in one of the searchable entry attributes.
5. The exclamation (!) character is treated as an AND NOT search operand.
   For example, searching for hello ! world should result with all entries that include the word hello but do not include the word world.
   NOTE: The ! at the beginning of the search criteria is not supported within this AND NOT operand context.  To search for words that start/end with, or contain the ! character, you have to enter \! (backslash then exclamation mark) in the search field.  
   For example, if you want to search for entries that include the word !hello or hello!, enter the following terms within the KMC search box: \!hello or hello\!
6. The exact match search is not available as a search operand. The  quote ("") characters are NOT treated as an EXACT MATCH search operand. 
   For example, searching for "hello world" will not yield any results.

• Partial search – Kaltura does not support a partial word search. For example, searching for the the word ‘helloworld’ is resulted in a searc,h but searching for ‘hello’ or ‘world’ will not produce the desired reuslt.
• Kaltura supports a partial wildcard search. You can append a search word with 3 or more characters with an asterisk * at the end of the word. For example, searching for the string hello* should result in all words beginning with hello, including helloworld.  The asterisk only works as a wildcard at the end of a term. It cannot be used as a wildcard at the beginning or in the middle of a term.

It is possible to escape the * a and ! characters and treat them as literals using a backslash. 

Search Behavior in Kaltura MediaSpace

Search in Categories, Channels and My Media:

All the KMC rules apply to the KMS Global search box except for the following changes:

1. The character '+' is treated as the spacebar - and is used as the AND search operand.
2. The exact match search is not available as a search operand. - The  quote ("") characters are NOT treated as an EXACT MATCH search operand.
   For example, searching for "hello world" will not yield any results.
3. The character "/" is not searchable and ignored by the system. For example, searching for the date 1/1/2015  searches for the string 112015.

In-Video Search

• The comma (,) character for the OR operator is supported.
  For example, searching for helllo,world will surface results with either hello or world.

• The exclamation (!) character is not supported.

Search Behavior for the Kaltura API

Operators

The following special operators can be used in a free text search field in the Kaltura API:

• Exclamation mark (!) - AND NOT . Note that AND NOT is not a unary NOT operator. A positive search word must appear before the AND phrase. See here for additional information.
• Double Quotes ("") - are treated as an EXACT MATCH search operand.
• Backslash (\) - escape. To search for the character ! you have to enter \! in the search field.
• Comma (,) - OR
• Spacebar - AND

Blend Chars

Blended characters are indexed both as separators and valid characters. For instance, assume that & is configured as blended and AT&T occurs in an indexed document. Three different keywords will get indexed, namely "at&t", treating blended characters as valid, plus "at" and "t", treating them as separators.

The following blend chars are configured for the API search.

!, $, ', (, ), *, -, /, :, ;, <, =, #, [, \, ], ^, `, {, |, }, ~, %, &, +, >, ?, @, _

These blend characters may be used as delimiters or as characters.

This short guide takes the user through the basic flow of uploading media using Kaltura's upload API.

To upload a video file using the C# API Client Library, follow the steps below.

1. Handshake to create a Kaltura Session:
   

   KalturaConfiguration config = new KalturaConfiguration(PARTNER_ID);
   config.ServiceUrl = SERVICE_URL;
   KalturaClient client = new KalturaClient(config);
   client.KS = client.GenerateSession(ADMIN_SECRET, USER_ID, KalturaSessionType.ADMIN, PARTNER_ID, 86400, "");

2. Create a new Media Entry to which we'll attach the uploaded file:
   
   

   KalturaMediaEntry mediaEntry = new KalturaMediaEntry();
   mediaEntry.Name = "Media Entry Using C#";
   mediaEntry.MediaType = KalturaMediaType.VIDEO;
   mediaEntry = client.MediaService.Add(mediaEntry);

3. Upload the media File:
   
   

   FileStream fileStream = new FileStream("DemoVideo.flv", FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read);
   KalturaUploadToken uploadToken = client.UploadTokenService.Add();
   client.UploadTokenService.Upload(uploadToken.Id, fileStream);

4. Attach the Media Entry to the File:
   
   

   KalturaUploadedFileTokenResource mediaResource = new KalturaUploadedFileTokenResource();
   mediaResource.Token = uploadToken.Id;
   mediaEntry = client.MediaService.AddContent(mediaEntry.Id, mediaResource);

    

Chunked Video Upload or Upload Pause and Resume Flow

The Kaltura API supports an upload pause and resume via chunked upload workflow.

Additionally, Kaltura also provide a jQuery plugin that simplifies the process: https://github.com/kaltura/jQuery-File-Upload

An example showing how to use the jquery plugin can be seen at: https://developer.kaltura.org/recipes/upload

If you can’t use the jQuery plugin above, you can implement it yourself by chunking the file and calling the uploadToken service. 

To use the uploadToken service for chunked upload, set the following parameters in the upload action:

1. resume - should be set to true.
2. resumeAt – the byte offset to add current chunk to.
3. finalChunk - should be set to 0 for all chunks, and set to 1 for the last chunk.

For reference example, see this implementation of function performing Kaltura chunked upload in Android App.

Introducing the Player Toolkit

The Kaltura Player Toolkit enables users to lead video delivery with HTML5 and provide the fastest viewing experience on any device, while maintaining all the same features and a consistent CSS/HTML player design. Kaltura Players v2 enable delivery of HTML5 with Chromeless components for Flash, iOS and Android.

The key advantages of the Kaltura Players v2 are:

• High performance full featured lead with HTML5

  Most players display in 1 second or less.

• Skins configured once with standard HTML / CSS

• Better support for additional platforms; iOS and Android player components.

• Support for all features across multiple platforms: See player.kaltura.com.

Technical Overview

Basic Look and Feel of the Kaltura Player v2

The following illustrates the basic look and feel of the Kaltura Player v2.

Mouse Over Scrubber

Responsive Player Layout

• Thumb up/down rating
• Smaller players / screens keep important controls. 

Improved Related Videos Experience

• Enhanced related videos interface

• Flexible options for related video fulfillment

• Events for tracking conversion/retainment

Playlists and Chapters

Improved Adaptive Streaming Support

• Chromeless Flash HLS
• Supports HLS on desktop browsers for simplified live broadcast ad stitching workflows
• MPEG-DASH
• Encrypted Media Extension support web delivery of DRM and content control
• Multi-track audio
• More detailed analytics on quality of services metrics
• Note: The browsers that are projected to support MPEG DASH: IE 11 (Windows, Xbox, phone;) Chrome (Desktop & Android), Firefox (Desktop)

Improved Share Interface In Player or On Page

Improved Accessibility: 508 and WebVTT

iOS, Android, HTML, Flash all in One

This article describes the following topics:

• Overview of the Universal Studio
• Creating a Player in the Universal Studio
• Configuring the Player’s Look and Feel
• Configuring the Player’s Analytics
• Monetization - Configuring the Player Advertising Settings
• Plugins

Overview of the Universal Studio

The Universal Player Studio is a robust HTML based player editor.  It supersedes the Studio Flash Player and natively edits the Kaltura Player Toolkit (v2) players' JSON based configuration. Kaltura Toolkit players can be embedded into responsive HTML web pages and native iOS and Android applications. For more information see Kaltura Player Toolkit .

Architecturally, the Kaltura Universal Studio Player works with non-destructive JSON editing that enables both manual edits of the JSON file as well as editing the JSON file with the player studio GUI. This guide is exclusively focused on the user interface. If you want to edit a player’s JSON source directly, you can do so in the Kaltura Player Version Utility Page.

For frequently asked questions per transitioning between the Flash Studio and the Universal Studio, see the Universal Studio FAQ. Pay close attention to the limitations in transitioning to the Universal Studio and using a Kaltura Player Toolkit v2 Player. 

Desgining and Configuring a Player

When upgrading a player that was created in the Flash Studio, be sure to duplicate the player. Not all of the Flash features are directly supported in the Universal Studio players, and unexpected results may occur.

Use the Universal Studio tab in the KMC to create configurations and design players and playlists. You can add, remove and adjust multiple buttons and features, and design a player to match the look of your site. 

Updating the Player List in the Universal Studio

The Universal Studio tab displays the complete list of the players defined in your account. This includes players created with the Flash studio. To edit any player in the Universal Studio, the player must be updated to the new Universal Studio Players. This includes any players previously created via API and even early versions of v2 players.

All players created using the previous KMC Studio are automatically available to be upgraded in the new Universal Studio.

To update the players

1. Select the Studio tab and then click Universal Studio.
   The list of existing players is displayed.
2. Click Update to update the player to the Universal Studio player.
   
   An Update confirmation box is displayed.
   
3. Click Update.
4. Click Upgrade to upgrade the player to the latest version of Universal Studio players.
   
   An Upgrade confirmation box is displayed.
5. Begin to configure the Universal Studio player settings.

Reverting to the Flash Studio Player

Since some of the Flash features are not directly supported in the Universal Studio players, you may want to revert to the originally configured Flash player.

To revert back to the original studio player

1. Clone a player in before you upgrade it.
2. Delete the upgraded player.

Playlist Setup

Use the Playlist setup options to configure the playlist’s settings and configure the playlist controls. You can set a playlist Preview id in the Basic Settings.

Playlist Configuration

The Kaltura playlist plugin supports associating multiple clips in sequence.

To configure the playlist’s settings

1. Select the Universal Studio tab and select the Look and Feel icon.
2. Check the box next to the Playlist Configuration feature to enable this option.
3. Select the position where the playlist should display. The options are to the right, left, above or beneath the video.
4. Select the layout, vertical or horizontal.
5. Enable the playlist features by checking the relevant boxes.
6. Check On (Publisher's) Page to display the playlist on the publisher's page. If unchecked, the playlist is displayed on the player's iFrame. (Recommended)
7. Enter the minimum amount of clips of display. The number represents the minimum number of clips to show in the playlist without scrolling. If the playlist has fewer entries than the specified Min Clips value, all the clips in the playlist are displayed. If the MinClips value specified prevents optimal viewing, (may cover the video or shrink the player display) - the Min clips value for display are determined to provide optimal video viewing.
8. Enter the initial entry ID that should be played first. In the Init item entry id.

To add additional playlists

1. Enter the Playlist Name and the Playlist ID.
2. Click Add.

Back to top.

Playlist Controls

Use to configure the Next and Previous buttons on the playlist.

To configure the playlist’s controls

1. Select the Universal Studio tab and select the Look and Feel icon.
2. Check the box next to the Playlist Controls feature to enable this option.
3. Select where you want to display the Next and Previous buttons. The choice are the Top bar container or the Controls container. Leave this field empty if you are uncertain where you want these buttons displayed.

Back to top.

Configuring the Player’s Analytics

Kaltura supports robust analytics via the Kaltura platform as well as via 3rd party analytics providers.

The following Analytics options are supported:

• Akamai Media Analytics - Supports sending player analytics events to Akamai.
• Google Analytics - Supports sending player analytics events to Google.
  For full implementation guide see Google Analytics in the Knowledge Center.
• comScore -  Supports sending player analytics events to comScore
• Nielsen Combined - Supports sending player analytics events to Nielsen Combined
• Omniture on page - The Omniture s_code config version of the plugin allows you to connect the Omniture plugin to your existing s_code.js configuration for easy integration of video analytics into an Omniture site.
• Kaltura Analytics  - Use Kaltura analytics to track Kaltura player events. Statistics are enabled by default. Configuration consists of adding additional tracking info.
• Youbora Analytics - The Youbora plugin listens and reports all the different player states in the current video session to Youbora Analytics.

To configure the player analytics settings

1. Select the Universal Studio tab and then select or create a player.
2. Select the Analytics icon.
3. Check the Analytics option you want to configure.
4. Enter the relevant parameters for the chosen option.
5. Click Save Player Options.

Akamai Media Analytics

Akamai Media Analytics are designed to provide consistent and accurate data about the playback and quality your audience is experiencing on any device.

Back to top.

Google Analytics

Back to top.

comScore

Back to top.

 Nielsen Combined

Back to top.

 Omniture on Page

The Omniture s_code config version of the plugin allows you to connect the Omniture plugin to your existing s_code.js configuration for easy integration of video analytics into an Omniture site.

Kaltura Analytics

 Back to top.

Youbora Analytics

Youbora Real Time Analytics & Monitoring uses a plugin on every player on every device of every user to track and monitor all information relevant to every view (real time for VoD and live video).

For additional information on Youbora Analytics see the Youbora Player Plugin Setup and Information Guide on the Knowledge Center.

 Back to top.

Monetization - Configuring the Player Advertising Settings

The Kaltura platform supports VAST 3.0 as well as 3rd party ad plugins to facilitate content monetization.

The following monetization options are available:

• Bumper
• VAST
• DoubleClick
• FreeWheel
• Tremor

 To configure the player advertising settings

1. Select the Universal Studio tab and then select or create a player.
2. Select the Monetization icon.
3. Configure the VAST 3.0 or third party plugin advertising settings.
4. Save your changes.

Bumpers

Bumpers are videos that act as ads and do not use an ad server. Bumper videos uploaded to Kaltura can be inserted before or after a video, to function as pre-rolls or post-rolls. Bumper videos are associated with a player, and not associated with a specific video. Bumper videos are independent of actual pre/post-rolls and can be played in addition to ads. Bumper videos are helpful for Kaltura partners that would like to advertise their logo, or other information, before or after a video, and for smaller partners that would like to advertise, but do not need advanced tracking tools that ad servers provide.

VAST

VAST, (Video Ad Serving Template), includes a standard XML-based ad response for in-stream video as well as an XML Schema Definition (“XSD”) for developers. It is meant to accommodate the majority of current practices within the online digital video advertising business. 

(http://www.iab.net/iab_products_and_industry_services/508676/compliance/679253 )

VAST Support

Here is a list of some of the largest video ad servers/networks that are VAST-compliant: 

http://www.iab.net/iab_products_and_industry_services/508676/compliance/679253 .

VPAID Support

Kaltura’s plugin for VAST supports VPAID ads.

VAST Configuration Parameters

Kaltura player features robust VAST support for prerolls, midrolls, overlays, companions and postrolls.

DoubleClick

DoubleClick for Publishers (DFP) Video provides publishers with a platform to increase revenue from video advertising as well as manage costs. Fully integrated with DFP, publishers can manage their entire display advertising through one platform, with video at its core. Learn more about DFP video solutions.

FreeWheel

FreeWheel gives enterprise-level media companies the infrastructure they need to create scaled, profitable content businesses in the new media landscape. Learn more about FreeWheel offerings. Kaltura supports a full featured FreeWheel ad network integration for both HTML5 and Flash players.

Tremor

Tremor Video is a digital video technology company that serves the complementary needs of the media community. Tremor VideoHub Server offers advertisers massive reach and proven engagement with their marketing messages in 100% brand-safe environments, while the Acudeo income engine provides publishers easy access to multiple sources of revenue and the ability to manage and monetize every video impression. See here for more about Tremor.

Kaltura supports a full Acudeo ad module integration for both HTML5 and Flash.

Back to top.

Plugins

Use the Plugins tab to configure additional plugins.

The following plugins are available:

• Keyboard Shortcuts - Use to control the player using keyboard shortcuts
• Moderation - Allow your users to flag content as inappropriate.
• Playback Rate Selector - Enables users to select the video playback rate.
• Restrict User Agent - Allows you to block the player to specific user agents.
• Universal DRM - Kaltura Universal DRM enables multiple DRM engines to run within the Kaltura player based on the capabilities of the browser or packaged native applications.
• Widevine - provides a DRM solution for Kaltura content. Initially, the Kaltura player checks for the Widevine browser plugin and displays a message with a download link if this plugin is missing. See here for more information. 
• Source Selector - Enables users to select the video quality.
• Download - Enables users to add a download button to the player controls. The download button enables users to download the media to a local file.
• Strings - Use to over write player strings.
• UI Variables - Allows you to add UI variables to the player configuration.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Use the Keyboard Shortcuts option to control the player using keyboard shortcuts. See JavaScript key mappings for more information. 

 To set keyboard shortcuts

1. Select the Universal Studio tab and select the Look and Feel icon.
2. Check the box next to Keyboard Shortcuts to enable this option.
3. Enter values for the following parameters:
    
   

   Name	Description	Values
   Volume Precent Change	Controls the interval of Volume Change	0-1, .2 for example defines 5 steps of keyboard volume control
   Short Seek Time	In seconds
   Long Seek Time	In seconds
   Volume Up Key
   Volume Down Key
   Toggle Playback Key
   Short Seek Back Key
   Long Seek Back Key
   Short Seek Forward Key
   Long Seek Forward key
   Open Full Screen Key
   Close Full Screen Key
   Go to beginning Key	Seeks to the start of the content.
   Go To End Key	Seeks to the end of the stream.
   Percentage Seek Keys	Comma delimited list of keys used to seek to fixed percentages in the stream.

4. Click Apply Changes to preview your modifications.
5. Click Save Player Settings.

Moderation

Use the Moderation option to allow users to moderate content and flag content as inappropriate.

To set the Moderation options

1. Select the Universal Studio tab and select the Look and Feel icon.
2. Check the box next to Moderation to enable this option.
3. Enter the following parameters:
   

   Name	Description
   Header
   Text
   Tooltip
   Reason:Sexual Content
   ReasonL Violent Content
   Reason: Harmful Content
   Reason: Spam

4. Click Apply Changes to preview your modifications.
5. Click Save Player Settings.

Playback Rate Selector

To select the video playback rate

1. Select the Universal Studio tab and select the Plugins icon.
2. Check the box next to the option and enter the default speed for the player.
3. Enter the set of selectable speeds separated by commas, where 1 = 100% speed.

Restrict User Agent

Use to block the player to specific user agents. Use these settings for the player display only. For general purpose access controls, see entry level access controls.   

To restrict the User Agent

1. Select the Universal Studio tab and select the Plugins icon.
2. Check the box next to the option.
3. Enter the Restricted user agents. Enter a comma-separated list of browsers to search for.
4. Enter the Restricted user agent title (error title).
5. Enter the Restricted user agent message (error message). 

Widevine

The Widevine plugin provides a DRM solution for Kaltura content. Initially, the Kaltura player checks for the Widevine browser plugin and displays a message with a download link if this plugin is missing.

To configure the Widevine plugin

1. Select the Universal Studio tab and select the Plugins icon.
2. Check the box next to the Widevine.
3. Enter the parameters.
4. Click Preview changes to preview your modifications.
5. Click Save Player Settings.

Universal DRM

Kaltura Universal DRM enables multiple DRM engines to run within the Kaltura player based on the capabilities of the browser or packaged native application.

To configure Universal DRM

1. Contact your Kaltura representative to request Universal modular DRM to be activated for your account.
2. Enable Universal DRM on your player.
1. Select the Universal Studio tab and select the Plugins icon,
2. Check the box next to Universal DRM.
3. Click Save Player Settings.
3. Enable the DRM access control profile for entries you would like protected. See How to enable the DRM access control profile for entries you would like protected. 

Source Selector

Use to select the video quality.

To configure the Source Selector

1. Select the Universal Studio tab and select the Plugins icon.
2. Check the box next to Source Selector.
3. Enter the parameters.
4. Click Preview changes to preview your modifications.
5. Click Save Player Settings.

Download

Use to add a download button to the player controls. The download button enables users to download the media to a local file.

To add the Download button

1. Select the Universal Studio tab and select the Plugins icon.
2. Check the box next to Download.
3. Check Plugin to enable the Download plugin.
4. Configure the parent container for the component.
5. Configure the alignment.
6. Set the order.
7. Enter the Flavor ID for the downloaded movie source. When specified this flavour overrides any preferred bitrate settings.
8. Set the Preferred bitrate. Leave empty for the highest bitrate. Set to zero for the original movie source file.
9. Click Preview changes to preview your modifications.
10. Click Save Player Settings.

Strings

Use this option to over write player strings. For full string keys listing, review the Strings documentation page.

UI Variables

Use to add UI variables to the player configuration.

To simplify the management of many of the player features, Kaltura has implemented the “UIVars” to override and configure player features.

Kaltura UIVars are an incredibly powerful feature of the Kaltura Players which allow publishers to pre-set or override the value of any FlashVar (object level parameters), show, hide and disable existing UI element, add new plugins and UI elements to an existing player, and modify attributes of all the player's elements.

The most updated list of UIVars is here.

Back to Top

Create New Plugin

This option allows you to create a custom plugin configuration. For more information, contact Kaltura Customer Care.

Import Plugin

This option allows you to import a Kaltura player plugin using a one line string. For more information, contact Kaltura Customer Care.

Back to Top

Kaltura Media Transcoding Services provides robust production grade cloud transcoding microservices and tools to manage seamless encoding workflows at any scale and quality requirements, for the web, broadcast, studio, or secure internal enterprise applications. Architected to handle any input type and file size over large volumes of jobs, Kaltura Media Transcoding Services handle any job from simple web delivery to complex production workflows converting any input format of uploaded video, audio, image and even documents into a variety of flavors (transcoded output renditions).

With Kaltura's infinitely scalable enterprise-grade Video Platform as a Service, our media transcoding services free you of the expense and hassle of maintaining your own transcoding hardware, tuning performance, and doing the guesswork of which architecture, encoder engines or settings work best for your input files, delivery networks or playback devices. We continuously monitor and optimize the transcoding cloud to support the latest formats and codecs, CDNs, encryption and delivery standards, ensuring your viewers always get the best video experience on any device.

True to Kaltura's Open and Interoperable values and API driven architecture, Kaltura Media Transcoding Services are consumable through robust set of microservices and the Kaltura API Client Libraries and SDKs, simplifying the creation of complex workflows alongside full control and extensibility through Kaltura's backend plugins mechanism.

Like the rest of the Kaltura Platform, the underlying technology of the Kaltura Media Transcoding Services was built to be deployed on any infrastructure, on premises or public cloud.  It is provided with provisioning, monitoring and detailed diagnostic tools as well as robust set of backend management APIs allowing cloud providers to run its own media transcoding services.

The following topics are described:

• Ingest From Any Source -  Transcode For Any Target
• The Kaltura Decision Layer
• Media Encryption and Digital Rights Management (DRM)
• Transcoding Prioritization
• Transcoding Times and Quality of Service
• Programmatic Media Authoring API and Tools
• Batch Architecture and Backend Plugins
• Dedicated Transcoding

Ingest From Any Source -  Transcode For Any Target

New devices, cameras and input sources are introduced every month, from studio gear to webcam through conferencing and webcasting applications, to surveillance cameras and satellite feeds. The ever growing innovations in media bring challenges with new formats, codecs and standards that require constant monitoring of the industry shifts and continuous optimization of hardware, software and practices to ensure your users always get the best quality viewing experience. Kaltura Media Transcoding Services free you from these worries by providing always up to date transcoding services, optimized to the latest formats, codecs and standards.

Integrated Encoding Engines

The following lists the various tools and encoding engines currently integrated and orchestrated (see: Kaltura Decision Layer) in the Kaltura Media Transcoding Services:

• Common Video Encoding Engines: FFMPEG, Mencoder, VLC
• Proprietary Video Encoding/Encryption Engines: Microsoft Expression Encoder, QuickTimeTools, WebexNbrplayer, Widevine
• Video Segmentation and Delivery Optimization Engines: Mp4box, FastStart, Segmenter, ISM Index, ISM Manifest, SmilManifest, SmoothProtect 
• Image Conversion: ImageMagick
• Document Conversion: PPT 2 Image, PDF 2 SWF, PDF Creator
• Experimental Video Features: Third party encoders
  
• Deprecated or Legacy Video Encoders

Each encoding engine is designated with the tasks it does best, and is optimized for quality, speed, reliability and cost-efficiency (saving on file size without compromising quality which in turn reduces publisher's costs on storage and bandwidth and delivers a superior viewing experience).  Engines are leveraged according to the source media, target media specs and expected delivery standard, some are often used as fall-back engines to each other according to the transcoding profile settings.

Commonly Used Video Formats and Codecs 

For a list of commonly used media formats and codecs that were tested and optimized for transcoding and delivery by Kaltura, see What are the supported Transcoding formats for the SaaS edition? 

Additional codecs and formats are supported by the underlying encoder engines and can be ingested and transcoded by Kaltura. For further details and discovery regarding a specific codec or format that are not listed, please contact us.

Back to top.

The Kaltura Decision Layer

Kaltura transcoding workflows take the source file and transcoding profile (representing the list of the required flavors) as an input. The output is the transcoded videos as outlined in the transcoding profile. A flavor represents the set of parameters (format, codecs, bitrates, and other parameters such as video manipulation like trimming or scaling). The assets are generated to match the settings specified for each flavor in the transcoding profile.

The transcoding workflow is orchestrated by the "Kaltura Decision Layer" - a mechanism that optimizes the choice of encoder, parameters used and fail-over encoders for a given source media and desired output flavors.

These are the five stages of the transcoding process:

• Analysis - Synopsis of the source media file
• Intermediate-Source Processing - Pre-processing for non-standard media and handling of proprietary formats and codecs 
• Optimization - Decision tree that optimizes for quality and efficiency
• Asset Generation - Distributed batch transcoding of the source into each desired flavor
• Validation - Testing and verification of generated flavors against source specifications and expected standards

Analysis

The first step in the transcoding process is to analyze the source media characteristics and parameters. Based on the source parameters, the Kaltura Decision Layer decides whether there is a need for an intermediate-source processing phase. The transcoding logic then attempts to match the best encoding settings for that source and for the specific flavor in the transcoding profile specified. For example, in most cases, the bitrate and the frame size of the generated flavors should not exceed the source file bitrate and frame size. These decision settings can be overridden in the transcoding profile settings.

Intermediate-Source Processing

With some proprietary formats and codecs, a dedicated hardware, operating system or software may be required to handle the transcoding of such files. In such cases Kaltura will leverage the dedicated technology to convert the ingested proprietary source into an intermediate-source (file of non-proprietary format/codec, usually MP4/H.264 or WMV) and then continue the processing as usual.

For example (read: Best Practices For Uploading Content Created Using Screencast Tools):

• Webex/ARF - Cisco's WebEx Network Recording Tool will be used to covert the proprietary WebEx format before continuing with the media transcoding process.
• GoToMeeting Codec - Windows Expression Encoder 4 will be used to covert the proprietary GoToMeeting codec before continuing with the media transcoding process.
• QuickTime Video (QT) - MAC machines will be used to covert the proprietary QT format before continuing with the media transcoding process.

In addition to processing 'special source formats', an intermediate-source is also used to handle known video issues, such as handling artifacts in Digital Video sources, adding silent audio tracks for assets that will be ciphered by Widevine DRM, and other cases.

Optimization

After analyzing all the flavors, the transcoding process begins to optimize the following aspects of the video transcoding:

• Bitrate - To prevent generation of assets with similar/close bitrates and avoid reduction in quality and cost-efficiency.
• Frame Size - There should be at least one flavor that will match the source frame size as closely as possible. For example: this is important for  "presentations style" videos that are of a low bitrate and large frame sizes. 
• Delivery Types - There should be at least one flavor for every delivery type (Web, HLS, ...) to ensure smooth and reliable delivery.

The redundant flavors are marked as Non Applicable (i.e. output flavors that should not be created) for the next step, Asset Generation.

Asset Generation

The Kaltura batch system executes the asset generation. In this phase, each of the flavors specified in the transcoding profile will be executed as transcoding jobs in parallel and according to priority and resources availability by the designated encoder. In case of a specific transcoding tool failure, the batch worker attempts to use the rest of the fallback transcoders that are available for the specific flavor.

When an asset transcoding completed successfully, the newly transcoded asset goes into the validation phase.

Validation

Based on the source and the flavors, the asset is checked for existence of the required content streams and the correct duration or any errors from the transcoder. If an asset has been found to be invalid or faulty, the next defined fall-back transcoding engine is used to re-try the conversion.

Back to top.

Media Encryption and Digital Rights Management (DRM)

Protecting media content from unauthorized viewing and copying is often critical to video operations. Whether for public facing paid content or sensitive corporate videos, DRM (Digital Rights Management) offers controls needed to ensure media is used only as intended. Integrated and certified with Google Widevine (Setup guide) and Microsoft PlayReady DRM technologies for content protection, Kaltura Media Transcoding Services simplifies the management of multi-DRM solution and media encryption process as an integrated step of the Kaltura media ingestion and preparation workflow. 

Back to top.

Transcoding Prioritization

Whether you're running a private small operation or large public transcoding cloud - Kaltura is built to provide the architecture that serves your needs from a low volume to millions of transcoding jobs daily.  With scale, and different deployment architectures, comes the need to control priority queues and even provide reserved instances. Kaltura Media Transcoding Services is built with multi-tenancy and quality of service management in mind.

The weighting of the different factors outlined here may be configured to maximize:

1. Throughput - Maximize the speed at which transcoding jobs are completed and utilization of the available system resources. Here the most dominating factor is the video duration.
2. Fairness - Balance the number of running jobs between publisher accounts in the Kaltura deployment and prevent "starvation" of accounts. In this algorithm the dominant factors are the number of currently running jobs per account and the Account Class of Service. 

The ratio between these two strategies is configurable per Kaltura deployment (100 = maximum throughput, 0 = maximum fairness).

Video Transcoding Jobs Prioritization Factors

The job prioritization mechanism takes into account the following factors: (Note that each of the factors may be configured and tweaked for influence per Kaltura deployment)

1. The duration of the source video - For the following reasons, transcoding jobs of shorter duration generally have a higher priority.
   • The users expectations usually correlate to the video duration: a user who uploads a 5 min video generally expects the video to be ready in a matter of minutes, while a user who uploads an hour long video will expect it to take more time.
   • The duration of a video provides a rough estimate for the execution time required to process the transcoding of that video.
2. Impact on "Entry Readiness" - Transcoding of flavors that are marked as "required" as for the entry status to be READY, are assigned higher priority than flavors marked as "optional". If all flavors are marked as optional, the lowest bitrate flavor will implicitly be treated as required. (Read more on Entry Readiness settings).
3. The ingestion / upload method - Videos that were singularly ingested using the upload API (e.g. via browser or mobile app upload) will be assigned a higher priority than videos ingested as part of a bulk upload (using CSV / XML bulk upload).
4. The ingesting account overhead - As more transcoding jobs will be executed under a single account, the pending jobs in the account's growing queue will be assigned a lower priority to avoid clogging the queue with a single account's queue.
5. Account Class of Service - Accounts can be assigned classes of service to indicate priority treatment. A high-priority account that has 20 running jobs may get a higher priority than a low-priority account that has 10 running jobs.
6. User assigned priority - Priority can be set per flavor in a specific transcoding profile to indicate the importance of flavors (for example, when the mobile app has more views than your website, publishers can configure the iPhone and iPad flavors to have a higher priority than the web flavors). It is also possible to configure different priorities between an accounts transcoding profiles, to enable the content uploader to choose the priority of their media entry. Transcoding priority can be set via API when manually queuing conversion jobs.

Other Priority Controls and Transcoding Management Tools

1. Job Quota - A quota can be configured to limit the number of concurrently running jobs in the Kaltura deployment. There is a system-wide default as well as defaults for specific job types. It is also possible to configure the quota differently per each account.
2. Express Queue - There are several batch workers that are limited to small transcoding jobs (i.e. configured to transcode short duration videos exclusively). This ensures a short wait time for shorter videos, even when many long videos are ingested to the system. 
3. Dedicated (Reserved) Transcoders - It is possible to configure workers that process only jobs of certain publisher accounts. This allows publishers to reserve dedicated transcoders for their jobs (for example, 8 dedicated transcoders guarantees immediate processing for 8 transcoding jobs at any given time, and any additional jobs will be handled by the shared transcoding queue). This ensures that time-sensitive publishing workflows always have reserved resources in deployments where system resources may be constrained. 
4. Priority Boost - Kaltura platform operators, can boost the priority of specific transcoding jobs from within the Admin Console, to manually increase the priority of a waiting job.
5. Moving Jobs - Transcoding jobs can be balanced between Kaltura Data Centers. As such, if one DC has a longer-than-usual queue of transcoding jobs, it is possible to move jobs to another Kaltura DC after the source video file was synchronized to the other DC.
6. Remote Transcoding - Kaltura's batch framework and distributed API-based architecture allows for running transcoding jobs remotely as an extension of the Kaltura deployment. For example, a load on a private local Kaltura deployment gets higher than usual priority, Kaltura operators can provision machines on a public cloud (such as IBM Bluemix, Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, or Rackspace) and easily configure these remote Kaltura batch workers to pull the source files form the local Kaltura deployment, perform the transcoding job, and push the transcoded assets back to the local deployment. Batch workers use the Kaltura API (and never access the data base directly), as such remote transcoding is easy to setup, secure and automate, and there is no requirement to setup VPN tunnels or mess with complex network security configurations.

Back to top.

Transcoding Times and Quality of Service

For applications and workflows where fast turnaround is essential, such as sports, breaking news, surveillance, Ad Tech, and social media, fast video queueing time and processing times are highly important to satisfy user expectations and support critical operations. 

To ensure best quality and smallest file size optimization the transcoding time of a given source file depends highly on the type of content in the video; For example, a highly dynamic scene, with changing lighting and high level of detail (e.g. nature walk) will achieve different results than a static scene (e.g. talking head) or a scene with low level of details (e.g. text slides). On a single transcoding worker (without segmented parallel transcoding) typical transcoding times are as follows:

• For 360p video, transcoding will usually be realtime (i.e. equal to the duration of the source video). 
• For 720p video, transcoding will usually be between 4x and 8x the video duration. 
• For 1080p video, transcoding will usually be between 10x to 15x of the video duration. 

Beyond transcoding time and quality, the following considerations are built into Kaltura's architecture to ensure optimal quality of service and SLA.

• Queuing Time: For 90% of all videos uploaded to Kaltura SaaS, video transcoding begins within 3 seconds after upload complete. For 10% of videos, transcoding generally begins within 3 seconds to 3 minutes. 
• Playback Availability: With Kaltura, all video is transcoded in parallel, utilizing as many system resources and workers available to the Kaltura deployment. Video is generally available as soon as the first flavor is available and for high-priority immediate / live requirements Kaltura utilizes dedicated transcoders, and priority settings.
• Scale: With Kaltura, publishers can define unlimited number of transcoding profiles, and execute unlimited number of transcoding jobs.
• Control: With Kaltura, publishers can set a wide variety of configurations to customize and optimize the transcoding workflows for their business needs and requirements.

Video file encryption (i.e. data-at-rest or Widevine) is encrypted at a much higher rate than video transcoding, and generally is faster than real-time. 

Back to top.

Programmatic Media Authoring API and Tools

Format and codec transcoding is merely where your journey with video begins. To support the many video experiences and workflows required for video operations, Kaltura Media Transcoding Services feature a wide range of authoring and editing tools, ranging from thumbnail generation through Image watermarks and overlays, sub-clip creation and trimming. Use the UI tools for quick tweaking of your videos, or the Kaltura APIs to build creative video manipulations at scale.

The following lists a few of the common video authoring scenarios achievable with the Kaltura Media Transcoding Services:

Real-time Thumbnails Creation

The Kaltura Thumbnail API provides a simple web interface to dynamically generate image snapshots of Kaltura video entries on the fly. Generated images are generated upon demand, and caching is managed on disk and CDN levels. The result of the thumbnail API is a JPEG, PNG or GIF image, and provides many image manipulation tools, including;

• Image re-sizing and frame cropping.
• Extracting specific frame from a video clip on.
• Thumbnail versions caching.
• Various compression quality controls.
• Generation of JPG sprites for optimal delivery and use as CSS sprites.
• Applying overlays and templates.

Watermarking

When defining a new video flavor, publishers can include an image overlay for watermarking setting using PNG or JPG image formats as the watermark. The watermark image will be burnt on the video flavor at the specified coordinates and dimensions (relatively to video frame borders). Scaling, opacity and transparency are also supported. The watermark image can be another Kaltura entry of type image, or a URL pointing to the watermark image.

Sub-Clipping and Trimming

Publishers can leverage the clipping and trimming tool to define an offset and duration, that in turn either creates a new clip of the source video, or trims the beginning and end of the video.

Audio Enhancements

• Multiple audio streams - Upon detection of a source containing multiple-audio streams, the transcoding logic attempts to match it with known audio layouts (e.g. 5.1, 7.1). If such a match is detected, the following can be performed: 
  
  • The multi-channel audio can be down-mixed to stereo. 
  • The first channel can be chosen as the audio source. 
  • The flavor can be customized to force a specific audio channels mapping.
• Noise reduction and normalizing volume level - through custom settings on the flavor level, noise reduction filters as well as volume level settings can be applied to the transcoded assets.

Frame Rotation

Rotation is often an important setting with videos recorded on mobile device.  To ensure correct orientation of uploaded video, Kaltura automatically detects camera rotation and rotates the video frame accordingly to ensure mobile captured videos are always viewable on the correct rotation. 

Advanced Video Coding 

Depending on the chosen video transcoding engine, Kaltura exposes a wide range of capabilities including controlling the gopsize, frame rate, bitrate, 2-pass as well as automatic filters such as deinterlicing and more.

Back to top.

Batch Architecture and Backend Plugins

The Kaltura Media Transcoding Services are implemented as a Kaltura batch workers. See Introduction to Kaltura Batch Processes to learn more about batch processes and the Kaltura batch architecture.

To ensure ease of extensibility and allow for adding new transcoding engines and capabilities, the Kaltura Media Transcoding Services are built on the Kaltura Backend Plugins Framework. Transcoding server plugins are configured and registered automatically with the Kaltura batch managers, who activate the plugin worker for all job types that are assigned to that backend plugin.

When activated, the plugin implementation extends the specific encoding engine API (often command line interface, or web interface) to perform, manage and monitor the required transcoding tasks it needs to carry. Transcoding server plugins run engines that vary from command line binary tools (for example ffmpeg) to API based encoder integrations (for example using Harmonic Encoders' proprietary API). Upon completion of the transcoding job, the plugin informs the batch manager of completion, any error states and the output asset files.

Back to top.

Dedicated Transcoding

What is Dedicated Transcoding?

Under normal circumstances, when an asset is uploaded into Kaltura, the video the client uploads is put into a first-in-first-out transcode queue with other (non-dedicated) Kaltura customers (note: batch actions are given lower priority). Dedicated transcoding aims to ensure the video the client uploads is transcoded immediately, and not queued.

Terminology

1. Job – the work of transcoding a single source video file to a single flavor.
2. Worker – a process that executes a single job at a time, for example, a machine that has 10 workers will have at most 10 running jobs in parallel.

What is a VCore?

• A “core” is a single Central Processing Unit (CPU), basically the part of the server that does the main processing of the software logic.
• A virtual machine (VM) is where the functions of a single machine (or server) are simulated instead of being directly tied to a single physical server.
• Putting both of these concepts together (VM and Core) helps understand what a VCore (or virtual core) is.
• You can have a single physical server with six physical cores. You could then have three VMs running on this one physical server, where each VM has two VCores. Each VM “thinks and acts” like it is a single physical machine with two cores.

Since ffmpeg can work with several threads, on a 20 core server it is not recommended to run 20 ffmpeg's, it may be better to run, for example, only 10. If we use 20 workers, then yes 20 videos are guaranteed to start processing immediately, but they will run slower than if we use only 10 workers.

How many videos can be transcoded at the same time?

• The number of videos (x) that can be transcoded simultaneously is directly proportional to the number of VCores (y).
• The client is therefore only guaranteed that x videos will transcode with zero wait time if they also have y VCores (i.e. where x=y).
• If the client uploads more than x videos at once, and only has y VCores (where y < x), then some videos go into the normal Kaltura transcode queue with all other client’s videos.

Can some videos from a single KMC use the dedicated transcoders and others not?

• Often not all content within a single KMC needs to be treated with the same priority.
• Certain urgent content (such as news or gossip content) can be transcoded immediately via the dedicated transcoders.
• The standard, less urgent content can then go through the normal queue.

How does dedicated transcoding work?

• The single transcode of an asset is known as a job.
• A job (and therefore transcode) can be assigned a priority.
• Kaltura can assign a set number of VCores to only work on jobs that have a given priority (and KMC ID).
• Individual transcode profiles can be associated with individual priorities. Kaltura can also go down to the flavor level if needed. For example, the iPad flavor will use dedicated transcoding and the iPhone flavor will not.
• Since uploaded videos are assigned transcode profiles, by extension therefore, uploaded videos can be assigned to specific jobs (i.e. certain VCores).
• If you want to have some videos trafficked through the dedicated transcoders (such as news) and other less urgent videos added to the normal queue, you need a different transcode profile to be assigned to the specific video.
• The end result: if you set a given transcode profile to a newly created entry, the entry will be prioritised accordingly.

What are the steps to implement dedicated transcoding?

Assigning the priorities to flavors / conversion profiles can only be done by Kaltura at this point (can't be done via API)

1. Create a transcode profile to be used for urgent videos, i.e. news content.
2. Create a transcode profile to be used for non-urgent videos, i.e. normal content.
3. Programmatically, insert the appropriate transcode profile ID into the dropfolder XML based on the type of content.
4. The content is sent to either a queued job or dedicated job, depending on the associated transcode profile ID.

What information does Kaltura require from the client?

1. At which data centER do they want the VCores applied? The options are: just the west coast, just the east coast or split between the two (for example, if the customer bought 30 CPUs, we can have 20 in the EC and 10 in the WC. This decision should be based on the DC the client most often gets data from, and the geo location of the most uploads.
2. KMC ID
3. Number of VCores
   • As described, the number of videos (x) that can be transcoded simultaneously is directly proportional to the number of VCores (y).
   • For there to be no wait time, x must equal y.
   • For example, if the client wants to be able to transcode 10 videos at the same time they w2ill need 10 VCores.
4. Transcode Profile ID (only relevant if segregating content into queued vs dedicated for a single KMC).

For additional information about dedicated transcoding, please contact your Kaltura Account Manager.

Back to top.

Jump to Implementation.

Overview

Google Analytics (GA) is a web analytics service that uses a combination of cookies and APIs to enter events into a tracking site. Kaltura player includes a plugin to easily translate player events into GA beacons. The collection of beacons can then provide an analysis of player actions. 

To use this plugin, you must first have a Google analytics account (http://www.google.com/analytics/)

After signing up, you'll receive an urchin ID, appearing similar to UA-XXXXXXXXX-1.  This ID is the link between your player and the GA servers. 

After you install configure Google Analytics in the player, events may be reported to your Google Analytics account and will be collected under the Content->Events page.

To drill down into events: Go to Content->Events->Pages.

Under each page, the Kaltura Events category is displayed with the relevant events.  Under each event, the label is in the form:

Clip title | entry Id | widget Id

where each line shows the number of times the event was received, with the exception of progress events (xx_pct_watched).

See Implementation. The following is a screen capture of the Google Analytics Events Page.

Demo Page

A player with the Google Analytics plugin installed is showcased on the following page: http://player.kaltura.com/docs/GoogleAnalytics

You can use Fiddler or the onPage tracking tool, to track the events sent to Google.

Contents are broken up as:

([“Kaltura Video Events”][type of event][“Clip title | entry Id | widget Id”])([value])

Technical Details

Google Analytics Infomation

Google documentation can be found at: http:/code.google.com/apis/analytics/docs/tracking/eventTrackerGuide.html#Anatomy

A Google Analytics event has the following specifications:

• Category – in our case – “Kaltura Video Events”  (hard coded)
• Action – the event name
• Label (optional) – dimension for the action
• Value (optional) – numerical data

Event Details

Data is recorded as listed:

• Label – is always the title of the video, coupled with the entry ID and player ID:
  video title | entryID | widgetId ( also known as the partner id )
  The use of the vertical separator “|” is for easy readability.
• Category – is always “Kaltura Events”
• Action – the event type (as in the player event name)
• Value – usually 1, for events where it makes sense to count the aggregate amount of times the event was triggered. 

Add Google Analytics with the KMC

You can add Goodle Analytics using the KMC Studio, by selecting the Google Analytics plugin within the KMC.

1. Select the Studio tab and then select the Universal Studio menu.
2. Select the Monitization icon and then Select Google Analytics. For more information see the Universal Studio Information Guide.

    

Plugin Definition 

The following is a sample plugin configuration that can be copied to your player's uiConf.  Change the blue values to accommodate the events to your own setup.

<Plugin id="googleAnalytics" visualDebug="false” width="0%" height="0%" loadingPolicy="wait" urchinCode="UA-XXXXXXX-1"/>

This configuration beams the following events: 

Advanced Implementation – Custom Events

Example 1

You can add the ability to listen for additional events that are not listed in the table. You can also specify your own values in the beacon string:

([“Kaltura Video Events”][type of event][“Clip title | entry Id | widget Id”])([value])

where:

To add additional events you will need to identify the event and set each definition. Omitting any of the definitions will result in the plugin's default settings. You can use this capability to listen for events triggered by other plugins, and beam those events to Google Analytics.

Example 2

The following is a configuration example that listens for additional events such as “doPlay”.

<Plugin id="googleAnalytics" visualDebug="false” path="googleAnalyticsPlugin.swf"

customEvent=”doPlay”

doPlayCategory=”My Custom event”

doPlayAction=”player is playing”

doPlayValue=”1”

width="0%" height="0%" loadingPolicy="wait" urchinCode="UA-XXXXXXX-1"/>

The configuration above sends doPlay events each time a play event occurs. A play event happens after each click of the Play button. Notice the doPlayLabel parameter was left out. Leaving the doPlayLabel parameter out will default to the plugin's own settings and change the other parameters. The following is what each sent beacon will look like after each play event.

(“My Custom event” “player is playing” [“Clip title | entry Id | widget Id”])(“1”)

[“Clip title | entry Id | widget Id”] will display the Clip's title, entry Id, and widget Id in the above beacon.

Example 3

Users can omit a Category, Action, Value, and Label and only declare the event in “customEvents” as in the following example.

<Plugin id="googleAnalytics" visualDebug="false” path="googleAnalyticsPlugin.swf"

customEvent=”doPlay” width="0%" height="0%" loadingPolicy="wait" urchinCode="UA-30149691-1"/>

This custom event sends all the plugin's default settings each time the doPlay action is triggered.  Multiple custom events are separated by commas as in the following:

<Plugin id="googleAnalytics" visualDebug="false” path="googleAnalyticsPlugin.swf"

customEvent=”doPlay,playerStateChange,addThis”

addThisCategory=”My AddThis Category”

addThisAction=”My AddThis Action”

addThisLabel=”My AddThis Label”

addThisValue=”1”

width="0%" height="0%" loadingPolicy="wait" urchinCode="UA-30149691-1"/>

Using the Google Analytics interface

Live reports on active viewers

Google has added support for realtime analytics, enabling you to list the active users on a page. This can be used for real-time estimates of live stream viewers.

1. Configure Google analytics for your player
2. Embed your live entry with your GA enabled player.
3. Navigate to the "real-time" section within your google analytics console
4. Locate the content page with the live stream.
   You can now monitor real-time visitors for your live stream video.

Accessing per content entry reports

Google Analytics collects details reports on a per entry basis. This enables you to create segment views per content per event. For example if you wanted to see how many users reached the "playerPlayEnd" event ( i.e completed a video view ):

1. Configure and embed a player with google analtyics.
2. Within the google console select "Content"
3. Select the "Events" pull down
4. Click on "Top Events" then "Kaltura Video Events" ( for the default kaltura player events )
5. Click on the "Event Action" your interested in i.e "mediaReady" or "75_pct_watched"
6. Enter the entryId your interested in tracking within the search field.
7. Here we select mediaReady, we then get the number of times the mediaReady event was called for that entry.

Accessing per live content entry reports

Google analytics content reports for live entries can be handled very similar to VOD entries. Just be sure to make note of the specific entryId that your interested in tracking.

1. Configure and embed a player with Google Analytics.
2. Within the google console select "Content"
3. Select the "Events" pull down
4. Click on "Top Events" then "Kaltura Video Events" ( for the default kaltura player events )
5. Click on the "Event Action" your interested in i.e "mediaReady" or "75_pct_watched"
6. Enter the liveentryId in the search field.
7. Here we select mediaReady, we then get segments by media labels. This gives details on how many player impressions where rendered to clients. The mediaReady event is fried once the player is displayed on page.

The Kaltura Player enables the implementation of autoplay on mobile web devices.

Supported Operating Systems/Browsers

Autoplay on mobile web is supported on Safari on iOS10+ and Chrome on Android 5+.

Using Playback on Mobile Devices

Playback will begin muted and the sound will be turned on upon any user interaction.

To configure the Player to start playback on mobile devices:

1. Add the following flashvar:
   On Android :- "mobileAutoPlay": true
   On iOS 10 - "mobileAutoPlay": true
2. Next, verify that "EmbedPlayer.WebKitPlaysInline":is set to true,

Note: Autoplay on the Web Player is configurable via the Universal Studio; however, this has no relation to the mobile web autoplay feature. This is enabled through the Basic Display -> Automatically play video on page load option. Refer to the Universal Studio Guide for details.

This article describes the following topics:

• Overview of the Universal Studio
• Creating a Player in the Universal Studio
• Configuring the Player’s Look and Feel
• Configuring the Player’s Analytics
• Monetization - Configuring the Player Advertising Settings
• Plugins
• Strings / UI Variables

Overview of the Universal Studio

The Universal Player Studio is a robust HTML based player editor.  It supersedes the Studio Flash Player and natively edits the Kaltura Player Toolkit (v2) players' JSON based configuration. Kaltura Toolkit players can be embedded into responsive HTML web pages and native iOS and Android applications. For more information see Kaltura Player Toolkit .

Architecturally, the Kaltura Universal Studio Player works with non-destructive JSON editing that enables both manual edits of the JSON file as well as editing the JSON file with the player studio GUI. This guide is exclusively focused on the user interface. If you want to edit a player’s JSON source directly, you can do so in the Kaltura Player Version Utility Page.

For frequently asked questions per transitioning between the Flash Studio and the Universal Studio, see the Universal Studio FAQ. Pay close attention to the limitations in transitioning to the Universal Studio and using a Kaltura Player Toolkit v2 Player. 

Desgining and Configuring a Player

When upgrading a player that was created in the Flash Studio, be sure to duplicate the player. Not all of the Flash features are directly supported in the Universal Studio players, and unexpected results may occur.

Use the Universal Studio tab in the KMC to create configurations and design players and playlists. You can add, remove and adjust multiple buttons and features, and design a player to match the look of your site. 

Updating the Player List in the Universal Studio

The Universal Studio tab displays the complete list of the players defined in your account. This includes players created with the Flash studio. To edit any player in the Universal Studio, the player must be updated to the new Universal Studio Players. This includes any players previously created via API and even early versions of v2 players.

All players created using the previous KMC Studio are automatically available to be upgraded in the new Universal Studio.

To update the players

1. Select the Studio tab and then click Universal Studio.
   The list of existing players is displayed.
2. Click Update to update the player to the Universal Studio player.
   
   An Update request box is displayed.
   
3. Click Update.
   An update confirmation box is displayed.
   
   Click OK.
   To Upgrade v1 Players
4. Click Upgrade to upgrade the player to the latest version of Universal Studio players.
5. Click Duplicate to create a copy of the player and then click Upgrade.
   
   An Upgrade confirmation is displayed.
   
6. Begin to configure the Universal Studio player settings.

Reverting to the Flash Studio Player

Since some of the Flash features are not directly supported in the Universal Studio players, you may want to revert to the originally configured Flash player.

To revert back to the original studio player

1. Clone a player in before you upgrade it.
2. Delete the upgraded player.

The Kaltura Player is the front-end interface used to view captured videos and/or presentations. The Kaltura Player provides you with multiple interactive viewing options, such as Picture-in-Picture, Side-by-Side, and other displays. Select one of the display options from the drop down menu as your display preference.

Playlist Setup

Use the Playlist setup options to configure the playlist’s settings and configure the playlist controls. You can set a playlist Preview id in the Basic Settings.

Playlist Configuration

The Kaltura playlist plugin supports associating multiple clips in sequence.

To configure the playlist’s settings

1. Select the Universal Studio tab and select the Look and Feel icon.
2. Check the box next to the Playlist Configuration feature to enable this option.
3. Select the position where the playlist should display. The options are to the right, left, above or beneath the video.
4. Select the layout, vertical or horizontal.
5. Enable the playlist features by checking the relevant boxes.
6. Check On (Publisher's) Page to display the playlist on the publisher's page. If unchecked, the playlist is displayed on the player's iFrame. (Recommended)
7. Enter the minimum amount of clips of display. The number represents the minimum number of clips to show in the playlist without scrolling. If the playlist has fewer entries than the specified Min Clips value, all the clips in the playlist are displayed. If the MinClips value specified prevents optimal viewing, (may cover the video or shrink the player display) - the Min clips value for display are determined to provide optimal video viewing.
8. Enter the initial entry ID that should be played first. In the Init item entry id.

To add additional playlists

1. Enter the Playlist Name and the Playlist ID.
2. Click Add.

Back to top.

Playlist Controls

Use to configure the Next and Previous buttons on the playlist.

To configure the playlist’s controls

1. Select the Universal Studio tab and select the Look and Feel icon.
2. Check the box next to the Playlist Controls feature to enable this option.
3. Select where you want to display the Next and Previous buttons. The choice are the Top bar container or the Controls container. Leave this field empty if you are uncertain where you want these buttons displayed.

Back to top.

Configuring the Player’s Analytics

Kaltura supports robust analytics via the Kaltura platform as well as via 3rd party analytics providers.

The following Analytics options are supported:

• Akamai Media Analytics - Supports sending player analytics events to Akamai.
• Google Analytics - Supports sending player analytics events to Google.
  For full implementation guide see Google Analytics in the Knowledge Center.
• comScore -  Supports sending player analytics events to comScore
• Nielsen Combined - Supports sending player analytics events to Nielsen Combined
• Omniture on page - The Omniture s_code config version of the plugin allows you to connect the Omniture plugin to your existing s_code.js configuration for easy integration of video analytics into an Omniture site.
• Kaltura Analytics/Statistics  - Use Kaltura analytics to track Kaltura player events. Statistics are enabled by default. Configuration consists of adding additional tracking info.
• Youbora Analytics - The Youbora plugin listens and reports all the different player states in the current video session to Youbora Analytics.

To configure the player analytics settings

1. Select the Universal Studio tab and then select or create a player.
2. Select the Analytics icon.
3. Check the Analytics option you want to configure.
4. Enter the relevant parameters for the chosen option.
5. Click Save Player Options.

Akamai Media Analytics

Akamai Media Analytics are designed to provide consistent and accurate data about the playback and quality your audience is experiencing on any device.

Back to top.

Google Analytics

Back to top.

comScore

Back to top.

 Nielsen Combined

Back to top.

 Omniture on Page

The Omniture s_code config version of the plugin allows you to connect the Omniture plugin to your existing s_code.js configuration for easy integration of video analytics into an Omniture site.

Kaltura Analytics - Statistics

 Back to top.

Youbora Analytics

Youbora Real Time Analytics & Monitoring uses a plugin on every player on every device of every user to track and monitor all information relevant to every view (real time for VoD and live video).

For additional information on Youbora Analytics see the Youbora Player Plugin Setup and Information Guide on the Knowledge Center.

 Back to top.

Monetization - Configuring the Player Advertising Settings

The Kaltura platform supports VAST 3.0 as well as 3rd party ad plugins to facilitate content monetization.

The following monetization options are available:

• Bumper
• VAST
• DoubleClick
• FreeWheel
• Skip Button
• Skip Notice
• Notice Message

 To configure the player advertising settings

1. Select the Universal Studio tab and then select or create a player.
2. Select the Monetization icon.
3. Configure the VAST 3.0 or third party plugin advertising settings.
4. Save your changes.

Bumpers

Bumpers are videos that act as ads and do not use an ad server. Bumper videos uploaded to Kaltura can be inserted before or after a video, to function as pre-rolls or post-rolls. Bumper videos are associated with a player, and not associated with a specific video. Bumper videos are independent of actual pre/post-rolls and can be played in addition to ads. Bumper videos are helpful for Kaltura partners that would like to advertise their logo, or other information, before or after a video, and for smaller partners that would like to advertise, but do not need advanced tracking tools that ad servers provide.

VAST

VAST, (Video Ad Serving Template), includes a standard XML-based ad response for in-stream video as well as an XML Schema Definition (“XSD”) for developers. It is meant to accommodate the majority of current practices within the online digital video advertising business. 

(http://www.iab.net/iab_products_and_industry_services/508676/compliance/679253 )

VAST Support

Here is a list of some of the largest video ad servers/networks that are VAST-compliant: 

http://www.iab.net/iab_products_and_industry_services/508676/compliance/679253 .

VPAID Support

Kaltura’s plugin for VAST supports VPAID ads.

VAST Configuration Parameters

Kaltura player features robust VAST support for prerolls, midrolls, overlays, companions and postrolls.

DoubleClick

DoubleClick for Publishers (DFP) Video provides publishers with a platform to increase revenue from video advertising as well as manage costs. Fully integrated with DFP, publishers can manage their entire display advertising through one platform, with video at its core. Learn more about DFP video solutions.

FreeWheel

FreeWheel gives enterprise-level media companies the infrastructure they need to create scaled, profitable content businesses in the new media landscape. Learn more about FreeWheel offerings. Kaltura supports a full featured FreeWheel ad network integration for both HTML5 and Flash players.

Skip Button

Skip Notice

Notice Message

Back to top.

Plugins

Use the Plugins tab to configure additional plugins.

The following plugins are available:

• Keyboard Shortcuts - Use to control the player using keyboard shortcuts
• Moderation - Allow your users to flag content as inappropriate.
• Playback Rate Selector - Enables users to select the video playback rate.
• Restrict User Agent - Allows you to block the player to specific user agents.
• Universal DRM - Kaltura Universal DRM enables multiple DRM engines to run within the Kaltura player based on the capabilities of the browser or packaged native applications.
• Source Selector - Enables users to select the video quality.
• Audio Selector - Enables users to select multiple audio tracks.
• Download - Enables users to add a download button to the player controls. The download button enables users to download the media to a local file.
• Strings - Use to over write player strings.
• 360 and VR Videos - Allows you to configure 360 and VR videos or spherical videos
• Chromecast - Allows you to configure Chromecast support
• UI Variables - Allows you to add UI variables to the player configuration.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Use the Keyboard Shortcuts option to control the player using keyboard shortcuts. See JavaScript key mappings for more information. 

 To set keyboard shortcuts

1. Select the Universal Studio tab and select the Look and Feel icon.
2. Check the box next to Keyboard Shortcuts to enable this option.
3. Enter values for the following parameters:
    
   

   Name	Description	Values
   Volume Precent Change	Controls the interval of Volume Change	0-1, .2 for example defines 5 steps of keyboard volume control
   Short Seek Time	In seconds
   Long Seek Time	In seconds
   Volume Up Key
   Volume Down Key
   Toggle Playback Key
   Short Seek Back Key
   Long Seek Back Key
   Short Seek Forward Key
   Long Seek Forward key
   Open Full Screen Key
   Close Full Screen Key
   Go to beginning Key	Seeks to the start of the content.
   Go To End Key	Seeks to the end of the stream.
   Percentage Seek Keys	Comma delimited list of keys used to seek to fixed percentages in the stream.

4. Click Apply Changes to preview your modifications.
5. Click Save Player Settings.

Moderation

Use the Moderation option to allow users to moderate content and flag content as inappropriate.

To set the Moderation options

1. Select the Universal Studio tab and select the Look and Feel icon.
2. Check the box next to Moderation to enable this option.
3. Enter the following parameters:
   

   Name	Description
   Header
   Text
   Tooltip
   Reason:Sexual Content
   ReasonL Violent Content
   Reason: Harmful Content
   Reason: Spam

4. Click Apply Changes to preview your modifications.
5. Click Save Player Settings.

Playback Rate Selector

To select the video playback rate

1. Select the Universal Studio tab and select the Plugins icon.
2. Check the box next to the option and enter the default speed for the player.
3. Enter the set of selectable speeds separated by commas, where 1 = 100% speed.

Restrict User Agent

Use to block the player to specific user agents. Use these settings for the player display only. For general purpose access controls, see entry level access controls.   

To restrict the User Agent

1. Select the Universal Studio tab and select the Plugins icon.
2. Check the box next to the option.
3. Enter the Restricted user agents. Enter a comma-separated list of browsers to search for.
4. Enter the Restricted user agent title (error title).
5. Enter the Restricted user agent message (error message). 

Universal DRM

Kaltura Universal DRM enables multiple DRM engines to run within the Kaltura player based on the capabilities of the browser or packaged native application.

To configure Universal DRM

1. Contact your Kaltura representative to request Universal modular DRM to be activated for your account.
2. Enable Universal DRM on your player.
1. Select the Universal Studio tab and select the Plugins icon,
2. Check the box next to Universal DRM.
3. Click Save Player Settings.
3. Enable the DRM access control profile for entries you would like protected. See How to enable the DRM access control profile for entries you would like protected. 

Source Selector

Use to select the video quality.

To configure the Source Selector

1. Select the Universal Studio tab and select the Plugins icon.
2. Check the box next to Source Selector.
3. Set the parameters.
4. Click Preview changes to preview your modifications.
5. Click Save Player Settings.

Audio Selector

Use to enable multiple audio tracks.

To configure the Audio Selector

1. Select the Universal Studio tab and select the Plugins icon.
2. Check the box next to Audio Selector.
3. Click Save Player Settings.

To learn more about Kaltura's MediaPrep capabilities for multiple audio track playback, see Using Multi Audio Tracks.

Download

Use to add a download button to the player controls. The download button enables users to download the media to a local file.

To add the Download button

1. Select the Universal Studio tab and select the Plugins icon.
2. Check the box next to Download.
3. Check Plugin to enable the Download plugin.
4. Configure the parent container for the component.
5. Configure the alignment.
6. Set the order.
7. Enter the Flavor ID for the downloaded movie source. When specified this flavour overrides any preferred bitrate settings.
8. Set the Preferred bitrate. Leave empty for the highest bitrate. Set to zero for the original movie source file.
9. Click Preview changes to preview your modifications.
10. Click Save Player Settings.

Strings

Use this option to over write player strings. For a complete list of the string keys, refer to the Strings documentation page.

360 and VR Videos

Use this option to enable the 360 and VR video plugin on your player. For more information see the article about Kaltura 360 and VR Video Player Support.

Chromecast Plugin Configuration

Use to enable the Chromecast plugin for your Player controls.

1. Select the Universal Studio tab and select the Plugins icon.
2. Check the box next to Chromecast.
3. In the Parent field, select Controls container.
4. If you are not using the default Kaltura Chromecast receiver, in the Application ID, provide the ID.
5. Click Preview changes to preview your modifications.
6. Click Save Player Settings.

UI Variables

Use to add UI variables to the player configuration.

To simplify the management of many of the player features, Kaltura has implemented the “UIVars” to override and configure player features.

Kaltura UIVars are an incredibly powerful feature of the Kaltura Players which allow publishers to pre-set or override the value of any FlashVar (object level parameters), show, hide and disable existing UI element, add new plugins and UI elements to an existing player, and modify attributes of all the player's elements.

The most updated list of UIVars is here.

Back to Top

Create New Plugin

This option allows you to create a custom plugin configuration. For more information, contact Kaltura Customer Care.

Import Plugin

This option allows you to import a Kaltura player plugin using a one line string. For more information, contact Kaltura Customer Care.

Back to Top

Overview

Player Compatibility

The Kaltura Player supports Chromecast on the following versions:

• Mobile SDK V3
  
  • iOS: iOS 9, 10
  • Android: Android 4.2.2+
• Web player version 2.46+

Cast API

The Kaltura Player supports Google’s Cast V3 APIs.

Introduction to Chromecast

Chromecast enables end users to cast media from their tablets, smartphones and chrome browsers to their TVs during viewing. Therefore, the assumption is that the end user owns and has attached a Chromecast device to their television.

How does It Work?

The Chromecast system consists of the following:

• A Sender application that is integrated within the player and is responsible for sending streaming requests to the Chromecast Receiver,
• A Receiver application, which is a separate HTML page that runs on the Chromecast dongle attached to the end user’s TV, and is responsible for receiving the streaming requests from the Sender application and presenting it on the TV. Note that for Chromecast to work, the end user’s application and the Chromecast device must be connected to the same wireless network.

Figure 1:

Figure 2:

As pictured in Figure 2 above, the Chromecast receiver handles the communication between itself and:

• The Player
• The Kaltura Backend
• The Google cloud 

Kaltura’s Chromecast Sender App

The Chromecast Sender application represents the application that is responsible for sending streaming requests to the Receiver (the Chromecast device). The Sender application enables mobile and web users to cast content from the player onto a TV screen via the Chromecast device. The Web Player and the Mobile SDKs have separate sender applications. The Sender applications implemented in the player work with a custom receiver.

Kaltura’s Chromecast Receiver Application

Kaltura uses a Custom Receiver, which is a custom-built HTML5 that can also stream files that use DRM. The receiver TV, depending on the status of the Chromecast connection, displays the following screens:

Content Loading – The Receiver application is loaded and connected and is now loading the video

Content Playing – The Receiver application is loaded, connected and playing

Customizing the Receiver Application