Use video metadata in Wowza Video

Video metadata includes additional information about your video that puts the video file into context and enhances its presentation. Metadata includes, among other things, title, description, geo blocking, and publishing time. 

Wowza Video includes standard metadata that is available for all customers as part of Wowza Video and custom metadata fields that you can add based on your needs.

Review the Video Details page UI reference article for information about configurations and definitions for video metadata fields and options.

Standard Wowza Video metadata

Field	Type	Description	Editable	Usage in Wowza Video
ID	Text (UUID value)	The unique id of the video in the platform. Used to identify the source in the player settings.	No	Used in the embed codes and to allocate player analytics to the video.
Title	Text	The main name/headline of the video.	Yes	Displays in the video player.
Description	Text	Longer byline describing the video.	Yes	Displays in the video player.
Publish time	Date	Time when the video is/should be shared.	Yes	Determines when the video is visible externally.
Unpublish time	Date	Time when the video is/should not be shared.	Yes	Determines when the video is no longer visible externally.
Tags	Text	Description of the content. Multiple tags can be added for each video.	Yes	Used to find content and also recommend related content. It's also used as part of rules to produce dynamic playlists.
Category	Category	A tree-like folder structure where each video can reside in one category.	Yes	Creates a tree hierarchy folder system for videos. Used to find content and also recommend related content. It's also used as part of rules to produce dynamic playlists.
Ads	Boolean	Possibility to disable ads on a specific video. Note that disabling ads is currently not supported in JS embeds.	Yes	For platform iframe embed to disable ads for specific videos.
Playback token behavior	Text	Options include: Follow Default – The token behavior is based on the Default Playback Token Behavior setting you select for your Wowza Video account. See the Org Settings Page in Wowza Video article for where to set this configuration. No Token – The embed service provided to the player is not tokenized. This is the default.  Basic Token – The embed service provided to the player is tokenized. This setting makes it hard for a viewer to extract the video URL and store it for usage in unintended applications over time since the embed URL, which has the token as part of the URL, will only be playable for 48 hours. The token auto renews after 48 hours when used in the intended application. Advanced Token – You add the stream's JS-embed code (Share Stream) and a token to your site to provide tokenization. The protections are similar to those for the Basic Token option except you customize the time limit, geographical limits, etc. during token creation.   You must, first, either: Customize and generate a token via the Wowza Video 2.0 API to add to your site. You'll need to, first, generate a key to create and sign the token.  Customize and generate a standard common access token (CAT) through the means you usually use to create tokens. You must, first, generate a key via the Wowza Video 2.0 to create and sign the token.	Yes	Use token authentication when distributing valuable or sensitive video content to audiences to ensure that only authorized users can access the content within the intended application. This allows for protection of intellectual property, compliance with regulations, and the ability to maintain control over content distribution. The basic token is embedded in the video's embed URL; the advanced token is embedded in the JS-embed code.
Ad keywords Note: This field is only available if the Ads field is enabled.	Text	Sends a custom message to the ad server for a specific video.	Yes	The ad plugin in the player uses this value for the ad_keywords macro.
Hide from endscreens and dynamic playlists	Boolean	When checked, the video will not display in endscreens or dynamic playlists and not be listed in MRSS feeds.	Yes	Use this to control how the video is presented.

Add video metadata

To add metadata:

1. Click Videos in the navigation.
2. Select a video from the Videos list.
3. In the Video Details page, under the Metadata tab, input the title of the video. 
4. Add a description.
5. Add a tag to the video. Create a tag from scratch, then add it to the video, if needed instead.
6. Choose a category list for the video.
7. Add geo blocking security, if needed.
8. Add a token playback behavior. 
9. Enable or disable ads.
10. Add any necessary ad keywords.
11. Select a publish date and time for the video.
12. Select an unpublish date and time for the video. You'll need to check the Enable box first if the unpublish option isn't enabled. 
13. If you want to have more control over how the video is presented, check the Hide From Endscreens and Dynamic Playlists checkbox. 
14.  Click Save Changes.

Add custom metadata information

In addition to the standard metadata information, you can configure additional metadata fields. Typical examples of fields that are useful as custom metadata fields are things like videographer or the external id of the video in another system.

To add custom metadata fields:

1. Click your profile in the top left of any screen.
2. Click Org Settings.
3. Under Custom Fields, click + Add Field.
4. In Custom Field 1, add the new custom metadata field. 
5. Click Update Custom Fields. The custom field now displays as a field under the Metadata tab in the video details page for a video.

To add an input for the customer metadata field you added:

1. Go to Videos in the navigation.
2. Select a video in the Videos list.
3. In the Metadata tab of the Video Details page, view the new custom metadata field under the Ad Keywords field and above the Publish Time field.
4. Input the custom metadata information in the field provided.
5. Click Save Changes.