video api

video industry

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Emilien Gobillot

Video trends

**The comeback of specialized hardware and its impact on the video industry**

Over the past few decades, the trend in computing has been toward general-purpose computing systems that can run a wide variety of applications. This has led to the widespread use of [CPUs and GPUs](https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/docs/processors/cpu-vs-gpu.html). However, there has been a recent resurgence of interest in specialized hardware, which is designed specifically to perform one or a few tasks extremely efficiently. In this blog post, we will explore the reasons behind this trend and some of the critical examples of specialized hardware being used in the video industry today.

**Why is specialized hardware making a comeback in computing?**

Specialized hardware in the computing industry refers to computer components or devices designed for a specific purpose, such as application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs)  or systems-on-a-chip (SoCs) . These hardware components are optimized for their specific task, resulting in faster and more efficient performance than general-purpose hardware.

Several factors have contributed to the recent resurgence of specialized hardware in computer science:

* **High efficiency : Why we want it quick and ressource-efficient**

One key driver is the increasing demand for high-performance solutions. Artificial intelligence, machine learning and video processing are domains where CPUs are far from being the right solution. Regarding AI workloads, training, and running models are more efficient on GPU and even better on specialized hardware like Tensor processing units (TPUs). Google has been the first to design TPUs. These ASICs (Application Specific Integrated Circuits) outperform the CPUs.

Why are CPUs outperformed ? In early 2023 commodity servers come with 1 or 2 sockets and maximum 96 cores per socket for the x86 microarchitecture (128 for ARM). On the other hand, a server with a mid range CPUs can receive several ASICs/TPUs on the PCIe ports. Those boosted systems outperforms by a lot the CPUs based system. The TPUv4, in terms of Tflops is 2000x faster than a laptop according to Google.

The benefits of a specialized hardware is that it provides better performance, higher density and a lower energy consumption than the classic CPUs.

In most cases, TPU/ASIC > GPU > CPU on the 3 criteria : performance, density, and energy savings.

* **Total Cost of Ownership (TCO): Why It's Worth the cost**

Specialized hardware exhibits smaller size, higer speed, and greater electrical efficiency. As a result the density increases and the number of computing units decreases. At the end, the TCO is improved. After the switch to ASICs based VCUs (Video coding unit), Youtube is [reported](https://www.semianalysis.com/p/google-new-custom-silicon-replaces) to have saved millions of CPUs ! At this scale you also save data centers 💰

**How specialized hardware is changing the game in the video industry**

In the video industry, one of the most computationally intensive processes is video transcoding, especially for high-quality videos. Transcoding decodes a video from one codec and encodes it to another, such as from H.264 to H.265. This process can also involve changing other video parameters like resolution, bit rate, frame rate, etc. This has led to a need for fast and efficient video transcoding solutions without sacrificing the video quality output.

Transcoding is a service api.video provides in addition to hosting and delivery. Via an API call, a video is uploaded, and then the URL of the video is returned immediately. Note that high resolution and new codecs increase the computational cost.

Similarly to Artificial Intelligence (AI), several types of hardware are commonly used in video transcoding applications:

1. ASICs (Application Specific Integrated Circuits): Video ASICs are specialized hardware accelerators designed specifically for video processing tasks, such as video encoding/ decoding / transcoding. They are sometimes called VPU (Video Processing Unit) or VCU (Video coding Unit). They significantly improve performance over traditional CPUs, particularly for high-resolution or high-frame-rate video. Alphabet, the mother company of Google and YouTube has designed its own ASICs : codename Argos. For a system with 20 VCUs, the TCO has decreased by a 33x factor for VP9 encoding, and throughput increased by a 100x factor!

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Facebook/ Meta made the same move to specific hardware. They partnered with silicon vendors to [design custom ASICs](https://engineering.fb.com/2019/03/14/data-center-engineering/accelerating-infrastructure/).

The electric consumption of an ASIC is around a few watts.

2. FPGAs (Field-programmable gate arrays): FPGAs are programmable hardware devices that can be customized for specific applications, including video transcoding. They can provide significant performance improvements over traditional CPUs for certain types of video transcoding tasks, such as simultaneously encoding or decoding multiple video streams. Twitch is using an [FPGA from Xilinx](https://blog.twitch.tv/en/2018/12/19/how-v-p9-delivers-value-for-twitch-s-esports-live-streaming-35db26f6322f/).

The electric consumption is around 25 W for a PCIe card

3. Graphics processing units (GPUs): GPUs are another type of hardware. This hardware is more generic than FPGA and ASIC, but specialized video encoders/decoders are added to these cards. Nvidia was the first company to build a datacenter GPU for transcoding. Intel enters the market in late 2022.

The electric consumption is generally around 70W.

Regarding energy consumption ASICs > (are better than) FPGAs > GPU > CPU. This order is the same for the transcoding speed.

**Reducing the carbon footprint of video transcoding : api.video’s approach**

At api.video we are really focused on the energy consumption of our transcoding pipeline. We want to minimize the ecological impact of video transcoding while keeping the transcoding speed high. The infrastructure team has performed multiple benchmarks, and here are the results.

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Those numbers are based on public information (marketing sheet) for the GPUs and FPGAs and real benchmarks for the CPU and ASICs. The quality of the video's output could change the results slightly, but we clearly see a winner regarding power efficiency. In a future blog post, we will share precise benchmarks about the ASICs vs. CPU battle with you. Stay tuned.

Along this article, we have seen the resurgence of dedicated hardware in computer science is driven by a growing need for high-performance computing, particularly in fields like artificial intelligence, machine learning, and video transcoding. Dedicated hardware can provide better performance and energy efficiency than traditional general-purpose computing units, making it an attractive option for many applications. As computing continues to evolve, we will likely see more specialized hardware being developed for specific tasks, driving innovation and progress in the field. 

Our video API allows you to add videos to your products while prioritizing the reduction of your carbon footprint. [Join us](https://api.video/) and take part of the transition to an environmentally responsible video infrastructure.

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The comeback of specialized hardware

next.js

api video plugin

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GitHub Yohann

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LinkedIn Yohann

Yohann Martzolff

Tutorials

JavaScript

Typescript

Next.js

React

No doubt, Next.js is one of the best React framework for full-stack web applications.

What if you want to create your own video application? A Next.js boilerplate with all [api.video](http://api.video) features is ready for you to begin your journey 🧑‍💻 

## What’s a boilerplate 🤔

A boilerplate is a unit of writing that can be reused without change. The idea is sometimes applied to reusable programming, and that’s the case here: our Next.js boilerplate is a starter pack containing all [api.video](http://api.video) features that anybody can use, without having to change anything in it to start a new project. 

Of course, you are free to modify anything once your application is running!

## What can I achieve with this boilerplate 🥇

After the boilerplate has been bootstrapped, you can run your brand-new application and enjoy [api.video](http://api.video) features!

Upload videos, display them as a list, and play any video in a fully customizable player.

[api.video](http://api.video) proposes many more endpoints to manage and create a complete video application.
Check [our documentation](https://docs.api.video/docs) to learn about this.

## Get started 🏁

Find out about ***[how to use our boilerplate](https://github.com/vercel/next.js/tree/canary/examples/with-apivideo)*** on the README file, or follow the guide bellow 👇 

1. Create a new Next.js application by running one of the following commands in a new terminal and following the command prompts.

2. Rename the `.env.local.example` file with `.env`.
3. Find your API key in the [api.video](http://api.video) dashboard [API keys section](https://dashboard.api.video/apikeys) and add its value to the API_KEY environment variable in the `.env` file.

💡 If you don’t already have an api.video account, create a free one [here](https://dashboard.api.video/register).

4. Start your application by running `yarn dev` in your terminal, and voilà!

You should be able to see a basic sample app from where you can upload videos and see them as a list.

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Everything in this application is set up to build a complete video application, from Next.js to api.video, enjoy coding! 

Find the full boilerplate in the official Next.js repository [right here](https://github.com/vercel/next.js/tree/canary/examples/with-apivideo).

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api.video Next.js boilerplate: start your video project the easy way

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Neda Ashrafi Amiri

Product updates

If you have some technical knowledge, you know it’s not the wisest decision to create and develop your product from scratch. Why reinvent the wheel? To successfully create an application or a website, you need to take advantage of what is already out there and add that extra bit to make your product unique and competitive 🏃🏾‍♀️🏃‍

Each tech company can only provide you with some of your needs. While WordPress is ideal for developing your company website, WooCommerce is an excellent tool for adding a webshop, and api.video is specialized for managing your videos on your site. This means that you depend on various suppliers for tools and apps to create an end product 📲 

api.video has made it its mission to create a strong network of plugins, clients, libraries, and other no-code or low-code tools, namely api.video's ecosystem. We know what our strengths are, and at the same time, we acknowledge the power of our peers. We work towards making it easy to add api.video to your product and combine it with the rest of the tools you need to create your solution.

Over the past year, api.video’s ecosystem has had a staggering growth to ensure that you can easily add, manage, and playback videos into your products anywhere on the web and mobile. In this article, we will look at some of the most popular items in our ecosystem and how they can help you create your solution, whether it's an application or a website 💻

## api.video’s ecosystem - the highlights 🏆

Let’s look at some of our most recent and popular additions to our ecosystem and find out how you can benefit from each tool.

🧩  [Video import tool](https://import.api.video/)

Some of you were looking to move away from your current video providers and switch to api.video services for various reasons such as gaining more control over your video content and benefiting from the flexible pricing plans that we offer. We saw this as a great opportunity to introduce an ultimate video import tool that allows you to quickly and easily import your videos from another provider (e.g. Dropbox or Vimeo) to your api.video dashboard.

🧩  [Plugin for WordPress](https://api.video/blog/product-updates/wordpress-plugin)

WordPress is the world’s most popular Content Management System (CMS) that allows you to create your blog or website without bothering with too much development. A large number of WordPress users were looking for a video provider with more security and higher availability rates than some of the more commercial video providers out there such as YouTube. Becoming aware of this gap in the market, we developed a plugin to offer api.video services for WordPress users.

With our WordPress plugin, you can embed and manage your videos into your WordPress website or blog using our HTML5 video player and manage your videos from your WordPress admin interface.

🧩  [Plugin for Strapi](https://api.video/blog/tutorials/api-video-strapi-plugin-add-videos-to-your-headless-cms)

If you are looking for a CMS that gives you freedom and doesn’t lock you in any way, then Strapi headless CMS is your ticket out! Strapi is one of the most popular headless CMSs out there that saves you a lot of development time while enabling you to use your favorite tools to bring content to your website and application.

api.video created a powerful plugin that is a perfect fit for you who wish to add videos to your content but also have the possibility to customize and manage your videos as you wish.

**🧩  [Player](https://api.video/blog/tutorials/api-video-player-for-flutter-playback-videos-on-your-apps) and [uploader](https://github.com/apivideo/api.video-flutter-uploader) for Flutter

Android, iOS, and web, all require a certain way of development with different coding languages. This is where Flutter comes and makes your lives as developers easier. No more developing multiple applications and websites with hours and hours of coding. With Flutter, you create once and generate for multiple devices. Here is where api.video comes to complete your application development journey.

We built an api.video customizable player for Flutter built natively for Android, iOS, and the web. We also created an uploader that allows you to upload your videos to [api.video](http://api.video/) from your Flutter application. These are very specific needs that go a long way to making your development journey smoother.

🧩  Players for [Android](https://api.video/blog/tutorials/how-to-add-an-api-video-player-to-your-android-application) and [iOS](https://api.video/blog/tutorials/how-to-add-an-api-video-swift-player-to-your-ios-application) applications

Are you creating an Android or iOS application and want to add videos? api.video has developed players that help you with just that. A hassle-free and quick way to add your videos but also have the options to adjust to screen size and customise your players as you want.

🧩  [Accessible player](https://api.video/player/)

We work everyday to remove any technological barriers so that any group of society can easily use api.video’s services. Whether a person experiences vision impairments or hearing impairments, it’s our ultimate mission to make api.video accessible for all users. We made sure to develop our video player including ARIA attributes so that it’s accessible to all screen reader users.

We have many more interesting and useful tools in our ecosystem. Go and browse through our [ecosystem catalog](https://dashboard.api.video/catalog), [blog](https://api.video/blog/), and [GitHub](https://github.com/apivideo) page to find out the many more opportunities that are available when it comes to building your solution!

## api.video’s ecosystem- tutorials, use-cases, and support 🔦

When it comes to creating a strong and powerful ecosystem, many companies often forget the very important part of this journey which is the pedagogical part. At api.video we don’t just push the latest trendy plugins on our ecosystem; we also ensure that we provide the right tutorials, use-cases, and customer support that goes with our new tools. It’s an intuitive web of elements that make our ecosystem catalog unique and stands out from our competitors.

### Tutorials ✍️

Whenever we launch a new item on our ecosystem catalog, our team plans a tutorial that helps our users to navigate the new tool. Our tutorials can range from being a simple step-by-step guide to a quick video demo that display how to use and explore our new tool.

Here are three of the latest examples:

1. [Switch to api.video with our fast & easy video import tool](https://api.video/blog/tutorials/switch-to-api-video-with-our-fast-easy-video-import-tool)
2. [api.video Strapi Plugin: Add videos to your headless CMS](https://api.video/blog/tutorials/api-video-strapi-plugin-add-videos-to-your-headless-cms)
3. [api.video player for Flutter: playback videos on your apps](https://api.video/blog/tutorials/api-video-player-for-flutter-playback-videos-on-your-apps)

You can find many more tutorials on our [blog](https://api.video/blog/).

### Use-cases 💡

You may have the will to create the next best application but not quite know what you can create with our tools! We provide use-case-based articles to give you plenty of ideas that can inspire you and bring your creativity to life! 

You want to create your own TikTok or Loom-like app? Browse through some of the articles that we have written with real-life implementations that our ecosystem team has put together:

- **[Build a YouTube-like site with no code](https://api.video/blog/no-code/bubble-io-api-video-build-a-youtube-like-site-with-no-code)**
- **[Build your own TikTok](https://api.video/blog/tutorials/rebuilding-tiktok-with-api-video)**
- **[Create a Udemy-like learning platform](https://api.video/blog/tutorials/how-to-create-a-udemy-like-learning-platform)**
- **[Build a Loom-like app with just a few lines of code](https://api.video/blog/tutorials/build-a-loom-like-app-with-just-a-few-lines-of-code)**
- **[How to Be Like Netflix with the Power of api.video Analytics](https://api.video/blog/video-trends/how-to-be-like-netflix-with-the-power-of-api-video-analytics)**

We have many more articles that can inspire you. Check out our [blog](https://api.video/blog/), and feel free to [contact us](https://api.video/contact) if you have any feedback or other ideas that you would like to explore!

### Documentation 📚

Developers love a neat documentation that helps them navigate through code libraries. We work towards refining our documentation everyday to make your lives easier. Check out our [documentation](https://docs.api.video/docs/apivideo-api-reference) page and our [GitHub](https://github.com/apivideo) pages for more information!

### Support 🤝

It doesn’t end with a new tool, a tutorial, or a use-case article. We know that every one of you may have a very specific and individual need that requires our one-on-one attention. Therefore we ensure that our experts are available to answer your questions or hear your feedback anytime. Chat with us or [email us](https://api.video/contact) whenever it suits you! We are located in EU-zone to answer all your requirements!

## What is next for the api.video’s ecosystem 🧗🏼‍♂️

We are currently working on a few exciting projects to expand our ecosystem catalog! Here is a sneak peak of the closest upcoming projects **👀**

- new providers in the import tool
- brand new open source HTML5 player
- new plugins & integrations in CMS & no code platforms
- continue to improve & to add features to our existing SDKs
- a new Firebase plugin to help mobile app developers to easily build UGC apps

We work towards developing tools that make it easier for you to upload, manage, and smoothly playback your videos in small or large quantities on your websites and applications. 

🚀 [Get started](https://dashboard.api.video/register) for free at api.video and follow us on our growth journey 💫

api video ecosystem plugins no-code tools

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Our ecosystem: connect api.video with your product 🔌

Dropbox

vimeo

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Neda & Aya

🎉 We introduce an ultimate [video import tool](https://import.api.video/) that allows you to quickly and easily import your videos from another provider (e.g. dropbox) to your [api.video](http://api.video) dashboard. All you need is an API key and the provider’s access token. 

In this article, we will go through the reasons why you would switch to api.video streaming services and the simple steps of importing your video content to api.video. 🎬 We have also created a video demo to use the api.video import tool. 

## Why switch to api.video?

We have designed our services in a way that prioritizes the requirements and needs of your product. From playback speed and quality to a customized player, api.video ensures that your application and website maintain the professionalism that is required by a competitively savvy industry.

All video streaming services are different and don’t offer the same quality or features. When choosing a video streaming service, there are a bunch of things to consider. Here are some of the top reasons we think that you would benefit by switching to api.video 🕊️

- 🎖️ **Quality and speed** - With api.video, you ensure a seamless playback experience every time!
- 🎖️ **Easy-to-use** - api.video has a straightforward interface that makes large-scale video uploading easy. Our services are scalable and can grow with your business.
- 🎖️ **Scalable** - You certainly don’t want to be in a position where your business has grown, and your streaming service doesn’t allow you to reach your growing number of users. The api.video infrastructure embraces the multi-faceted and competitive markets we live in today.
- 🎖️ **Multi-use** - api.video simultaneously lets you explore different business areas, such as social networking, educational content management, or any other video-centric and user-generated content (UGC) areas.
- 🎖️ **Adaptable** - api.video is a streaming service adaptable to multiple programming languages, so you as a business don’t need to worry about which programming language would work for api.video. Instead, we will suit your needs.
- 🎖️ **Affordable** - api.video cares for it’s customers’ businesses as their growth directly affects our growth, and our prices reflect our understanding of our customers and the market they operate in.

These were only some of the top reasons to switch to api.video. There are plenty more reasons that we are the right fit for you. Check out our [website](https://api.video/) and features to find out more! 

Do you want to switch to api.video? Yes? Then let's get started 🚀

## How to use the api.video import tool?

Our import tool is super easy to use and its intuitive interface makes it a piece of cake 🍰

By using our video import tool, you skip the hassle of manually re-uploading your videos to our services. Moreover, our video import tool is free and open-source which makes it both accessible and flexible. 

Here is a demo video that goes through the following topics:

- What you need to get started?
- How to import your videos?




### What you need to get started?

There are two things you need to do before starting to import your videos to [api.video](http://api.video); **copy the api.video key** and **get your provider’s access token**. 

1. **Copy the api.video key**

Do you have an api.video account? No? [Sign up for free](https://dashboard.api.video/register)!

Once you have an api.video account, log in and on the Overview page, you will find your API key as shown below. Copy the key!

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Read more about our [Sandbox account](https://docs.api.video/docs) and our [paid plans](https://api.video/pricing) to find a solution that suits you best.

2. **Get your source provider’s access token**

Each provider can have a different method of authorization. For some providers, it could be as easy as logging into your account, and for other providers, you may need a special access token. In the next section, we will show you how to find that information quickly with our help.

3. **Go to the video import tool**

You can access the video import tool in different ways. 

*  Enter the following link:  [https://import.api.video/](https://import.api.video/)

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You can also access the video import tool using the *video import tool button/tile* from your api.video dashboard on the following dashboard pages:

*  [Overview](https://dashboard.api.video/overview)
*  [Videos](https://dashboard.api.video/videos)
*  [Ecosystem Catalog](https://dashboard.api.video/catalog)

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### How to import your videos?

Let’s take a look at how you can import your videos to api.video with a few easy steps!

**Step 1 - Select source**

A source is the video provider that you wish to import your videos from. For example; select Vimeo from the list.

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**Step 2 - Authentication**

Here, you will need to paste the API key that you have copied from your [api.video](http://api.video) dashboard before and enter the authentication of the source provider. As mentioned before, every video provider has their own authentication methods. Once you enter the authentication step, there is information about your selected source and how you can easily get the required authentication. 

Here is an example of Vimeo’s Authentication step. As you can see, we have created a separate guide on [how to generate your access token](https://import.api.video/doc/generate-a-vimeo-access-token) on Vimeo.

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**Step 3 - Video selection**

Select the videos that you want to import from the source; in this case Vimeo. Here you can see if you have already imported a video. You can also see the videos you haven’t imported under *new videos* and select the ones you wish to import from the list. 

Don’t worry, if you have deleted an imported video on your api.video dashboard, that video will reappear under *new videos*.

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**Step 4 - Import progress**

Done! The videos are already being uploaded to your api.video dashboard and you can see their ingesting and encoding status and play the video when it’s ready.

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## Useful metadata

With each video that you import to api.video, we provide the relevant metadata that could be very useful to you. You can find this metadata on your api.video dashboard. The metadata can inform you whether the video has been imported before, the initial provider’s name, and other helpful information.

You can always see your previous imports as long as you haven’t deleted the imported videos from api.video dashboard in the [https://import.api.video/imports](https://import.api.video/imports) page.

Simply enter your api.video API key, and get the results!

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You can also view each import and its videos separately if you click on it from the list.

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### You don’t have to worry about losing your videos!

Your video safety is our priority  👈 Our video import tool makes sure that you have the freedom to choose when you wish to delete your videos at your source video provider.  When you import your videos to api.video, your videos are imported to api.video but NOT deleted on your account with the source provider. For example, once you import your videos from let’s say Vimeo to api.video, your videos will be kept on your Vimeo account but also available on api.video. 

We hope that you found this tutorial useful and our video import tool helpful for your future endeavour! Test out our [video import tool](https://import.api.video/providers) today by [signing up for free](https://dashboard.api.video/register) 🎈

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Switch to api.video with our fast & easy video import tool

Video stream

2022 is coming to an end, but for us, it’s just the beginning of a new era 🦋

It has been a year full of innovations and growth for the api.video team. We did everything to make video streaming simpler and easier than ever before! Adding videos to your products is our mission and our everyday mantra 🧘‍♀️

In this article, we would like to celebrate 🎉 and look back on some of the major highlights of 2022 together 🥂 

## **All-in-one infrastructure 🎈**

We built an infrastructure that is strong and independent. api.video offers an all-in-one dedicated encoding machines and CDN setup. We have observed 100% availability of our services this year, with no downtimes. What does this mean for you? We ensure that you have stability and control over all your videos. We also monitor and track important data to improve performance and provide a flawless playback experience for your viewers.

## **Ecosystem designed for you** 🔌

You 🫵 yes you. You were our main focus this year! And you will always be our main focus. Whether you are a content enthusiast looking to add videos to your Content Management System (CMS), or a developer wanting to skip the hassles of developing applications for multiple operating systems, we created the right tools for you.

We have a growing ecosystem with many new plugins, clients, libraries, and other no-code tools. Now you can easily add videos to your favorite applications with just a few clicks!

Here is a list of some of the tools we designed for you this year 🧩

- [Plugin for WordPress](https://api.video/blog/product-updates/wordpress-plugin)  - A plugin to embed and manage your videos into your WordPress website or blog.
- [iOS client](https://api.video/blog/product-updates/new-ios-api-client) - A client that removes the iOS SDK to simplify api.video usage and deployment with advanced upload features.
- [React upload button](https://api.video/blog/tutorials/how-to-upload-a-video-with-react-and-nodejs) - a fully customizable button in your application that you can implement in a few minutes.
- [Plugin for Strapi](https://api.video/blog/tutorials/api-video-strapi-plugin-add-videos-to-your-headless-cms) - a powerful, easy, and secure plugin to bring video content to your websites and applications using the Strapi headless CMS.
- [Player for Flutter](https://api.video/blog/tutorials/api-video-player-for-flutter-playback-videos-on-your-apps) - an api.video customizable player for Flutter built natively for Android, iOS, and the web.
- Players for [Android](https://api.video/blog/tutorials/how-to-add-an-api-video-player-to-your-android-application) and [iOS](https://api.video/blog/tutorials/how-to-add-an-api-video-swift-player-to-your-ios-application) applications- api.video players that help you include your videos in your Android or iOS applications easily and quickly.
- [Fully accessible player](https://api.video/player/) - with ARIA attributes present; the player is fully accessible to all screen reader users.
- [Next.js boilerplate](https://github.com/vercel/next.js/tree/canary/examples/with-apivideo) - a simple way to start implementing api.video with Next.js.

We are introducing a lot of exciting new tools in 2023 🎊  Don’t miss out! Follow us on [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/api-video/) and [Twitter](https://twitter.com/api_video) to receive the latest updates! 

## **New features inspired by you 🗣️**

We believe that the only way to grow is by listening to our customers! We listened, and here are some of the features that you requested ⚙️

- [Workspaces](https://api.video/blog/product-updates/workspace) - Anyone can share their api.video dashboard with a colleague or a client. It's a great way to involve stakeholders in your projects.
- [Watermark feature](https://api.video/blog/tutorials/how-to-add-watermarks-to-your-videos) - You can now add customized watermarks to your new or old videos
- [Clipping feature](https://api.video/blog/tutorials/how-to-create-a-video-clip) - With the clipping feature, you can trim your video by selecting the exact duration you desire right inside the api.video dashboard. No more going back and forth and using other tools for clipping your videos!

We have been continuously improving our product with new features and updates. However, we are just getting started! Join us on our journey to becoming better, and post your [feedback](https://api.video/contact)! 

## **New business opportunities 🌱**

We are in the video business, and the video industry is BIG! We know that there are a lot of business opportunities you can harness by using the api.video tools. Our experts worked on putting together a few demos for you to see how easy it is to create those opportunities with our tools. Here are some of the use cases designed for you 💡

- [Build a YouTube-like site with no code](https://api.video/blog/no-code/bubble-io-api-video-build-a-youtube-like-site-with-no-code)
- [Build your own TikTok](https://api.video/blog/tutorials/rebuilding-tiktok-with-api-video)
- [Create a Udemy-like learning platform](https://api.video/blog/tutorials/how-to-create-a-udemy-like-learning-platform)
- [Build a Loom-like app with just a few lines of code](https://api.video/blog/tutorials/build-a-loom-like-app-with-just-a-few-lines-of-code)

It sounds very BIG to create YouTube, but we make it so simple. Go BIG by keeping it simple and try out some of these demos for yourself. You may be the next BIG founder 🚀 It’s [free to try](https://dashboard.api.video/register)!

You can also find more use cases on our [blog](https://api.video/blog/)!

## **$12M Series A funding** 💰

We are very happy to share the news that api.video raised $12M in [Series A funding](https://api.video/blog/product-updates/we-raised-12-millions-to-let-you-join-our-video-first-world). As I said, this is the beginning of a new era for us! An era of growth. But we don’t want to grow alone. We want to grow with you 🤝

We hope that you enjoyed reading the highlights of 2022. We, at api.video love our community and want to make sure that you know how much your support means to us. Let us know how to be better by posting your feedback and any ideas you may have on our [community forum](https://community.api.video/) 🫶 

On behalf of the [api.video](http://api.video) team we would like to wish you a happy holiday season and here is a video 🎬 we made just for you 🎄




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Highlights of 2022:  all-in-one infrastructure & growing ecosystem

strapi

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Github Mathieu Thiry

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LinkedIn Mathieu Thiry

Mathieu Thiry

[Strapi](https://strapi.io/) is a headless CMS used to develop websites, mobile applications, eCommerce sites, and APIs. Strapi allows you to create an API without knowing anything about backend development or databases. 

Today, we're pleased to announce our new plugin on the Strapi marketplace 🎊. A powerful, easy, and secure way to bring video content to your websites and applications using the Strapi interface. 

In this tutorial, we will focus on how to use the [api.video](http://api.video) plugin, and provide a basic example on how to integrate the api.video plugin into your project. 

## Install the api.video plugin for Strapi

Take a look at the following video which goes through the following:

* How to install the api.video uploader on your Strapi CMS with a few simple steps.
* How to add your api.video key to the Strapi CMS to connect your accounts.




You will need to have your instance of Strapi installed. If you haven’t installed a Strapi project yet follow this [guide](https://docs.strapi.io/developer-docs/latest/getting-started/quick-start.html). 

We are going to install the [api.video uploader](https://www.npmjs.com/package/@api.video/strapi-uploader-plugin) Strapi plugin in this step. Run the following command from within the project root of Strapi.

🎉 Congrats, the *api-video-uploader* plugin should appear in the **Plugins** section of Strapi sidebar after you run app again.

## Connect your api.video API Key

Before getting started, you will need to obtain an **API Key** which can be generated from the [api.video dashboard.](https://dashboard.api.video/)

On your Strapi dashboard, you will see the api.video uploader on the left side. Click on the api.video uploader and you will see the *Go to settings* button. Enter your API Key you have obtained on your api.video dashboard and copy it here. 

Now you are all set to upload your videos 🎖️

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## Manage and integrate your videos 

Take a look at the following video which goes through the following:

* How to add, update, and delete your videos on the api.video uploader in your Strapi CMS.
* How to integrate your videos into your application using the Postman application for testing.



## Upload your first video

As you can see, you have two options to add a video. Click any of the buttons, and a pop-up window will appear.

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You can choose to upload your video file by either clicking on the Select a video box or drag and drop your video file into the boxed area. As you can see, the video must have a title. Once you select a video and enter a title, you can go ahead and click the Upload button. Wow! You have just uploaded your first video 🎈

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Before clicking the *Upload* button, you can also add several video attributes that would help you or your business to organize and rank your videos in a more efficient way. You can write a description of the video, list a number of tags to categorize your video, and add metadata. 

By default, the metadata sends the value Strapi as upload source and can’t be deleted. However, you can add as many other metadata as needed.

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It’s worth mentioning that behind the scenes, it uses our home made [`typescript uploader`](https://github.com/apivideo/api.video-typescript-uploader) for fast uploading.

### Edit or delete your videos

You can edit and update your videos at any time. The information modified will be applied and visible on the Strapi dashboard. The delete option is available on the thumbnail.

### Configure the external resources**

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If you encounter an issue in visualising the thumbnail and the video like the image above, please add those 2 external resources `embed.api.video` and `cdn.api.video`. Modify the `middlewares.js` file like below:

## Permissions

With the Community Edition of [Strapi](https://strapi.io/), any user with the role of super administrator can configure and use the plugin.

With *Strapi Enterprise* the permissions can be fine tuned according to the role of the users. This is done in the **Roles** view in the **Administration Panel**.

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## Integrate the api.video uploader with your application

The `api-video-asset` collection type gives users a way of easily integrate [api.video](http://api.video) assets in their front-end application thanks to custom api call. 

The info that is stored on the `api-video-asset` collection type is the following: 


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api.video Strapi Plugin: Add videos to your headless CMS.

Video api

Video api

The comeback of specialized hardware

api.video Next.js boilerplate: start your video project the easy way

Our ecosystem: connect api.video with your product 🔌

Switch to api.video with our fast & easy video import tool

Highlights of 2022: all-in-one infrastructure & growing ecosystem

api.video Strapi Plugin: Add videos to your headless CMS.

api.video player for Flutter: playback videos on your apps

Video transcoding: What, why, and how?