Elemental Monetizing Live to VOD Services Solution Brief

Copyright © 2015 Elemental Technologies, Inc. Delivering, Protecting and Monetizing Live-to-VOD Services 1

ELEMENTAL DELTA Delivering, Protecting and Monetizing Live-to-VOD Services

SOLUTION BRIEF

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Elemental Delta ............................................................................................................................................. 3 One Video Source for All Devices ................................................................................................................. 3

Content Protection and Monetization ........................................................................................................ 3 Ad Insertion Step-by-Step ......................................................................................................................... 4 Building and Managing a Live-to-VOD Workflow ...................................................................................... 5

TABLE OF FIGURES

Figure 1 - Elemental Delta Ad Insertion Workflow ........................................................................................ 4 Figure 2 - Live-to-VOD Filter Configuration in the Elemental Delta Interface ............................................... 5 Figure 3 - Live-to-VOD Workflow with Elemental Solutions .......................................................................... 6

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1 - Pre-packaged versus Just-in-Time Packaging Live-to-VOD Storage ........................................... 3


ELEMENTAL DELTA Elemental® Delta is a video delivery platform designed to optimize the monetization, management and distribution of multiscreen video across internal and external IP networks. Through just-in-time (JIT) video packaging and intelligent caching, the platform enables a complete solution for time-shifted TV and real-time content delivery with advanced levels of customization and control, including network bandwidth optimization, profile manipulation and highly targeted ad insertion.

ONE VIDEO SOURCE FOR ALL DEVICES Elemental Delta can be used to implement comprehensive live-to-VOD multiscreen delivery services. Implementing live-to-VOD services involves capturing a live video source, taking into account boundary and ad insertion markers, and delivering it in a format that can be played back on a client either during, after or both during and after a live event broadcast.

To define the start, end and ad insertion points for video content, Elemental Delta can either read encapsulated SCTE-35 messages or communicate with a CMS to determine program schedules. For OTT delivery, content is packaged into adaptive bitrate (ABR) formats such as HLS, Adobe Flash HDS, Microsoft Smooth Streaming and MPEG-DASH. To avoid storing multiple versions of each video asset, Elemental Delta uses just-in-time content packaging. As the following table shows, this not only greatly reduces storage requirements, but also allows for a wide range of device support.

Rendition Device MB/s Packaging Streams PP storage* JIT storage**

Full HD Smart TV, STB 3.9 DASH,

MPEG-TS 2 82.7 41.13

High

Smart TV, STB, Web, Mobile

2.3 HLS, MSS, HDS, DASH 4 97.03 24.26

Medium


1.7 HLS, MSS, HDS, DASH 4 71.72 17.93

Low


1 HLS, MSS, HDS, DASH 4 42.19 10.55

Mobile Mobile 0.7 HLS, MSS 2 14.77 7.38

Total GB of storage per 24 hours 293.20 93.87

*Pre-packaged storage ** JIT packaging with Elemental Delta

Table 1 - Pre-packaged versus Just-in-Time Packaging Live-to-VOD Storage

CONTENT PROTECTION AND MONETIZATION As a combined origin server and just-in-time packager, Elemental Delta provides the ability to apply end-to-end content protection to live-to-VOD assets. Live content, whether already encrypted or not, can be stored as encrypted video files at rest on the Elemental Delta origin server. By applying a standard encryption format such as AES-128, protected VOD assets can then not only be packaged but also re-encrypted on the fly into a variety of content protection formats including those from Adobe, Microsoft, Apple and more. This ensures that content remains completely protected across the entire video delivery chain, even while at rest, and enables delivery to any type of device.


Figure 1 - Elemental Delta Ad Insertion Workflow

AD INSERTION STEP-BY-STEP 1. Elemental Live inserts SCTE-35 markers in MPEG-TS/UDP streams or decorated HLS manifests to

indicate to Elemental Delta commercial breaks in incoming programs. 2. The ad decision engine selects the most suitable ads to be inserted in the ad avails, “overwriting” the

commercials in the input program.

3. Elemental Delta inserts the ads #2 and #3 server-side in the output streams, as ordered by the ad decision engine. Note the same URL http://<delta>/out/u/stream.m3u8 gives ad #1 or #3 on the fly, depending on the user agent of the player.

4. This functionality can be performed at the origin or the edge in order to insert local commercials. The insertion can be based on the client IP address (or geo-location), and just in time before packaging in the suitable ABR format.

With advanced ad insertion capabilities, Elemental Delta live-to-VOD services can include targeted and personalized advertising aimed at specific devices, users and locations. Depending on the type of live content, advertisements can either replace existing ads or new ones can be inserted in pre-defined ad slots using SCTE-35 messages. Third-party ad decision engines can be used to serve specific ads based on user profiles. In addition, Elemental Delta has the ability to obfuscate manifest information in order to circumvent ad blockers.

Elemental Delta applies just-in-time packaging to advertising content in the same way as to live-to-VOD content – only one rendition per ABR profile is kept in storage and ready for on-the-fly packaging. This greatly reduces storage requirements and frees up space for additional ad content.


BUILDING AND MANAGING A LIVE-TO-VOD WORKFLOW Service providers using Elemental Delta can create and deliver a variety of live-to-VOD services by ingesting a live broadcast and converting it to a file-based asset. Live-to-VOD requires a different workflow than traditional VOD as the service provider is responsible for creating the content from live sources. Variations on live-to-VOD include catch-up TV, start-over TV, nPVR, pause-TV and delay TV. Because Elemental Delta can repackage streams on the fly, a live source destined for real-time viewing via an IPTV or OTT service can be simultaneously used for live-to-VOD services.

For multiscreen live-to-VOD services, Elemental Live may be used to transcode an incoming live stream into multiple ABR profiles while segmenting content for ads as defined in the content source. The live ABR streams are then received by Elemental Delta input filters, which define ingest points and control storage locations for content, retention windows and content types. Multiple input filters can be used simultaneously to manage concurrent services. Input filters can also be used to specify how long Elemental Delta stores content; usually this is seven days for catch-up TV services, depending on local regulations.

Figure 2 - Live-to-VOD Filter Configuration in the Elemental Delta Interface

Elemental Server may be used to conform advertisements to the ABR encoding parameters employed by Elemental Live to ensure a proper end-user experience. Matching the encoding parameters between ad content and live source content mitigates potential issues at the point where content is decoded for playback. Elemental Server can also be used in conjunction with Elemental Delta and a CMS to create frame-accurate cut points in programs or for ad placement opportunities when content program data isn’t available at the time of the original broadcast.


Once ABR streams are ingested and stored, Elemental Delta can repackage content for both live and live-to-VOD multiscreen delivery. Setting up outbound live-to-VOD services can be done directly from the Elemental Delta user interface using a variety of output filters. These filters can be set to define specific live-to-VOD services, packaging, encryption and ad insertion options.

Figure 3 - Live-to-VOD Workflow with Elemental Solutions

Elemental Delta can detect the kind of device used for video playback and provide the appropriate delivery encryption and streaming format to match the device and best meet network requirements. For example, a set-top box will likely use a different content protection system than a tablet device.

Ad insertion workflows can be managed from either the Elemental Delta web-based user interface or using RESTful APIs. Different ad insertion workflows can be assigned to different types of devices as service providers may maintain existing linear television ads for smart TV and set-top box viewers, while performing targeted ad replacement for mobile and web-based viewers. Third-party ad decision software and ad servers can be integrated within the Elemental Delta workflow using the API and Web Services REST interface.

Though many service providers will choose the Elemental Delta web-based GUI for everyday management of live-to-VOD workflows, others may decide to use the REST interface for further customization of services or use a CMS that is integrated with Elemental products. The Elemental Delta user interface also provides a dashboard of statistics for real-time monitoring of system performance.

Regardless of the type of live-to-VOD service, Elemental Delta is able to simplify workflow management while providing efficient ingest, storage and delivery of live-to-VOD assets. Learn more about Elemental Delta in the Elemental White Paper Implementing Live-to-VOD Services.


http://www.elementaltechnologies.com/resources/white-papers/implementing-live-to-vod-services

Elemental Monetizing Live to VOD Services Solution Brief

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