MPEG-4 AVC (H.

264) Ad Insertion Solution

White Paper
Revision 1.0
July 2007
White Paper MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) Ad Insertion Solution

Background
Regional advertisement insertion has become a highly lucrative and profitable business for PayTV service providers
worldwide. To date, the technology for regional ad insertion has been mainly based on MPEG-2 codecs, and is a mature
technology that is widely available. Multiple vendors supply technology for all the key components of the ad insertion
system and have successfully deployed their products throughout a large customer base.

However, more and more new and expansion systems are now being deployed with MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) technology,
taking advantage of the low bit-rates achievable with this advanced codec. The transition to the new codec in conjunction
with the introduction of IP networking technology for video delivery has provided a good opportunity for suppliers to
enhance and update their ad insertion solutions resulting in further advancements in this space.

This white paper will review Harmonic’s second generation solution for H.264 regional ad insertion technology.

Ad Insertion System Overview

Any digital ad insertion solution is composed of four fundamental components:

• Ad Splicer – A video processing platform capable of inserting digital ads into an incoming signal in a
seamless manner
• Ad Server – A storage solution for storing and streaming the ads to the digital ad splicer
• Offline Encoder – A utility for creating of the ads in the appropriate digital format
• Traffic and Billing System – Automation solution for management of the advertisements and
corresponding schedules
The following illustrates the key components in a network diagram.

Figure 1. Architectural diagram of central building blocks in a regional ad insertion system

Encoded Ads
Ad Network
Control Network
Ads Offline Encoder
Video Network

Traffic and Billing

Ad schedules
Ad Server

Live Broadcast
channels
Digital Splicer

Digital Headend

Live channels
Home Central Office with local ads
(DSLAM)

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Ad Insertion Technology
The existing MPEG-2 ad insertion technology has been designed and developed using another popular technology, rate-
shaping (re-quantization) as its starting point. Rate-shaping is widely used by service providers looking to groom a set
of channels into a fixed bandwidth pipe. It is therefore no surprise that the majority of ad insertion deployments to date
have been within the cable industry whose HFC architecture requires delivering video in fixed bandwidth pipes known as
QAMs.

The re-quantization technology allowed cable service providers to deliver a bouquet of broadcast channels to a regional
hub and insert local ads into these channels without exceeding the overall total bandwidth of the pipe. This technology
has significantly impacted the cable industry and has tremendously assisted in pushing forward the digital ad insertion
business model. However, this technology does have one major drawback -- the video quality is often negatively affected
during complex video sequences.

Fortunately, as video networks of all types are now continuously evolving towards a more IP-centric infrastructure, utilizing
H.264 codecs and constant bit-rates (CBR), the need for re-quantization technology has diminished.

As the once live variable bit-rate (VBR) content is now more commonly available in CBR, the technology required to splice
a channel, or in other words seamlessly insert one stream into another, has been simplified. The focus has shifted from
bandwidth management towards ensuring seamless transitions on CBR channels. This trend has enabled new technologies
such as PES-level splicing to take effect.

PES-level splicing is a simple and minimal power consuming process used often to merge two compressed files together
without hampering their video quality. Harmonic has used this technology in various platforms including its CLEARcut™ offline
encoding solution, which offers the ability to merge multiple files together seamlessly while retaining their MPEG compliance.

Harmonic also offers the ProStream™ 2000 digital ad splicer, a solution designed from the ground up to fit the next
generation video networks heavily based on H.264 codecs, IP delivery and CBR networks. The ProStream 2000 is based on
years of research in stream processing technology and is capable of inserting ads in a seamless manner using PES-level
splicing technology while not hampering or affecting the incoming video quality.

Next Generation H.264 Ad Insertion

Harmonic’s next generation ad insertion solution incorporates the following components:

• Ad Splicer – Harmonic’s ProStream 2000 is the industry’s first H.264 digital splicer featuring multi-channel and multi-
service capabilities within a compact 1-RU chassis, and supports multiple SD or HD streams. The technically advanced
ProStream 2000 does not degrade video quality, which can occur with other splicing solutions.

• Ad Server – Harmonic’s StreamLiner® provides the industry's most flexible and cost-effective video recording and
streaming solution for video service delivery. It is an optimized software architecture that turns standard Intel-based server
hardware into specialized, high-performance video servers designed to support a multitude of applications including
video-on-demand (VOD) as well as ad insertion.

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• Offline Encoder - Harmonic’s CLEARcut storage encoding solution provides a complete system for creating high-quality,
low bit-rate SD and HD digital content for ad insertion applications. The CLEARcut storage encoding solution consists of
CLEARcut Studio software, pre-loaded on the CLEARcut server, and a DiviCom® SD or HD encoder. A user-friendly GUI and
simple workflows automate the control of a video tape recorder (VTR) or DVD player, and simplify the process of content
creation for operators.

• Traffic and Billing – Harmonic’s solution supports open standards and is integrated with a wide range of traffic and
billing solutions.

Figure 2. Harmonic’s H.264 ad insertion solution

Ad Network
Control Network
Ads CLEARcut Video Network

Traffic and Billing

StreamLiner Generic Digital Protocol
Ad Server
(1:1)

ProStream 200
Digital Splicer
Digital Headend

Home Central Office

(DSLAM)

Ad Creation - CLEARcut
Growth in regionalized ad insertion is constantly increasing the demand for stored digital content. To meet this requirement,
operators need high quality storage encoding stations that can encode content at low bit rates while preserving picture
quality. Such high quality content ensures subscribers are satisfied with their service offering, while low bit-rates result in
higher throughput in the networks as well as lower storage needs.

Harmonic’s CLEARcut storage encoding solution uses standards-based digital program insertion technology or VITC
interfaces to control stream captures using Harmonic’s broadcast-quality encoders, which receive input from video tape
players, DVD players, and live broadcast streams. The use of Harmonic’s award-winning encoders enables operators to take
advantage of over 15 years of compression expertise and leverage the best video quality for their on-demand assets, while
minimizing the bit-rate. A wide range of tools specifically tailored towards the on-demand arena have been incorporated
into the Harmonic encoder line used with CLEARcut. Such tools include capabilities such as ‘Capped VBR’ which result in a
25% decrease in file size while retaining the same video quality.

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White Paper MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) Ad Insertion Solution

Figure 3. Architectural view of the CLEARcut Encoding Station

Recording Station
External API Task
Engine
“Live”
MetaData
Engine
SDI Matrix
FTP
SD/HD IP ADI
Muiticast
Encoder Capture
Tape Deck
Composite
TCP GOP
Decoder
Control SDI
DVD Player
RS422
Deck Concatenation
Control Engine

Shuttle-
Pro

For editing purposes CLEARcut incorporates an advanced MPEG-2 and H.264 editing and trimming tool for fine tuning of
the complete asset. A common editing operation often used is the attachment of multiple assets together. The CLEARcut
incorporates advanced stream processing tools which allow operators to attach any number of pre-encoded assets to
existing assets while retaining the asset’s MPEG compliance.

To summarize, the CLEARcut Encoding station is not merely a capture tool. It’s an advanced offline storage encoding
solution capable of ingesting content from multiple sources (tapes, DVDs, live and MPEG-2 content), manipulating the
content to appropriate format, editing it and delivering it to the ad server. All together it serves as an ideal tool for offline
ad content preparation.

Ad Splicing – ProStream 2000

As described previously, Harmonic’s ProStream 2000 digital ad splicer was designed from the ground up to fit the next
generation video networks heavily based on H.264 codecs, IP delivery, CBR networks and SPTS technology. This platform
leverages years of research in stream processing technology and is capable of inserting ads in a seamless manner using PES
level splicing technology while not degrading the video quality.

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White Paper MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) Ad Insertion Solution

Figure 4. Backplane view of the ProStream 2000

ProStream 2000 Platform Benefits

Capability Interoperability Partner

Digital Splicing The ProStream 2000 allows operators to insert advertisements in any HD or SD services using the
H.264 compression format.
Density and Performance ProStream 2000’s highly dense platform, with splicing of up to 24 HD H.264 or 64 SD H.264
streams in 1-RU, dramatically reduces rack space requirements and power consumption.
Flexibility By offering multiple SD and/or HD channels as well as FEC support with firmware selectable op-
tions, operators can scale their system as their service grows and provide a range of feature-rich
services.
Network Resilience ProMPEG COP3 FEC in addition to delay and jitter technologies enable deployment of distributed
network architecture and improve overall quality of service and channel uptime.
All IP The ProStream platform’s native IP interface seamlessly integrates into scalable, cost-effective IP
networks.
Encryption The ProStream is capable of splicing incoming streams having been encrypted using advanced
selective encryption technology commonly used for on-demand applications. Such technolo-
gies ensure the incoming stream is secured while header information is in the clear to enable the
ProStream to splice it properly.
Network Management Harmonic’s NMX Digital Service Manager™ simplifies configuring, monitoring and automated
redundancy of systems in both centralized and distributed architectures. Through a local man-
agement interface, Harmonic’s NMX Digital Service Manager controls the primary and backup
ProStream units in a redundant architecture.

Ad Storage and Management - StreamLiner

The StreamLiner product line sits at the heart of Harmonic’s ad insertion platform. StreamLiner provides the industry's
most flexible and cost-effective video recording and streaming solution for delivering video services. StreamLiner is an
optimized software architecture that turns standard server hardware into specialized, high-performance video servers
designed to support video-on-demand (VOD), near video-on-demand (NVOD) and ad insertion applications.

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White Paper MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) Ad Insertion Solution

StreamLiner’s high-performance solution based on common hardware delivers the industry’s highest stream density and
provides extreme deployment flexibility, high scalability and superior economics. StreamLiner provides price, performance
and feature advantages when compared with proprietary hardware solutions.

Each StreamLiner node provides self-contained storage and streaming resources comprised of chassis, control processor,
RAM, direct attached storage, storage expansion modules and network interfaces capable of serving hundreds of
simultaneous ad streams. The modular design of the Harmonic product architecture solution allows it to scale from
hundreds of streams on a single server to tens of thousands of streams across multiple server nodes.

StreamLiner Ad Server interfaces

In order for the StreamLiner ad server to operate in an automated manner within an ad insertion system, it interfaces with
multiple components in the system:

• Ad Splicer – StreamLiner ad server utilizes standards based interfaces, specifically SCTE 30 standards for interaction
with one or more ad splicers such as the ProStream 2000.

• Traffic and Billing – The StreamLiner ad server interacts with both proprietary and standards based traffic and billing
systems relating to scheduled playout of ads.

• Offline Encoder – StreamLiner is capable of receiving compressed ad files from multiple sources such as the CLEARcut
offline encoding studio.

Figure 5. StreamLiner ad server interfaces

Ad Network
ADI Cablelabs Control Network
Ads or eFTP

Traffic and Billing

StreamLiner Generic Digital Protocol
Ad Server
(1:1)

SCTE 30

ProStream 2000
Digital Splicer

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StreamLiner Hardware Platform Overview

StreamLiner is available on a range of hardware platforms, including HP and IBM servers, enabling operators a variety of
options that can be optimally designed to fit the needs of any network.

Each StreamLiner platform incorporates a simple configuration model. A base model is available with a given capacity of
streaming throughput and storage. Each hardware model is easily expanded by simply plugging one or more expansion
platforms into the existing base model.

This capability to expand the capacity of an already deployed StreamLiner node gives operators the optimal flexibility in
meeting growing storage capacity requirements. Operators can select to expand the capacity of existing nodes without
service interruption, or add a redundant server at any point in time.

Figure 6. StreamLiner Server Expansion Options

StreamLiner can be deployed in a single server configuration with internal hard disk
drive storage – for example, up to 1.5 TB capacity using 300 GB SAS disk drives.

StreamLiner server with a storage expansion chassis allows scaling both stream and
storage capacity of the basic server platform. In these configurations, storage capacity
can readily be expanded to a total of 4.5 TB with the addition of just a single SAS
expansion chassis.

StreamLiner library server configurations are used for larger content storage
requirements. This is achieved by interfacing multiple storage expansion chassis and
their associated hard disk drives to a single server platform.

The basic building blocks of the StreamLiner platform are composed of base server models and expansion models:
StreamLiner Server Models Description
StreamLiner 2204 Medium scale storage server with mid range streaming capacity
StreamLiner 2304 High end storage server with up to mid range streaming capacity
StreamLiner 2306 High end storage server with up to high range streaming capacity
StreamLiner Server Models Description
StreamLiner X220 Offers 1.46 TB additional storage with mid range streaming capacity
StreamLiner X230 Offers 3 TB of additional storage with mid range streaming capacity

StreamLiner Platform benefits

In the following section we will highlight and summarize the main benefits of the StreamLiner platform for the core of the
ad insertion network:

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Capabilitiy Benefit
Performance The StreamLiner 2000 series platforms offer a wide range of servers that vary in
performance capacity. The servers can support the needs of any network. The range
of servers offers options with very high storage capacity (up to 13.5 TB for the
StreamLiner 2306) as well as high streaming capacity (up to 5.76 Gbps of through-
put). These performance measurements amount to thousands of hours of storage
and thousands of ad streams from a single StreamLiner node.
Scalability The StreamLiner platform scales by adding storage and streaming capacity to
individual nodes. When expansion is required to the node more expansion modules
can be added, in contrast to legacy ad insertion solutions which required a physical
upgrade to existing servers.
Flexibility The flexibility offered by the StreamLiner platform is unparalleled in the market. It’s
unique in its offering both in early stages of the design of a new ad insertion system
as well as when maintenance is required or even when upgrades and expansions
are necessary.
The wide range of StreamLiner platforms offers operators tremendous flexibility.
Having selected a specific base model of a StreamLiner, further expansion can be
added to the single node without affecting the larger system. The expansions are
achieved by adding expansion modules which increase the streaming and storage
capacity of the node. During addition of modules the node continues to operate
with no service interruption.
Harmonic also uses a ‘pay as you grow’ software licensing model for its ad servers,
enabling operators to grow the service without requiring hardware modifications in
the field, but rather expanding capacity by additional software licenses.
Reliability StreamLiner provides multiple levels of reliability. First at the StreamLiner node
level, the underlying hardware consists of highly reliable IBM and HP server
platforms featuring hot-swappable cooling fans, redundant power supplies and
hot-swappable disk drives. In the unlikely event of a hardware failure, StreamLiner’s
fault-tolerance software ensures that no single node failure will affect the availabil-
ity of the end-to-end system.
Key components of the StreamLiner server hardware are replicated to provide sys-
tem level fault tolerance. Each system has two hot swappable power supplies and
can operate with only one active supply. Internally the system has four pairs of hot
swappable fans and can continue to operate even with 50% failure. The memory is
EEC protected, meaning that the memory can correct any single bit error and detect
two bit errors. There are sensors and signals in the hardware to detect overheating
or component failures. Finally, the data is stored on disk using a RAID-X array tech-
nology, so that system operation can continue even if an entire disk drive fails.
At a multi-system level, the StreamLiner implements a hot redundancy mechanism
based clustering technology that provides fail-over and load-balancing for the
server. This technology enables advanced capabilities such as graceful shut down of
servers for maintenance operations, advanced load balancing capabilities as well as
automatic recovery in case of server or network failures.
Network Management The complete Harmonic ad insertion platform is fully managed, monitored and
controlled by Harmonic’s award-winning Network Management System – NMX
Digital Service Manager. This software enables an operator to control and monitor
the entire ad insertion platform – all the way from content preparation, to ad stor-
age and splicing.
As all management systems, NMX allows basic monitoring capabilities as configura-
tion, software download, logs as well as advanced historical trend analysis reports.

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White Paper MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) Ad Insertion Solution

Summary
As PayTV service providers evolve their video delivery networks towards IP infrastructure, H.264 codecs and constant bit
rate video delivery, they can take advantage of second generation ad insertion platforms designed from the ground up to
take advantage of the new network architectures.

Harmonic’s latest advances in the ad insertion market have resulted in a simple, efficient and powerful solution for these
new networks. The CLEARcut platform is ideal for creating ads in the proper format and bit-rate required. The StreamLiner is
a high performance Ad Server that takes advantage of the on-going developments in the IA Server space from companies
such as HP and IBM. Its capacity and flexibility are unmatched in the market. Lastly, the ProStream 2000 is a highly dense
solution for H.264 digital splicing capable of seamlessly splicing dozens of SD and HD H.264 channels.

All together the solution offered by Harmonic can offer operators a simpler and more cost effective ad insertion platform
from both a CAPEX and OPEX perspective. In addition, the fact it is largely software-based gives operators great flexibility
in customizing the solution to their specific needs

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07/07