Step-By-Step Guide to Making Your First Brightcove Player

This guide will walk you through building your first broadband channel with Brightcove in less than 30 minutes using free sample assets. We recommend you print the tutorial and read it as you use Brightcove.

The Brightcove Console is a web application that is the heart of the Brightcove service. The Console makes it quick, simple and easy to publish your own broadband channel.

The first step to using Brightcove is to upload the video files and graphics that you will be using to create your channel. You can upload your content to the Console using the Brightcove Publishpod. The Publishpod is a desktop application that features encoding to Flash video (FLV) from a variety of file types, image capture from video files, and batch processing when you need to upload multiple files. The Publishpod is available for both Mac and PC users.

To install the Brightcove Publishpod:

1. Sign in to the Brightcove Console using the account information you used when you registered to use the Brightcove service.
2. Click the "Get the Publishpod" button in the Getting Started section to download the Brightcove Publishpod.
3. Walk through the installation and close the installer upon completion.

You can also upload media assets to your account using Quick Upload. Quick Upload is a lightweight application that allows you to upload files from within your web browser, and is currently available for PC users running Internet Explorer (IE). Quick Upload requires that you install a small application, which is available for download on the Assets tab of the Console.

For this exercise, you’re going to use free video and graphical assets we've prepared to create a channel with a variety of classic cartoon favorites:

To get the sample assets:

1. Download the zip file (55 MB)
2. Unzip the file into a directory on your computer. Save it to a local drive, not a network drive.

You should find the following assets in the folder:

Now that you have the sample assets, the next step is to upload the videos and graphics into the Brightcove asset management system using the Publishpod.

Broadband channels are built from video stills, thumbnails, video files, and player graphics. You can load these graphics individually into the asset system, sort them, and preview them.

To upload the Cartoon Express assets:

1. Start the Brightcove Publishpod (install it first if you haven't already).
2. Click the Sign In link at the top of the application and enter your Brightcove username and password.
3. Click the Add Files button and navigate to the folder where you are storing the sample assets.
4. Select the assets you wish to upload (all of them, in this case). To select multiple assets, hold down the Shift key when you click on them. Click Open to add these files to the Publishpod queue.
5. Make sure that the correct Asset Type is selected for each file by selecting the file and changing the "Asset Type" drop-down list:
• Change the video files that end in "_Pre.flv" to Video Previews.
• Change the image files that end in "_Still.jpg" to Video Still.
• Change the image files that end in "_Thumb.jpg to Thumbnail.
6. When all of the sample assets are in the list and show the correct Asset Type, select the first file in the list and click "Start Processing" to send them to your Brightcove Console.
7. The entire list of assets will be uploaded to your Brightcove Console.

Please note that uploading large video files can take more than 30 minutes.

NOTE: Before attempting to upload a file, make sure that the file is not open for viewing or editing in another application.

Brightcove organizes videos and programming using video titles. A title is collection of assets and meta data which you can syndicate or program in a player. For this tutorial you will use the Brightcove Console to make two titles.

To create the Cartoon Express titles:

1. Select the Titles tab.
2. Click the New Title button in the lower left corner. The Description page opens.
3. In the Name field, enter "Popeye The Sailorman".
4. In the Short Description field, make up a short description. Click Next.
5. In the Economics page, select Advertising and click Next. The Videos page opens.
6. Under Select Video Files > Full-Length Flash Video (.FLV), click Select File.
7. From the File Picker, select Popeye_Full.flv from the asset list and click Select.
8. Under Preview Flash Video (.FLV), click Select File.
9. From the File Picker, select Popeye_Pre.flv for the preview clip and click Select. (Preview clips are optional.)
10. On the Videos page, click Next. The Images page opens.
11. Under Video Still, click Select.
12. From the File Picker, select Popeye_Still.jpg and click Select.
13. Under Thumbnail, click Select.
14. From the File Picker, select Popeye_Thumb.jpg and click Select. Click Next.
15. On the Classification page, under Genres > Genre 1, click Select and select a genre.
16. Click Save. The Active Title? dialog opens. Click Yes.
17. Repeat this process with the Betty Boop assets to build the Betty Boop title.

When finished, you should see the two Titles displayed in the Titles data grid. As with uploaded content, you can sort by columns, and filter by file name or type. With two Titles active, it’s time to program a Lineup.

A Lineup is a group of two or more videos that are programmed to be listed in a particular order. You might organize a lineup based on content, chronology, or theme.

To create a lineup for Cartoon Express in the Brightcove Console:

1. Select the Lineups tab.
2. Click the New Lineup button in the lower left corner. The New Lineup > Description page opens.
3. Set Add Titles to Lineup to Manually.
4. In the Name field, enter a name for the lineup and click Next. The New Lineup > Manage Titles page opens.
5. In the All Titles panel, select both the Betty Boop and the Popeye title and click the Add button. The two titles appear in your lineup in the panel on the right. You can drag and drop the titles in your lineup to change their order.
6. Click Save.

The final step is to present this new Lineup in a customized video Player.

Players provide a visually attractive and easy means of organizing and presenting your videos. Brightcove offers a broad range of options for creating highly stylized video players based on pre-built templates.

To create a Player for Cartoon Express in the Brightcove Console:

1. Select the Players tab.
2. Click the New Player button in the lower left corner. The New Player > Promotion page opens.
3. Enter a name and description for your Player and click Next. The New Player > Advertising page opens.
4. Don't make any changes on the Advertising page. Click Next. The New Player > Template page opens.
5. Select the template named "Minimizing with List 2.0" as the Player Template to use to display your lineup and click Next. The New Player > Styles page opens.
6. Select custom themes, colors, fonts, and background style for your Player and click Next. The New Player > Add Content page opens.
7. Click the highlighted area in the image of your Player. The Lineup Picker opens.
8. In the Lineup Picker, select your cartoon Lineup and click Save. You return to the New Player > Add Content page.
9. Click Save. The Publishing Codes window opens. This window provides you with a code snippet you can use to integrate your Player directly into your own web site.
10. Click Copy and paste the copied code into the HTML for your site, selecting where you want the Player to appear.

Now it's your turn

Now that you've seen how easy it is to create compelling video experiences for use anywhere you want them to appear on the Internet, it's time to use your own content to create new video experiences.

The Studio has a host of resources available to guide you through the process and our Customer Support team is available to answer any questions you might have. We look forward to seeing the great content you publish.