One of the key issues in monetising multi-platform delivery is replacing content, and particularly advertising, in delivery streams, to ensure the most appropriate commercial for the platform and resolution is included, and to open up the prospect of targeted advertising. To achieve this, Harmonic has now added linear ad splicing to its ProStream 9100 realtime stream processor.
Replacing content at the point of encoding ensures the receiving device gets a constant stream so there is no buffering in the device as sources are switched. This means the consumer gets a seamless flow which appears like a professional broadcast output, and is thus unaware that content has been replaced.
The ProStream 9100 is aimed primarily at local broadcasters, allowing them to take a national or international feed and insert their own commercials. It supports MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 in SD and HD. The new linear ad splicing capability conforms to the SCTE 35 protocol to ensure easy integration into business systems.
In multi-platform applications it can support up to 500 simultaneous multiscreen services with 20 HD or 60 SD inputs and up to 80 output profiles in a single 1U cabinet. Data throughput is 2Gb/s.
“Local broadcasters and service providers now have the opportunity to boost their revenue streams by allowing advertisers to reach differentiated viewers with targeted ads,” said Krishnan Padmanabhan of Harmonic. “ProStream 9100 supports a variety of complex digital processing applications including scrambling, multiplexing, transcoding and now linear ad splicing, making it an incredibly versatile solution for advanced broadcast applications.”
