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Ad Conformance

The OptiView Ad Engine can just-in-time convert your ad from a master format into your streaming delivery format. Ads are often sourced from master media files such as high bitrate MP4 or MOV files. Sometimes the master media files is referenced in a VAST (Video Ad Serving Template) file. Or, the ad may actually already be in an HLS format, but you need to convert it to a different bitrate ladder. On the delivery side, you may want to create a single MP4 file or a multi-bitrate HLS file. You may want to create an HLS, but have that HLS be referenced in a VAST file. All of these different types of conformance can be executed by the OptiView Ad Engine:

  • Media → MP4
  • Media → HLS
  • Media → VAST
  • VAST → HLS
  • VAST → VAST

Which conversion the Ad Engine performs depends on: (1) the specified ad profile and (2) the parameters of the Ad Engine call. For example, if your ad_profile_1 is creating an HLS, and you want the result returned to you in a VAST file, it would look like:

https://api.galaxy.dolbyrasp.com/ad-engine/conform?profile=ad_profile_1&url=https://ad_server.com/ad123.mp4&output_format=vast

Media → MP4​

The output format of your media is defined by the Ad Profile. If you set the profile to encode to an MP4, then you will get a single MP4 output rather than an HLS multi-layer output. Let's say that you have created the ad profile named mp4_ad_profile shown below:

{
  "encode_profile": {
    "container": {
      "kind": "mp4"
    },
    "video": [
      {
        "width": 1280,
        "height": 720,
        "bitrate_kb": 2500,
        "codec": "h264",
        "frame_rate": "30000/1001"
      }
    ],
    "audio": [
      {
        "codec": "aac",
        "bitrate_kb": 128,
        "channels": 2
      }
    ]
  }
}

You could conform your original ad into that MP4 format with the following:

https://api.galaxy.dolbyrasp.com/ad_engine/conform?profile=mp4_ad_profile&url=https://my_location/my_source.mp4&output_format=media

Media → HLS​

Sometimes instead of a master media file, you actually have an HLS file that is in the wrong format. The OptiView Ad Engine can take an HLS file and convert it to a different set of bitrates. The Engine will use the highest bitrate source in the original HLS, and use that as the master data to create the new HLS. There are limitations to this method. If you have a source HLS that only has a 540p video as its top rendition, you won't be able to make a 4K output that looks perfect.

You could conform your original ad into the HLS ad_profile_1 format with the following:

https://api.galaxy.dolbyrasp.com/ad_engine/conform?profile=ad_profile_1&url=https://my_location/my_ad.mp4&output_format=media

Media → VAST​

If you want an HLS output that is referenced by a VAST XML file, then you need to specify that the output_format=vast.

https://api.galaxy.dolbyrasp.com/ad_engine/conform?profile=ad_profile_1&url=https://my_location/my_ad.mp4&output_format=vast

VAST → HLS​

If your input is a VAST file that points to a media file, the Ad Engine will automatically use the media that is referenced.

https://api.galaxy.dolbyrasp.com/ad_egine/conform?profile=ad_profile_1&url=https://my_location/my_vast.xml&output_format=media

VAST → VAST​

If your input is a VAST file that points to a media file, and you want your output to be a VAST file that points to an HLS, you would set the output_format=vast.

https://api.galaxy.dolbyrasp.com/ad_engine/conform?profile=ad_profile_1&url=https://my_location/my_vast.xml&output_format=vast