User Interface for the Player V4 Skin

This topic describes the visual components of the new Ooyala player.

Key Components

Here are the key components of the player.

Control Bar

The control bar (also known as a scrubber or slider) enables viewers to adjust settings manually and move forward or backward through a video.

Here are visual elements of the control bar in the READY or PAUSED state:

Here are visual elements of the control bar in the PLAYING state:

Buttons

The player displays buttons that can provide options to share the video on social networks, discover related videos, set closed captions and bitrates, and view the video in full-screen mode.

Multi-Audio

The video can display multiple audio tracks, which you can switch between during playback. Typically, this is used for videos with audio tracks in different languages and/or audio tracks with additional information such as audio descriptions (for viewers with visual impairments), and audio commentary, such as from the director. See here for information on how to configure these tracks.

Variable Speed Playback

You can control the playback speed of the video, relative to the original speed. See here for more information on this control.

Previous/Next Buttons and Skip Forward/Back Buttons

The display includes previous and next video buttons, as well as skip forward and back buttons. The skip buttons can be customised to specify the amount of seconds to skip forward or back in the current video. These buttons cause the video canvas to be blurred when rendered to enable them to be clearly visible regardless of video frame content:

These new buttons are disabled by default currently, and all configuration is handled in the skin.json. See Variable Speed and Skip Controls for more information on how to enable and configure these controls.

Integrated AirPlay Support with Safari browser

Ooyala's HTML5 player now supports Apple AirPlay V2 on the Safari browser. The AirPlay feature moves video from a Safari browser to another Apple device. If AirPlay is enabled on the end-user’s device, and another local device is available to receive the AirPlay transmission, the cast icon will appear automatically in the control bar. if the user selects the AirPlay icon and chooses an available device, video playback will move to the selected device. Selecting the icon again from the player’s control bar will move the video back to the web player.

Start Screen

The start screen shows before a video begins playback.

Pause Screen

The pause screen that displays when the video is paused during playback.

End Screen

The end screen shows after a video completes playback.

Discovery Screen

The discovery screen shows related or relevant content.

Ad Screen

The ad screen shows ads in the player.

Social Sharing Screen

The social sharing screen provides options to share this video with others.

Up Next Screen

The up next screen shows the next video to play.

Live DVR

With live DVR, the LIVE indicator in the control bar means live streaming, and a duration (less than zero) indicates that DVR is available. With live DVR, you can drag the slider to the left to go backwards in time, and drag it to the right to go forward, closer to the Live point. Drag it all the way to the right - or click the "Live" button - to catch up to the present time.

Playing VR 360 Videos

The Ooyala Player automatically detects VR 360 streams and displays the applicable playback controls to navigate VR 360 videos. The following example shows the VR 360 icon on screen.

Changing the Camera Angle

Viewers have several ways in which to change the camera angle. Keyboard. Viewers can use the keyboard controls (WASD) to change the camera angle. Mouse. Viewers can select and drag with a mouse to change the camera angle. Mobile Devices. Viewers change the camera angle by touching and swiping.

Switching Between Monoscopic and Stereoscopic Modes

Use the following icon to switch between monoscopic and stereoscopic modes. Here is an example in monoscopic mode. Here is an example in stereoscopic mode.

Thumbnail-based Seeking

Player V4 displays thumbnails to help you search through a video.

• For desktop and mobile devices, if you drag the scrubber bar, the player pops up a carousel of thumbnails. The player displays as many as will fit on the screen.
  
• For desktop devices (browsers in mobile devices do not support this behavior), if you hover your mouse over the scrubber bar, you will see the nearest thumbnail image associated with that location in the video.
  

This functionality is available for Ooyala-encoded assets that have associated thumbnails. For more information, see Auto-generated Preview Images (Thumbnails).

Buttons in the Player