Play live streams registered with Google Cloud Video Stitcher API

This guide demonstrates how to use the IMA DAI SDK for iOS to request and play a live stream for an event registered with the Google Cloud Video Stitcher API, and how to insert an ad break during playback.

This guide expands on the basic example from the Get started guide for IMA DAI.

For information on integrating with other platforms or on using the IMA client-side SDKs, see Interactive Media Ads SDKs.

Set up a Google Cloud project

Set up a Google Cloud project and configure service accounts to access the project.

Register a live stream event using your own content live stream or a test live stream. This guide expects an HLS stream.

Enter the following variables for use in the IMA SDK:

Location

The Google Cloud region where your live config was created: LOCATION

Project number

The Google Cloud project number using the Video Stitcher API: PROJECT_NUMBER

OAuth token

A service account's short lived OAuth token with the Video Stitcher user role:

OAUTH_TOKEN

Read more about creating short-lived credentials for service accounts. The OAuth token can be reused across multiple requests as long as it has not expired.

Network code

The Ad Manager network code for requesting ads: NETWORK-CODE

Live config ID

The live config ID you specified when creating your live stream event: LIVE_CONFIG_ID

Custom asset key

The Ad Manager custom asset key generated during the process of registering a live stream event with the Video Stitcher API: ASSET_KEY

User context

The user context for tracking requests.Can be nil. Defaults to nil in this guide.

Download and prepare the basic example

Download the IMA DAI examples for iOS and extract the Basic Example into a new folder. This example is an Xcode project that relies on Cocoapods to load the IMA SDK.

To prepare the sample to run, make sure CocoaPods is installed, then open the basic example's folder in the terminal and run the following command:

pod install --repo-update

Once that command completes, you see a file named BasicExample.xcworkspace in your project folder. Open this file in Xcode and run the sample to ensure that the test video and ads play as expected.

Request a live stream

To replace the sample stream with your live stream, you need to use the IMAVideoStitcherLiveStreamRequest class that automatically creates an ad session with Google Ad Manager. You can use the Google Ad Manager UI to locate the generated DAI sessions for monitoring and debugging purposes.

In the existing sample, there are examples for requesting a VOD stream or a live stream from Google's DAI servers. To make the sample work with the Google Cloud Video Stitcher API, you will need to replace the current requestStream function with one that uses the IMAVideoStitcherLiveStreamRequest class:

ViewController.m

...
#import <GoogleInteractiveMediaAds/GoogleInteractiveMediaAds.h>

/// Fallback URL in case something goes wrong in loading the stream. If all goes well,
/// this will not be used.
static NSString *const kTestAppContentUrl_M3U8 =
    @"//devimages.apple.com/iphone/samples/bipbop/bipbopall.m3u8";


static NSString *const kLiveConfigId = @"LIVE_CONFIG_ID";
static NSString *const kLocation = @"LOCATION";
static NSString *const kProjectNumber = @"PROJECT_NUMBER";
static NSString *const kOAuthToken = @"OAUTH_TOKEN";
static NSString *const kNetworkCode = @"NETWORK_CODE";
static NSString *const kCustomAssetKey = @"ASSET_KEY";


@interface ViewController () <IMAAdsLoaderDelegate, IMAStreamManagerDelegate>

...

- (void)requestStream {
  // Create an ad display container for ad rendering.
  IMAAdDisplayContainer *adDisplayContainer =
      [[IMAAdDisplayContainer alloc] initWithAdContainer:self.videoView
                                          viewController:self
                                          companionSlots:nil];
  // Create an IMAAVPlayerVideoDisplay to give the SDK access to your video player.
  IMAAVPlayerVideoDisplay *imaVideoDisplay =
      [[IMAAVPlayerVideoDisplay alloc] initWithAVPlayer:self.contentPlayer];


  IMAVideoStitcherLiveStreamRequest *request =
      [[IMAVideoStitcherLiveStreamRequest alloc] initWithLiveStreamEventID:kLiveConfigId
                                                                    region:kLocation
                                                             projectNumber:kProjectNumber
                                                                OAuthToken:kOAuthToken
                                                               networkCode:kNetworkCode
                                                            customAssetKey:kCustomAssetKey
                                                        adDisplayContainer:adDisplayContainer
                                                              videoDisplay:imaVideoDisplay
                                                               userContext:nil];

  [self.adsLoader requestStreamWithRequest:request];
}
...

Run the project, then you can request and play your custom live stream.

Insert an ad break

While playing your custom live stream, try inserting an ad break channel event using the Google Cloud Live Stream API. The ad break should be inserted and played immediately.

Clean up

Now that you have successfully hosted a live stream using the Google Cloud Video Stitcher API and requested it using the IMA DAI SDK for iOS, it's important to clean up any serving resources.

Follow the Unregister live stream events guide to end your live stream event.