NextGen Live API: Playlist Groups and Manifest Filtering

Introduction

NextGen Live API supports manifest filtering through playlist groups. This feature allows you to create custom manifests with selected renditions from all the output renditions of your live stream. This is useful for scenarios where you want to deliver different quality tiers to different audiences or devices.

The playlist groups feature enables you to:

• Create multiple custom manifests from a single live channel
• Filter renditions based on video codec, resolution, bitrate, audio codec, and language
• Maintain the default manifest with all renditions while providing filtered alternatives
• Generate playback tokens for specific playlist groups

Workflow Overview

The playlist groups workflow consists of three main steps:

1. Create a job with playlist groups - Define filtering criteria in your channel creation request
2. Create a playback token - Generate a token for the specific playlist group you want to access
3. Create playback URL - Use the token to get the playback URL for the filtered manifest

Step 1: Create Channel with Playlist Groups

To create a job with playlist groups, include the playlist_groups field in the manifest section of your job creation request. The playlist_groups field is an array of objects that define filtering conditions and assign unique names to each custom manifest.

Filtering Options

You can filter renditions based on the following criteria:

Example: Job Creation with Playlist Groups

Here's an example that creates a job with two custom manifests:

• playlist-fullhd: Contains renditions between 721p and 1080p (Full HD and above)
• playlist-hd: Contains renditions up to 720p (HD and below)

{
    "name": "Test Job with Playlist Groups",
    "description": "Live job with manifest filtering",
    "long_description": "Live event job with custom playlist groups",
    "tags": [
        "sports"
    ],
    "input": {
        "protocol": "rtp",
        "whitelist_cidr_blocks": [
            "0.0.0.0/0"
        ],
        "fixed_ingest_ip": false
    },
    "type": "event",
    "live_to_vod": false,
    "audio_only": false,
    "outputs": {
        "video": [
            {
                "label": "1080p",
                "height": 1080,
                "width": 1920,
                "bitrate": 6000000,
                "codec": "h264",
                "codec_options": {
                    "profile": "high",
                    "level": "4.2"
                },
                "keyframe_rate": 0.5,
                "sample_aspect_ratio": "1:1",
                "decoder_buffer_size": 9000000,
                "max_bitrate": 7200000
            },
            {
                "label": "720p",
                "height": 720,
                "width": 1280,
                "bitrate": 4000000,
                "codec": "h264",
                "codec_options": {
                    "level": "4",
                    "profile": "main"
                }
            },
            {
                "label": "480p",
                "height": 480,
                "width": 640,
                "bitrate": 2000000,
                "codec": "h264",
                "codec_options": {
                    "profile": "main"
                }
            }
        ],
        "audio": [
            {
                "label": "aac1",
                "input_selector_name": "default",
                "language_code": "eng",
                "codec": "aac",
                "bitrate": 128000,
                "sample_rate": 44100
            }
        ]
    },
    "manifest": {
        "name": "playlist",
        "segment_duration_seconds": 6,
        "playlist_window_seconds": 60,
        "segment_container_format": "cmaf",
        "hls": {},
        "playlist_groups": [
            {
                "name": "playlist-fullhd",
                "video_height": {
                    "min": 721,
                    "max": 1080
                }
            },
            {
                "name": "playlist-hd",
                "video_height": {
                    "min": 1,
                    "max": 720
                }
            }
        ]
    },
    "region": "",
    "maintenance_preferences": {
        "day": "MONDAY"
    }
}

This configuration creates three manifests:

• playlist: Default manifest with all renditions (1080p, 720p, 480p)
• playlist-fullhd: Custom manifest with only the 1080p rendition
• playlist-hd: Custom manifest with 720p and 480p renditions

Step 2: Create Playback Token

To access a specific playlist group, you need to create a playback token that specifies the playlist_name. If no playlist_name is specified, the token will use the default manifest.

Endpoint

POST /v2/accounts/{account_id}/playback/{job_id}/token

Example Request

To create a token for the playlist-hd manifest:

{
    "dvr": false,
    "low_latency": false,
    "manifest_format": "hls",
    "playlist_name": "playlist-hd",
    "byocdn_id": "",
    "ssai": false,
    "ad_config_id": "",
}

Example Response

{
    "token": "eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJtbiI6InBsYXlsaXN0LWhkIiwiaXNzIjoiYmxpdmUtcGxheWJhY2stbWFuYWdlbWVudC1hcGkiLCJzdWIiOiJwbGF5YmFja3Rva2VuIiwiYXVkIjpbIjcwNzAyMTgzNTE5MjAyIl0sImp0aSI6IjcwNzUzMDg4MzM4MTEzIn0.c_lxzeGRybNrakEAzaLKS_66b5uiY2C_3B6Q4sVxRX4"
}

Step 3: Create Playback URL

Use the playback token from Step 2 to get the playback URL for your filtered manifest.

Endpoint

GET https://edge.api.brightcove.com/playback/v1/accounts/{account_id}/videos/{job_id}?livePlaybackToken={token}

Example Response

The response will include the playback URLs for the specified playlist group:

[
    {
        "codecs": "mp4a,avc1",
        "ext_x_version": "6",
        "key_systems": {
            "com.apple.fps.1_0": {
                "certificate_url": "https://license.live.qa.brightcove.com/cert/fp?token=...",
                "key_request_url": "https://license.live.qa.brightcove.com/lic/fp?token=..."
            },
            "com.widevine.alpha": {
                "license_url": "https://license.live.qa.brightcove.com/lic/wv?token=..."
            }
        },
        "src": "https://fastly.live.qa.brightcove.com/70753088338113/us-east-1/70702183519202/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJob3N0IjoiZGZ4Yzc5LmVncmVzcy5zenkzeHgiLCJhY2NvdW50X2lkIjoiNzA3MDIxODM1MTkyMDIiLCJlaG4iOiJmYXN0bHkubGl2ZS5xYS5icmlnaHRjb3ZlLmNvbSIsImlzcyI6ImJsaXZlLXBsYXliYWNrLXNvdXJjZS1hcGkiLCJzdWIiOiJwYXRobWFwdG9rZW4iLCJhdWQiOlsiNzA3MDIxODM1MTkyMDIiXSwianRpIjoiNzA3NTMwODgzMzgxMTMifQ.GMj5BoRaCtnZdj_HcrKOM6mX3F4ksbAM_SIrmQ9evyw/playlist-hd-hls.m3u8",
        "type": "application/x-mpegURL",
        "uploaded_at": "2025-08-18T14:04:46.48Z"
    }
]

Note that the manifest URL includes the playlist group name (playlist-hd-hls.m3u8) and will only contain the renditions that match the filtering criteria defined for that playlist group.

Advanced Filtering Examples

Multiple Filter Criteria

You can combine multiple filters in a single playlist group:

{
    "name": "mobile-optimized",
    "video_height": {
        "min": 1,
        "max": 720
    },
    "video_bitrate": {
        "min": 0,
        "max": 2000000
    },
    "video_codec": ["h264"]
}