Ease Live Play for Roku

Introduction

Play is our tool to test the runtime for Ease Live projects. Primarily, Play is used to verify the design and logic of a project.

It is always recommended to test Ease Live in a real environment (e.g. a customer's app with a live video) instead of Play to ensure that the whole chain works as intended.

Things you need

• Roku device with Roku account
• A mobile device with Ease Live Play installed (used to add projects by scanning QR codes)

Installing Play on Roku

Play for Roku is currently in beta. This means you cannot find it in the channel store.
To install the beta channel, you will need the to log into your Roku account on this address: https://my.roku.com/

From here, look for the section titled "Streaming Store" find the option and click "Add beta app with code" and use the code ELPBETA1. This will make the beta channel available for your account (for its limited lifetime).

On your Roku device, you should now be able to find the channel under "Home". If not, go to "System" and do "Software Update".

Adding projects

Until the device is paired, Play welcomes you with a QR code. Scan it with Play on your mobile device to synchronize the two.

Once synchronized, you get your list of recent projects instead. Adding a project in Play on your mobile device (by scanning a QR code from Play on web) makes it show up in that list, ready to open on the TV.

Everything else sits behind the options key (*) on the remote: removing a project or clearing the list, stopping the synchronization, and Settings.

Testing a project

Pick a project from the list to open it. Most projects have no video attached, in which case Play runs the timeline on its own. A stream only shows up when the program has one configured, which is mostly for demos.

Player controls

The player controls stay out of the way while you navigate the overlay. Press Back to bring them up, and Back again to close the project and return to your list. Press Up to hide them again and hand focus back to the overlay.

These keys work whether or not the controls are showing:

• Play/Pause toggles playback
• Rewind and Fast forward seek
• Replay jumps back to the start

While the controls are showing, OK also plays and pauses, and Left and Right seek.

Seeking only works when the program is not live. A program without a start and end time counts as live, so rewind and fast forward do nothing there.

Bridge messages

Press Down while the controls are showing to send a bridge message to the overlay. This triggers the parts of a project that would normally wait for the customer's app to say something. The list holds the messages that project listens for, so a project that listens for none does not offer it.

Debug overlay

The debug overlay reports what the SDK is doing while a project runs: how far it got, which project and version it loaded, the timecode it is working from, and the graphics it has fetched.

Turn it on for every project you open from Settings, or just for the project in front of you: with the controls hidden, hold Left for five seconds, then press Up, Right and Left. The same shortcut turns it off again.

The API documentation explains what each value means. It is the same debug overlay customers get in their own app, so anything you work out here applies there too.

Settings

Settings lives behind the options key (*).

Every setting is turned off by default, and checking one overrides how Play normally behaves. If nothing is checked, Play works the way it does for everyone else. Highlight a setting to read what it does.

The number shown next to Settings is how many you have changed, so you can tell at a glance whether the app is in a modified state.

To reset everything, press the options key (*) on the settings page and choose Reset to default settings.