What is a pre-roll video?
A pre-roll (or pre-broadcast) video is a video that you can upload and set to play in a loop prior to your event starting. Most people use it for teasers or for promotional material, you could also use it to loop through future events that your organization is planning.
You can set your video to play at your account level so it will show up on every broadcast in your account, or you can set it to play at the individual embed level (for a specific channel or broadcast only, for example).
First, let's look at the video specifications. These videos are not transcoded by our server, so you need to ensure the video is watchable by your viewers. Some good rules of thumb are:
Your video should be exported as an MP4.
Recommend 720p resolution, with variable bitrate (target between 1Mbps and 5Mbps).
FastStart should be enabled (moov atom at the front of the file).
Video codec: H.264, High Profile, Progressive scan (no interlacing).
Audio codec: AAC, 44.1khz or 48khz.
Setting up a pre-roll video on an individual embedded player
Go to Embed in the BoxCast Dashboard, and select the type of embed you'd like to edit. For example, you can select Broadcasts, then By Source, to edit every broadcast you stream from a specific encoder. Once you have the proper embed selected, then click on Advanced Settings, and select Custom Pre-Broadcast Video.
A box will pop up that will allow you to drag and drop your mp4 file directly into the settings.
Setting up a pre-roll video for all broadcasts in your account
Go to the Settings tab, then select Preferences, scroll down to Player Defaults, and click the Edit button.
Toggle on the Default Pre-Broadcast Video option. Drag and drop your MP4 file, or you can select a previously uploaded video. Click Save Changes.
If you have any questions or problems getting set up, feel free to reach out to the BoxCast support team at questions@boxcast.com or through the chat.