Upload to Connect/CloudCast

With HyperCaster v5.5+, you can push videos from the HyperCaster content library to an integrated TelVue Connect account, in order to distribute directly to the new CloudCast app.

1. Sync your HyperCaster with a specific user in your Connect account by adding Connect to your Remote Server configuration. For a fully automated workflow, the Connect Admin User used in the Remote Server configuration should have its Auto-Transcode setting within Connect set to Always for the VOD transcode profile. This way all videos uploaded from the HyperCaster will automatically transcode for streaming without having to log back into Connect.
   1. For automatic transcoding:
      1. Log in to Connect as an Admin user.
      2. Under Administration → Users, Edit the User account that is used to sync to your HyperCaster
      3. Click on the Auto-Transcode tab
      4. Select “Always” next to the VOD transcode profile
2. Upload Content to Connect from the HyperCaster  
   1. Select content to upload and access the content actions:
      1. For individual content: From the Content Tab, right-click on any content thumbnail, or from the Show Content page, click the action gear.
      2. For multiple content files: From the Content Tab, select multiple content records by either holding down the Control (Command for Apple) key and clicking multiple records, clicking a record and holding down the Shift key and clicking another record to select all of the records in between, or Control-A (Command-A for Apple) to select all. Right click on any of the selected content thumbnails.
   2. Selecting “Upload” will open up the option to add to one or more of your existing Connect playlists, series, and categories as established within your Connect account. Or simply click on “Upload” to transfer this video to your Connect Media Library (you can always add to collections and categories in the Connect interface).
      1. Track the progress of the upload file transfer from the HyperCaster’s Tasks tab.
      2. Any video that has been uploaded to Connect will display a small blue cloud icon in the corner of the video thumbnail.
3. Transcoding for VOD
   1. Once the upload is complete, if you have automatic transcoding enabled, the content will be automatically transcoded for streaming in Connect. Note that until the Transcode activity is complete, the video will not show up in the video player. Each video must both complete transcoding for VOD, and exist in a published Playlist, Series, or Category to be visible in a CloudCast player or OTT app.
   2. If you do not have automatic transcoding enabled, i.e. if the sync User Auto-Transcode rule is set to “Never”, each video that is pushed from the HyperCaster will appear in the TelVue Connect Media library, but will need to be manually transcoded to your VOD format before it can be used in a CloudCast player. For manual transcoding:
      1. Go to your Connect Media Library
      2. Choose “Transcode” from the media actions menu next to the chosen media
      3. Select the Transcode format and click “Transcode”
      4. You can monitor progress of transcode in the Activity tab.
4. Organizing in your CloudCast Players
   1. Once the transcode is complete, the video will be available in your player, as long as it was added to a published collection or category on upload.
      1. If you added to an unpublished collection or category when you uploaded from the HyperCaster, you can publish the collection or category within Connect under the Video Player management.
      2. If you had not added to a collection or category upon upload from the HyperCaster, you can always manage this directly within the Connect User Interface, or you can re-organize directly from the HyperCaster by re-submitting the Upload action with the modified collection and category selections. The HyperCaster will be smart enough to not bother re-uploading the content if it was already uploaded, and will just adjust the organization.
5. Watching Published Videos
   1. You can watch published videos in your corresponding CloudCast responsive player and available OTT apps.
   2. You can also watch published videos that are scheduled for playout on your HyperCaster from the Watch Now link in the HyperCaster’s embeddable website program guide.
   3. You can also watch published videos via the link within the HyperCaster interface on the Show Content Page → Extended Metadata Tab → VOD section.
6. Metadata:
   1. The following metadata fields will carry over from the HyperCaster to Connect:
      1. Connect Title
         1. If NOT part of a Series: HyperCaster Program (or Name if Program is blank)
         2. If part of a Series: HyperCaster Episode
            • If Episode is blank, use Program (or Name if Program blank)

            (See Configure Transfer settings section, below, for “Program – Episode” option)

      2. Connect Short Summary
         1. HyperCaster Short Summary
            • If Short Summary is blank, use Description field, truncated to 255 character.
            • If Description is blank, use Program (or Name if Program blank)
      3. Connect Description
         1. HyperCaster Description
      4. If the user chooses a Series, Playlist or Category from the HyperCaster interface, this will be reflected in the video when it is transferred to Connect.
      5. If you already Uploaded a video from the HyperCaster to Connect, and then in the future change some metadata on the HyperCaster, you can run the Upload action again to push your metadata changes. The HyperCaster would not re-upload the file in that case.
   2. If you have Continuous Synchronization enabled on the HyperCaster under Config → TelVue Connect, then any content uploaded from the HyperCaster to Connect will automatically sync metadata changes made on Connect. If you change the content metadata on the HyperCaster, and then it changes on Connect, the Connect changes will re-sync to the HyperCaster. If you do not want this behavior, then disable Continuous Synchronization. (See Configure Transfer settings, below.)
   3. Connect provides further metadata options that can be edited as needed after the video is transferred.
7. Configure transfer settings: Some settings for file and metadata transfers between TelVue Connect and the HyperCaster can be configured in the HyperCaster. Navigate to Config → TelVue Connect to open the following Settings page.
   1. Continuous Synchronization: This broadcast server by default will synchronize the content it received from Connect periodically. By deselecting this checkbox, Connect content will no longer synchronize automatically. However, content can still be synchronized manually by re-distributing the content from Connect.
   2. Event window: Events in the event window will be scheduled on the broadcast server as TBDs. Any event in this window will be created as a TBD and appear on the Program Guide. Content associated with these events will not necessarily be downloaded.
   3. Content fetch window: Events within the content fetch window will begin downloading their associated content. Events scheduled beyond the content fetch window will be scheduled as TBDs.
   4. Use “Program – Episode” for Connect Title: When uploading files to Connect, the Connect Title field will be filled in with the Program field, ” – ” and the Episode field if both fields are populated on the HyperCaster.
   5. Treat Playlists as Series for Connect Metadata: When uploading files to Connect, the Connect Title field will be filled in with the Content file Episode rather than the Program if it is being uploaded to a playlist. This assumes the playlist name to which the Content is being uploaded already effectively conveys the Program field information.
   6. Transfer Settings
      1. Timeout: How long a transfer must be stalled before it times out.
      2. Retries: The number of retries that will occur if a transfer is aborted. Only applies to downloads.
      3. Resumable (in HyperCaster v6.1 and above): When checked, any interrupted file transfer will resume at the point where it was interrupted. When left unchecked, any interrupted file transfer – when restarted – will begin at the beginning.

The above covers how to publish VOD programs to the new CloudCast players based on TelVue Connect as the streaming CMS.