Stream media to a channel

Playing media files during online business presentations, educational sessions, or casual meetups heightens user engagement. Video SDK enables you to add media playing functionality to your app.

This page shows you how to use media player-related APIs to play local or online media resources with remote users in Broadcast Streaming channels.

To play a media file in a channel, you open the file using a media player instance. When the file is ready to be played, you set up the local video container to display the media player output. You update channel media options to start publishing the media player stream, and stop publishing the camera and microphone streams. The remote user sees the camera and microphone streams of the media publishing user replaced by media streams.

Media player flow

Ensure that you have implemented the SDK quickstart in your project.

To implement a media player in your app, follow these steps:

1. After initializing an instance of AgoraRtcEngineKit, create a mediaPlayerKit object.

   // Initialize AgoraRtcEngineKit and create a mediaPlayerKit object.
   

   agoraKit = AgoraRtcEngineKit.sharedEngine(with: config, delegate: self)
   

   // Create mediaPlayerKit object
   

   mediaPlayerKit = agoraKit.createMediaPlayer(with: self)
   

2. Implement media player callbacks. Observe the status of the player through callbacks and obtain the playback progress of the current media file.

   extension MediaPlayerMain: AgoraRtcMediaPlayerDelegate {
   

   // Observe the state of the player
   

   func agoraRtcMediaPlayer(_ playerKit: AgoraRtcMediaPlayerProtocol, didChangedTo state: AgoraMediaPlayerState, error: AgoraMediaPlayerError) {
   

   LogUtils.log(message: "Player RTC channel publish helper state changed to: \(state.rawValue), error: \(error.rawValue)", level: .info)
   

   DispatchQueue.main.async { [weak self] in
   

   guard let weakself = self else { return }
   

   switch state {
   

   case .failed:
   

   weakself.showAlert(message: "Media player error: \(error.rawValue)")
   

   break
   

   case .openCompleted:
   

   let duration = weakself.mediaPlayerKit.getDuration()
   

   weakself.playerControlStack.isHidden = false
   

   weakself.playerDurationLabel.text = "\(String(format: "%02d", duration / 60)) : \(String(format: "%02d", duration % 60))"
   

   weakself.playerProgressSlider.setValue(0, animated: true)
   

   break
   

   case .stopped:
   

   weakself.playerControlStack.isHidden = true
   

   weakself.playerProgressSlider.setValue(0, animated: true)
   

   weakself.playerDurationLabel.text = "00 : 00"
   

   break
   

   default: break
   

   }
   

   }
   

   }
   

   // Observe the current playback progress
   

   func agoraRtcMediaPlayer(_ playerKit: AgoraRtcMediaPlayerProtocol, didChangedToPosition position: Int) {
   

   let duration = Float(mediaPlayerKit.getDuration() * 1000)
   

   var progress: Float = 0
   

   var left: Int = 0
   

   if duration > 0 {
   

   progress = Float(mediaPlayerKit.getPosition()) / duration
   

   left = Int((mediaPlayerKit.getDuration() * 1000 - mediaPlayerKit.getPosition()) / 1000)
   

   }
   

   DispatchQueue.main.async { [weak self] in
   

   guard let weakself = self else { return }
   

   weakself.playerDurationLabel.text = "\(String(format: "%02d", left / 60)) : \(String(format: "%02d", left % 60))"
   

   if !weakself.playerProgressSlider.isTouchInside {
   

   weakself.playerProgressSlider.setValue(progress, animated: true)
   

   }
   

   }
   

   }
   

   }
   

3. Call the setupLocalVideo method to render the local media player view.

   mediaPlayerKit.setView(localVideo.videoView)
   

   let videoCanvas = AgoraRtcVideoCanvas()
   

   videoCanvas.view = localVideo.videoView
   

   videoCanvas.renderMode = .hidden
   

   videoCanvas.sourceType = .mediaPlayer
   

   videoCanvas.sourceId = mediaPlayerKit.getMediaPlayerId()
   

   agoraKit.setupLocalVideo(videoCanvas)
   

4. When joining a channel using joinChannelByToken, set the media player ID, publish media player's audio and video, and share media resources with remote users in the channel through the mediaOptions parameter.

   let option1 = AgoraRtcChannelMediaOptions()
   

   
   

   // ...
   

   
   

   option1.publishMediaPlayerId = .of((Int32)(mediaPlayerKit.getMediaPlayerId()))
   

5. Use the open method to open a local or online media file.

   mediaPlayerKit.open(url, startPos: 0)
   

6. Call the play method to play the media file.

   mediaPlayerKit.play()
   
   Caution

   Call the play method to play the media file only after receiving the didChangedToState callback reporting the player state as AgoraMediaPlayerStateOpenCompleted.

7. When a user leaves the channel, call stop to stop playback, and destroyMediaPlayer to release resources.

   mediaPlayerKit.stop()
   

   agoraKit.destroyMediaPlayer(mediaPlayerKit)
   

This section contains content that completes the information on this page, or points you to documentation that explains other aspects to this product.

The media player supports the following media formats and protocols:

• H.263, H.264, H.265, MPEG-4, MPEG-2, RMVB, Theora, VP3, VP8, AVS, WMV

• WAV, MP2, MP3, AAC, OPUS, FLAC, Vorbis, AMR-NB, AMR-WB, WMA v1, WMA v2

• WAV, FLAC, OGG, MOV, ASF, FLV, MP3, MP4, MPEG-TS, Matroska (MKV), AVI, ASS, CONCAT, DTS, AVS

• HTTP, HTTPS, RTMP, HLS, RTP, RTSP

Agora provides an open source sample project MediaPlayer on GitHub. Download it or view the source code for a more detailed example.

• createMediaPlayer(with:)
• getMediaPlayerId
• open
• play
• pause
• stop
• destroyMediaPlayer