If you are creating custom controls, you probably want to use an OOOoyalaPlayer directly versus going through the OOOoyalaPlayerViewController- all the viewcontroller does is add controls on top of the player.
If you must use an OOOoyalaPlayerViewController, try subclassing OOControlsViewController and overwriting - (void)onTap:(UITapGestureRecognizer *)sender. The source for this is bundled with our SDK.