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.

A streaming endpoint is shared project infrastructure. It can serve many locators and assets. Confirm all dependencies before stopping an endpoint, because stopping it can interrupt every locator that uses it.

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. Each group can contain several entries in paths[], so enumerate every returned entry instead of assuming one path per group. The response also lists any downloadPaths.

Build a playback URL from the endpoint hostname, optional cdnBasePath, and selected path. Normalize the boundaries so the result contains one slash between each part:

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.

Use progressive verification when testing a live URL:

1. An HTTP 200 OK response confirms that the manifest is reachable.
2. Advancing manifest timestamps or segments confirm that live material is updating.
3. Successful playback or ffprobe inspection confirms that the media decodes.

Streaming endpoint request rate and egress bitrate describe delivery traffic. Do not convert them into viewer, session, or concurrency counts.

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.