Adding a Now Playing Overlay to Your Live Channel

Introduction

The Now Playing overlay shows the name of what is playing on your stream. It updates by itself as content changes, with no per-track setup.

This guide walks through adding and styling it.

When You'll Want One

Add Now Playing if your stream rotates through named content:

Music streams (track name)
Movie marathons (film title)
Sermon archives (sermon title)
Podcast feeds (episode title)
Any channel where viewers benefit from knowing "what's this?"

If your stream is a single show, you probably don't need Now Playing.

How It Picks the Name

Now Playing can live in an overlay template or in a composition, and it reads a different timeline in each:

Overlay template on a playlist or calendar entry: every video is played with the template, and Now Playing shows that video's name as it appears in your Media Library. The progress bar runs through that video. This is the way to name each video of a Live Channel.
Composition: Now Playing reads the composition's own timeline. It shows the Audio track playing at that moment, or the Video layer when no audio is playing, and adds "2 / 5" when there are several. It knows nothing about the other items in your stream's playlist.

Step 1: Open the Editor

To name every video of a playlist: in the Media Library, click New, then New Overlay Template. Once it is saved, choose it as the playlist's Default overlay template.
For a music composition (a background with a run of audio tracks): in the Media Library, click New, then New Composition. Or click Edit composition on its row in your stream's Playlist.

Step 2: Add the Now Playing Element

In the editor sidebar, click Now Playing and pick a preset:

Minimal: clean text on a translucent background
Radio Style: bold label with accent colors
Compact: a small lower third, with no label or progress bar

It lands in the lower-left, half the canvas wide.

Screenshot suggestion: Composition Editor with Now Playing added to the canvas, showing a placeholder track title.

Step 3: Position It

Drag the Now Playing element to where you want it. Common positions:

Lower-left: most common for music streams. Out of the way, easy to read.
Lower-right: alternative if your lower-left is occupied
Top-center: useful for movie marathons, like a TV station ID
On top of the audio visualizer: for music streams with both elements

Resize with the corner handles. Default size is usually fine; you may want it slightly smaller if it's prominent in the layout.

Step 4: Style It

The Now Playing panel has style controls:

Show Label: the small line above the name. Set its Label Text (default "Now Playing") and Label Font Size.
Text Style: Font Size and Alignment (left, center or right) for the name.
Colors: Text Color, Label Color and Background. White text on a dark background with some transparency is the safe choice.
Progress Bar: on or off, and its Progress Color. It shows elapsed and total time.
Opacity: how visible the whole overlay is.

Adding details to the label

The name line is always the track or video name. In an overlay template, the label can also carry the video's details with variables such as {{author}}, {{publishDate}}, {{duration}} or {{site}}, plus up to three custom fields. They come from the Metadata card on the video's page, filled in for you on imported videos. The editor canvas shows the variable as typed; the stream shows the value.

Step 5: Choose When It Shows

The name fades in briefly each time the track or video changes.

In an overlay template, select the overlay and set When to show: Throughout the entire video (the default), During the intro, During the outro, At a specific time or Periodically.

For most music streams, Throughout the entire video is right. For movies, During the intro with a length of 30 seconds is more elegant: the title appears when a film starts, then gets out of the way instead of sitting over the picture for two hours.

In a composition, set when it shows by dragging its bar on the timeline.

Step 6: Save

When the overlay looks right, click Save.

A composition saved from your stream's Playlist goes on air within a few seconds, as the next version of that item.
An overlay template reaches every playlist and calendar entry that uses it.

Use With Overlay Templates

To use the same Now Playing setup across several shows, build it in an Overlay Template and apply it to every relevant playlist or calendar entry. Each video then shows its own name.

Pro Tips

Match the style to your brand. If your overall look is minimal, keep Now Playing minimal.
Don't fight your visualizer. If you have an Audio Visualizer, position Now Playing complementary to it, not on top.
Use "During the intro" for long-form content. Movies, sermons, episodes, viewers don't need the title sitting over the picture the whole time.
Double-check long titles. The name stays on one line and a long one is cut off with "...". Make the overlay wider, the font smaller, or the name shorter.
Check your file names. The overlay shows the name each file has in your Media Library, without the file extension. If your library has poorly-named files, the overlay shows poorly-named files. Rename them first.

Common Issues

The overlay shows file names, not titles. Now Playing shows the name each file has in your Media Library. Rename the file there (right-click it, then Rename). In a composition, a track keeps the name it had when you added it, so rename first, then add it. See Uploading Videos and Managing Your Media Library.

The overlay is unreadable on bright content. Make the Background darker or less transparent.

The overlay doesn't update. In a composition, Now Playing follows only that composition's own Audio and Video layers, not the rest of your stream's playlist. To name each video of a playlist, put Now Playing in the playlist's overlay template. Also confirm the playlist is actually rotating content: if the same item plays in a loop, Now Playing won't change.

It says "No media playing". Nothing on the composition's timeline is an Audio or Video layer at that moment, for example over a still image.