IMA SDK in Google Cobalt Browser

[Andrew Marshall]

Hello,

We are trying to support the IMA SDK on set top box platform for a cable operator in the LATAM region.

As the set top box has limited resources, we are running the Google Cobalt Browser: -

https://cobalt.foo/

The Google Cobalt browser is primarily used to render YouTube Leanback on such devices, but is also used for other apps and in many cases, to render the set top box's UI.

In order to maintain a small resource, the Google Cobalt browser supports a subset of HTML5, CSS, JavaScript etc.

https://cobalt.foo/development/reference/supported-features.html

Cobalt supports DIV tag, VIDEO element, DOM and more. but the main issue we're facing is that the Google Cobalt browser does not support iframes.

We would be grateful if you could give us some advice on how to move forward, the goal being to request ads from Google Ad Manager / AdSense. etc.

- I suppose an option is to *not* use the IMA SDK, but this seems to be not recommended and quite involved: -   https://support.google.com/admanager/answer/2443781?hl=en

- Is there a way to configure the IMA SDK to not rely on creating an iframe in order to render ads? As I understand it, outside of the IMA SDK, VPAID ads for example don't generally require an iframe but rather just a div and video element (whilst SIMID ads do require an iframe), but even in VPAID mode the IMA SDK creates an iframe.

- Are there previous version of the IMA that do not require iframe support? If so are these supported and is there a way to request a previous versions? Or would we need to host an earlier version on a server ourselves?

- Finally, Youtube Leanback is a version of YouTube for set top boxes and runs well on the Cobalt Browser (no iframe support required)

   https://www.youtube.com/tv

and Youtube Leanback also supports Google ads. Would you happen to know if YouTube Leanback uses the IMA SDK or something else?

Thanks in advance.

Andrew Marshall

[IMA SDK]

Hi Andrew,

Thank you for reaching out with your questions. Unfortunately we are unaware if the SDK will work on a set top box. While we know it is able to work on various TV's, now you have stated that the box has limited access to HTML 5 CSS and JS which would help in allowing it to run some of the SDK code as if it was a web based application. We do not know if it has enough of the assets needed to run it. Because of this, allow me to bring this to my team to look into more so as to give you more feedback on it.

Regards,

William Pescherine IMA SDK Team

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[Andrew Marshall]

Hello William,

Thanks for the quick response.

> Because of this, allow me to bring this to my team to look into more so as to give you more feedback on it.

Thanks. Yes, if we could get more feedback on this after running it by the team that would be fantastic.

Thanks again, and I look forward to hearing back on this.

Best Regards - Andrew

[Andrew Marshall]

Hello,

I hope this message finds you well! I was just wondering if there are any updates on this question?

Thanks so much in advance for your assistance.

Regards - Andrew

[IMA SDK]

Hello Andrew,

This is Jackson from the IMA SDK DevRel team. I apologize for the delay in responding to your issue.

Unfortunately, the HTML5 IMA SDK requires the use of an iframe to function properly. This SDK is "evergreen", so it is not possible to load older versions. If the device in question does not support iframes, I do not think there is a solution or work-around for IMA on such a device.

In terms of YouTube ads, that is handled by YouTube, independent of IMA.

Please let me know if you have any follow-up questions.

Thank you,
Jackson 
IMA SDK team

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[Andrew Marshall]

OK noted. Thanks for the detailed feedback. Much appreciated.

BR - Andrew