Live Linear Playback
A channel can have editions in the same way as other content, generally a channel will have a single edition containing the livestream, potentially in multiple manifest/stream formats.
The object from which to resolve the stream changes per use-case: Live: channel object Catchup/Startover: broadcast object
Catchup & Startover
In order to perform catchup & startover in your application you can retrieve the streams of a broadcast just like any other media object (movies, episodes etc.) in order to start playout.
If there is no direct OVP/Streaming Platform integration it will be the responsibility of the customer to keep streams updated on the editions for the broadcasts.
VideoStage Operator
When Backstage is configured to use VideoStage Operator editions can be requested for Broadcasts. Instead of being fetched from storage broadcast editions are dynamically resolved. There will only be 1 edition returned, however the stream behind this edition is dependant on the state of the broadcast slot and the enabled features on the connected channel.
If the broadcast isn't live then Backstage will attempt to return a catchup stream first. If catchup is disabled or the requested content was broadcast outside of the catchup window the system will attempt to resolve a recording of the broadcast if enabled. Live broadcasts will return the isLive flag as true on their editions, catchup or recordings will not otherwise all this resolution is opaque to the API consumer.
This is just informational. The VideoStage Operator integration does not impact the actual API response structure.