In order to provide our customers the best video quality possible on the widest array of devices, we are constantly analyzing the data we gather along with industry trends and developments.

This newsletter shares with you recent additions to the devices for which we’ve optimized video preparation, and the list of devices we’re targeting next.

Please let us know if you have any questions or requests for new devices not listed here by emailing mms-support@llnw.com.

Devices added during January and Febuary 2010

Optimized support was added for the following devices:

Device Road Map

The following devices, listed by carrier, are the ones we’re actively working on or plan to begin work on next. Many of these devices already play back video produced by LimelightREACH, but we may optimize the videos we deliver to these devices to maximize quality.

LimelightREACH/ADS Version 3.19 introduces support for the Open AdStream ad server from 24/7 Real Media. Integration with OAS provides publishers another choice in how they traffic ads to their mobile video, and allows existing OAS users to leverage the process they already have in place for display ad delivery. In addition to OAS support, Version 3.19 gives developers more control over the format used to deliver video to custom applications. And finally, there is now a way for you to provide contact info in your profile in OpsCenter so that we can notify you of video processing errors, service advisories and software updates (like this one!).

Open AdStream Support

Many publishers use Open AdStream to traffic display ads on their websites. Now those publishers can use OAS to traffic pre, mid, and post-roll ads to their mobile video delivered by LimelightREACH. As with our support for DoubleClick DART for Publishers and Microsoft Atlas, configuring LimelightADS to use OAS is simple and requires no software integration. If you would like to use OAS with LimelightADS, please contact us at MMS Support.

Contact Info

When LimelightREACH processes your video, errors that occur can be sent to you in an email alert. The email address used for these alerts is now configurable in the Profile section of OpsCenter. Click on the Profile link in the upper-right corner of the OpsCenter screen to access it. Additionally, you can enter email addresses we use for service advisories and software upgrade notices. We encourage you to add your email addresses to these fields right away so we can contact you efficiently when important events occur.

Video Formatting for Custom Applications

LimelightREACH delivers video to a wide variety of video-capable mobile devices. Application developers who are building custom systems that may not be identifiable by LimelightREACH can now cause a specific format to be used when video is delivered to their application. If you are building a custom mobile application that cannot be identified by LimelightREACH, contact us about using this new facility.

In order to provide our customers the best video quality possible on the widest array of devices, we are constantly analyzing the data we gather along with industry trends and developments.

This newsletter shares with you recent additions to the devices for which we’ve optimized video preparation, and the list of devices we’re targeting next.

Please let us know if you have any questions or requests for new devices not listed here by emailing mms-support@llnw.com.

Devices added during November and December 2009

Optimized support was added for the following devices:

Device Road Map

The following devices, listed by carrier, are the ones we’re actively working on or plan to begin work on next. Many of these devices already play back video produced by LimelightREACH, but we may optimize the videos we deliver to these devices to maximize quality.

Publishers using external ad servers like DoubleClick DART for Publishers (DFP) are accustomed to serving multiple ad units on one web page with creatives from the same advertiser. These associated companion ads are sold as a bundle to advertisers, and typically garner a higher CPM than a single ad unit on a page. Using functionality in DFP and LimelightREACH/ADS, it’s possible to associate a banner ad on a mobile web page with an in-stream ad unit on videos linked to from that page. This note discusses techniques for implementing companion ads in this way.

Passing URL Parameters to External Ad Servers

The key to implementing companion ad functionality lies in the ability of the client (the mobile web page or application) to add parameters to the video URL at the time the page is rendered. LimelightREACH/ADS has a feature associated with Connectors (links to external ad servers like DFP) that causes all URL parameters to be passed in the ad call made to the ad server when the video is requested. Those parameters can be targeted in the ad server and therefore influence the creative that is returned.

To enable URL parameter passing in the Connector, perform the following steps:

1. In the Content Manager screen, click the Connectors menu at the top of the page.
2. Select the connector to edit from the list or click New Connector.
3. In the Connector settings, check the box that enables passing of URL parameters as key/value pairs.
4. Click the Update/Add Connector button to save your changes.

Passing Advertiser Information in Your Banner Ad Response

When your mobile web page invokes your ad server to display a banner ad, ad servers like DFP can return both the banner image, clickthrough link, and alternate text associated with the banner. You can use this alternate text field to include the keyword you wish to associate with the advertiser.

When the page is rendered, it will contain the banner in response to the ad call made by the tag you’ve placed on the page. You can include javascript on the page to extract the alternate text from the banner ad and append it to the video links you present on the page. For example, if the advertiser ID you included in the alternate text was advertiserX, javascript in your page can append it to video links like this:

<a href="http://my.limelightREACHdomain.com/myvideo.mp4?ad=advertiserX">Video Link</a>

There are many techniques you can use to dynamically alter the video link on your page—use whatever mechanism makes sense for your presentation environment.

Using the Advertiser Information for your Video Ad Targeting

In the example above, the ad=advertiserX URL parameter will get passed to your ad server as a key/value pair when the consumer clicks the video link. You can then use the key/value pair when you specify the targets for the video creative in your ad server. In this way, when the video is requested, the ad included with the video is from the same advertiser as the banner ad on the page.

This guide contains the following sections:

• Key Concepts—the terms and constructs that are core to the LimelightREACH and LimelightADS systems. This is a technical overview of the fundamental aspects of how the system works.
• Content Management—this section discusses how to manage your video in the LimelightREACH/ADS system. It is intended for users who are familiar with the location of video assets in the CDN environment and will be responsible for administering that content in this system. Traffic reporting is also covered in this section.
• Campaign Management and Ad Trafficking—this section is specific to LimelightADS, and covers ad trafficking, campaign reporting and inventory forecasting from within OpsCenter, A brief overview of trafficking ads using an external ad server is given, but detailed instructions on external ad server use is provided in separate documents.

LimelightREACH/ADS Version 3.18 improves the overall efficiency of video processing, reducing the time it takes to present a video you’ve published. We’ve made it easier to access the RSS feed LimelightREACH generates, and added search features to some of the most frequently used tables in OpsCenter. We’ve also provided a way to configure your account to accommodate variations in the format of the input RSS feed you produce. This document describes the details of these new features.

Video Processing Improvements

When you publish a new source video, you inform LimelightREACH by updating the RSS feed registered in one of your content collections. LimelightREACH periodically checks these RSS feeds, and when a new item is found, triggers the ingestion and preparation process of the corresponding video. In Version 3.18, the rate with which new videos are discovered has been increased, so updates in your RSS feed are picked up by LimelightREACH faster. We’ve also increased the rate that the output RSS feed generated by LimelightREACH is updated (after all processing is complete and the video is ready for mobile viewing). No changes are required in your publishing or presentation process to benefit from these improvements.

In OpsCenter, it is now possible to cause LimelightREACH to read your source RSS feed immediately. To do so, click the Refresh button in the Content List. Also note that the Content List contains a new link to the output RSS feed generated when your video has been processed.

There now is a programmatic way to cause LimelightREACH to read your source RSS feed immediately. You do so by invoking a service using similar parameters as you use when you request the output RSS feed for a content collection. Contact MMS Support for details on the URL formatting for this service if you require it.

Table Search Enhancements

Search capabilities were added to the Content List, Campaign List, and Video Status tables. In the Content List and Campaign List, you can now enter the begining of the content collection or campaign name, click the Update button, and see only matching results. In the Video Status table, you can enter specific search criteria to match the media URL and the failure reason code.

RSS Video Link Flexibility

If the RSS feed you generate for a content collection does not refer to your videos using an <enclosure> tag, you can now configure your account to use an alternate tag for your video links. For example, if you are using the media RSS standard, video links will be specified in the <media:content> element within the <media:group> element (both of which are within the <item> element). If you wish to use an element other than <enclosure> for your video links, please contact MMS Support.

In order to provide our customers the best video quality possible on the widest array of devices, we are constantly analyzing the data we gather along with industry trends and developments.

This newsletter shares with you recent additions to the devices for which we’ve optimized video preparation, and the list of devices we’re targeting next.

Please let us know if you have any questions or requests for new devices not listed here by emailing mms-support@llnw.com.

Devices added during October 2009

Optimized support was added for the following devices:

Device Road Map

The following devices, listed by carrier, are the ones we’re actively working on or plan to begin work on next. Many of these devices already play back video produced by LimelightREACH, but we may optimize the videos we deliver to these devices to maximize quality.

Version 3.17 of the LimelightREACH/ADS products brings significant enhancements to the online reports available in OpsCenter, the web portal you use to manage your account. In addition to the standard traffic and insertion reports previously available in the system, you can now view traffic organized by client type. This new report gives you insight into your consumer population and the devices and client software they use to access your content.

Content Reports

The content reports accessed in OpsCenter under the Reports tab have been enhanced to give you greater viewing flexibility and data manipulation. For all report types, you first select the content collection or tagged group of content collections from the drop down boxes at the top of the page. You select a date range by editing the start and end date boxes. If you change these values, the Update button becomes enabled so you can recalculate the data displayed in the reports below.

Along the left side of the reports page is a panel allowing you to select the report type displayed on the page. When you pick a report type from the panel, the data represented by the content and date range selected above is rendered on the page.

Summary Report

The summary reports shows both a graphical and tabular view of media requests. You switch between the chart and numerical data by selecting the tab in the viewing area. You can browse the data set by selecting the time ranges in the chart, or by sizing the data range in the lower portion of the chart. Pointing to the chart displays the numerical value corresponding to the point on the line.

Requests by Country, State/Province, and US Market

You can view media requests by geography, displayed as a pie-chart or a numerical table. Select the geographical breakdown from the report type panel on the left side of the page, and select whether you wish to see the data in chart form or numerical form from the tabs in the report area.

Client Report

Version 3.17 of LimelightREACH/ADS introduces a new type of content report—a breakdown by client type. There are three levels of client report, showing client by device brand, model, and individual device ID. Like the geographical reports, you can view the data in the form of a pie chart, or as a numerical table.

Note: the data presented in the client reports is based on matching the requesting user agent against our database of client types. Prior to the Version 3.17 release, this database did not contain entries for non-mobile devices, and therefore report data from date ranges prior to the date of the release will not necessarily have this information.

In order to provide our customers the best video quality possible on the widest array of devices, we are constantly analyzing the data we gather along with industry trends and developments.

This newsletter shares with you recent additions to the devices for which we’ve optimized video preparation, and the list of devices we’re targeting next.

Please let us know if you have any questions or requests for new devices not listed here by emailing mms-support@llnw.com.

Devices added during September 2009

Optimized support was added for the following devices:

Device Road Map

The following devices, listed by carrier and ordered by priority, are the ones we’re actively working on or plan to begin work on next. Many of these devices already play back video produced by LimelightREACH, but we may optimize the videos we deliver to these devices to maximize quality.

Limelight Networks is excited to bring you the latest version of our Mobility and Monetization platform. The most visible change in this release is the new Limelight look and feel of OpsCenter—the web application portal you use to manage your LimelightREACH and LimelightADS account. Additionally, for LimelightREACH customers, there are new features that give you more control over the order in which newly published content is prepared for delivery, and also the extent of your archive content that is processed. These features help speed your most valuable content from publication through presentation to consumers.

New Support Email Address

To better serve our customers, we have changed the email address you use to open a support ticket with the Limelight MMS team. This new email address is integrated with the Limelight issue tracking system, so all interactions are centrally logged and managed. Please send your support emails to mms-support@llnw.com. You will receive a reply containing a ticket number in the subject line. Simply reply-all to this email to send follow-up information, or reply to follow-up emails from Limelight MMS support with this ticket number in the subject.

New Color Scheme

In Version 3.16 of the Limelight MMS platform, you still access OpsCenter through this link, but now the user interface reflects the Limelight brand.

Content Collection Priority

You can now specify the order in which videos from various content collections are processed once they are published.

When you publish a new video, you notify LimelightREACH of the publication event by adding an item to the RSS feed registered with the content collection with which the video is associated. LimelightREACH then ingests the new video asset and prepares it for mobile delivery. When mulitple new videos are published in multiple content collections, the order in which the videos are processed is now based on the priority of the content collection. This way, you can make sure that highly popular or time-sensitive collections are processed before other content in your catalog.

Setting the Priority

To set the content collection priority, perform the following steps:

1. In the Content Manager portion of OpsCenter, select a content collection from the Content List. The Content Detail page is shown.
2. In the Content panel (upper-left portion of the page), click the Edit icon to edit the content details. The Edit Content page is shown.
3. Select the video processing priority from the drop-down list.
4. Click on the Update Content button at the bottom of the page. Your changes are saved.

Processing Archived Content

The Limelight MMS system keeps track of all videos you have published associated with your content collections. Even after a video is no longer referenced in the RSS feed registered for a content collection, the system (by default) will continue to prepare it for delivery when new ad creatives are scheduled to run. This is desirable when you offer your entire back-catalog of content to your consumers.

If you limit the content you present to consumers to only items currently in your RSS feed, the work that LimelightREACH/ADS performs on previously published items is not necessary. Now you can limit the content that the system prepares using your RSS feed.

Setting the Archived Content Limit

To limit the video content processed by LimelightREACH to only videos referenced in your RSS feed, perform the following steps:

1. In the Content Manager portion of OpsCenter, select a content collection from the Content List. The Content Detail page is shown.
2. In the Content panel (upper-left portion of the page), click the Edit icon to edit the content details. The Edit Content page is shown.
3. Check the box labeled Only process videos referenced in this feed.
4. Click on the Update Content button at the bottom of the page. Your changes are saved.

Disabling Video Processing for Specific Content Collections

You may wish to maintain content collections in your account, but disable processing of associated videos for a period of time. By disabling video processing for a content collection, the Limelight MMS system does not perform work when new ad creatives or episodes are introduced, and therefore can speed through more relevant material more quickly.

Setting the Disabled Value

To disable video processing for a content collection, perform the following steps:

1. In the Content Manager portion of OpsCenter, select a content collection from the Content List. The Content Detail page is shown.
2. In the Content panel (upper-left portion of the page), click the Edit icon to edit the content details. The Edit Content page is shown.
3. Select lowest (no video processing) as the video processing priority from the drop-down list.
4. Click on the Update Content button at the bottom of the page. Your changes are saved.

Kiptronic has released Version 3.13 of the Media Services Platform. This release includes a number of features that support kipMobile, Kiptronic’s new mobile video solution, and kipTraffic, Kiptronic’s integration with DoubleClick DART for Publishers and Microsoft Atlas. Additionally, this release includes some useful reporting enhancements.

kipMobile

Kiptronic will soon be formally announcing the kipMobile product, and Version 3.13 of the Media Services Platform includes many capabilities that power that offering. With kipMobile, publishers can now traffic advertising into video streams delivered to virtually any video-capable mobile phone. kipMobile is an over-the-top, carrier-independent solution, offering you virtually unlimited reach. kipMobile automatically detects the handset and ensures that the appropriately formatted video and advertising are delivered to the device.

kipMobile is:

• Carrier independent
• No change to publishing process, use your existing CDN
• No change to ad ops process, DART and Atlas support
• Supports streaming and HTTP delivered content
• Works with the native player on the device and with iPhone apps

Unlike other mobile solutions, kipMobile keeps the publisher in control of their content and hosting by leveraging the power and convenience of high perfornance CDNs already being used by major media. And with kipTraffic, you can even use DoubleClick’s DART for Publishers or Microsoft’s Atlas AdManager to traffic your video ads into your mobile video content.

If you are interested in more information about kipMobile, please contact your Kiptronic Sales Representative.

kipTraffic Enhancements

Ads trafficked externally in DFP or Atlas are now visible in the Campaign Manager in Kiptronic OpsCenter. To view external campaigns, select External Campaigns from the Display drop-down in the Campaign List on the Campaign Manager page. The external campaigns are listed by the name of the content collection they target. Click on the name of the campaign to display details. In the details page, click on the View Insertions link to show the ad creatives you have specified in your external ad trafficking system. Those creatives can be previewed directly from the OpsCenter interface.

Note that external ad campaigns are not editable from within OpsCenter.

Report Enhancements

All tabular reports presented in the Kiptronic OpsCenter user interface now include a row that totals the values in the appropriate columns. This allows you to determine overall traffic and ad delivery numbers at a glance without copying and pasting the data into a spreadsheet.

The following tabular reports now contain a totals row:

• Traffic Summary Report
• Requests by Country Report
• Requests By State/Province Report
• Requests By Market Report
• Insertion Report
• Campaign Status Report
• Campaign Activity Reports

Ongoing Support

Kiptronic provides ongoing technical, operational, and strategic support for your digital media programs. Please contact your Kiptronic sales representative or email us at support@kiptronic.com for assistance with any of the following.

Technical Support

The Kiptronic support team is always available to answer technical and operational questions about the system. Kiptronic works closely with your hosting provider to ensure that content and ad delivery is smooth and optimal.

Refresher Training

As your team changes and grows, it may be helpful to extend training to new team members. We are available to provide refresher training on both content management and ad operations.

Version 3.14 of the Media Services Platform includes major new functionality in the following areas:

• enhanced visibility of video processing status
• reporting data updated hourly rather than once per day
• programming interface to list RSS feeds for all content collections in your account

Enhanced Video Processing Status

If you are processing video feeds using Kiptronic, you now have the ability to monitor video splicing status from OpsCenter. To view the new status page, perform the following steps.

1. From the Content Manager screen, click the Status tab. The Video Splicing Status page is displayed.
2. Select the start date and end date to list, plus the state of the jobs you wish to see. You may select Pending, Failed, and Succeeded jobs.
3. Select Update Status to show the status of jobs over the selected date range with the selected status values.

The status table lists the following columns:

• Checkbox—shown for failed jobs, check this box and select the Retry Selected Jobs button at the bottom of the list. This action will reset the error count on the job and attempt to reprocess.
• ID—an internal ID number for each job
• Time—the time/date stamp for the job
• State—the status of the job, either Pending if the job is being processed, Failed if the job was not successful after 3 attempts, or Succeeded if the job completed successfully
• Tries—the number of times the job was attempted. If a job fails, it will be retried up to 3 times.
• Content—the content collection corresponding to the video file that was processed
• Media URL—the URL of the video file that was processed
• Profile—the device profile used to process the file, or blank if the source video dictates the output format
• Insertions—the slots into which the ad(s) was/were spliced

Splice Error Notifications

You may elect to receive email notifications when video splice jobs fail, and when there are errors encountered reading the RSS feed associated with a content collection. Version 3.14 enhances the information in these notifications to include the name of the content collection corresponding to the asset that failed to splice, along with a root cause error code. This information is helpful to determine the conditions under which the video splice operation failed so that corrective action can take place. Similarly, error notifications for the RSS feed now contain the name of the corresponding content collection.

Reduced Reporting Data Latency

Prior to Version 3.14, content traffic and campaign status data was updated in OpsCenter daily. With this software release, this data is updated in OpsCenter hourly. You will now see up-to-the-hour traffic and ad delivery data reflected in all online reports.

Programming Interface for RSS Feeds

With the KipMobile product, the Media Services Platform generates an RSS feed for each content collection in your account. These RSS feeds contain items that have been prepared for mobile delivery. The links in the RSS feed can be presented to consumers in mobile web pages and applications. With Version 3.14, you can obtain a list of all RSS feeds generated by the platform for your account. This list is generated by invoking the same URL you use for each content collection feed, but omitting the name of the content collection. When you request this URL, you are returned a list of RSS feed URLs in OPML format.

Version 3.15 of the Media Services Platform provides new functionality for publishers using external ad server integration and mobile video delivery, along with a number of internal enhacements that improve system performance.

Enhanced Video Processing Status

If you are processing video feeds using Limelight MMS, you now have additional information presented in the video status display in OpsCenter. An additional column has been added to this tabular display—Reason. The Reason column includes a description of the reason for a video processing failure. This is the same information that is provided in the email error notification text.

URL Parameters Passed to External Ad Server

If you are using DoubleClick DART or Microsoft Atlas for ad trafficking, you may now pass parameters to the ad server that are based on URL parameters and values.

For example, if the URL to a media file is:

http://www.myserver.com/videos/myvideo.mp4?myparam=foo

The parameter myparam=foo will be passed to the external server in the ad call. This key/value pair can then be used for targeting in the ad server.

Applications for this feature include companion ads—where a banner ad on a web page can correspond to the pre-roll ad in a video linked to from that page. The “parent” page may contain an ad tag that invokes the ad server, which returns code used to render a banner ad. You can use a field from the response code as a URL parameter in the link to the video on that page. When the video is requested by the consumer, the MMS system passes the code to the ad server. Therefore, the value returned from the first ad call is passed on the second ad call, and this value can be used to select creatives from the same advertiser.

To enable this feature for a particular external ad server connector, edit the connector properties:

1. Click the Connectors tab in the Content Manager portion of the OpsCenter application.
2. Select the connector from the list for which you wish to enable URL parameter passing.
3. Click the Edit icon for the Connector panel on the page.
4. Check the box labeled Send URL parameters to ad server as key/value pairs
5. Click the Update Connector button to save the change.

Influencing Video Profile Selection from the Client

With the MMS mobile product, the MMS system detects the device requesting a video asset and returns to the client a version of the requested video adapted to the capabilities of the device. In version 3.15, the client may include a URL parameter on the video link that influences the bitrate of the video that is returned.  This is useful, for example, if you are writing an iPhone application that wishes to request a high bitrate file when connected over WiFi, and a lower bitrate file when connected over the 3G network.

If you wish to use this new feature, contact Limelight MMS technical support at support@kiptronic.com for more details.