Overview

Video and Audio Stream actions let ProPresenter play video or audio straight from a URL — either a finished video or a live feed. There's no download and no file to manage. As of ProPresenter v22, only HLS type streams are supported.

HLS (HTTP Live Streaming) is the standard way video moves over the internet today. Instead of one large file, the video is split into short segments listed in a small text file called a manifest. The manifest's URL (usually ending in .m3u8) is what you give ProPresenter.

A finished video’s manifest lists every segment and marks its own end, so ProPresenter can show its total length and you can scrub anywhere in it. A live manifest lists only what has aired so far and is rewritten as the broadcast continues, so there’s no total length and nothing ahead of the playhead to skip to.

Where to get a stream URL

Your video provider supplies the URL. What you need is a single HTTPS address ending in .m3u8, sometimes with a token on the end.

Two things commonly arrive instead, and neither one works:

• An embed code — a block of HTML that wraps a player, meant to be pasted into a web page.
• A watch-page URL — the address of a page you’d view the video on, rather than the video itself.

If you aren’t sure which you have, ask your provider for the HLS manifest URL. Not every platform exposes one. Some offer it only on higher plans or behind an advanced or developer setting, and some never do.

Add a stream to a slide or macro

You add a video or audio stream the same way you add any other action.

1. Select the slide or macro you want to add the stream to.

2. Click Add Media Action and choose Video Stream or Audio Stream.
    

   

3. In the window that opens, paste the manifest URL into Stream URL.
4. Enter a Name for the stream.
5. Wait for ProPresenter to validate the URL (see below), then add the action.

Add a stream to a playlist

You can also create a stream directly in a playlist.

1. In the playlist, click the + menu.
2. Choose New Video Stream Item or New Audio Stream Item
3. Enter the Stream URL and Name, then add the item once validation succeeds.

How URL validation works

As soon as you enter a URL, ProPresenter fetches the manifest and shows what it finds right in the window, before anything is added.

• A valid stream shows its kind. On-demand streams also show their duration; live streams don’t have one.
  
• A mistyped or unsupported URL is flagged, and nothing is created until validation succeeds.
  

This means problems are caught while you're setting things up, not during the service.

Playing a stream

Trigger a stream the way you trigger any other media. A video stream plays on the Media layer and an audio stream on the Audio layer, using the same compositing, transitions, and layer behavior as any other media or audio action.

While it plays, the transport controls beneath the preview work as they do for a video file: media name, scrub bar with playhead, elapsed time, and duration. You can scrub, rewind, and skip wherever the stream supports it. A live stream that keeps only its recent segments has nothing behind the playhead to return to, so those controls aren’t available for it.

The transport controls also tell you what the stream is doing. Connecting…, Buffering…, and Stream unavailable each replace the elapsed-time readout while they apply. These are for the operator only — connection status never appears on audience output.

Editing a stream

If the URL needs correcting, you can edit the stream action afterwards.

• To edit from an action added to a slide, right click the slide and select Edit Action and then Edit Stream.
  
• To edit from a Playlist, right click that playlist item and select Edit Stream.
  

What your network needs

A stream arrives from the internet while it plays, so your connection matters in a way it doesn’t for a file on your drive.

HLS is built for this. A stream is usually published at several quality levels, and the player moves between them as conditions change, so a weak connection normally shows up as a softer picture rather than a stop. Expect it to degrade before it fails.

Before a service:

• Play the stream start to finish on the network you’ll actually use. A stream that plays fine in the office isn’t evidence it will play from the booth.
• Use a wired connection where you have one.
• Account for the room. A full auditorium of phones is a different network from an empty room on a Tuesday.
• If your provider gave you a URL with a token on the end, it may expire. Re-check it if it has been sitting in a playlist for a while.

When a stream doesn't play

If a stream can’t be reached or refuses to play, ProPresenter covers the item with This stream isn’t responding, the line Check your internet connection and try again, and a Retry button.

What gets covered depends on when the failure happened. If it happens as a playlist opens, every streamed item in that playlist is covered. If it happens when you trigger an item, only that item is.

A stream added to a slide or macro has no item to cover, so a failure there appears in the transport controls beneath the preview instead. Trigger it again to retry.

Limitations