Adding Cue Points to Videos

In this topic, you will learn about cue points and how to add them to your videos.

A cue point is a marker at a precise time point in the duration of a video. You can use cue points to trigger mid-roll ads (that is, ads that occur during playback of the video content, like a commercial break) or to separate chapters or scenes in a long-form video.

There are two types of cue points:

• Ad Cue Points: Trigger ad requests.
• Code Cue Points: Cause an event that you can listen for and respond to. Often used to indicate a chapter or scene break in a video.

Note: Previous versions of Video Cloud supported a third type of cue point called a chapter cue point. Since code cue points have identical functionality to chapter cue points, including indicating the start of a chapter or scene, the use of chapter cue points has been deprecated.

There are five ways to set cue points in videos. You can set cue points using:

• The Video Cloud Media module
• The Video Cloud Advertising module
• The Media Write API
• FTP Batch Provisioning
• The Player APIs

Some of these methods have certain limitations you should be aware of so that you can choose the method that best meets your needs. In addition, you should be aware of the virtual pre-roll and post-roll ad cue points that are added to videos you create or modify in the Media module or Advertising module.

For an example that shows one application of code cue points, read Using Cue Points to Create Chapters in JavaScript.

Setting code or ad cue points using the Video Cloud Media module

You can set code or ad cue points using the Video Cloud Media module. You can set cue points for a single video, either by specifying a time code for each one or by viewing the video and clicking a button to insert the cue point. All cue points that have been set for the video (regardless of whether you use the Media module or Advertising module or one of the other methods) can be viewed (and modified or deleted) from the Video Cloud Media module.

Setting ad cue points using the Video Cloud Advertising module

You can set ad cue points (not code cue points) using the Video Cloud Advertising module. You can set ad cue points for a single video or for multiple videos. When you set ad cue points for multiple videos, you specify a time code for each one. When you set ad cue points for a single video, you can either specify a time code for each one or view the video and click a button to insert the cue point. From the Video Cloud Advertising module, you can view, modify, or delete any ad cue points that have been set for the video (whether you set those cue points within the Advertising module or using one of the other methods described in this topic). You can view non-ad cue points (code cue points) from the Advertising module, but you cannot add, modify, or delete them.

You cannot delete all cue points in a video using a single action from the Advertising module. To delete cue points, you must select them one at a time and delete each one. However, if multiple videos have common cue points, you can select all the videos and delete the common cue point from multiple videos in a single action.

NOTE: If you have upgraded from the Brightcove Console to the Video Cloud Studio and are using the Advertising module to set cue points, note that metadata that was associated with the cue points in Brightcove Console is now passed as Key/Value Pairs in the Video Cloud Studio.

Setting cue points from the Media Write API

You can use the Video Cloud Media Write API to add cue points to a video. There are no limitations to the cue point functionality available from the Media Write API. You can set both types of cue points (ad and code) using the API.

Setting cue points with FTP batch provisioning

You can add cue points to a video using the cuepoint XML element in your batch provisioning manifest. There are no limitations to the cue point functionality available when you create cue points using FTP Batch Provisioning. For more information, see Using FTP Batch Provisioning and the Creating cue points section in the topic, FTP Batch Provisioning: Reference for the XML manifest. You can set both types of cue points (ad and code) using the API.

Setting cue points from the Player APIs 

You can also add or remove cue points using the CuePoints module in either the Smart Player API or the Flash-only Player API. When using either Player API to set cue points, the cue points are temporary and only exist for that player load (session). The cue points are not stored on the video in the Video Cloud system.

Virtual pre-roll and post-roll cue points

When you create a video using the Media module, the video automatically has two ad cue points assigned: a pre-roll ad cue point at the start and a post-roll ad cue point at the end. However, if you create a video using the Media API or FTP batch provisioning, these cue points are not automatically assigned. If you need them, you must create them yourself.

If a video has no cue points, when you attempt to obtain or view cue points for these videos you will receive the following results:

• In the Media module and Advertising module of the Studio, the video Details panel will display "0" under "Number of cue points."
• Using the Media API, no cue points will be retrieved and the cuePoints array will be empty.
• Using the Player APIs, the returned value for getCuePoints() will be "null" if ads are disabled. If ads are enabled, the player's advertising module dynamically adds pre-roll and post-roll ad cue points; therefore, these two cue point objects would be returned with getCuePoints().

Virtual pre-roll and post-roll cue point behavior in the Studio

If you open a video in the Media module or the Advertising module's cue points editor, the cue points editor will automatically insert the pre-roll and post-roll cue points when you save it. When you view the cue points settings for a video that had no cue points when you opened it, the cue points editor will display the pre-roll and post-roll cue points. These cue points will be added if you click Save, although they do not yet exist. If you click Cancel, these cue points will not be added.