How to Create a Project

Before you start

• You need the Manage Projects permission. Without it the project form is replaced by a permission notice — this is not something a read-only user can do.
• Your plan sets how many projects you can have. When you are at the limit, New Project is disabled and reads “You have reached your project limit.”
• Decide the type first. A project is either a video project or an audio project, the choice is made by where you start from, and it cannot be changed afterwards.
• Know which storage region you want. The list you are offered is the set of regions provisioned for your account, filtered by your plan — it is not the same list for every customer.

Step 1 — start the right kind of project

The project form has no type selector. Project type is taken from where you began, which is why the starting point is the decision and not a field you can revisit later.

Step 2 — fill in the Details tab

A new project opens on Details with a banner that says so: fill in the required details and choose Create Project to continue with optional settings. Details is the only tab you can use before saving, and it is marked with an asterisk while the project is unsaved.

1. Give the project a name.
2. Check the project type shown beneath it — this is your last chance to start again with the other kind.
3. Choose the storage region.
4. Add a description, a parent project or replication if you want them.
5. For a video project, review the Video encoding and delivery settings below before you save.

Step 3 — set the video output defaults

A video project shows a Video encoding and delivery section further down the same Details tab. These are the defaults every future upload into the project will be processed with, so they are worth a moment now rather than a re-upload later. An audio project does not have this section at all.

• Save Original Videos — keep a copy of the file you uploaded. A new project starts with this on.
• Adaptive Streaming (HLS) — generate the adaptive variants the player uses. This is the normal delivery path.
• Playback protection — one project-wide policy that applies to every media kind the project produces. The available options depend on your plan.
• MP4 Output — produce downloadable MP4 renditions alongside HLS. This block appears only where your plan includes MP4 links.

Step 4 — save the project

• Create Project — saves and takes you to the new project’s page. Use this when the defaults are all you need for now.
• Create & Continue — saves and moves straight on to the next tab, which the save has just unlocked. Use this when you already intend to set the player or transcoding.
• Save Changes, in the page header, does the same job as Create Project while the project is new.

A successful create confirms with “Project created! Configure optional settings below.” A failure reports “Failed to create project”, or “You have reached your project limit.” where the plan limit is the reason. Nothing is stored until one of those confirmations appears.

What unlocks after the first save

Until the project exists there is nothing for the other tabs to attach to, so they are disabled and their tooltip says to save the project first. Saving enables them for the project you just created.

From that point on the same form is the editing form, reached from the project page. How to Edit Project Settings covers each tab, what saving does and which changes reach existing content.

If you cannot create a project

Next steps

• How to Upload & Embed Videos
• How to Edit Project Settings
• How to Save Original Source Files