Implementing dynamic ad insertion in HTML5 using MPEG dash

Today, with W3C HTML5 premium media extensions MSE (Media Source Extensions) and EME (Encrypted Media Extensions) adaptive streaming formats such as MPEG DASH enable delivery of media content to many devices. Even televisions and settop boxes are adding Internet connections, and support HTML5 for GUI rendering and media processing. From a commercial point of view, dynamic ad insertion plays a crucial role. For broadcasters, cable and IPTV operators, content owners and advertisers new opportunities open up as advertisement can be personalized and delivered to any device. Complex signaling and back-end systems have been built for ad decision over years, and integrating with them is imperative for industry adoption of any new technology. We evaluate existing dynamic advanced advertisement techniques and present solutions for interoperable ad insertion using MPEG DASH for HTML5-based platforms and its integration with existing advertisement ecosystem. We have extended the open source DASH-IF reference player "dash.js" with mechanisms for ad insertion. These mechanisms are based on the DASHIF Interoperability Points guidelines and some of the recent SCTE work. We present different ad insertion workflows and highlight the flexibility that can be achieved with state-of-the-art technologies and standards.