Ad Services
Introduction
SmartTUBE ADS — a VAST server with a web console for managing advertising campaigns in IPTV and OTT networks. SmartTUBE ADS carries information about ad campaigns, their ad creatives, duration, dates, types, target locations, target content and other parameters. Using this information, the SmartTUBE ADS makes a decision about which ad is the right one for insertion in a specific insertion opportunity (Linear TS or OTT).
Logical input and output of SmartTUBE ADS
The ad insertion system (Linear TS or OTT) requests an ad decision from the SmartTUBE ADS via VAST protocol. The SmartTUBE ADS checks in its internal database to find a match set of ads based on the request targeting criteria, and responds with a VAST response carrying the correct information about the ad (or ads) to be inserted. In this VAST response, beacons information for the specified ads is also provided so that the ad insertion system can confirm insertion back to the SmartTUBE ADS. The SmartTUBE ADS can also report campaign performance.
There are 2 use cases for using the SmartTUBE ADS:
- OTT ad insertion for OTT HLS or DASH streams going to OTT subscribers.
- Linear TS streams that could be distributed on IPTV networks, or pushed to Satellite or DVB-C head ends.
System Workflow
The below diagrams explain how the SmartTUBE ADS works for Linear TS insertions and for OTT. Further details on the workflow are described for each use case.
OTT Ad Insertion
OTT ad insertion architecture
In case of OTT ad insertion (aka client-side ad insertion), the workflow steps are as follows:
- The client player (SmartTUBE Player or 3rd party one) starts to play a specific stream (Live or VOD) that has ad insertion opportunities marked in the origin manifests coming from the SmartMEDIA Content Processor.
- The client player sends a request URL to the SmartMEDIA Playlist Manipulator to watch this stream. This stream request URL carries all the targeting parameters needed for the SmartMEDIA Playlist Manipulator to use. For example, the request URL could look like this:
- The SmartMEDIA Playlist Manipulator checks the origin manifest from the SmartMEDIA Transcoder for this channel or movie. If the origin manifest carries ad opportunities mark up, then the SmartMEDIA Playlist Manipulator initiates the ad insertion workflow. If not, then nothing is done on the SmartMEDIA Playlist Manipulator and it just passes the same manifest from the origin to the client player with no ad insertion.
- In case there are ad availabilities inside the origin manifests, then the SmartMEDIA Playlist Manipulator strips out the targeting parameters from the client request URL and use these parameters to form a VAST request to the SmartTUBE ADS. The VAST request to the SmartTUBE ADS is sent immediately. The VAST request URL could look like this:
- The SmartTUBE ADS receives this VAST request and immediately checks in the database it has for campaigns matching this targeting criteria. Once a suitable campaign and creatives are found, the SmartTUBE ADS responds with a VAST response carrying information about the ad creatives to be inserted.
- The SmartMEDIA Playlist Manipulator checks the creatives provided in the VAST response. If they are in the correct format and bitrates matching the stream it wants to insert it on, then it immediately starts replacing the main video chunks with ad chunks from the ad creative/s, and a ‘personalized’ manifest is prepared for the client and then sent to it for playback.
- If the creatives described in the VAST response are in different bitrates and profiles, then the SmartMEDIA Playlist Manipulator skips inserting creatives.
- The VAST response provided to the SmartMEDIA Playlist Manipulator has beacons URL’s for confirming playback. The beacons URL’s are then passed to the client in the manifest, and the player fires back the beacons to the SmartTUBE ADS while it plays the ads.
From the above steps, it follows that the SmartTUBE ADS has:
- Received a VAST request with targeting parameters.
- Checked in it’s campaigns database for matching ads that fulfill this targeting criteria.
- In case it found a match, it responds with a VAST response to the SmartMEDIA Playlist Manipulator carrying the right information about the matching ads.
- In case no match is found in the DB, then it responds with an empty VAST response declaring that no ads matched this targeting criteria.
- The SmartTUBE ADS receives beacons confirming insertion of the ad.
SmartTUBE ADS workflow for the OTT ad insertion use case
Linear TS Ad Insertion
Linear TS ad insertion architecture
In the linear TS case (aka server-side ad insertion), the SmartTUBE ADS workflow is as follows:
- The SmartMEDIA TS Splicer receives a TS stream over multicast with SCTE-35 markers.
- The SmartMEDIA TS Splicer continuously checks the payload of the SCTE-35 signals for ad insertion opportunities.
- Once it detects an ad insertion opportunity in the SCTE-35 payload, the SmartMEDIA TS Splicer requests the SmartTUBE ADS for an ad decision.
- A VAST request is sent to the SmartTUBE ADS with the right targeting parameters.
- The SmartTUBE ADS receives this VAST request and immediately checks in the campaign database it has for campaigns matching this targeting criteria. Once a suitable campaign and creatives are found, the SmartTUBE ADS checks if those matched creatives are available in the right format, codec and resolutions to be inserted on this particular TS stream. Reference to the correct set of creatives with the correct format, codec and resolution is then given in the VAST response back to the SmartMEDIA TS Splicer.
- The SmartTUBE ADS responds with a VAST response to the SmartMEDIA TS Splicer. In this response, beacon URL’s are also provided for each creative to make the splicer able to confirm inserting them.
- In case the SmartTUBE ADS cannot find matching campaigns and creatives, it responds with an empty VAST to the SmartMEDIA TS Slicer, and therefore, no insertion happens.
SmartTUBE ADS workflow for the Linear TS ad insertion use case
Ad Transcode Workflow
Transcoding of ad creatives is performed at the stage of creating and configuring the ad campaign via the SmartTUBE ADS Admin Console — during the process of uploading creatives to the server. The source ad files are sent for processing to SmartMEDIA Transcoder, which converts them according to the preconfigured transcoding profiles.
Configuring Ad Campaigns
To configure and launch your ad campaigns, you need to obtain SmartTUBE ADS Control Panel access credentials from SmartLabs Technical Support and follow a few steps below.
Interface Overview
After logging in to the panel, the Home page opens where you can see the main menu with ad campaigns configured.
Home page
The main menu consists of the following dictionaries:
- Creatives — list of ad creatives available for ad campaigns
- Campaigns — list of configured TV campaigns
- AVoD campaigns — list of configured AVoD campaigns
- Regions — list of regions used for ad targeting
- Channels — list of channels used for ad targeting
Below are several reports showing various statistics on ad campaigns.
1. Fill in the ‘Creatives’ Dictionary
Here you can upload ad master files using the Add (+) button and specify the following parameters for each of them:
- Name — Name of a creative
- External ID — ID of a creative for external systems
- Duration — Creative duration in format HH:MM:SS.mmm
- Priority — priority of the creative to playback
- Description — text description of a creative
- URL — link activated by clicking on the creative in the player
- Media Type — MIME type for the creative’s file container. For example, video/mp4 for MP4.
- Delivery — either progressive for progressive download protocols (such as HTTP) or streaming for streaming protocols.
- Width — the native width of the video file, in pixels
- Height — the native height of the video file, in pixels
- Is Addition — the sign of a dummy video clip (used to fill in the gap between the last ad in the sequence and the end of the ad window)
2. Fill in the ‘Regions’ Dictionary
This dictionary implies the presence of at least one ad display region with the following parameters:
- Name — Name of a region
- External ID — ID of a region for external systems
- Comment — Comment about the region
3. Fill in the ‘Channels’ Dictionary
To target ad campaigns by TV channels, specify them in this dictionary with the following parameters:
- Name — Name of a channel. If you use SmartTUBE as your Service Delivery Platform, select channels from the drop-down list.
- External ID — ID of a channel for external systems
- Description — Description for the channel
4. Configure TV Ad Campaigns
Now you are able to configure TV ad campaigns in the Campaigns dictionary.
Click the Add (+) button to add a campaign and fill in the following fields:
- Name — Name of the campaign
- External ID — ID of the campaign for external systems
- Status — status of the campaign: Active, Inactive, Paused, Finished
- Priority — priority of the campaign among campaigns with the same targeting parameters
- Type — type of the campaign:
- Linear — for the server-side ad insertion into multicast TS streams;
- OTT — for the client-side ad insertion into HLS, DASH, MSS streams.
- Start / Stop time — start and stop time of the campaign
- Loading — the intensity of the campaign:
- Front — the campaign creatives will be played with the highest intensity at the beginning of the campaign and with a lower intensity towards the end;
- Back — the opposite of the Front;
- Evenly — the campaign creatives will be played in random order.
- Description — description of the campaign
Campaign params
- Target
- Locations — regions where the campaign to be held
- OTT count — limit of views of this campaign’s creatives within the OTT ad insertion
- Creatives — list of creatives intended for the campaign
- TS insertion count — limit of views of this campaign’s creatives within the Linear TS ad insertion
- Channels — channels on which the campaign to be conducted
5. Configure AVoD Campaigns
Currently, the AVoD functionality is supported by the SmartTUBE apps for large-screen devices (STB, Smart TV, PC/Mac) only.
You can also configure AVoD campaigns in the AVoD Campaigns dictionary.
Click the Add (+) button to add a campaign and fill in the following fields:
- Name — Name of the campaign
- External ID — ID of the campaign for external systems
- Status — status of the campaign: Active, Inactive, Paused, Finished
- Priority — priority of the campaign among campaigns with the same targeting parameters
- Start / Stop time — start and stop time of the campaign
- Loading — the intensity of the campaign:
- Front — the campaign creatives will be played with the highest intensity at the beginning of the campaign and with a lower intensity towards the end;
- Back — the opposite of the Front;
- Evenly — the campaign creatives will be played in random order.
- Description — description of the campaign
Campaign params
- Pre-roll / mid-roll max count — max number of creatives in the pre-roll / mid-roll sequence
- Pre-roll / mid-roll max duration — max duration of the pre-roll / mid-roll sequence, in seconds.
- Pre-roll / mid-roll can skip — mandatory viewing time of the pre-roll / mid-roll sequence, after which the subscriber can skip it.
- Mid-roll period, sec — period between mid-roll sequences
- Type — the moment when the ad blocks are played relative to the movie/episode:
- Pre-roll — before the movie/episode
- Mid-roll — during the movie/episode playback
- Post-roll — after the movie/episode
- Creatives — list of creatives intended for the campaign
- Locations — regions where the campaign to be held
After you have configured the AVOD campaign, don’t forget to specify URL of the SmartTUBE ADS server in the AVOD bundles settings in the SmartTUBE Admin Console > Pricing plans > VoD bundles >[desired VoD bundle] >VAST server URL field.