CableLabs Demonstrates Newest Advertising Specifications
Eleven suppliers collaborated at an interoperability lab event held May 23-27 at CableLabs to demonstrate the latest SCTE-130 and SaFI 2.1 advanced advertising specifications.?
The event consisted of two video on demand (VOD) servers, which were supported by several ad management servers (ADMs) and ad decision servers (ADSs). Video content was stored in these systems, and each participant could utilize their software interfaces to dynamically insert advertisements into the VOD sessions.
Participants at the interop included: Ad-ID, ARRIS, Avail TVN, Canoe Ventures, Ericsson, Harris Corporation, The Nielsen Company, Sigma Systems, S&T, This Technology and Unisoft.?
As part of its SCTE-130 Emulator Project, CableLabs provided its Document Profile Architecture (DPA) Toolset which helps the industry formalize interoperability criteria. Additionally, the participants brought other SCTE-130 components, such as subscriber information services (SIS) or placement opportunity information services (POIS) and had the opportunity to validate how their interfaces interacted with the other SCTE-130 implementations.
One of the accomplishments of this interop was demonstrating the ability to run interactive applications within VOD content by following the latest version of the proposed Stewardship and Fulfillment Interface (SaFI) 2.1 specification. One of the technical details was the inclusion of a VOD server playing an advertisement with a pre-bound interactive RFI (request for information) application. The RFI data was processed in an aggregator at which point the data may be accessed by the appropriate cable operator.
Noteworthy in this interop was integration of the Advertising Digital Identification (Ad-ID) advertising asset identifier and metadata within the broader SCTE 130 architecture. “By tagging each advertising asset, the most appropriate ad is selected from available inventory and our metadata ensures shared identification of the advertising asset across multiple cable operators,” stated Harold Geller, Managing Director, Ad-ID, in a statement.
