# Using the player

This article is a brief introduction to the player API to help you quickly get started.

info
To enable `AVPlayer` to play audio on physical devices, you *must* add the following code snippet before starting any video/audio playback.


```swift
try! AVAudioSession.sharedInstance().setCategory(.playback)
```

## Add the player to UIView

The core of the Wowza Flowplayer SDK is the `FPFlowplayerViewController` which inherits from `UIViewController` and can, therefore, be added to a `UIView` or to a `UIViewController` in an ordinary fashion like so:


```swift
import UIKit
import Flowplayer

class PlayerViewController: UIViewController {
    @IBOutlet var containerView: UIView!

    private let flowplayerViewController = FPFlowplayerViewController()

    override func viewDidAppear(_ animated: Bool) {
        // Add to a container view or directly to your UIViewController's view.
        containerView.addSubview(flowplayerViewController.view)
    }
}
```

You can also add `FPFlowplayerViewController` to your Storyboard similar to any other `UIViewController`.

## Prepare the player

`FPFlowplayerViewController` can play media directly from a media URL that you specify.

The player can be prepared with a local or remote media URL. This is possible by preparing the player with an `ExternalVideo` instance as shown below.

An `FPExternalMedia` may, optionally, contain an `FPAdSchedule` as well. For more information about ads, see [Advertisement](/docs/wowza-flowplayer/apple-sdk/ios-legacy/ads/).


```swift
let externalMedia = FPExternalMedia(mediaUrl: URL(string: "https://link.to.a.media.file")!)
flowplayerViewController.prepare(externalMedia: externalMedia, autoStart: true)
```

### Limiting video bitrate

When playing HLS media, you can configure the preferred maximum peak bitrate. You can achieve this by defining the preferred peak bitrate as a double when constructing the media:


```swift
// ExternalMedia
let externalMedia = FPExternalMedia(
    mediaUrl: URL(string: "https://link.to.a.media.file.hls")!,
    preferredPeakBitRate: 500_000
)
```

### Getting the current playback type

`FPFlowplayerViewController` contains the property `playbackType` which is a type of `FPPlaybackType`.

`FPPlaybackType` is an enum that contains four values:

- `.vod`: Video on demand type.
- `.live`: Livestream type.
- `.file`: File type (e.g. MP4).
- `.unknown`: Media type is not known.


This property indicates what type of playback type is
currently being displayed by the player.

info
Make sure to use this property after the player has loaded
the media. If you try to use it before, it will return the `.unknown` type as nothing is being played by the player.

The recommended way is to use it inside of `onPlay` event.

### Background playback

To enable background video playback inside of your app, you need to do the following:

1. Enable **Background Modes** capability.
2. Connect or disconnect the Video Player inside of `AppDelegate` or `SceneDelegate`.
3. Enable the **`enableBackgroundPlayback`** property of `FPFlowplayerViewController`.


info
For more information. please visit [Apple's documentation](https://developer.apple.com/documentation/avfoundation/media_playback/creating_a_basic_video_player_ios_and_tvos/enabling_background_audio).

#### Example


```swift
// AppDelegate.swift
private var savedPlayerInstance: AVPlayer?

func applicationDidEnterBackground(_ application: UIApplication) {
  let topController = window?.rootViewController as? SomeControllerWhereIUseFlowplayer

  savedPlayerInstance = topController?.videoController.avPlayer

  // Continue playback in the background
  topController?.videoController.avPlayer = nil
}

func applicationWillEnterForeground(_ application: UIApplication) {
  guard savedPlayerInstance != nil else { return }

  // Continue Foreground playback
  let topController = window?.rootViewController as? SomeControllerWhereIUseFlowplayer

  topController?.videoController.avPlayer = self.savedPlayerInstance // Reconnect
  self.savedPlayerInstance = nil
}
```


```swift
// SomeControllerWhereIUseFlowplayer.swift
let videoController = FPFlowplayerViewController()

override func viewDidLoad() {
  super.viewDidLoad()

  videoController.enableBackgroundPlayback = true

}
```