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AirPlay Native

Solution 2: Integrating Feed.fm iOS SDK with native Airplay​

As an alternative solution we support native Airplay through muxing. The current Feed.fm iOS SDK plays audio independently of any video content played by client apps. Therefore, it is not immediately compatible with Apple AirPlay, as AirPlay is only designed to send a single audio–video stream to the TV. As a result, in order to support AirPlay we have an AirplayMuxer SDK that works in conjunction with the iOS SDK to mix the client video and our music into a single file that is compatible with AirPlay.

AirplayMuxer extracts the video and audio tracks from the video stream, re-transcodes the audio with Feed music overlayed onto it, and then muxes the result back into a single video stream. Since this is done on-the-fly, the SDK starts streaming as soon as the first part of the video is ready, and replaces the older video with a new video that contains the combined content.

tip

If you intend to use this solution, please contact your Account Executive or Success Manager for access to the GitHub example repository, as it is currently private.

Integration​

To get started with AirplayMuxer get the SDK from CocoaPods and add it to your Podfile:

pod 'AirplayMuxer'

Run pod install and import the framework by

#import <AirplayMuxer/AirplayManager.h>

Initializing the SDK​

  1. Initialize FeedSDK as you would without AirPlay.
  2. Create a new AirplayManager instance, and call registerAirplayDelegate with the Feed.fm station and settings.
  3. Implement the AirplayDelegate to get notifications when the AirPlay starts and stops. The AirplayManager will automatically take over playback when AirPlay starts.
  4. Once the video is finished playing, the AirplayManager instance should be discarded. A new instance should be created for every video that starts playback.

Sample​

[player whenAvailable:^{

  NSLog(@"Feed Music Available");

  self->_airPlayer = [[AirplayManager alloc] init];
  [self->_airPlayer registerAirplayDelegate:self withOriginalUrl:videoURL musicVolume:0.15 withStation:player.stationList[1] withCrossfade:4];
       
  [player play];

} notAvailable:^{
  NSLog(@"Not available");
}];

AirplayDelegaterequires implementing three methods:

  1. (CMTime)onAirplayStarted:(AVPlayer *)avplayer
  2. (void)onAirplayStopped:(CMTime)time
  3. (void) onDeviceInfo:(NSString*) airplayDevice;

In onAirplayStarted the user should pause all media including Feed. In onAirplayStopped, both feed and video should be restarted. The time returned is the last timestamp of the video after AirPlay was stopped.

OnDeviceInfo is called to expose the user-agent string of the AirPlay device for logging and reporting purposes.

Once a video is completed, it can’t be replayed again. To restart the video you need to call registerAirplayDelegate again so new music can be retrieved.

warning

Make sure registerAirplayDelegate is only called one time with a First Play station as the station will run out of music once AirPlay starts on the TV.

tip

AirPlay Quirks: Connections to Apple TV, Roku, Samsung TVs, and LG TVs are all tested and working at the time of this writing, but these types of connections should be manually retested with each beta release of AirPlay, as Apple is known to break backward compatibility.

HLS Live Playlists, which remove older sections, are currently not supported.