Player

The Player app is where you can manage a web player for your station. It's available to all customers of Aiir with a website package.

The player lets visitors listen to your live stream, while showing information about what is on air now and the songs playing.

If you have access to the On Demand and/or Podcasts sections of Aiir, the player can show sections to browse and listen to episodes too.

It has a customisable "Feed" space, where you can link to other content or show ads.

You can set up pre-roll ads which appear when you first tap the play button.

The Player app lets you customise various aspects of the player, including the colour scheme, stream URL and content.

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Set up a player

To set up a player, you first need to have created a station in the Stations section of Aiir.

The name you give to the station will be used as the title of the player.

Next, head to the Player section of Aiir, and tap on the station.

You will be asked for the stream URL. This is required for setting up a player. Ask your streaming provider for this if you don't have it.

The next page is the "Live" settings page, where you can customise the live section of the player further. Read on for further details about customising the player.

At any time, you can tap the "Open player" button at the top of the page you see what the player looks like on your website.

If you have an existing player, learn about switching to this player from another.

Customising a player

It's easy to change the colour scheme, logos or content of the feed in the player.

Head to the Player section of Aiir and select your player. You'll find a menu to the side, or at the top on a mobile device.

The Live section lets you change the stream URL, choose whether to show Song Voting controls, Contact Details and the Feed.

The Feed appears at the bottom of the live page of your player.

You can add blocks to it, including links, sectional, previously played, and ad position.

Tap through to the Theme section where you'll find options to change the colour scheme and logos.

The "Hero" is the big section at the top of the player, containing the programme information, now playing, or page title. You can choose from a single background colour, a gradient between two colours, or an image. Make sure you select a suitable text style, depending on your choice of background.

The player requires a logo in two formats. The main logo is shown at the top of all player pages. The "cover art" logo appears as a placeholder or fallback if other images aren't provided. It also appears when you share a link to Facebook or Twitter, if another image isn't available.

Including Podcasts or On Demand content

If the Podcasts or On Demand sections are included in your website's plan with Aiir, then you can choose to show sections in the player where people can browse and listen to these.

Head to the Player section of Aiir, select your player, and then look in the menu for either "Podcasts", "On Demand" or "On Demand and Podcasts", depending on what you have access to.

This page simply lets you choose whether to show these sections in the player.

If you enable one or both of these sections, a navigation bar will appear at the top of the player. The labels for "Live", "On Demand" and "Podcasts" can be customised, for example you might wish to change "On Demand" to something like "Catch-up".

For an On Demand category or Podcast to appear in the player, it has to have been linked with the player's station. You can do that in their respective sections of Aiir.

Showing the song playing now

To show the song playing now on your station, you need to set up your automation system to send information to Aiir.

The cover art for the song playing now will automatically appear at the top of the player's live page.

With compatible automation systems, the player will show the current programme's image while a song isn't playing.

If you'd like to show previously played songs in the player, add the "previously played" block to the feed. You can do this on the Live settings page.

Showing contact details

The player can show contact details for the programme and station.

To do this, start by adding details to the station. Go to the main menu in Aiir and select Stations, then tap your station. Scroll down to the Contact details section and fill in the fields.

Then head to the Player section of Aiir, tap the same station, and scroll down to the Contact details section. Here you can choose which of the contact details you would like to appear in the player.

It's also possible to override the contact details of the station for individual programmes.

To do this, head to the Programme Information section of Aiir, tap Programmes and then choose a programme to edit. Scroll down to the Contact details section to add specific details for this programme.

Programme contact details will always override station contact details.

Updating the live stream

To update the stream URL, head to the Player section of Aiir, select the station you'd like to update, and paste the URL into the Stream URL box.

If it's not working, these points may help:

  • Make sure you've not pasted in another player's URL. To check, paste the URL directly into your browser's address bar - if it opens a player, this is not your stream URL. Ask your streaming provider for the correct URL to use.
  • We advise using an MP3 or AAC audio stream, for compatibility with most browsers and devices.
  • Streams which require Adobe Flash player will no longer work in most browsers.
  • Some streaming providers use playlist files for load balancing. If you paste in a URL ending with '.pls', the player will attempt to read the file and extract the first URL.
  • If your website uses HTTPS/SSL (URLs start with https://) then you might need a stream URL that uses HTTPS too. Check if it begins "https", and if not, speak to your streaming
  • If you're still having problems getting your stream to work, speak to your streaming provider.

If you or your listeners are experiencing problems with your live stream, you should contact your streaming provider.

Aiir does not provide a streaming service, and we're unable to advise who you should contact.

Pre-roll ads

Aiir's Player supports a pre-roll video or audio ad. This can be set up in our Advertising app. 

When you create a new ad, select either "Player Pre-roll Video" or "Player Pre-roll Audio" for the Type option.

You can set up multiple pre-roll ads for your player, and they will appear in random rotation.

A pre-roll ad will play when you first tap the play button in the player, whether that's the live stream, or podcast or on demand item.

Only one pre-roll ad will play in one instance, and you shouldn't see another until you visit the player again, or refresh the page.

If you choose to show a skip button for an ad, it will appear in the corner of the ad, and count down from 5 before it becomes active.

In-stream ads

At time of writing, the player doesn't currently have built-in support for in-stream ad services like Adswizz. 

Please contact us if you use one of these services and the player needs to perform a specific function to support them.

Geo-blocking

If you need to prevent listeners from using your player from outside of your country, perhaps for music licensing reasons, you can enable geo-blocking.

Go to the Player section of Aiir, select your player, and then select the Advanced section. You'll find an option labelled "Geo-block".

When someone visits your player, their country is detected based on their IP address, and if that doesn't match the country set for your website in Site Settings, they will be immediately redirected to a page which explains why they can't listen.

Please note, this does not prevent someone from using your stream URL directly. If you need to apply geo-blocking to your stream, you should speak to your streaming provider.

Switching to our player from another

If you currently use another web player, such as Radioplayer, or a third-party player, it's straight forward to switch to Aiir's player.

You can use our player as your website's primary player while still continuing to use Radioplayer - the two work well alongside eachother.

Start by setting up the player like you normally would. It won't immediately replace your existing player.

You'll be able to see what the player looks like and get it ready before switching.

Then when you're ready, head to the Stations section of Aiir. Select your station, and then scroll down to the Website section. Change the "Player to use" option to "Aiir Player". Soon after you save your changes on this page, "Listen Live" buttons on your website will link to Aiir's player instead.

Switching from our player to different player

If you prefer, you can choose to use a different player instead of Aiir's Player.

  • If Radioplayer is available in your country, we've completely integrated with their service and made it really easy to use the Radioplayer web player on your website. You'll need to start by contacting your local Radioplayer representative and enquire about joining. Then set up the player in the Radioplayer section of Aiir.
  • You might decide to use a player hosted by a third-party, such as your streaming partner. They will need to provide you with the URL of the player, which is not the same as the stream URL.

To switch players, head to the Stations section of Aiir. Select your station, and then scroll down to the Website section. Change the "Player to use" option to the new player you wish to use. Soon after you save your changes on this page, "Listen Live" buttons on your website will link to the new player instead.

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