Documentation

What is M Playout?

A browser-based channel automation system. You upload videos, arrange them into playlists, schedule them, add broadcast graphics, and the server streams the result 24×7 to platforms such as YouTube and Facebook or to any RTMP, SRT or UDP destination — without a playout PC running at your end.

• Media, graphics and playlists are stored in the cloud.
• The engine switches automatically between the master playlist, scheduled playlists, categories and ad breaks.
• Graphics include a logo, two looping overlay slots, an L-band squeeze, a ticker, a clock, schedule information, a back-in countdown, and Now / Next titles.

Dashboard

The dashboard is your control room. It shows the live output preview, whether the channel is ON AIR, uptime, the clip now playing with its progress and what plays next, which source is active (master, schedule, category or break), the status of each output, disk usage, upcoming schedules and your subscription.

Buttons let you Start / Stop the channel, Skip to the next clip, Refresh graphics, and turn Random mode on or off. The Graphics on/off row toggles each on-screen element instantly.

Disk quota & usage

Each plan has a storage quota covering your videos, overlays, logos and thumbnails. The usage bar on the dashboard and upload page shows how much is used.

• At 100% further uploads are blocked.
• Delete unused videos (you can select several at once on All videos) to free space.
• Need more? Upgrade your plan or ask us for extra storage.

Uploading videos

1. Open Upload videos and choose the clip type — Clip/Program, Promo or Break/Ad.
2. Drag files onto the drop area or click to browse. Select as many as you like.
3. Each file shows its own progress. When processing finishes, the clip appears in All videos with title, duration, resolution, codecs and size, plus a generated thumbnail.

Supported formats & codecs

Size, duration & resolution limits

• Maximum resolution: 3840×2160 (4K). Everything is scaled to your output resolution automatically, with letterboxing when aspect ratios differ.
• Maximum clip length: 6 hours.
• In practice your quota and upload speed are the real limits.

Managing videos

On All videos, use the edit button to change a clip's title, subtitle and type. Titles and subtitles appear in the Now / Next graphics.

Changing the thumbnail: play the clip in the edit window and click Use current frame as thumbnail, or upload your own image.

Deleting a clip also removes it from any playlists that use it.

Live sources

Bring a live feed into your programming: on All videos click Add live source, give it a title, the URL (rtmp://, srt://, udp://, rtsp:// or an HLS https://…m3u8) and how long it should play. Add it to playlists or schedule it like any clip. If the feed is down when it is due, the engine moves on to the next item.

Playlists

1. Go to Playlists → New playlist, name it and choose Program or Break.
2. In the editor, add clips from the library on the left (or Add all shown).
3. Drag the handles to reorder. The total duration and each item's start offset update as you go.
4. Click Save playlist.

Choose the Master playlist at the top of the Playlists page. The master plays whenever nothing else is scheduled and loops forever.

Random mode

With random mode on, the master picks the next clip at random each time a clip ends. Clips always play from start to finish, and the same clip never plays twice in a row. Turn it off to return to the saved order.

Priority-based playlist categories

Categories assign a playlist to a daily time window with a priority (1 is highest) and chosen weekdays. When several categories are active at once, they form a queue:

• The highest-priority category plays all its unplayed items first.
• When it is exhausted, playback moves to the next category by priority.
• Only when every active category is exhausted are they all reset together, starting again from priority 1.
• At the window's end, the category stops at the next clip boundary. Items it didn't reach remain unplayed and are played first next time.

This means no category starves another and nothing repeats inside an overlap — ideal for promos, compliance blocks and editorial rotations. Use Reset played in a playlist to start its rotation over.

Scheduling a playlist

1. Open Schedule → Schedule playlist.
2. Choose the playlist and the start date and time (in your channel's time zone).
3. Optionally tick Repeat weekly and pick the days.
4. Choose Hard start to cut whatever is playing at exactly that second, or leave it off for a soft start at the end of the current clip.

The 24-hour timeline shows everything coming up. A clip that would overrun a hard start is trimmed so the scheduled show starts on time.

Schedule at end

Schedule at end places a playlist immediately after the last one-time schedule finishes — perfect for building an evening line-up back-to-back without calculating times.

How the active source is chosen

1. A scheduled playlist whose time window covers now.
2. An automatic ad break, if one is due.
3. Active playlist categories, in priority order.
4. The master playlist.
5. A filler slate showing your channel name — the output never goes black, even with an empty library.

If the engine restarts during a hard-start schedule, it rejoins the schedule at the correct point.

Automatic ad breaks

On the Schedule page, enable Automatic ad breaks, choose a Break playlist, how often (every N minutes) and how many spots per break. Breaks are inserted at clip boundaries in the master playlist and rotate through your spots. The Back-in timer counts down during breaks and scheduled break playlists.

Channel settings (graphics)

The Channel settings page shows a preview of your frame. Click an element in the list or on the preview, drag it into place and use the corner handle to resize. Each text element has its own font, size, colour, outline, shadow and optional background box with opacity.

Positions and sizes are saved as percentages of the frame, so they stay correct if you change the output resolution. Click Save & apply on air; the change appears on the live output within a few seconds.

Logo

1. Upload a PNG with transparency (or a MOV with alpha for an animated logo) on Overlays & logos.
2. In Channel settings, select Logo, choose the file, drag it into place, and set width and opacity.

Overlay A & B

Overlay slots A and B each play a rotation of graphics one after another on top of your programme — ideal for promos, lower-thirds and sponsor messages.

• Upload overlays (MOV with alpha, WEBM, or PNG images) on Overlays & logos and add them to slot A or B. Drag to set the order.
• Still images show for the number of seconds you set.
• In Channel settings, position and size each slot and set the gap (seconds of nothing) between graphics — a short gap keeps transitions clean.

L-band

The L-band squeezes your programme into a smaller window and fills the rest of the frame with your background image — use it for news tickers, weather, sponsors or scores. Upload an L-band background, then in Channel settings select L-band, choose the image, set the programme size and drag the window into place.

Ticker

Enter one headline per line; they scroll continuously separated by your chosen separator. Set the font, size, speed, text colour, band colour and opacity, and drag the band up or down. Editing the ticker text updates the output without interrupting the programme.

Start RTMP streaming

1. Open Streaming → Add output and choose a preset (YouTube Live, Facebook Live, Twitch or custom RTMP).
2. Paste the stream key from your platform (the server URL is filled in for presets).
3. Back on the dashboard, click Start.

Each output shows its own status: Connecting, Live or Reconnecting with the last error. If a platform drops the connection, that output retries automatically while the others keep streaming.

SRT & UDP

• SRT is reliable over the public internet with adjustable latency — enter srt://host:port (caller mode), an optional stream ID and the latency in milliseconds.
• UDP sends MPEG-TS to an IP and port, typically inside private networks or to a downstream encoder or IRD.

Encoding settings

On the Streaming page's Encoding tab choose resolution (360p–1080p, depending on plan), frame rate, keyframe interval, video and audio bitrate and encoder speed preset. Output is H.264 High profile with AAC stereo, accepted by every major platform. Saving restarts the encoder, so outputs blink for a few seconds.

Monitoring & logs

The live preview plays your actual output. The status badge, uptime counter and Now/Next panel refresh automatically every few seconds. The Logs & status tab on the Streaming page shows the encoder and decoder process IDs and the engine log: every clip change, schedule switch, reconnect and warning.

Once started, the channel runs on the server independently of your browser — log out, close the tab or turn off your computer and it stays on air.

Profile & channel name

Update your contact details and password on the Subscription page. Change the channel name and time zone (used by schedules, categories and the clock) at the bottom of Channel settings.

Subscription & payments

The Subscription page shows your plan, status, expiry date, storage and payment history. To activate or renew, choose a plan and period, pay using the instructions shown (UPI, bank transfer or PayPal), and submit your transaction reference. Your channel is activated or extended as soon as the payment is confirmed. Renewals extend from your current expiry date, so you never lose days by renewing early.