Introduction
DAI or Dynamic Ad Insertion is a technique to insert the ads for OTT services or for streaming media industry. Previously we were using Static Ad Insertion which was not niche targeted advertising platform. While DAI is niche targeted platform to increase the sales of advertisers. DAI is having favorable conditions for viewers as well as for advertisers.
DAI can be done in two ways CSAI and SSAI. So in this article we will cover what is CSAI SSAI and CSAI SSAI working.
What Is CSAI
CSAI stands for Client Side Ad Insertion. CSAI is a traditional way of ad insertion in Dynamic Ad Insertion system. In this model a manifest file with content and tagged with ads is sent to client where client needs to communicate with VAST to get ads. So advertising platform is working in downstream in CSAI or we can say ads stitching is done in downstream for CSAI model.
As shown above in figure a live video with SCTE 35 /104 is receiving and processed in video processing. A SCTE 35 / 104 is a kind of video which is have cue markers in it. The cue markers tells us start position of Ads with its duration. So encoding process is done in video processing section. Then the processed stream is send to delivery platform. Where delivery platform is responsible for many things like Transcoding and manifesting etc.
when a subscriber makes a request to watch a video content then this request goes to service provider via CDN points. Where delivery platform creates a manifest file (XML) which have the requested content in parts with IP address. These IP address locate the content parts.
These XML manifest files also have the Tags for the advertisements with content. So when a player plays a content in mobile then it plays in small chunks. Players automatically buffers next chunks. If next chunk is found TAG of advertisements. Then player send request to external advertising server. It is represented as VAST (Video Ad serving Template).
This VAST server observe the demographic details of subscriber and place the ads as per subscriber’s details. Now these ads are stitched in the content by the player.
What Is SSAI
SSAI stands for Server Side Ad Insertion. It is new way of advertising in Dynamic Ad Insertion system. In this model the ads are stitched with content from upstream.
As shown above in the figure a SCTE 35/104 live video is inserted in the video processing. Which encode the video and gives streamed video to packaging server. This packaging & origin perform many tasks like Transcoding, Manifesting and time shifting etc.
The packaging server is responsible to stream the main content as well as to manifest. When a ad break is found then this server communicate with ADS to know which type of ads needs to place. Now this ADS gives the ads according to subscriber’s demographic detail available in it. Now the Ads of manifest file is updated according to Ad Decision server response. So ads are not stitched with it.
Now a single stream is sent to client having content with ads from single CDN. Where content is fetched from packaging server and ads from ad server. So we have stitched the ads with content in upstream and sending final stream to client for playing.
Advantages Of SSAI Over CSAI
(1) Viewing Experience
In CSAi ad stitching is done in downstream by player which results delay or frame drop in video. Because player needs to call the ads from different server in which resolution of content with ads may be mis match results poor viewing experience. Even frame rate of ad can be different from content.
To overcome this problem stitching of ads is done in upstream in SSAI system which results great viewing experience.
(2) Ad Blocker
Ad blockers are the kind of software which we generally use in our browser to skip the ads automatically. Ad blockers are the smart software which escape the ads from the content and gives pure viewing experience to viewers. Which results loss of advertising companies.
A SSAI system is used to avoid the ad blocker which results profit of advertising companies.
(3) Players Need
In CSAI system players stitch the ads with content so there is need of players. While in SSAI system ads are stitched in upstream. It reduces the need of players. Web clients will use the HTML5 for video.
Conclusion
Dynamic Ad Insertion is the revolution in ad industry. Static ads are not that much effective as Dynamic ads. Because dynamic ads target the viewer as per his behavior. Which results better CPM (Cost Per Thousand Impression) and CTR (Click Through Rate). As we have discussed above dynamic ads can be implemented in two ways CSAI and SSAI. SSAI will always give good viewing experience to users rather than CSAI because of frame drop and delay found in CSAI. SSAI also reduces the cost because there is no need for players.
Know More About What Is Dynamic Ad Insertion Or DAI
Very Helpful, does that mean the behavior is same for the Live TV where we are replacing the global Ad’s with the targeted Ad’s and the VOD where we are only inserting the Ad and not replacing any ad’s ? Can you tell me the difference in both ?
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