CableLabs® Interop Demonstrates Maturation of Dynamic VOD Ad Technology

LOUISVILLE, Colo. -- (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Integration of national and local advertising content and the delivery of specific viewer-relevant messages within video on demand sessions were among multiple highlights from a Jan. 23-27 interoperability event hosted by CableLabs® focusing on advanced advertising over cable.

In its continuing effort to support the advancement of advertising technology and specifications, the CableLabs Ad Lab hosted an Advertising Interop that included seven participants, each of which contributed infrastructure such as ad decision managers (ADMs) and ad decision servers (ADS), and demonstrated interoperability over a variety of use cases in dynamic insertion of advertising into video on demand (VOD) content.

Canoe Ventures demonstrated its national VOD Dynamic Ad Insertion platform as a key benchmark for participating suppliers. Additional participants at the event included: Avail-TVN, BlackArrow, Harris Corp., Nagra-OpenTV, SeaChange International Inc. and This Technology.

Participants provided encoding and metadata preparation using web-based software solutions for an inventory of entertainment content and ad spots. Among key achievements from the Interop:

• The ADM and ADS systems were able to identify ad placement opportunities within a VOD listing, draw from the inventory of advertising inventory, and dynamically place the most relevant ad in either a pre-roll, mid-roll or post-roll location.
• Placement opportunity, content and subscriber information systems were involved to select the most relevant ad to be played out to the specific subscriber.
• Using multiple ad decision servers and a decision router, ads were dynamically placed from national, regional, or local inventories as defined by the placement opportunity information.
• A number of participant combinations were integrated for the first time during this Interop, demonstrating the value of the CableLabs SCTE 130 profile– a defined series of interfaces and processes for supporting addressable advertising delivery – and the CableLabs Document Profile Architecture, which streamlines the testing and validation process for SCTE 130-compliant technologies by allowing developers to emulate multi-platform architectures.
• SCTE 130 messaging was demonstrated between systems using the IPv6 addressing protocol.

All of these steps were accomplished using the SCTE 130 interface standards, which define interfaces between logical components of an advanced advertising system that supports linear, on demand and DVR delivery platforms, and enables a granular levels of addressability.

“This CableLabs event demonstrated that MSOs’ systems, enabled by leading technology providers, are ready to handle national and local inventory splits for VOD advertising. This is a milestone along the path to delivering the appropriate operational support for nationally stewarded VOD advertising, which will enhance the value of the platform for programmers and advertisers alike,” said Arthur Orduna, Chief Product Officer of Canoe Ventures.

“By coming together in the CableLabs setting, we continue to validate the SCTE 130 advertising interface standard with a particular focus on the VOD revenue opportunities which cable operators are poised to exploit,” said Paul Woidke, Chairman of SCTE’s DVS Working Group 5 and SVP and General Manager of Advanced Advertising at Nagra-OpenTV.

“By having multiple participants bring their routers, servers, and other infrastructure, we were able to replicate an environment that would be valuable to a cable operator. This event demonstrated that national, regional and local advertising opportunities can be served from multiple sources and coexist within a single VOD session,” stated Rob Klippel, VP of New Products & Operations at Comcast Spotlight.

Don Dulchinos, SVP Advertising at CableLabs, said “The ease of new integrations and success of the participants in implementing very relevant use cases demonstrate that we now have a more mature eco-system for providing dynamic ads in VOD as a new cable revenue opportunity. CableLabs looks forward to hosting future similar events to continue the evolution of advanced advertising”

About CableLabs: Cable Television Laboratories (www.cablelabs.com) was founded in 1988 by members of the cable television industry. A non-profit research and development consortium, CableLabs is dedicated to pursuing new cable telecommunications technologies and to helping its cable operator members integrate those advancements into their business objectives. Cable operators from around the world are members. CableLabs maintains additional web sites at www.cablenet.org, www.ebif.tv and www.tru2way.com.

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