Ad Insertion Validation

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Local Ad insertion is a large and increasingly growing revenue generation application for service providers. According to the Cabletelevision Advertising Bureau, local Ad revenue makes up approximately $5 Billion of the $70 Billion spent annually on TV advertising. Ad Insertion technology is complicated and has multiple components involving the Ad server, the Ad cue messages, the Ad splicing device, and the OSS systems that manage the Ad campaigns. To date, Ad verification technology is limited to the outputs of the network management systems or element management systems of the Ad server, Ad splicing device, or the logs of these network devices. Operators are forced to simply trust the various logs of the network equipment to determine if a local Ad was inserted properly, and that it played out correctly at the right time in the right Ad zone.

IneoQuest’s new VeriFrame™ Technology enabled products, Cricket FrameGrabber™ and iCMS, along with IneoQuest’s VeriFrame-enhanced and field proven Singulus™ and Geminus™ families of IP probes, provide the industry’s most cost-effective and comprehensive Ad verification solution. With this solution, Cable and IPTV operators set aside some Set-Top Boxes (STBs) per Ad zone in their hub/edge that receive the same video signal as their subscribers. This replicates the subscriber’s experience and allows operators to visually inspect every Ad as it plays out in the subscriber’s location.

Each STB’s composite video output is connected to a Cricket FrameGrabber. The Cricket FrameGrabber scans to the appropriate channels, captures video thumbnails, and uploads them to the iCMS. The Singulus and Geminus IP probes monitor passively, capture Ad cue messages, and report to the iCMS. With this setup, the iCMS can monitor all local Ads, provide a visual verification of all Ads, and provide reports on how these Ads played as well as all the associated information about what Ad played at what time and in which Ad zone.

Key Features

  • Provides centralized visual verification of Ad playout
  • Provides an archived record of the Ad campaign, confirming playout at the appropriate time and, in the appropriate Ad Zones
  • Monitors and records Ad messages (SCTE35 and SCTE30)
  • Verifies and validates Ad splice performance
  • Monitors health status of Ad content and Ad delivery