19 ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE AWS
Server-side ad insertion is becoming a more valuable way of delivering advertising – and with cloud-based tools, one that’s becoming easier to implement SOLD ON SSAI
The great benefit of targeted advertising is the ability to offer the viewer something that is going to be attuned to his or her interests. Cloud-based technologies are enabling better methods for targeted messaging and for making sure that messaging gets to the right person. The difference between traditional and targeted ad delivery environments is the shift from the collective viewing experience of broadcast TV to one centered around the viewer and their personal devices. The personal experience is highly tuned to the time and place the individual determines is right for them, rather than the scheduling system of the broadcaster. Poor implementations of ad-targeting, with a bad quality of experience (QoE) and poor video quality, degrade that personalised experience. For linear TV, the rise of DVRs created a generation of ad- skipping consumers. In the internet world,
there is a cat-and-mouse game between video providers and consumers, with viewers finding ever more creative tools for circumventing ads, including ad-blockers. The goal is to devise an architecture that enables the management of premium-priced targeted advertising within individual video delivery paths, which can provide clear delivery metrics, protect against ad blocking and maintain a consistent quality of experience for the consumer. This provides a higher QoE for audiences, as well as relevant ad content so less incentive to block. There are a host of technologies enabling this transformation being refined all the time. ANATOMY OF AD INSERTION Insertion markers: adverts are rarely hard-coded into a programme’s source video. Instead, the video includes markers that indicate where advertising can
be placed. A special splicing marker is inserted into the compressed video information to signal the start and stop points for an ad break, based on a standard called SCTE 35. These markers are designed to be preserved through each successive step in the video processing workflow and enable frame- accurate splicing between video stream sources and ad material. Adaptive Bitrate (ABR) Streaming: ABR divides actual video stream into a series of short segments described by a distinct manifest file. Each segment is complete in itself and made available in a range of bit rates to create different segment file sizes. The consumer’s video player’s actions are driven by interpretation of the manifest file and the relationship of available video delivery bandwidth to the bit rates of the video segments. The power of this approach comes from the additional information that can be included in the manifest file, opening the possibility for playing alternative video segments at the insertion markers – and without breaking the integrity of the video rendering. Ad decisioning: the video stream’s insertion markers become the triggers to not only insert ad content, but evaluate what content should be inserted. This evaluation role is designated to a service external to the video processing architecture, known as an Ad Decision Server (ADS).
THE GOAL IS TO DEVISE AN ARCHITECTURE THAT ENABLES THE MANAGEMENT OF PREMIUM-PRICED TARGETED ADVERTISINGWITHIN INDIVIDUAL VIDEO DELIVERY PATHS
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