# Using the player

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

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)
```

## The FPFlowplayer player

The core of the Wowza Flowplayer SDK is the `FPFlowplayer`, an object used to manage media playback, media assets, playback state, and player state.

Think about `FPFlowplayer` as the manager of your `AVPlayer` instance that's easy to use, configurable, and concise.

#### Declaration


```swift
public class FPFlowplayer {
    public init(player: AVPlayer, controller: UIViewController)
}
```

To create an `FPFlowplayer` instance, you need to provide the `AVPlayer` and the `UIViewController` that the `AVPlayer` instance is attached to.

#### Example


```swift
import AVKit
import Flowplayer

class ViewController: UIViewController {

	private var flowplayer: FPFlowplayer!
	private let player = AVPlayer()
	private let playerController = AVPlayerViewController()

	override func viewDidLoad() {
		super.viewDidLoad()
		playerController.player = player
		flowplayer = FPFlowplayer(player: player, controller: playerController)
	}
}
```

## FPFlowplayer media types

`FPFlowplayer` can play media directly from a media URL that you specify. The media type is `FPExternalMedia`.

### FPExternalMedia

The player can be loaded with a local or remote media URL. This is possible by providing 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/tvos-legacy/ads/).


```swift
let resourceURL = URL(string: "https://link.to.a.media.file")!
let media = FPExternalMedia(mediaUrl: resourceURL)
```

### 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
)
```

## Playing media

The method that's used to start media playback is called `load`. There are two overlays for it. Note that the `autoStart` attribute, when set to `true`, will automatically start the media playback as soon as it's ready to be played:


```swift

// External media
func load(external media: FPExternalMedia, autoStart: Bool)
```

#### Example


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

flowplayer.load(external: externalMedia, autoStart: true)
```