With the advancement of streaming media technology and applications on internet, it is apparent that ad-supported streaming media delivery has become a major monetization strategy. By using Tencent Cloud's Stream Service, you can implement dynamic ad insertion based on SCTE-35 ad markers and SSAI. The complete general process of SSAI is as follows:
1. The publisher pushes the live stream to StreamLive for transcoding, packaging, and inserting SCTE-35 ad markers, and then transmits it to StreamPackage. If there are no subsequent processes, step 1) has already completed all server-side steps in CSAI.
2. The player requests the manifest (m3u8/mpd), and StreamPackage fetches the origin manifest while parsing the manifest and checking the SCTE-35 ad markers.
3. StreamPackage send the request to the Ad Decision Server, parses the VAST/VMAP response, and obtains the ad video address.
4. StreamPackage downloads the ad video, transcodes and stores it.
5. StreamPackage updates the transcoded ad segment url in the manifest by inserting and replacing, and then distribute it.
6. After the ad is played on the client-side, StreamPackage reports to the ad Tracking service for tracking the event.
If you use this AD insertion feature. AD insertion fee will be incurred.
Step 1: Create ad insertion configuration
In the StreamPackage console, click Create Configuration to enter the configuration page, which includes the following configurations:
Required settings: Essential configuration information, including Configuration Name, Content Source and Ad Decision Server.
Configuration aliases：Configuration aliases are used for dynamic parameter replacement.
Personalization details：Optional settings for ad break personalization.
Advanced settings：Advanced settings allow you to fine-tune properties related to your content delivery network (CDN) prefix, DASH.
Step 2: Fill in the required settings
Name
The Configuration Name is a unique identifier for an ad insertion configuration. It can include numbers, letters, underscores (_), hyphens (-), and supports up to 512 characters.
Content Source
Enter the URL prefix of the source stream. For example, entering http://origin-server.com/abc/ as the URL prefix can apply to all source streams with the same prefix, such as http://origin-server.com/abc/example_1.m3u8, http://origin-server.com/abc/example_2.m3u8, etc. It supports up to 25,000 characters.
Ad decision server
The ad decision server (ADS) is the origin server that’s providing content to StreamPackage. It determines which ads StreamPackage will insert in ad breaks in the manifest. Please enter an address starting with http:// or https://, supporting up to 25,000 characters.
Step 3: Configure aliases
Player parameters and aliases used for dynamic variable replacement. Click Add player parameter, Edit, Delete on the right to maintain player parameters. Parameter name can contain up to 32 letters, digits, underscores(_), and hythens(-).
Enter alias key name and alias value in the parameter. You'll use the alias key as a player parameter variable during dynamic variable replacement. StreamPackage will replace the alias key with the mapped alias value.
The slate ad is a default ad that’s used if an ad break isn’t filled by an ad replacement. It lets you define what happens when an ad break isn’t completely filled by the ads dictated by the ad decision server (ADS). This way, if an ad is unavailable or too short, or if network conditions prevent the ad decision server from responding to StreamPackage, you know exactly what will be played instead. If an ad slate isn’t specified, then the default is to show the underlying content stream. The URL for the slate ad is an address starting with http:// or https://. Maximum 25,000 characters.
The personalization threshold sets the maximum duration (in seconds) of underfilled ad time allowed in an ad break. If the duration of underfilled ad time exceeds the personalization threshold, then personalization of the ad break is abandoned and the underlying content is shown.
Step 5: Advanced settings
CDN content segment prefix: The CDN prefix for the source stream segments.
Ad marker passthrough: Enable or disable the ad marker passthrough.
SCTE-35 ad message type: Configure which tags in the input video stream are treated as ad markers.
