Creating Series/Seasons/Episodes

In this topic, you will learn how to create a series with related seasons and episodes.

Overview

A series is a collection of related videos shown in a particular order, that usually share a common theme. When creating a series, you must define the relationships between the series, its seasons, and the associated episodes.

A season is a group of videos that cover a set period of time. Each series can have one or more seasons.

An episode is an individual video. You can think of this as a specific movie.

Once you have defined your series and seasons, and ingested your episodes, they can be used in your Brightcove Beacon app. To do this, follow these steps:

  1. Series (Brightcove Beacon)

    In Brightcove Beacon, create the series. Here, you will name the series, and provide information including availability and images.

  2. Seasons (Brightcove Beacon)

    In Brightcove Beacon, create the seasons related to the series. You will provide information similar to the series, in addition to selecting the series to which the season belongs.

  3. Episodes (Video Cloud)

    The truth of Brightcove Beacon episode content resides in Video Cloud.

    In Video Cloud Studio, assign the video episodes to the corresponding season using values supplied to custom fields. These custom fields include:

    • beacon.episode.number
    • beacon.episode.seasonNumber
    • beacon.episode.serieName

  4. Return to Brightcove Beacon and ingest your video episodes.

Relationship

The following diagram shows the relationship between a series and its seasons and episodes.

Creating a series

To create a series, follow these steps:

  1. Log in to Brightcove Beacon and select Programs.
  2. In the left navigation, select Series.
  3. Click the Add new series button.

  4. On the Basic Data tab, fill in the following:

    Form Field Name Description / Requirements
    Name The identifier of the series, the customer facing name is provided later in the Textual Data section
    Production Year The year the series was produced; this information will appear in the the More Info screen
    Production Country The country where the series is produced; this information will appear in the the More Info screen
    Genres The genres of the series; note that you can create genres as needed:
    make genres
    Sub-Genres Do not complete, this data is not used
    Genre Language Preview The language of the preview
    Episode Sort type How to sort episodes in the app user interface
    Cast The metadata under CAST will appear in the the More Info screen.
  5. Click on the Textual Data tab.
  6. Fill in the Title (which is the viewer facing name for the series), Description and Synopsis. This data will be displayed in the Brightcove Beacon app.
  7. Click on the Non-Textual Data tab.
  8. Supply an image for the following (matching the requirements below) :
    • Portrait Poster (required)
    • Landscape Poster (required)
    • Thumbnail
    • Wide banner (required)

    If not provided, the Thumbnail image will be generated from the Portrait Poster.

    Image Requirements
    Portrait Poster

    JPEG image (2:3)

    Minimum Width: 1000px Height: 1500px
    Maximum Width: 2000px Height: 3000px
    Landscape Poster

    JPEG image (16:9)

    Minimum Width: 1000px Height: 563px
    Maximum Width: 4000px Height: 2250px
    Thumbnail JPEG image (4:3)
    Wide Banner JPEG image (21:9)
    Minimum Width: 1000px Height: 428px
    Maximum Width: 4000px Height: 1714px
  9. The information on the Tags tab is not used at this time, so do not enter information on this tab.
  10. The information on the Metadata tab is not used at this time, so do not enter information on this tab.
  11. Click on the Streams tab, where you will select a trailer for the series. The following screenshot will help guide you through the process of selecting that trailer.
    streams tab
  12. Select your Provider. You will most likely only have one provider, which references your Brightcove Video Cloud account.
  13. For the Stream Video ID, obtain the video ID for the trailer from Studio and place it in the text box.
  14. Be sure the Stream Type is set to Trailer.
  15. Click on the Rights & Scheduling tab, as shown here:
    Rights and Scheduling

  16. Add values for the following fields:

    Field Required Notes
    Status Yes Select one of the following types:
    • Published
    • Unpublished
    Allow Downloads Yes Set to Yes to allow this series to be downloaded by the user for offline playback. For details, see the Offline Playback with Brightcove Beacon Apps document.
    Asset roles No Associate user roles with this series. Contact your Customer Success Manager if you are interested in this feature. For details, see the Controlling Viewer Access with Roles document.
    Rights Type Yes Choose the appropriate value for your series, from the options:
    • Advertising - AVOD
    • Free
    • Subscription - SVOD
    Start Time Yes Schedule a starting date your series will be available
    End Time Yes Schedule an ending date when your series will no longer be available
    Max Streams Yes Set the maximum number of streams that can be watching the series from the same account
    Devices to publish Yes Add the devices to which you wish to publish. Select the Select / Unselect All Devices to see a list of available devices
    Permitted locations Yes

    Select the locations where you want to stream your content, if no restrictions enter World.
    Denied locations No Select the locations where you DO NOT want to stream your content
  17. Be sure to click the Create New Series button to save the series information.

You have now created your series. The next step is to create one or more seasons that belong to this series. The next section leads you through that process.

Creating seasons

To create a season, follow these steps:

  1. Log in to Brightcove Beacon and select Programs.
  2. In the left navigation, select Seasons.
  3. Click the Add new season button.
  4. On the Basic Data tab, fill in the following:
    Form Field Name Description / Requirements
    Select a Series The dropdown will be populated with the series you have created. Choose the series to which this season belongs.
    Name The identifier of the series, the customer facing name is provided later in the Textual Data section
    Season Number This must be an integer number representing the season sequence in the series. This number will be used when ingesting episode videos from Video Cloud.
    Production Year The year the season was produced; this information will appear in the the More Info screen.
    Production Country The country where the season is produced; this information will appear in the the More Info screen.
  5. Click on the Textual Data tab.
  6. Fill in the Title, Description and Synopsis for the season. This data will be displayed in the Brightcove Beacon app.
  7. Click on the Non-Textual Data tab.
  8. For your season, supply an image for the following (matching the requirements below) :
    • Portrait Poster (required)
    • Landscape Poster (required)
    • Thumbnail
    • Wide banner (required)

    If not provided, the Thumbnail image will be generated from the Portrait Poster.

    Image Requirements
    Portrait Poster

    JPEG image (2:3)

    Minimum Width: 1000px Height: 1500px
    Maximum Width: 2000px Height: 3000px
    Landscape Poster

    JPEG image (16:9)

    Minimum Width: 1000px Height: 563px
    Maximum Width: 4000px Height: 2250px
    Thumbnail JPEG image (4:3)
    Wide Banner JPEG image (21:9)
    Minimum Width: 1000px Height: 428px
    Maximum Width: 4000px Height: 1714px
  9. The information on the Tags tab is not used at this time, so do not enter information on this tab.
  10. The information on the Metadata tab is not used at this time, so do not enter information on this tab.
  11. Click on the Streams tab, where you will select a trailer for the season.
  12. Select your Provider. You will most likely only have one provider, which references your Brightcove Video Cloud account.
  13. Click the Add new stream button.
  14. For the Stream Video ID, obtain the video ID for the trailer from Studio and place it in the text box.
  15. Be sure the Stream Type is set to Trailer.
  16. Click on the Rights & Scheduling tab, as shown here.
    Rights and Scheduling

  17. Add values for the following fields:

    Field Required Notes
    Status Yes Select one of the following types:
    • Published
    • Unpublished
    Allow Downloads Yes Set to Yes to allow this season to be downloaded by the user for offline playback. For details, see the Offline Playback with Brightcove Beacon Apps document.
    Asset roles No Associate user roles with this season. Contact your Customer Success Manager if you are interested in this feature. For details, see the Controlling Viewer Access with Roles document.
    Rights Type Yes Choose the appropriate value for your season, from the options:
    • Advertising - AVOD
    • Free
    • Inherit
    • Subscription - SVOD

    Inherit means that the rights will be inherited from the series to which this season belongs.

    Start Time Yes Schedule a starting date this season will be available
    End Time Yes Schedule an ending date when this season will no longer be available
    Max Streams Yes The maximum number of streams that can be watching the season from the same account
    Devices to publish Yes Add the devices you wish to publish to. Select the Select / Unselect All Devices to see a list of available devices.
    Permitted locations Yes

    Select the locations where you want to stream your content, if no restrictions enter World.
    Denied locations No Select the locations where you DO NOT want to stream your content. Enter World if you have no restrictions.
  18. Be sure to click the Create New Season button to save the season information.

You have now created one of your seasons. If needed, create more seasons for the series. The next step is to ingest episode videos from Video Cloud into Brightcove Beacon. The next section leads you through that process.

Ingesting episodes

While creating the series and associated seasons is done in Brightcove Beacon, the creation of episodes for the series is done in Video Cloud Studio. You will assign values about the series and seasons in custom fields for each episode video, then ingest those videos into Brightcove Beacon.

Prerequisites

Before continuing with the steps below, make sure that you have completed the following:

  1. Log in to Video Cloud Studio.

  2. From the dropdown menu at the top of the page, select UPLOAD.

    Upload module
  3. Upload your episode videos.

  4. From the dropdown menu at the top of the page, select MEDIA.

    Media module
  5. Update your episode video images as specified in the Images and Their Specifications document.

  6. In the navigation header, click ADMIN and then Video Fields.

    Video fields
  7. Create the required custom fields needed to ingest videos to Brightcove Beacon. For details, see the Creating Video Cloud Custom Fields document.

Steps

To ingest episode videos into Brightcove Beacon, follow these steps:

  1. Return to Video Cloud Studio.
  2. From the dropdown menu at the top of the page, select MEDIA.

  3. Click on the title of one of the episode videos to enter the video's properties page.

    Video link
  4. Scroll down until you see on the right-hand side the CUSTOM FIELDS section.
  5. Click the Edit button.
  6. Locate the three custom fields that are associated with episodes.
    episode custom fields
  7. For the episode video, enter the episode number, season number and series name, in the corresponding custom fields.
  8. Be sure to click the Save button after entering the appropriate values for the video.
  9. Repeat entering values in the custom fields for all your episode videos.
  10. Log in to Brightcove Beacon.
  11. Click on the Tools option (wrench icon) in the top menu.

  12. Be sure the Ingestion option is selected on the left menu.

    Brightcove Beacon ingestion
  13. Click the Update Brightcove Videos button to ingest the newly configured episode videos.

  14. To make the videos immediately available in your apps, clear Brightcove Beacon's cache by clicking on the Cache option in the left navigation, then click the Cache Purge button.

This concludes information on creating series and its associated seasons and episodes.