Getting Started

With CineSend OTT, you can create a fully customized, customer friendly streaming platform for recorded video and live streamed events. Managing your content is simple and intuitive, even for non-technical staff.  CineSend's powerful platform allows you to securely offer content to your constituency on your own white labeled web platform as well as through branded TV apps on Apple TV, Roku, Fire TV and Android TV.    If you're new to CineSend, here are some basics to help you get started:

  1. Inviting Team Members
  2. Configuring Access Default Settings
  3. Adding Content
  4. Branding The Patron Portal
  5. Integrating With A Ticketing Solution

1. Inviting Team Members

If you are not a one person team, the first thing you may want to do is invite your team and give them access to the administrative portal of your CineSend OTT  account.  When you log into your account you'll begin in the "Accounts" area.  Using the left-hand navigation, choose USERS and then click the "Add Team Members" button.  Fill in the fields and then click the "Invite New User" button.  Perfect!  You've sent an email to your team member inviting them to log into the administrative portal.

You'll notice that you must assign a Role, and that you have the ability to create different Roles for your users.  This feature belongs to a different product (CineSend Files), so although you are able to create different roles, those roles will all have the same access and functionality as the default Admin role has.  You may use roles to identify your team internally, but all users will have the same access within the OTT area.

2. Configuring Access Settings

One of the most important things to do when you first setup your account is to make sure that the access settings are configured to reflect how you intend to use the account.  This becomes important later when you begin adding content, so that the content will have the correct access defaults in place.  

To locate the access settings, navigate to your OTT administrative portal by clicking the OTT tile, and then from the OTT area's left-hand navigation choose  SETTINGS >  ACCESS.

There are three sub-menus to review:  Defaults; Vouchers; and Subscribers.

  • Defaults
    • Page Visibility:  should assets, when created, be set to 'visible' by default?
    • Main Video/Trailer/Bonus content Playability:  for each type of video, should they be set to playable, when created, by default?
    • Geoblocking:  if the majority of your content will all have the same geoblock setting you can set that here as the default for all future content added.  Any assets that should have different geoblocking settings can be manually updated on an asset by asset basis.  If you don't need geoblocking, or your assets will have a variety of geoblocking settings, leave this off.
    • Component Geoblocking:  if a primary video is added as a component to another asset (ie. a playlist), should it apply the geoblocking setting from the video's settings?
    • View Cap:  If all or most of your main videos will have a view cap that is the same (ie. only 100 plays for any asset), you can enable that by default to apply upon an asset's creation.
    • Watermarks:  If all or most of your main videos will employ a watermark, you can set that up here to apply upon an asset's creation.
  • Vouchers 
    • Voucher Access:   If you will be allowing access to assets via vouchers then enable this setting.  Vouchers are the equivalent of a ticket, they provide access to a specific asset (not a collection of assets).  Once enabled, you'll have several more default settings for vouchers to decide upon.
  • Subscribers
    • Subscribers Access:  If you will be allowing access to groups or collections of assets (known as a "subscription") then enable this setting.  Subscriptions are the equivalent of a pass, or membership, where the subscription holder has access to a selection of, or all, content.

    3. Adding Content

    You are ready to begin adding content to your account!  Within the left-hand navigation you'll find the CONTENT section near the top.  Within this section there are Videos;  Live Events; Playlists; Series; Insertions; and Categories.  Please note:  "Series" and "Insertions" assets are not enabled by default.  If you need these types of assets, simply enable them in SETTINGS > OPTIONAL FEATURES.  

    • Videos:  Asset area for primary, pre-recorded video content (ie. feature films, short films, recorded demonstrations or panel discussions, etc).  To explore this area further please visit the following articles:  Videos: Adding Assets, Customizing the Video Request Page, and Configuring Video Options
    • Live Events:  Asset area for Timed Screenings, Live Stream Only events, or Timed Screenings with a Live Stream accompaniment.  For a deeper dive please see the article Live Events
    • Playlists:  Asset area for groupings of assets that will be part of one program.  An example is a film festival shorts program, where the public is buying access to a group of short films playing together in a curated program.  Another example is a short film that plays in front of a feature film.   A playlist will generally contain two or more assets that constitute a program.   For more information please see the article Adding and Configuring Playlists
    • Series:   Asset area for use with episodic content, like a TV series.  With a Series, you can create one asset (the Series asset) that contains episodes and even seasons of episodes.
    • Insertions:  Asset area for uploading pre-recorded intros, advertisements, trailers, bumpers, acknowledgements and other video that is meant to be screened as pre-roll to primary assets.  For more information please see the article Insertions: Pre-Roll Video
    • Categories:  Asset area only visible if subscriber access has been enabled in Settings.   Categories can be used to group assets into browsing categories for subscribers.  See Categories

    4. Branding The Web Portal

    Now that you've got some content added, you can start to work on the look of your web portal.  Your CineSend OTT account's web portal is highly customizable, and the majority of that configuration will occur in the WATCH PORTAL > BRANDING screen of your administrative portal.  

    To get to work, navigate to WATCH PORTAL > BRANDING and on this screen you'll find 7 sub-menus:  Basics; Login Page; Browse Page; Header; Footer; Details Page; Custom CSS.    Within these screens you can upload your organizational logo, favicon, and footer images, add custom fonts, adjust colors for background, text, and accents among many other optional settings.  Don't be overwhelmed at the options though, at minimum you should upload your logo and if you like the default settings you can leave it at that.  It looks great already, but have fun playing around with it and customize as far as you would like to take it.  And for those with skills in CSS, you can use the Custom CSS screen to modify any element on the web portal simply by inspecting the page and identifying the selector you wish to modify.  


    5. Integrating With A Ticketing Solution

    You are well on your way to having your OTT platform up and running, but how will you be providing access?  If you will be manually issuing Vouchers and/or Subscriptions from your CineSend account, with no direct need for, or connection to, payment, you are set and ready to go. 

    However, if you will be using CineSend's open API to automate voucher/subscription creation and issuance when transactions happen elsewhere, you'll want to check out the Integrations sub-menu of the SETTINGS area.  

    • API Key:  generate a unique API key to connect to.
    • Webhooks:  for sending back information when a particular action takes place.
    • External Vouchers:  to integrate an external voucher source, please contact support to use this feature.
    • External Authentication:   If you are using a ticketing solution that has an external authentication integration with CineSend you can enable that here.   This features allows Single Sign On with your ticketing solution and your CineSend platform, so that your patron only needs one login between the two.  
    • Google Analytics Code:  Add your analytics code here to start tracking activity on your CineSend web portal.


    Thank you for choosing CineSend, we're happy to be working with you!   Continue reading other articles on our support site, or if you need help or have a specific question please contact us!

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