Turn your playlists of videos into a simulated linear TV channel with Flow Mode™, our new video scheduling engine. Video on Demand has long dominated the online video viewing experience… search/browse for what you want to watch, select it, and it plays. On the other hand, traditional TV broadcasts are watched in a linear fashion. The bridge between those viewing methods hasn’t surfaced, until now.
Continuous Video Broadcast, Create your own Linear TV Channel
Flow Mode™ is VidType’s proprietary linear playout product. It is now easier than ever to manage your own Smart linear TV channel. Flow Mode™ simulates a live TV broadcast from your video playlist queue. These playlists can be scheduled for any day of the week, at any time of day, giving you complete control over what plays on your channel and at what time, in a living room familiar, broadcast-like user experience.
Additionally, these playlists can also be viewed as on demand menus. And conversely, your on demand menus can be watched as a linear playout. In other words, you can use one video playlist for two functions: an on demand category and to create a linear TV channel as well.
Now you can build a linear video playout for Apple TV and iOS very easily by listing your videos in order with a drag-and-drop interface. These playlists can then be programmed to play at any time, any day of the week. If nothing in particular is scheduled at that given moment, the video player will default to your fallback playlist that is on perpetual loop. Easy right?
The Most Important Concept in Broadcasting: Flow
Great content isn’t enough on it’s own… to retain viewership there must be a common thread from one segment to the next. Any experienced broadcaster will agree, in TV or Radio, you must string your content together in a continuous, uninterrupted flow. When you break the flow, you lose viewers, plain and simple. You may have a great reality show about a tattoo shop, but if the following piece is about climate change, even if it’s a great piece, you’re probably going to lose most of your viewers.
On the flip side, if you’re able to program content that holds your viewers attention from video to video, they will end up watching for much longer than if they were watching on demand, having to manually browse the menus for each selection.
Synced Audience
When a viewer opens your linear stream, it is like tuning in to a traditional linear TV channel. Everyone watching the stream is seeing the same content across all devices. All devices will be playing the same content. What if you have an iPad in the kitchen? TV in the living room? Phone in your hand? With Flow Mode™ all devices can play the same stream at the same time.
Keep it Simple
Flow Mode™ linear TV channels don’t even need menus. There is no deciding what to watch… you turn the channel on and what you see is what you get. Video controls (pause, fast forward, rewind, etc.) can be enabled, giving it a somewhat DVR-like experience, but with Flow Mode™ we encourage you to preserve the broadcast functionality and reserve those features for your on demand mode.