***

id: 2b4320a5-9db0-4bef-834b-08f4d84fff15
title: play
slug: /js/reference/video/room-session/play
description: play method for the RoomSession class.
max-toc-depth: 3
----------------

### play

* **play**(`params`): `Promise<RoomSessionPlayback>` - See [RoomSessionPlayback documentation](/docs/browser-sdk/v3/js/reference/video/room-session-playback) for more details.

Starts a playback in the room. You can use the returned [RoomSessionPlayback](/docs/browser-sdk/v3/js/reference/video/room-session-playback) object to control the playback (e.g., pause, resume, setVolume and stop).

#### Parameters

<ParamField path="params" type="object">
  Object containing the parameters of the method.
</ParamField>

<Indent>
  <ParamField path="url" type="string">
    The url (http, https, rtmp, rtmps) of the stream to reproduce.
  </ParamField>

  <ParamField path="volume" type="number" required={false}>
    The audio volume at which to play the stream. Values range from -50 to 50, with a default of 0.
  </ParamField>

  <ParamField path="seekPosition" type="number" required={false}>
    The starting timecode in milliseconds for playback. Defaults to `0`.
  </ParamField>

  <ParamField path="positions" type="VideoPositions" required={false}>
    Positions to assign as soon as the playback starts. You can use the special keyword `"self"` to refer to the id of the playback.
  </ParamField>

  <ParamField path="layout" type="string" required={false}>
    Layout to change to when the playback starts.
  </ParamField>
</Indent>

#### Returns

`Promise<RoomSessionPlayback>` - See [RoomSessionPlayback documentation](/docs/browser-sdk/v3/js/reference/video/room-session-playback) for more details.

#### Permissions

* `room.playback`

You need to specify the permissions when [creating the Video Room Token](/docs/apis/video/room-tokens/create-room-token) on the server side.

#### Example

```javascript
const playback = await roomSession.play({ url: "rtmp://example.com/foo" });
await playback.stop();
```