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Introduction

NextGen Live is Brightcove's next-generation live streaming solution that provides improved reliability, consistency, and scalability. The NextGen Live module can be used to broadcast live events to both desktop and mobile devices with enhanced features and better performance than Legacy Live.

After entering your event information into NextGen Live, you will be provided with streaming endpoint URL that you configure in your encoder.

NextGen Live supports two types of streaming configurations:

Prerequisites

Before you can broadcast a NextGen Live event, the following items are required:

Limitations

Billable States

Billing for NextGen Live channels applies to active states:

Active States (billing applies)

Inactive States (billing does not apply)

Managing NextGen Live Events

The NextGen Live interface displays channels organized by their current state:

NextGen Live Dashboard

Each channel displays the following information:

Creating a New NextGen Live Event

For complete step-by-step guides to creating and streaming NextGen Live events, see:

To create a new NextGen Live event:

  1. From the NextGen Live dashboard, click Create Channel. The Create Channel page will open.
    Create NextGen Live Channel
  2. Choose your channel type:
    • Event Channel - For one-time or recurring events
    • Linear Channel - For 24/7 streaming
  3. Configure the Media Asset Configurations:
    • Event Name - Name for the event (required, max 250 characters)
    • Short Description - Brief description of the event (max 250 characters)
    • Long Description - Detailed description of the event (max 5000 characters)
    • Tags - Tags to associate with the event
    • Reference ID - Unique reference ID (must be unique)
  4. Configure the Channel Configurations:
    • Create an audio only event - Checkbox option to live stream audio only over MPEG/TS (overrides some other features)
    • Renditions Profile - Controls quality and number of renditions (e.g., Live HD 1080)
    • Frame Rate - Select frame rate (e.g., 30 fps)
    • Video Renditions - Displays available video renditions with codec, resolution, and bitrate
    • Audio Renditions - Displays available audio renditions with codec, sample rate, bitrate, and language
  5. Configure streaming options:
    • Region - Select the region closest to your encoder location (required). The following regions are supported:
      • US East (N. Virginia)
      • US West (Oregon)
      • Asia Pacific (Tokyo)
      • Asia Pacific (Seoul)
      • Asia Pacific (Singapore)
      • Asia Pacific (Sydney)
      • Asia Pacific (Mumbai)
      • Europe (Frankfurt)
      • Europe (Ireland)
    • Input Transport Protocol - Select protocol for input stream (required, e.g., SRT, RTMP)
    • SRT Input Passphrase - Enter passphrase for secure input if required (only displayed if SRT is selected)
    • Convert media asset from Live to VOD when complete - Option to convert live event to VOD after completion
  6. Configure advanced options (expandable sections):
    • DRM - Digital Rights Management settings
    • RTMP Output - RTMP output configurations
    • Redundancy - Redundancy and failover settings
    • Advanced - Additional advanced configurations
    • SSAI - Server-Side Ad Insertion settings
    • Audio Tracks - Multiple audio track configurations
    • Notifications - Event notification settings
    • Maintenance Settings - Channel maintenance configurations
  7. Click Save to create the channel
  8. Click Start Streaming to activate the channel

Configuring Advanced Options

NextGen Live provides several advanced configuration options:

NextGen Live Advanced Options

Digital Rights Management (DRM)

Configure DRM encryption for your live stream:

RTMP Output

Configure RTMP outputs to stream simultaneously to external platforms:

Redundancy

Configure redundancy settings for improved reliability:

Advanced Options

Configure advanced streaming features:

DVR Window

Configure DVR functionality for live stream playback:

Captions

NextGen Live supports closed captions with enhanced compatibility across platforms:

Supported Caption Formats

Caption Configuration

Configure caption languages for maximum compatibility:

Caption Language Examples

Common language codes for captions:

API Configuration

When creating a NextGen Live channel via API, configure captions in the job payload:

{
  "outputs": {
    "caption": [
      {
        "type": "embedded_closed_caption",
        "passthrough": true,
        "language_code": "eng"
      },
      {
        "type": "embedded_closed_caption", 
        "passthrough": true,
        "language_code": "spa"
      }
    ]
  }
}

This example configures two caption languages (English and Spanish) that will be passed through from the input stream with proper language identification.

Server-Side Ad Insertion (SSAI)

Configure SSAI for ad insertion into live streams:

Audio Tracks

Configure multiple audio tracks for your live stream:

Notifications

Configure event notifications:

Maintenance Settings

Configure maintenance windows for your channel:

Viewing Channel Information in the Control Room

The Control Room provides detailed information about your NextGen Live channel. Click on a channel name to open the Control Room, which displays comprehensive channel management and monitoring capabilities.

NextGen Live Control Room

Navigation Tabs

The Control Room includes three main navigation tabs:

Input Source Configuration

Configure your encoder settings for the live stream:

Scheduling

Configure automated scheduling for your channel:

RTMP Output

Configure RTMP outputs for external streaming:

Generating Embed Code for NextGen Live

To generate embed code for a NextGen Live channel:

  1. Click on a channel to open the Control Room
  2. Click Publish and Embed from the top right corner
  3. Select a Player from the dropdown (displays player ID)
  4. Configure custom settings (optional):
    • Sizing - Choose between Fixed or Responsive sizing
    • Aspect Ratio - Select aspect ratio or use custom
    • Player Dimensions - Set width, height, and units (px)
  5. Choose embed code type:
    • iframe - Standard iframe embed code
    • JavaScript - Advanced JavaScript embed code with video-js tag
  6. Use action buttons:
    • Get URL - Get the direct player URL
    • Preview - Preview the player in a new window
  7. Copy the generated embed code
NextGen Live Publish and Embed

Important Tips

Understanding Playback Tokens

NextGen Live uses livePlaybackToken parameters to provide enhanced playback functionality and ensure consistent streaming behavior.

What is livePlaybackToken?

The livePlaybackToken is a JWT (JSON Web Token) that contains configuration information for how the Brightcove platform should handle your live stream. This includes settings for DVR, SSAI, CDN routing, and other advanced features.

When is livePlaybackToken used?

NextGen Live automatically generates and includes livePlaybackToken in playback URLs for:

Example Playback URLs

Simple NextGen Live channel:

https://players.brightcove.net/2048251699001/default_default/index.html?videoId=6378332368112&livePlaybackToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJtbiI6InBsYXlsaXN0IiwiaXNzIjoiYmxpdmUtcGxheWJhY2stbWFuYWdlbWVudC1hcGkiLCJzdWIiOiJwbGF5YmFja3Rva2VuIiwiYXVkIjpbIjIwNDgyNTE2OTkwMDEiXSwianRpIjoiNjM3ODMzMjM2ODExMiJ9.PhV0KkKfE6ryO5hieDnHyTieVKJkDszGvckIzYYal-c

Using RTMP Outputs

NextGen Live supports RTMP outputs to stream simultaneously to external platforms like Facebook, YouTube, or custom RTMP endpoints.

To configure RTMP outputs:

  1. In the Control Room, scroll to the RTMP Outputs section
  2. Click Add RTMP Output
  3. Enter the RTMP Output URL (destination)
  4. Select the Rendition to send:
    • Choose a specific quality rendition
  5. Click Add to start the RTMP output
NextGen Live RTMP Outputs

Monitoring Your Stream

NextGen Live provides comprehensive monitoring capabilities:

Health Monitoring Dashboard

NextGen Live provides comprehensive health monitoring organized into three main sections:

Ingest Metrics (SRT streams only)

Encoder Metrics

Packager Metrics

For more information, see Health Monitoring Dashboards.

NextGen Live Extended Monitoring

Creating Clips

NextGen Live supports creating video clips from your live stream:

To create a clip:

  1. In the Control Room, click Create Clip
  2. Set the start and end times for your clip
  3. Enter clip metadata (name, description, tags)
  4. Click Create Clip
NextGen Live Create Clip