Upload, schedule and forget.
SmartPlay runs streaming channels for broadcasters: broadcast-grade playout with SRT and HLS out, or hand the output straight into SmartCast delivery. One console for playout, advertising, protection, measurement and monitoring.
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Playout that starts from the schedule
In SmartPlay the schedule is the single source of truth for a channel: the playlist is built from it and the programme guide is derived from it.
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Notes
- Fill a day from a content pool: the schedule fills back to back and clamps the last clip at midnight instead of dropping it.
- One metadata change retitles every airing of a rotating clip, because the programme id is the asset, not the airing.
- Live input over RTMP and SRT, with seamless live takeover: go live without restarting the encoder.
- Outputs: SRT and HLS out, MPEG-TS, and RTMP out proven end to end.
- Graphics overlays: logo, bugs and graphics insertion on the playout chain.
- SCTE-35 ad markers inserted frame-accurately, feeding ad insertion.
- Relay an existing feed, or run a full playout channel.
- Catch-up recording and DVR jobs run today at evaluation scale; owned video on demand publishes through the same portal.
Multi-egress: one signal to every platform
SmartPlay sends one channel to every platform at once: SmartCast for all online/IPTV/FAST platforms at scale, and secure, dedicated SRT, RTMP or MPEG-TS/HLS feeds for broadcasters’ existing back of house chains, chosen per channel.
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Notes
- Egress is chosen per channel in the console, so the same schedule feeds a FAST platform, an app and a broadcast chain without a second playout.
- Dedicated legacy egress for broadcasters: SRT and MPEG-TS out, and RTMP out proven end to end, into the encoders, multiplexers and playout chains that already exist.
- A native SRT worker (C++) and a remux-only RTMP worker, so the picture is not re-encoded on the way out.
Advertising, stitched in
SmartPlay inserts ads on the server side against VAST 3.0 and 4.0, stitched into the stream rather than bolted onto the player, so it survives ad blockers and behaves the same on every device.
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Notes
- Waterfall ad decisioning with house-ads fallback.
- Revenue share rather than a per-impression fee.
- Audio channels too: a real-time ad splicer for MP3 and ICY streams.
- Proven end to end on a live channel, live to ad and back, and on video-on-demand pre-roll; first commercial deployments connect your own ad account during onboarding.
Protection, stated precisely
SmartPlay protects video on demand with Widevine DRM and bring-your-own-key: you generate and own the content keys and import them over standard CPIX.
AES-128 encryption on the playout and delivery chain where full DRM is not required.
We do not claim multi-DRM as shipped, because the other schemes are not at that level of readiness, and that is exactly the kind of claim that unravels in a technical evaluation.
| Scheme | Status |
|---|---|
| Widevine for video on demand, with your own keys | Live, verified end to end |
| Widevine for live streams | Packages with provisioning keys |
| Automated key pull for live | In development |
| Apple FairPlay and Microsoft PlayReady | Roadmap |
Measurement without cookies
Every endnode reports join and leave events over a TLS backchannel, so viewer counts, session durations and geography come from the infrastructure itself, not from browser cookies, tracking pixels or third-party scripts.
The mechanism is native to the protocol. We describe it as a measurement architecture and nothing more: IP addresses are personal data, and what that means for your consent obligations is a question for your counsel, not a marketing line.
What the dashboard shows: per-channel viewer series, a geographic viewer heatmap, instantaneous concurrency, bytes served and the platform mix of players.
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Monitoring
A 24/7 network operations centre with a live dashboard: every stream, every endnode, every viewer, with per-channel viewer series and a geographic heatmap.
- Service levels
- Service levels are contractual targets and are stated as such: 99.9% as a target, never as a measurement.
One console, many customers
SmartPlay is multi-tenant by construction: every database query runs inside the customer's own scope, enforced at row level.
Notes
- Capabilities are granted per customer and configured per channel; everything is opt-in and off by default.
- Create a customer, grant a plan, land in their portal without a separate login, add channels from the shared library, preview live before publishing, and choose delivery per channel.
- Take just the delivery layer if you prefer: SmartCast plugs in as a transparent carve-out behind your existing playout and DRM, typically live in four to six weeks. If it does not perform, you flip the traffic back.
- FlixSnip, a European FAST operator, runs on SmartPlay under a signed contract.
What it runs on
- Runs on
- C and C++ encoders; HLS, SRT and MPEG-TS output; a multi-region edge mesh. Cloud-agnostic: AWS, Azure, GCP or bare metal. It is the delivery leg that changes, not your stack.
The playout engine builds on the open-source ffplayout line, delivered as a service; the platform around it (console, catalog, scheduling, egress, protection) is Viewcast's own work.
Bring two numbers.
Your current delivery bill and your peak concurrency. Those two numbers are enough for us to tell you whether the saving is worth your time, and to tell you if it is not.