Streaming and publishing

Publishing has two parts that meet at the playback URL. A streaming locator publishes a specific asset and decides its playback and protection behaviour through a streaming policy. A streaming endpoint provides the hostname that players connect to and does the just-in-time packaging and encryption. You need both: a locator gives you a path, an endpoint gives you a host, and the playback URL is the two combined. See Streaming locators and Streaming endpoints for the product background.

Create and start a streaming endpoint

An endpoint is created with PUT and requires location and properties.scaleUnits. A scaleUnits of 0 provisions a shared Standard endpoint; a value above 0 provisions dedicated Premium capacity.

curl -X PUT "https://app.mk.io/api/v1/projects/<PROJECT_NAME>/media/streamingEndpoints/default" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_TOKEN>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "location": "<PROJECT_LOCATION>",
    "properties": {
      "scaleUnits": 0,
      "description": "Default streaming endpoint"
    }
  }'

Playback only works while the endpoint is running, so start it and confirm the state:

curl -X POST "https://app.mk.io/api/v1/projects/<PROJECT_NAME>/media/streamingEndpoints/default/start" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_TOKEN>"

curl -X GET "https://app.mk.io/api/v1/projects/<PROJECT_NAME>/media/streamingEndpoints/default/state" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_TOKEN>"

The endpoint’s hostName is the value you combine with locator paths to build playback URLs. To enable a Content Delivery Network (CDN), set cdnEnabled to true; the response then includes a cdnBasePath that goes into the URL after the hostname.

Publish an asset with a streaming locator

A locator is created with PUT and requires assetName and streamingPolicyName. The example publishes an asset for clear (unprotected) streaming.

curl -X PUT "https://app.mk.io/api/v1/projects/<PROJECT_NAME>/media/streamingLocators/my-locator" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_TOKEN>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "properties": {
      "assetName": "output-video",
      "streamingPolicyName": "Predefined_ClearStreamingOnly"
    }
  }'

The locator is also where playback windowing, filters, and protection meet, through optional fields: startTime and endTime to bound availability, filters to apply playback filters, defaultContentKeyPolicyName for content protection, and suppressed to take output offline without deleting the locator.

Choosing a streaming policy

The streamingPolicyName decides what playback the locator allows. Use a predefined policy unless you need behaviour they do not cover.

Policy	Playback
Predefined_DownloadOnly	Download only, no streaming.
Predefined_ClearStreamingOnly	Streaming, no protection.
Predefined_DownloadAndClearStreaming	Download and clear streaming.
Predefined_ClearKey	Clear Key (AES-128) protection.
Predefined_MultiDrmCencStreaming	PlayReady and Widevine.
Predefined_MultiDrmStreaming	PlayReady, Widevine, and FairPlay.

List the policies available in a project, including any custom ones, with GET .../media/streamingPolicies. The DRM policies require a matching content key policy on the locator; see Content protection.

Build the playback URL

Ask the locator for its relative paths with listPaths:

curl -X POST "https://app.mk.io/api/v1/projects/<PROJECT_NAME>/media/streamingLocators/my-locator/listPaths" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_TOKEN>"

The response groups paths by protocol and encryption under streamingPaths, and lists any downloadPaths. A playback URL is the endpoint hostname (plus cdnBasePath if CDN is enabled) followed by a path:

https://<hostName><cdnBasePath><path_from_listPaths>

The manifest path takes format and encryption options in parentheses. For example, an HLS manifest with Apple sample encryption and two filters applied:

https://<hostName>/<streamingLocatorId>/manifest.ism/manifest(format=m3u8-cmaf,encryption=cbcs-aapl,filter=account-filter;asset-filter)

Use format=m3u8-cmaf for HLS and format=mpd-time-cmaf for DASH. The MK.IO product docs recommend fetching playback URLs dynamically through listPaths rather than hard-coding them, so that origins can change without breaking clients.

What goes wrong

• Playback returns nothing because the endpoint is stopped. The endpoint must be in the Running state. Start it and confirm before testing.
• A locator returns 404 or 410. Before its startTime, a locator returns 404 Not Found; after its endTime, it returns 410 Gone. A suppressed locator also returns 404. Check the time window if playback is unexpectedly unavailable.
• A DRM policy without a key policy. Selecting Predefined_MultiDrmCencStreaming or similar without a matching content key policy on the locator produces unplayable, encrypted output. See Content protection.

What comes next

• Content protection: add DRM and key delivery.
• Automate a VOD pipeline: see publishing in an end-to-end workflow.