SDK for Brightcove Player

This article details how to integrate CDN Mesh Delivery into your mobile app using Brightcove Player on iOS and tvOS

Brightcove Player

The Brightcove iOS and tvOS Player SDK is a mobile player that provide tools for building video-enabled apps for iOS and tvOS.

To learn more about the Brightcove Player SDKs, please refer to their documentation.

Project setup

CocoaPods

Note
Cocoapods 1.6.0 + is recommended

To integrate StreamrootSDK and Brightcove Player SDK into your Xcode project using CocoaPods, specify this in your Podfile:

use_frameworks!
target ' <Your Target Name >'
  pod 'StreamrootSDK', '~> 3.25.1'
  pod 'Brightcove-Player-Core/dynamic',
end

Then, run the following command:

$ pod update

Finally, open the generated Workspace.

Integrate Streamroot SDK

1. Import the SDK

import StreamrootSDK

2. Set the streamrootKey

In the Project Navigator, right click on the main target "Info.plist", and "Open as" → "Source Code".

Add the following lines with the values of the right parameters:

<key>Streamroot</key>
<dict>
  <key>Key</key>
  <string>streamrootKey</string>
</dict>

Here, <streamrootKey> refers to your Streamroot key that you will find in the Account section of the Streamroot Dashboard. If you don't have a Streamroot Key, you can register for a free trial account on our website.

3. Declare the Mesh Delivery Client as an Instance Variable

var dnaClient: DNAClient?

4. Build and start the Mesh Delivery Client

do {
    dnaClient = try DNAClient.builder()
        .dnaClientDelegate(self)
        .latency(30)
        .streamrootKey(<#streamrootKey#>)
        .start(manifestUrl)
} catch let error {
    print("\(error)")
}

Other DNA options can be called in the builder. Please refer to this article to learn more about them.

5. Play the stream

playbackService.findVideo(withVideoID: ConfigConstants.VideoID, parameters: nil) { [weak self] (video: BCOVVideo?, json: [AnyHashable:Any]?, error: Error?) in
    guard let self = self else { return }
            
    if let error = error {
        print("ViewController Debug - Error retrieving video playlist: \(error.localizedDescription)")
        return
    }
            
    guard let video = video else {
        return
    }
            
    // Look for an HLS stream to setup streamroot DNA client
    let hlsSource = video.sources
        .compactMap { $0 as? BCOVSource }
        .filter { $0.deliveryMethod ==  "application/x-mpegURL"}
        .first
            
     guard hlsSource != nil else {
         self.playbackController?.setVideos([video] as NSFastEnumeration)
         return
      }
            
      self.setupDnaWithSource(hlsSource!)
            
      guard let localManifest = self.dnaClient?.manifestLocalURLPath else {
          self.playbackController?.setVideos([video] as NSFastEnumeration)
          return
       }
            
       let dnaVideo = BCOVVideo(hlsSourceURL: URL(string: localManifest)!)
       self.playbackController?.setVideos([dnaVideo] as NSFastEnumeration)
}

localManifest refers to the HLS .m3u8 master playlist URL that will be passed to the player.

In order to improve the peer traffic offload for Live streaming, we highly recommend setting different buffer levels for each player.

Here, at player instantiation, we will distribute the buffer target between 10 and the latency set above (30s recommended).

The maximum buffer target will then dynamically evolve for greater Mesh Delivery efficiency (Only from SDK 3.9.0).

6. Implement DNAClientDelegate

It is first needed to add the DNAClientDelegate in an extension.

extension ViewController: DNAClientDelegate {

    func playbackTime() -> Double {
        if let player = self.currentPlayer {
            return CMTimeGetSeconds(player.currentTime())
        }
        return 0
    }

    func loadedTimeRanges() -> [NSValue] {
        guard let player = self.currentPlayer else {
            return []
        }

        guard let playerItem = player.currentItem else {
            return []
        }

        return playerItem.loadedTimeRanges.map { (value) -> NSValue in
            NSValue(timeRange: TimeRange(range: value.timeRangeValue))
        }
    }

    func updatePeakBitRate(_ bitRate: Double) {
        currentPlayer?.currentItem?.preferredPeakBitRate = bitRate
    }

    func setBufferTarget(_ target: Double) {
        self.currentPlayer?.currentItem?.preferredForwardBufferDuration = target
    }

    func bufferTarget() -> Double {
        guard let item = self.currentPlayer?.currentItem else {
            return 0
        }
        return item.preferredForwardBufferDuration
    }
}

controller?.disableBufferOptimisation()func playbackController(_ controller: BCOVPlaybackController!, didAdvanceTo session: BCOVPlaybackSession!) {
    print("ViewController Debug - Advanced to new session.")
    currentPlayer = session.player
    controller?.disableBufferOptimisation()
}

Stop the SDK

dnaClient?.stop()

Disable App Transport security

In the Project Navigator, right click on "Info.plist", and "Open as" → "Source Code".

Add the following lines with the corresponding parameters values.

<key>NSAppTransportSecurity</key>
<dict> 
    <key>NSAllowsArbitraryLoads</key>
    <true/>
</dict>

Integrating with the Brightcove SSAI Plugin

If you are using the SSAI plugin provided by Brightcove, you will need to perform this steps instead.

Specify this in your Podfile:

use_frameworks!
target ' <Your Target Name >'
  pod 'StreamrootSDK', '~> 3.14.0'
  pod 'Brightcove-Player-SSAI/dynamic',
end

Use this method to retrieve and play the stream (instead of Step 5)

playbackService.findVideo(withVideoID: Constants.VideoId, parameters: queryParameters) { [weak self] (video: BCOVVideo?, jsonResponse: [AnyHashable: Any]?, error: Error?) -> Void in
            
    guard let self = self else { return }
            
    if let error = error {
        print("ViewController Debug - Error retrieving video playlist: \(error.localizedDescription)")
        return
    }
            
    guard let video = video else {
        return
    }
            
    // Look for an HLS stream to setup streamroot DNA client
    let hlsSource = video.sources
        .compactMap { $0 as? BCOVSource }
        .filter { $0.deliveryMethod ==  "application/x-mpegURL.boltSSAI"}
        .first
            
    guard hlsSource != nil else {
        self.playbackController?.setVideos([video] as NSFastEnumeration)
        return
    }
            
    self.setupDnaWithSource(hlsSource!)
            
    guard let localManifest = self.dnaClient?.manifestLocalURLPath else {
        self.playbackController?.setVideos([video] as NSFastEnumeration)
        return
    }
            
    let dnaVideo = BCOVVideo(url: URL(string: localManifest)!,
                         deliveryMethod: "application/x-mpegURL.boltSSAI")
    self.playbackController?.setVideos([dnaVideo] as NSFastEnumeration)
}

A full sample application can be found here.