Advertisement Preparation System for ABR Timeline Synchronization
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Solution Overview
Problem
Legacy ad insertion systems cause shifts in the media timeline due to ads being longer or shorter than specified, leading to viewer latency and potential missed content, especially in adjustable bit rate (ABR) systems where program segments are dropped to restore the timeline.
Innovation Solution
An advertisement preparation system that includes an ad ingest subsystem to transcode and reprocess ads to match specified durations, ensuring high-quality delivery across various client types by managing ad ingest processing, transcoding, and prioritization, and utilizing a content delivery network (CDN) for efficient media distribution.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If ads are inserted into ABR streams at segment boundaries, then ad insertion is simplified and synchronized with program segments, but timeline shifts occur when ad duration differs from specified duration, causing program delay and viewer latency
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary processing of advertisement media by determining its actual duration and comparing it with the specified duration before insertion. This advance preparation allows the system to identify potential timeline shifts before they occur, enabling proactive correction through frame rate adjustment rather than reactive segment dropping.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the frame rate parameter of the advertisement media to match the program's frame rate. By adjusting this physical parameter, the actual duration of the ad is modified to correspond to the specified duration, preventing timeline shifts without requiring segment drops or manual intervention.
2Reliability
If manifest manipulator drops program segments to restore timeline, then program synchronization is recovered, but important content may be missed and viewer experience is degraded
Solution Approach 1:
The system applies preliminary anti-action by pre-adjusting the advertisement duration through frame rate modification before insertion into the program stream. This prevents the timeline drift that would otherwise require corrective segment dropping, thereby eliminating the harmful effect of content loss while maintaining synchronization reliability.
3Device complexity
If ads are processed in real-time without pre-processing, then system complexity is reduced, but timeline shifts and synchronization issues increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary determination of actual ad duration and frame rate adjustment before the ad is inserted into the program stream. This advance preparation, while adding some processing steps, prevents more complex real-time synchronization corrections and segment dropping operations, ultimately simplifying the overall system operation.
Data Source
AI summary
Advertisement preparation methods and systems are shown and disclosed. In one embodiment, the method includes reviewing metadata of an advertisement. The metadata includes duration information for the advertisement, and determining actual duration of the advertisement. The method additionally includes determining whether the duration information matches the actual duration of the advertisement, and editing the advertisement when the duration information does not match the actual duration such that the actual duration of the edited advertisement matches the duration information.