IMA SDK CSAI Live Playback

[Evans Owino]

Hi,

I'd like to understand how CSAI works with live playback. Predominantly for Web (if that makes things easier), however the following questions apply for iOS and Android too.

I am aware of the following guide which shows you the implementation using the SDK whereby you request the breaks one after the other - https://developers.google.com/interactive-media-ads/docs/sdks/html5/client-side/live-stream.

My questions are:

1. How does the player know when to play an Ad? For VODs, I believe the VAST tag includes timeOffsets for this. For live, is it a case of fetch and play immediately?

2. When requesting ads, what happens if Ads server responds saying there are no ads to show at the moment (is that even an option?). In which case, how should that be handled?

3.  Following from question 2. I found the following thread where the recommendation was to set up and an additional service that listens for a server side signal which should be used as an indicator to request ads. Is this still the recommendation? https://groups.google.com/u/1/g/ima-sdk/c/vm9tPobU7hI/m/wPu_htRcuq4J

I look forward to your reply.

Thanks,

Evans

[IMA SDK]

Hi Evans,

You can check out our sample Live Stream Prefetch Sample for timed placement of ads. You can put in a different timer functionality, even one that is based on a server side signal. Server side signal can give you the ideal time in stream based on stream content to play ads.

Playlist or VMAP ad tags can be used to fill a full ad break of ads. When no ads are available the sample continues stream playback unless you implement custom logic when you catch an ad error. You can mitigate no ads being available by using Video Fallback to ensure more access to ad inventory. 

Regards,

Aryeh Baker IMA SDK Team

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[Evans Owino]

Thanks Aryeh!