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AVPlayer

note

You can find a fully functional sample app on our GitHub page: https://github.com/Broadpeak-tv/smartlib-ios-sample-app

1. Attach the player​

When creating the player instance, attach it to the current session.

We recommend to init the AVPlayer instance with the playerWithPlayerItem method.

// Create your player
AVPlayer *player = [AVPlayer playerWithPlayerItem:nil];

// Attach your player to the session
[session attachPlayer:player];

2. Start a streaming session​

The getURL method is used to get the actual streaming URL and start the streaming session. This method is also the starting point of the analytics calculation, for instance the startup time starts from this method.

The returned URL can be different for every video session. In case of using a Broadpeak CDN or a nanoCDN, it includes a unique token. It can be used only once per session object, once called the session is actually started.

When getURL returns an error, it means no streaming URL can be found. It has to trigger a specific behaviour on the application (error message, dialog...) and stopStreamingSession has to be called. Find more details about getURL errors on the session errors page.

It is recommended to perform this call on a different thread than the main thread, the method runs HTTP requests.

info

This method has to be called even for non-Broadpeak content URLs. In this case, the method will return the same URL.

// Get the stream URL from SmartLib
StreamingSessionResult *result = [session getURL:...];

if (![result isError]) {
    // Load the stream URL into AVPlayer
    AVURLAsset *assetUrl = [AVURLAsset assetWithURL:[NSURL URLWithString:[result getURL]]];
    AVPlayerItem *itemToPlay = [AVPlayerItem playerItemWithAsset:assetUrl];
    [player replaceCurrentItemWithPlayerItem:[self playerItemFromURL:itemToPlay]];
} else {
    // Stop the session
    [session stopStreamingSession];

    // Process the loading error
}

3. Stop a streaming session​

The stopStreamingSession method must be called each time the session is stopped:

  • end users: when the playback is stopped by a user action
  • loading errors: when the streaming session cannot be started through the getURL method
  • player errors: when the player triggers a non-recoverable error during the playback (as a decoding error)
  • application or any others actions: when the app is killed
// Stop the session
[session stopStreamingSession];
[player replaceCurrentItemWithPlayerItem:nil];

If the player generates a non-recoverable error during the playback (as a decoding error), call stopStreamingSession to stop the session.

// Register to currentItem status events (don't forget to unregister when destroying the player)
[self.player.currentItem addObserver:self
                          forKeyPath:@"status"
                             options:NSKeyValueObservingOptionInitial | NSKeyValueObservingOptionNew
                             context:PlaybackStatusObservationContext];
// On non-recoverable error, stop the current session
- (void)observeValueForKeyPath:(NSString *)keyPath
                      ofObject:(id)object
                        change:(NSDictionary *)change
                       context:(void *)context {
    if ([keyPath isEqualToString:@"status"]) {
        AVPlayerItemStatus status = [[change objectForKey:NSKeyValueChangeNewKey] integerValue];
        if (status == AVPlayerStatusFailed) {
            [self.session stopStreamingSession];
        }
    } else {
            [super observeValueForKeyPath: keyPath
                                 ofObject: object
                                   change: change
                                  context: context];
    }
}