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Have a look at the sections below to find out how to operate Lemonwhale Cloud Video platform

Send us an email if you can’t find any answer to your question

Video

How do I upload videos?

We makes it easy for you to upload any kind of video you create. We accept tons of different file formats. We support High Definition. There are three ways to upload your video to Lemonwhale.

1. Web upload

You can upload clips directly from your browser through the web-based Lemonwhale OVP. Here is the file size limit 200 MB.

2. FTP upload

Upload through FTP requires that you have an FTP account with Lemonwhale. Such an account is given to you when you become a customer of Lemonwhale. If you don’t have an account, send an email to support@lemonwhale.com and we will create one for you. With FTP upload, it is possible to upload files up to 2 GB. You add the file you want uploaded to the folder /simpleupload/input/ then we’ll take care of the rest and the video will be visible in the OVP in a couple of minutes.

3. Mobile Upload

With Android or iPhone, you have the ability to record and upload clips directly to Lemonwhale. What you need to do is to download Lemonwhales “Mobile Send”-app available for iPhone and Android and log in with your Lemonwhale account.

Our recommendations for the source video:
H.264 2-pass encoding with 2500-3500 Kbps and 720p resolution.

What video formats can I upload?

As we said before, we accept almost every available format. We encode the uploaded content according to your account details. Please let us know if you want to publish your content to native apps for iPhones and iPads or maybe to HTML5.

How to upload large videos?

We accept 200MB for online upload (HTTP). If that isn’t enough we can give you access to our FTP servers where the file size limit is 2 GB.

How do I publish?

There are three ways to publish your video, either embed code, http-link or IFrame.

To publish your clip, do the following:

1. Navigate to ”Video on Demand”>”Manage Videos”
2. Click on the video that you want to publish in the list.
3. Click on ”Publish” to the right.
4. Select the player that you like the most from the ones you created earlier by choosing from the drop-down list of players.
5. Copy the embed code, http-link or iFramecode and publish it in your system.

How to publish my video later on?

There are two ways to control whether a video should be published or not. One is by selecting a video to be “Visible in VOD” or not when editing video. The other way is to use the “Set Publish Date” when editing video. A video will automatically start to become visible in the Portal the minute that you chose as “Publish Date” for the video, provided that you also set video to “Visible in VOD”.That a video is published means that it can be seen in the following locations:

Your Portal
Your MiniPortals
All your player that automatically shows your latest clip.
In the latest clips list after a clip has been view, if the player in use have that feature activated.

Note that if you choose to check out embed code for a video that is not “Visible in VOD” or has not passed its “Publish Date”, then the video still be visible in the player.

How to edit a video?

Lemonwhale does not offer the ability to cut and edit video content, but you can edit information for the video such as title, category and publish date.
To edit one of your videos, you will do as follows:
1. Navigate to “Video on Demand” > “Manage Videos”
2. Select the video you want to edit in the list and then press “Edit Video” to the right
3. Start editing information about the video, in the window that now is visible
4. Press “Save” when your done

How to download the original version of the video?

You can download the original version and all the different formats that are available after a video is converted.
1. Navigate to “Video on Demand” > “Manage Videos”
2. Select the video you want to download in the list and then press “Download” to the right
3. Now a window will appear, where you can save the appropriate version, by right-click on the link and select “Save As”.

How to download a player showing the most recent clips on my account?

Download the player who shows the most recent clips:

1. Navigate to “Video on Demand” > ”Video Players Selection”
2. There you can select either ”Teaser Players”, ”Satellite Players” or ”Mini Portal Players”. Select one that fits you demands.
3. Select the player that you like the most from the ones you created earlier by choosing from the drop-down list of players.
4. Copy the embed code and publish it in your system.

Playlist

What is a playlist?

A playlist is a list of one or more videos that will appear consecutively in the order you choose to put them in. The playlist can be published in either Teaser, Satellite or Mini Portal by checking out the embed code from the OVP. A playlist has only one parameter to take into account and it is “Continue Play” which means that when a video has finished playing, the next starts automatically right after.

How do I create a playlist?

Navigate to “Video on Demand”>”Playlists” to create and edit playlist. This page is divided into two sections, one called “Playlist” and one called “Videos”. Your existing playlists with its videos appears in the “Playlist”, and all the videos which you can add to your playlists appears in the “Videos” section.

Create a playlist:
1. Navigate to “Video on Demand” > “Playlists”
2. On the ”Playlist”-bar press ”Add”
3. Type the name of your new playlist and select value on “Continue Play”. These are things that you can later edit if you feel like it.
4. To add one or more videos to your playlistdrag videos from the video list and drop them into your playlist. You can sort the videos in the playlist by selecting one of them and drag and drop it in the location of the playlist that you want it.

How do I publish a playlist?

1. Navigate to “Video on Demand” > “Playlists”
2. Mark the playlist you want to publish
3. Press “Publish” on the ”Playlist”-bar”
4. You will get a window with three tabs, “Satellite”, “Teaser” and “Mini-Portal”. Select the player that suits you best and copy the embed code for it.

Players

Settings

Lemonwhale lets you create your own player through our OVP. You can choose from five different themes and choose from many different settings for the player such as autoplay, fullscreen, related videos, logos, etc.

1. Go to “Settings”
2. “Video Players Settings”
3. “Design Your Players”
4. “Create New Player”
or
5. Select existing player and click “Edit”

Size: Here you determine the size for your player. You can choose from three different relationships between the height and width (16:9, 4:3 or custom). If you choose any of 16:9 or 4:3, the player will keep these relationships between height and width, while you should choose custom if you want to use a different ratio. We recommend that you use one of the 16:9 and 4:3.

Fullscreen: Determine if your users will be able to view the video in Fullscreen.

Sound: Determine if your users will be able to use the volume control in the player.

Information: Here you determine whether the information button to be visible or not. Information button allows the viewer to see the title and the description of the video.

Share: The Sharebutton gives the viewer the possibility to share the video to Facebook, Twitter or copy embedcode in the player.

Button Up Color: Default color of the player. The color which your buttons have when you have your mouse over a button.

Button Hover Color: The color of a button if you hover the mouse over it. It is also the color of for progress bar and volume control.

Exact fit: The video can be treated in two ways, either “Exact Fit” or “Maintain aspect ratio”. If “Exact Fit” the video will be adapted so it fillsthe entire player regardless of the relationship between height and width in the player. For example if the player is 640×580 and the video is 640×360, then it scale the video to 640×580 when displayed in the player.
“Maintain Aspect Ratio” keeps the ratio between height and width of the video regardless of the player’s size. For example if the player is 640×580 and the the video is 640×360, then the video continues to be 640×360 when displayed in the player.

Maintain Aspect Ratio: See “Exact fit” for description.

Autoplay: If a video should start automatically when the player loads. Otherwise the viewer have to press the “Play”-button to start the video.

Show Latest: This is a feature who determines what happens if the video finishes playing. “Show Latest” means that a list of recently uploaded videos in your account will appears if the video finishes playing. This feature can not be combined with the “Show User Latest.

Show User Latest: This feature of the player is like “Show Latest”, but the difference is that after the video finishes playing, the latest videos uploaded by the same user who uploaded the video that has just finished playing. This feature can not be combined with the “Show Latest”.

Site Reach: This has to do with the ad server, if you do not use Ad Zones in your account, let this be checked. This means that all advertisements posted to your account can be viewed in this player.

How to create a player?

You can create and edit players in ”Settings” -> ”Video Players Settings” -> ”Design Your Players”.

1. Navigate to ”Settings” -> ”Video Players Settings” -> ”Design Your Players”
2. Press “Create new settings” above the list of existing players
3. Name your new player, select the appearence you prefer and select the features you want
4. Press “Save” and the player will be ready to publish

Can I change the design of a player that is published?

Yes, you can change everything except the size and theme. So if you change the color of Player A in OVP, then Player A gets the new color in all pages where it is published. However, there may be a delay of a few minutes from the change is done to that is visible for the player.

How do I decide what to display when a video is finished?

There are three options to display after a video has finished:

1. Show nothing
2. Show Latest Video
3. Show User Latest Video

More on how to set this, see “Setting” and “How to create a Player“.

How do I change the size of the teaser?

You can change the size of your teaser. However, this will not change the size of the published teasers. To activate the new settings of the Teaser you have to publish the updated embed-code.

1. Navigate to “Settings” -> “Site Settings”
2. Under “Teaser Settings” you can set the height and width of your teaser
3. Press “Save” and next time you want to publish a teaser it will have the new size

Encoding

What different video formats can I have?

We can offer you a wide range of formats for both web and mobile device, such as iPhone, iPad and Android.
For the web we support both Flash and HTML5 video.

Can I publish my videos to iPhone and iPad users?

Yes, there are two ways for you to publish your video content to iOS clients.
1. You can order an iOS app from us. We encode your existing video content and make sure it is delivered smoothly to your audience.
2. We can encode to HTML5 as well, in this case you don’t need any app. Beware of the difference between apps and HTML5 from a user perspective!

Can I publish my videos to Android users?

Yes, we apply the same methodology as for iOS. Have a look at the previous question and answer.

Ad Server

What can I do with the Ad Server?

Our Ad Server helps you to monetize both your video and live content.
You do this by uploading ad creatives, such as 1) Prerolls 2) Postrolls and 3) Overlays. Define your ad campaign and activate. To monitor your ad campaigns we have real-time statistics and reporting available as soon as you want it. Please contact us for further support, support@lemonwhale.com

How do I create my video Ad campaign?

1. Advertising
2. Campaigns
3. Create Campaign
Please contact us for further support, support@lemonwhale.com

Can I use 3rd party tracking for my statistics?

Yes, send us an email for further instructions, support@lemonwhale.com

Live

What equipment do I need to perform a Live broadcast?

To be able to send live you require all of the following items:

1. Computer (PC/MAC) with live encoding client.
2. Camera or other stream source.
3. Internet connection with sufficient uplink.

Computer
The computer must be able to perform well during live encoding, especially the CPU and the memory must be of sufficient size. Most computers with dual core or more and of at least 1.8 GHz and 2GB memory will work fine during live encoding. Make sure that no or just a few other programs and processes than the actual live encoding client are running during the live session.

To be able to sent live content, you must have a live encoding client. The encoding client’s job is to take the camera stream and encode it to flash format, and then pass it on to the streaming server for further distribution.

Lemonwhale recommends the following live encoders:

1. Flash Media Live Encoder 3.1 Note, use version 3.1, together with Limelight access adapter
2. Wirecast

Camera and Stream
The typical live streaming device is a video camera connected to the computer, but at can also be a switch board with many cameras or an external stream over satellite. The common denominator for all those sources is that the connection with the computer must work well. This includes the right drivers and cables, and must be tested well in advance of the actual live streaming. Most modern digital video cameras with USB connection works well for live streaming.

Internet
To succeed with you live show, you must have a stable internet connection with high uplink speed with low fluctuations, i.e stable connection. The connection can be either LAN/Cable, wireless and 3G or higher, as long as the speed is significantly higher than the encoded stream and fulfills the requirement of being stable. Lemonwhale recommends an uplink of around 2-3 times higher than the encoded output stream. Test your uplink on href=”http://www.bredbandskollen.se/”>Bredbandskollen or Speedtest to obtain your actual bandwidth.

How do I create a Live broadcast?

1. Log in to your Lemonwhale account.
2. Select Live > Create Liveshow in the top left menu.
3. Type a title, description and category of your live show.
4. Select a broadcast date and time. This is for the corresponding countdown in the published video player. Ensure that you can produce a stream during the select range of time.
5. Set “Visible in Portal” to yes if you have a Portal player (Play TV site) and want to automatically publish the stream in it. If you creating a liveshow for test purposes, please ensure that you select no.
6. Select your own Background Image and/or Prerolls if you want advertisment in your liveshow. You can also select Overlays and Postrolls as advertisment formats.
7. Save.

How do I edit a Live broadcast?

1. Log in to your Lemonwhale account.
2. Select Live > Manage Liveshows in the top left menu.
3. Click on the liveshow you want to edit in the list of liveshows.
4. Click “Edit Show” in the upper right box and edit the show (for published or started broadcast, see separate bullets below)

How do I publish a Live broadcast?

1. Log in to your Lemonwhale account.
2. Select Live > Create Liveshow in the top left menu.
3. Type a title, description and category of your live show.
4. Select a broadcast date and time. This is for the corresponding countdown in the published video player. Ensure that you can produce a stream during the select range of time.
5. Set “Visible in Portal” to yes if you have a Portal player (Play TV site) and want to automatically publish the stream in it. If you creating a liveshow for test purposes, please ensure that you select no.
6. Select your own Background Image and/or Prerolls if you want advertisement in your liveshow. You can also select Overlays and Postrolls as advertisement formats.
7. Save.

How do I start a Live broadcast?

1. Log in to your Lemonwhale account.
2. Select Live > Manage Liveshows in the top left menu.
3. Click on the liveshow you want to edit in the list of liveshows.
4. Click on “Setup Broadcast”.
5. Copy the FMS url, stream and optional backup url to your encoding client.
6. a. FME 3.1: click “Connect”.
b. Wirecast: select Broadcast > Broadcast settings > Encoder present = medium flash and Destination = Limelight broadcast.
7. a. FME 3.1: paste the username/password in the popup.
b. Wirecast: Set credentials, paste the username/password.
8. Start the live stream in FME or Wirecast.
9. Verify the stream in the Lemonwhale Manager > Setup Broadcast > Stream Verification.

Emergency – the Live broadcast doesn’t work

WHEN THE STREAM IS NOT VISIBLE IN THE PLAYER.

1. Is the stream and the FMS url correctly pasted to your encoding client?
2. Have you started the show in the live encoding client?
3. a. FME 3.1. Have you selected Video and Audio?
b. Wirecast
4. Verify that the Internet connection fulfills the corresponding requirements of an internet connection for live streaming.
5. Is the date/time of the Liveshow set to a current range of time?
6. If you have a Satellite player, is the embedcode copied in a correct way?
7. Contact Lemonwhale Support:
Telephone 1: +46707599021
Telephone 2: +46760220544
Paste the encoder log together with username/password of your Lemonwhale account and send it to support@lemonwhale.com

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