Swedes going insane over SSAI testing, and how to overcome the trouble.

Having worked with many video Broadcasters and MVPD/Distributors in Sweden and abroad, I have noticed that many engineering teams are struggling with the Server-Side Ad Insertion technology. In its definition SSAI is a very complex setup. It is service critical and there are many technology parties involved within the complete workflow. Best case when something goes wrong with the SSAI is that the broadcaster doesn´t get paid for its ad inventory. Worst case is service mayhem for the end customers.

The “Swedish SSAI Shuffle” ;)

To further complicate things (at least in some respects), in Sweden we have a technical collaboration and agreement between the main commercial broadcasters MVPDs, where the SSAI component is operated by the MVPDs, and the ad server is operated by the broadcasters (see fig 1). This collaboration multiplies the ad inventory for the Broadcaster while the MVPD hopefully gets the content cheaper for the effort of employing the SSAI component.

Trivia: We at Eyevinn helped the parties in Sweden define, negotiate, and agree on the technical solution for this setup.

Fig 1: Overview of the workflow in Sweden, as well as an SSAI crash course.

Complexities as the Result

In many aspects, this technical collaboration agreement simplifies the picture because it unifies the collaboration between the parties in the video streaming market. Everyone knows how it works and what to expect. But in other aspects, it complicates things. Particularly since the SSAI component, operated the MVPD, requests VAST responses from the ad server operated by the Broadcaster.

The complexity is not so much that the MVPDs video platform is dependent on external components controlled by 3rd parties. We have external DRM solutions, authentication systems, payment services, and much more which usually works fine.

No. The complexity with this type of SSAI setup is because the responses from the ad server can vary. Sometimes it consists of lots of ads, sometimes only a few. Or none. And since it is operated by the Broadcaster, there is no way for the MVPD to verify the end-to-end workflow efficiently.

The natural way to solve this would be to verify the ads with the client ad tracking. But even if the VAST response can be fetched, it is cumbersome to validate automatically because the ad impression tracking is sent from the client straight back to the ad server. The alternative is for someone to watch the ads and compare them to the fetched VAST responses. This grunt work is both endlessly time consuming and leaves room for manual errors. Not to mention losing one’s sanity.

Solution

The solution to this would be for the MVPD to operate an own ad server to test the SSAI workflow. A simple ad server that could be configured freely for testing purposes and that would guarantee deterministic VAST responses that could easily be followed up with the tracking.

This solution exists. Eyevinn has been providing the Test Ad Server as a free open-source component for at least a year now. In February 2024, Eyevinn made the Test Ad Server available in the Eyevinn Open Source Cloud — a platform where anyone can spin up open source components in seconds and run them as SaaS. (https://www.osaas.io)

Employing the Test Ad Server, own ad campaigns may be configured to extract deterministic VAST responses. The Test Ad Server may also be configured to instruct the client to report ad impression tracking back to the Test Ad Server enabling a full 360-view of ad input vs. impression reporting.

And this workflow can be integrated as part of an automatic regression test suite.

Fig 2. Test Ad Server overview.

Who Should Use the Test Ad Server?

I know I may be perceived as biased despite working for the independent Eyevinn. Still, the Test Ad Server is quite remarkable for verifying any SSAI setup. And not only under the Swedish technical collaboration environment where MVPDs can validate their SSAI workflow more efficiently. I would claim that it is even more valuable for the broadcasters.

Why? Simply because SSAI pays their salaries. Unbroken SSAI workflows are good, even essential, for business.

Broadcasters/ad server owners could be facing various obstacles and inconveniences using their commercial ad server for testing purposes, certainly automized tests. But with the Test Ad Server they could verify the complete SSAI workflow for every client release etc. making sure that the revenue stream remains uninterrupted.

Fig 3. Simple time consumption comparison between manual and automatic SSAI tests.

Finally a little pro tip for you who have read this far: Pairing the test ad server with the FAST Channel Engine (also available in the Eyevinn Open Source Cloud) opens up a simple way of setting up test ad channels with more frequent ad breaks and thus minimizing the waiting time between tests.

Boris Asadanin is a Media Solution Specialist and partner at Eyevinn Technology. Eyevinn Technology is the leading independent consulting company specializing in video technology and media distribution.

Eyevinn Technology is the world leading independent specialists in video technology, video development, and sustainable streaming. Proud organizer of the yearly Nordic conference Streaming Tech Sweden.