Bumper Videos with the Native SDKs

In this topic, you will learn how to add a bumper video to play before your content when using the Brightcove Native SDKs.

Introduction

A bumper is typically a very short video (10 secs or less) automatically inserted before any pre-roll ads and your content. A bumper is not used for monetization but instead relays information such as your company logo or branding.

Here is an example of a bumper video playing before the main content.

Bumper video
Bumper videp

Requirements

The following requirements are needed for this feature:

Brightcove SDK version

  • Native SDK for Android (coming soon)
  • Native SDK for iOS 6.11.0 and newer

Functionality

Here are some details about Bumper videos:

  • Bumpers are compatible with both Client-Side Advertising (CSAI) and Server-Side Advertising (SSAI)
  • Bumpers play before any pre-roll ads and your content
  • The player is configurable during bumper video playback:
    • Show/hide the player controls
    • Prevent seeking during playback
    • Change the seekbar color to indicate a bumper
  • Analytics data will be tracked the same as for any content video

Configuration

A bumper video can be set for the player or for an individual video.

Player-level bumper

By default, bumper videos are a player-level feature. This means that all videos in a player will have the same bumper.

A bumper consists of a single Video Cloud video, referenced by either:

  • Video ID
  • Reference ID

Video-level bumper

To assign a bumper to a video, you can define a custom field in Video Cloud Studio. The custom field must have the following:

  • Custom field name of bumper_id
  • Custom field value must be a valid video ID

Android Implementation

A player requests a bumper from the Playback API like any other video and insert it before ads and content.

There are two ways to configure a player to play a bumper video:

  1. Playback Service (BCOVPlaybackService) methods.

    The bumperID is the unique reference to find and play a bumper video before other content.

    //Building the instance of the bumper component, providing the existing videoView and catalog.
     bumperComponent = new BumperComponent.Builder(brightcoveVideoView, catalog).build();
     bumperComponent.setVideoBumperID("Bumper ID");
     //Initializing the bumper.
     bumperComponent.init();
     
  2. Custom Fields.

    The bumper_id field can be defined in Custom Fields in Video Cloud. The bumper_id can be used without the signatures previously defined. It must be a valid video ID or reference ID.

    //Building the instance of the bumper component, providing the existing videoView and catalog.
     bumperComponent = new BumperComponent.Builder(brightcoveVideoView, catalog).build();
        //Obtaining the bumper id from the video custom fields
        Map customFields = (Map) mVideo.getProperties().get(Video.Fields.CUSTOM_FIELDS);
        if ((customFields != null && !customFields.isEmpty()) &&   (customFields.containsKey(bumperComponent.getVIDEO_CUSTOM_FIELD_BUMPER_ID()))) {
            bumperComponent.setVideoBumperID((String) customFields.get(bumperComponent.getVIDEO_CUSTOM_FIELD_BUMPER_ID()));
        }
     //Initializing the bumper.
     bumperComponent.init();
     

You can access the video view for the bumper to modify it as any other video view by using:

bumperComponent.getBumperVideoView();

iOS Implementation

The Native SDK for iOS/tvOS supports bumper video playback.

For details, see the following: