Going digital with program insertion — challenges and solutions

By Danny Wilson

Review contents:
MPEG-2 and measurements TV Network Monitoring Equipment of the the IMOS Company Going digital with program insertion — challenges and solutions Innovative T&M system for MPEG-2 monitoring and analysis Systems from Snell & Wilcox for testing, estimation and checking of MPEG streams Video test and measurement equipment

Abstract

As broadcast technology advances and becomes more challenging with digital, compressed transmission of television, radio, and multi-media services, traditional program insertion techniques using analog cue tones or DTMF tones are no longer viable.

This evolution towards digital networks, coupled with the challenging economic situation that magnifies the importance of advertising as a revenue source, has made accurate program insertion more imperative.

As such, new workflows, processes and systems are required to not only make reliable insertions, but also ensure it is done correctly. A reliable monitoring and verification strategy that helps to protect the interests of program providers, regional operators and advertisers is crucial.

Towards digital program insertion

As broadcast technology advances and becomes more challenging with digital, compressed transmission of television, radio, and multi-media services, traditional program insertion techniques using analog cue tones or DTMF tones are no longer viable.

Moving away from the days of the cue tone, this evolution towards digital networks have caused new standards (currently ANSI/SCTE 35 201, formerly known as DVS-253 and also known as ITU-T J.181) to be set to define a fully digital mechanism. to control remote splicing equipment via cueing messages embedded in the transport stream.

This same advancement that has made new technologies like Digital Program Insertion possible, and offers many new opportunities such as downstream content or ad insertion, also adds further to the stress of the digital transition through the complexity of the system. The trend to go digital, coupled with the challenging economic situation that magnifies the importance of advertising as a revenue source, has made accurate program insertion more imperative.

The benefits of going digital

Conversion to Digital Program Insertion (DPI) has many benefits particularly for Program Providers, Regional Operators and Advertisers. DPI makes it possible for the scheduling and splicing of program content to be automatic. Without human intervention, the risk of human error is reduced. Additionally, because the system is integrated with automation and scheduling systems, it becomes more efficient as more spots over more services in multiple geographic regions can be inserted. This in turn optimizes the opportunity for cable operators and local broadcasters to earn additional revenue from local ad insertion.

The change in paradigm

The change in paradigm, away from manual operations towards automation is inevitable with the convergence of networking technologies. Cable networks have progressed from just television to multi-service data networks — MPEG video, digital audio, data, telephony, and metadata. With multiplexed MPEG-2 transmission, it is impossible for human visual inspection of program content. How do you see all of those programs, complete with their closed captions, alternate audio tracks and multi-media content?

Additionally, technology has also enabled commercial insertion to take place more efficiently, making it even more difficult for human validation. A human operator will not be able to accurately validate whether specific spots are aired at the right time, for the right number of times, and in the correct geographies. So how do we monitor, verify and authenticate programs and program insertions in these digital times? Certainly, a room full of “little old ladies recording programs on VCRs is certainly not the answer.

Although standards exist today which define how digital program insertion works and equipment is available which claims to do it, in the end, it is up to you to prove that you are doing it — delivering the right spots to the right places at the right times.

Manual verification of ad insertion is not only impractical, it is just plain impossible. Therefore, short of crossing our fingers and hoping for the best, operators need a solid preventive monitoring strategy that is flexible enough to adapt to the dynamic environment in which they operate. Advanced network monitoring and management techniques to ensure the transmission integrity of broadcast-centric digital networks will be extremely valuable to both program providers as well as regional operators.

Ad insertion verification

Coping with dpi

This rapid advancement of broadcast technologies has obvious corresponding impacts and implications to ’they way we do things’ — workflows, processes and systems. Change is required to support this trend and the challenges that come with it. There is a need for a flexible system that is capable of monitoring more complex transport streams, and also identify erroneous ad or program insertions. This need for a reliable monitoring and verification system is shared by program providers, regional operators and advertisers alike.

Under contract, Program Providers must provide a set of number of avails to Regional Operators for insertion of local content including advertising. Given the increasing number of Regional Operators and the growing diversity in advertising contracts the Program Providers maintain with operators, an automated method of validating the correct avails are being sent is necessary. This confirmation must be available both in real time when the avail is transmitted, as well as after the fact in a searchable database for future use. This searchable database where long-term storage of logs is made possible, will be a source pool, allowing a provider to prepare reports for specific clients. This will also assist in generating customized reports based on summarized or consolidated user-specified parameters. By deploying a reliable method of accurate validation and verification that minimizes errors and provides evidence, disputes will be less of a problem when it arises.

On the other hand, Regional Operators must also prove to their local advertisers that paid advertisements are correctly and accurately transmitted. However, since the splicing opportunities are controlled from the Program Providers, they need to identify which side is at fault should an error occur. Effective monitoring and validation will also help to generate reports that can be useful for billing verification or other specific needs by extracting messages pertaining to a specific service, PID, or provider. Also, a tangible report or a visual confirmation of spliced content is important to maintain client confidence and credibility.

Monitoring and automatic verification of DPI helps to instill confidence to advertisers by providing visibility of advertisements that actually ran. It also maximizes air-time sales opportunities for Program Providers and allows smooth local commercial insertion for Regional Operators. The capability of identifying erroneous or improper ad insertions will assist in settling disputes and allow verification through reports generated based on user specified parameters. Although the benefits are numerous, we have to be reminded that there are no guarantees. When a problem does arise, we wouldn’t want the only insurance to be our crossed fingers!

Insure your investment

In today’s dynamic environment, it is obvious that operators need a solid strategy that not only solves current problems but is also flexible enough to adapt to the volatility in which they operate, to insure themselves against the high investment risk.

These recent technological trends leave us with little cumulative engineering experience and knowledge base to draw from — and few tools to tap on for support. The rapid advancement of both multi-service MPEG-based broadcasting and the dynamic nature of real time ad insertion makes monitoring and accurate verification even more important than before. New workflows, processes and systems that meet these new challenges have to be put in place. The solution should not only do the insertion, it should ensure that the insertion is done correctly and accurately.

About DVStation products

DVStation-IP

DVStation generated report

DVStation, DVStation-Remote, DVStation-Pod, and DVStation-IP by Pixelmetrix are award-winning systems for monitoring the quality and performance of digital networks. DVStation is the only all-in-one solution that can monitor a signal path from studio to home. The operator sets the monitoring thresholds and alert methods for the entire network from a single location. DVStation will notify operators if there’s trouble, with alerts delivered remotely over a corporate LAN, the Internet or even to a pager. If signal and content integrity is essential for business success, DVStation is the most advanced Preventive Monitoring solution available today. DVStation is the winner of the Peter Wayne Award for Best Design and Innovation IBC 2000, winner of the STAR 2000 Superior Technology Award from TV Technology Magazine, and recipient of a Cable-Satellite/Mediacast Product of the Year Award in 2003.

About pixelmetrix’s DPI Auditor

Pixelmetrix’s DPI Auditor provides an effective, expandable range of monitoring and validation capabilities. Developed from Pixelmetrix’s close monitoring of the development of the DPI technology and standards, DPI Auditor is instrumental in the monitoring and verification of DPI.

DPI Auditor operation scheme

Pixelmetrix provides full support for DPI on two tiers — a built-in function for the standard DVStation (v. 4.0) and DPI Auditor, a separate DPI analysis application with enhanced features. The application is built based on the current standard, ANSI/SCTE 35 2001 (formerly known as DVS-253 and also known as ITU-T J.181).

The DPI Auditor boasts a range of logging and reporting capabilities and is capable of a host of features including incoming splice message validation, online logging of all messages, capturing incoming and outgoing transport stream upon splice message arrival, offline confirmation of splice and content, alarms on arrival of user selectable tables or fields, long-term storage of logs, search and retrieval capabilities, and generation of reports.

Material is provided by Pixelmetrix Corporation