Current Situation
Server-side ad insertion is a combination of manifest manipulation, ad server communication, and ad bitrate and resolution normalization, all of which happen on the server-side before presenting a manifest to clients. Server-side ad insertion may also be referred to as dynamic ad insertion, or ad stitching. Server-side ad insertion is challenging because server-side ad insertion requires a highly scalable origination service; personalized manifests are not cacheable; reporting and custom player behavior require clients to know an ad has been played; different ad standards (VAST, MAP), ad servers, origin servers, and player environments complicate server-side ad insertion workflows; and content replacement due to rights management or geolocation is still an issue.
Goals and Objectives
Address scaling — cloud-based video processing with a server-side ad insertion integration allows broadcasters to scale and meet audience demand. The key to managing viewer variances is in encoding and packaging that can be virtualized for rapid deployment and hosted in a cloud infrastructure for quick autoscaling. Because dedicated, single path hardware encoders and packagers lack flexibility, the practical solution is to spin up instances of cloud-based video processing as they are needed. Using cloud-based processing, the broadcaster can create millions of individually tailored manifests of content and advertising for live streamed events, allowing for personalization and content replacement. Solutions with integrated ad servers, origin servers, and video players help resolve the complexity in dealing with multiple standards.
Technology Deployed
SCTE-35/104 for basic ad insertion standards.
Event Schedule Notification Interface (ESNI) standard.
SCTE 224-based rights metadata formatting and management.
Linear Rights Metadata Management (LRM) technology.
Use Case Summary
Enable personalized ad and content replacement through manifest manipulation
Enable regionalized time shifted playout
Enable rules-based, program-level rights management for downstream vMVPD and MVPD distribution.
Enable automated management of blackout and content switching for downstream vMVPD and MVPD distribution.
Enable program, schedule, and sports entitlement rules for TVE and OTT-based applications.