Live Events

Live Events are scheduled, one-time broadcasts — such as sports matches, concerts, product launches, or webinars. Unlike always-on live channels, a live event has a defined start time, duration, and end time, and goes through a clear lifecycle from announcement to replay.

How Live Events Work

A live event progresses through four stages automatically:

Stage	When	What Happens
Scheduled	Before the announcement window	The event exists in the admin panel but is not visible to viewers.
Upcoming	Within the announcement window before start	The event appears in swimlanes so viewers can discover it. A countdown is shown.
Live	Between start and end time	The stream is active. Viewers see a “Live” indicator and can watch in real time.
Ended	After the end time	The stream stops. If recording is enabled, the event becomes available as a replay.

Tip

All times are stored in UTC. The admin panel and apps display times in the user’s local timezone automatically.

Creating a Live Event

1. Go to Catalog → Channels → Active

2. Click Create Channel

3. Select Live Event as the channel type

4. Fill in the event details:

   Field	Description
   Channel Name	Display name shown to viewers
   External Manifest URL	(Optional) HLS or DASH manifest URL if the stream is delivered externally. Leave empty to use Vidori CDN with RTMP ingest.
   Scheduled Start	Date and time the event begins (picked in your local timezone)
   Duration	How long the event lasts (30 minutes to 24 hours)
   Announcement	How far in advance the event appears in swimlanes (1 hour to 7 days)
   Record After Event	Whether to save the recording as a replay after the event ends

5. Click Submit

The live event channel is created in Draft status. Publish it when you are ready for it to be announced to viewers.

Editing a Live Event

Open the sidebar for any live event by clicking on it in the channels table. The Publishing tab contains the scheduling fields:

• Scheduled Start — adjust the start time
• Duration — change the event length (the end time is computed automatically)
• Announcement — change how early the event becomes visible
• Record After Event — toggle replay recording on or off

Changes are saved immediately when you update a field.

Event Status in the Table

Each live event shows a status tag next to the channel type in the table:

Tag	Meaning
Upcoming (blue)	The event has not started yet
Live (red)	The event is currently broadcasting
Ended (grey)	The event has finished

This makes it easy to see at a glance which events are active across your catalog.

Announcement Window

The announcement window controls when the event becomes visible to viewers in your app. For example, if an event starts on Saturday at 8 PM and the announcement is set to 3 days, the event will appear in swimlanes starting Wednesday at 8 PM.

During the announcement window, viewers see:

• The event title, description, and poster
• The scheduled start time in their local timezone
• A countdown to the start of the event

Note

Set a longer announcement window for major events to build anticipation. Use a shorter window (1–3 hours) for recurring or less prominent broadcasts.

Stream Sources

Live events support two stream sources, just like regular live channels:

Vidori CDN (RTMP)

Push your live stream from an encoder (OBS, Wirecast, vMix, etc.) to Vidori’s RTMP ingest.

1. Open the live event channel
2. Go to Settings → Stream
3. Copy your Stream URL and Stream Key
4. Configure your encoder and start streaming before the scheduled start time

See Live Streaming Setup for encoder settings.

External Manifest

Provide an HLS (.m3u8) or DASH (.mpd) manifest URL from your existing streaming infrastructure.

Enter the URL in the External Manifest URL field when creating the event. The player will connect directly to your manifest — no Vidori CDN bandwidth is used.

Caution

Since the stream is delivered externally, Vidori cannot control stream health or uptime. Make sure your external stream is live and accessible before the scheduled start time.

Replay (Record After Event)

When Record After Event is enabled, the broadcast is automatically saved after the event ends. The recording becomes available as a replay that viewers can watch on demand.

How Replay Works

1. During the event, the stream is recorded on the CDN (Cloudflare)
2. When the event ends, the recording is finalized
3. The event transitions from “Live” to “Ended” and the replay is available immediately
4. Viewers who open the event after it ends see the full recording and can seek through it like any on-demand video

Tip

Replay is only available for streams delivered through the Vidori CDN (RTMP ingest). External manifest streams cannot be recorded by Vidori.

Disabling Replay

If you do not want the recording to be available after the event, leave Record After Event off. The event will simply show as ended with no playback available.

Live Events in Your App

Live events appear in your app through swimlanes, just like other content. When a live event enters its announcement window, it becomes eligible for swimlane data sources that include live events.

Viewer Experience

• Before the event: Viewers see the event card with a countdown and scheduled start time
• During the event: Viewers see a “Live” badge and can tap to watch. Late joiners start at the live edge.
• After the event: If replay is enabled, viewers can watch the full recording. If not, the event is no longer shown.

Supported Platforms

Live events work on all platforms supported by Vidori:

• Web (desktop and mobile browsers)
• iOS and Android native apps
• Smart TVs (Samsung Tizen, LG WebOS)
• Connected TV (Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV)