Live Stream Thumbnail and Splash Screen Walkthrough

Today, we are going to discuss three different aesthetic elements of live streaming: thumbnails and splash screens. We will define each of these and explain how to set them up on Dacast.

What are Live Stream Thumbnails?

Thumbnails can either be an image of your choosing. For VOD and playlists, if you upload a video directly to your Dacast, thumbnails are automatically taken from the first frame of the video itself.

Where do Video Player Thumbnails Appear?

The primary location for thumbnails is at the main page of either your Live Channel, VOD, or  Playlists:

Method 1: Click on the title of the content

By Clicking on the title of the content you will then be redirected to the quick settings on the window, which will appear on the right side.

Click on the scroll-down button on the Images tab, to see the upload functionality. 

Method 2: Click on the edit icon

Doing so, will automatically redirect the page into the main section of your Live stream/VOD/Playlist content.

To upload a thumbnail, go to the GENERAL tab for any Live Channel, VOD, or Playlist. The thumbnail part will be in the lower-middle, under “Images”: 

What is a Splash Screen?

A splash screen is an image that covers the entire viewable area of the player when the content isn’t playing or offline. It is also viewable before playback, if the content is online.

If your live stream/VOD/Playlists are offline, the splash screen will appear as a background behind any system messages, even including the paywall if you monetize your content.

Now, if online, splash screens will first “splash” onto the video area for a few seconds before the Live Stream/VOD/Playlists begins to play. So in essence, you can use this “splash” as a loading screen or preview. 

For any content not set to auto-play or after a video has finished, the splash screen also appears until the viewer clicks play.

The splash screen is helpful to viewers as this is a representation of your brand/event/content.

Uploading a Splash Screen

Uploading splash screens all have the same exact methods noted above. So you may follow the same exact steps, but this time choose to upload splash screens. 

What Type of Images Can I Use?

Dacast supports JPEG, PNG, SVG and GIF formats. For GIFs, you can upload animated files, but the channel will only show the first frame. Additionally, transparent elements on GIFs and PNGs will be replaced by black elements.

Note that images should be less than 1MB in size. We recommend always using a 160×90 pixelated format.

Any questions or need help/access to this feature? Please contact us.

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Additional Resources

 

Jose Guevara

Jose is a part of the Dacast Customer Onboarding team and started working with the company in 2016. He has vast experience in customer service/engagement and live streaming support.