Optimizing Dynamic Ad Insertion for ATSC 3.0 in Low Broadband Access Markets 

The Reliable Internet Stream Transport (RIST) Activity Group in the Video Services Forum has been working on a common industry specification for methods to augment satellite delivery using the Internet. The satellite is used for the “heavy lifting”, and the Internet is used to “fill in the gaps”.

Such a system can be further augmented by allowing the receivers to select which programs they require. If this can be achieved, further internet bandwidth optimization is possible, since the headend does not need to “fill in the gaps” for the programs that are not required for that receiver. This method can be designed in a manner that is general enough to apply to other internet transport scenarios in addition to hybrid satellite delivery. The RIST Activity Group has created a backward-compatible extension to RIST Main [1] and Advanced [2] Profiles to allow a receiver to communicate to the sender its content requirements. Once the sender is made aware of these requirements, it can optimize the bandwidth without losing timing compliance by using the NULL Packet Deletion functionality defined in RIST Main Profile. This extension has been published by the Video Services Forum as TR-06-4 Part 6 [3]. This paper is a detailed overview of the technical details of TR-06-4 Part 6, with some application examples derived from existing broadcast feeds. It also includes practical data on bandwidth savings from actual off-air ATSC-1 content.

Liam Power | One Media Technologies | Hunt Valley, Md., United States