New Venue Channel States (And Clips)
Channels on Shing today have two states: Live and Offline. This is being expanded, and Venue (the technology behind Shing) now has four total channel states that happen as the channel goes live and shuts down:
- Offline
- Startup
- Live
- Standby...
- Shutdown
All channels are created in the Offline state, and remain in the Offline state when the streamer is not actively streaming. The Offline state is muted by default, but can be un-muted by the viewer and any audio present can be heard.
New Channel States
Three additional states have been added with associated video clips. And, you will be able to customize those clips in your Channel Settings very soon!
Startup
When the streamer first goes live, in all cases, the signal that they have gone live arrives at all browser clients several seconds before their stream data actually starts arriving and plays. This currently results in a somewhat akward startup where it almost looks like there is a "buffering error" when in fact you're supposed to be buffering. You're literally waiting for the first bytes of data to arrive and start playing.
This is now called the Startup state, and you will be able to set a custom clip that plays here like "GET READY! GOING LIVE NOW!" for five seconds with sound of your choice. Shing will provide a default, which is the sword raising and the text "STREAM STARTING NOW!" It will last for five seconds, then "fade" to the live stream.
Standby
The channel then remains in the Live state for as long as the streamer provides a solid data flow. If there is an unexpected interruption in that flow, the channel will immediately enter the Standby state and display up to a 15-second looping clip. This state remains until the system begins receiving data from the streamer or 30 seconds elapses. At 30 seconds, the streams will enter the Shutdown state on its own.
Shutdown
If the streamer hangs up or Standby times out, the channel enters the Shutdown state. It will play the Shutdown clip, which can be up to 30 seconds long. This is a great time to remind people to subscribe to your channel and support your work if you accept donations or offer products for sale.
Once the Shutdown clip finishes, the channel will return to the Offline state and present the Offline clip as a loop.
Customizing The Clips Used
Venue will allow channel operators to customize the clips used for the Offline, Startup, Standby, and Shutdown states. When the feature ships, you will be able to set which slot a video should occupy in the video's editor. It will be next to Category.
Just select which slot the video should occupy, and save the video. It will kick out any current video and take it's place.
If you later delete the video, Venue will return to using the platform default. You can remove a current video without deleting the video by opening it's editor and selecting "None" as the Channel State Clip value. Then, just save the video. Venue will return to using the platform default for that video's previously assigned slot.
