This article explains how the admin panel is laid out, what the Studio tab shows, and how to start, stop, restart, or skip on a channel.
Panel layout
The left sidebar contains settings that apply to all your channels, followed by your list of channels:
| Sidebar item | What it's for |
|---|---|
| + New channel | Create another channel. |
| Ad Settings | Global ad settings used by every channel that doesn't override them. |
| Branding | Your logo for the admin panel and sign-in page. |
| Analytics | Viewer numbers across all channels. |
| Settings | Interface language. |
| Backup | Backup destination, history, and restore. |
| Channel list | Each channel, with its current viewer count (????). Click a channel to manage it. |
After you select a channel, its tabs appear across the top: Studio, Media Library, Station IDs, Playlists, Scheduler, Go Live, Simulcast, Ads, Widgets, Roku, Analytics, and Settings. Everything on these tabs applies only to the selected channel.
On a phone or narrow window, the sidebar is hidden behind the ? menu button.
The system monitor bar
The strip at the top of the page shows server health at a glance: CPU, Memory, Disk, Load average, Network traffic in each direction, Uptime, and Engine RAM. If CPU stays near 100%, viewers will see buffering. The Channel settings article explains how to reduce encoding load.
Below it, Restart admin panel restarts only the admin panel. Your broadcasts aren't interrupted.
The Studio tab
The Studio tab is the channel's control room:
- Program monitor: a live preview of exactly what viewers receive. The badge shows AIR during scheduled playout and LIVE while you're broadcasting live. The preview starts muted, so click it or ???? Unmute to hear audio.
- Now playing: whether the channel is live, playing a scheduled block (with its name and time window), or looping the default playlist. It also lists the items in the current playlist.
- Public stream URL: the channel's
.m3u8address. The embed codes are on the Widgets tab.
If nothing is scheduled and the default playlist is empty, the channel shows an off-air placeholder.
Channel master control
The This Channel bar at the top of the Studio tab controls only the selected channel:
| Button | What it does |
|---|---|
| ? Start | Brings a stopped channel back on air. |
| ? Stop | Takes the channel off air. The status changes to CHANNEL STOPPED. |
| ? Restart | Restarts this channel's playout. Viewers see a gap of a few seconds. |
| ? Skip | Jumps to the next item in the playlist. It's available only while scheduled content is airing, not while you're live. |
The playout engine controls
The bottom of the sidebar shows the status of the playout engine, which broadcasts every channel. Its ? / ? / ? buttons affect all channels at once, so use them only if every channel is stuck. In normal use, the per-channel controls above are all you need.
The engine is also checked automatically. Every minute, a watchdog checks that each running channel is still producing video, and restarts the engine if one has stalled.
