SOLUTION BRIEF

ELEMENTAL DELTA
Delivering, Protecting
and Monetizing Live-to-VOD Services
Delivering, Protecting and Monetizing Live-to-VOD Services
1

Copyright 2015 Elemental Technologies, Inc.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Elemental Delta ............................................................................................................................................. 3
One Video Source for All Devices ................................................................................................................. 3
Content Protection and Monetization ........................................................................................................ 3
Ad Insertion Step-by-Step ......................................................................................................................... 4
Building and Managing a Live-to-VOD Workflow ...................................................................................... 5

TABLE OF FIGURES
Figure 1 - Elemental Delta Ad Insertion Workflow ........................................................................................ 4
Figure 2 - Live-to-VOD Filter Configuration in the Elemental Delta Interface ............................................... 5
Figure 3 - Live-to-VOD Workflow with Elemental Solutions .......................................................................... 6

LIST OF TABLES
Table 1 - Pre-packaged versus Just-in-Time Packaging Live-to-VOD Storage ........................................... 3

Copyright 2015 Elemental Technologies, Inc.

Delivering, Protecting and Monetizing Live-to-VOD Services

ELEMENTAL DELTA
Elemental Delta is a video delivery platform designed to optimize the monetization, management and
distribution of multiscreen video across internal and external IP networks. Through just-in-time (JIT) video
packaging and intelligent caching, the platform enables a complete solution for time-shifted TV and realtime content delivery with advanced levels of customization and control, including network bandwidth
optimization, profile manipulation and highly targeted ad insertion.

ONE VIDEO SOURCE FOR ALL DEVICES

Elemental Delta can be used to implement comprehensive live-to-VOD multiscreen delivery services.
Implementing live-to-VOD services involves capturing a live video source, taking into account boundary
and ad insertion markers, and delivering it in a format that can be played back on a client either during,
after or both during and after a live event broadcast.
To define the start, end and ad insertion points for video content, Elemental Delta can either read
encapsulated SCTE-35 messages or communicate with a CMS to determine program schedules. For
OTT delivery, content is packaged into adaptive bitrate (ABR) formats such as HLS, Adobe Flash HDS,
Microsoft Smooth Streaming and MPEG-DASH. To avoid storing multiple versions of each video asset,
Elemental Delta uses just-in-time content packaging. As the following table shows, this not only greatly
reduces storage requirements, but also allows for a wide range of device support.
Rendition
Full HD

High

Medium

Low
Mobile

Device

MB/s

Smart
TV, STB
Smart
TV, STB,
Web,
Mobile
Smart
TV, STB,
Web,
Mobile
Smart
TV, STB,
Web,
Mobile
Mobile

*Pre-packaged storage

Packaging

Streams

PP storage*

JIT storage**

3.9

DASH,
MPEG-TS

82.7

41.13

2.3

HLS, MSS,
HDS, DASH

97.03

24.26

1.7

HLS, MSS,
HDS, DASH

71.72

17.93

HLS, MSS,
HDS, DASH

42.19

10.55

HLS, MSS

14.77

7.38

Total GB of storage per 24 hours

293.20

93.87

0.7

** JIT packaging with Elemental Delta

Table 1 - Pre-packaged versus Just-in-Time Packaging Live-to-VOD Storage

CONTENT PROTECTION AND MONETIZATION

As a combined origin server and just-in-time packager, Elemental Delta provides the ability to apply endto-end content protection to live-to-VOD assets. Live content, whether already encrypted or not, can be
stored as encrypted video files at rest on the Elemental Delta origin server. By applying a standard
encryption format such as AES-128, protected VOD assets can then not only be packaged but also reencrypted on the fly into a variety of content protection formats including those from Adobe, Microsoft,
Apple and more. This ensures that content remains completely protected across the entire video delivery
chain, even while at rest, and enables delivery to any type of device.

Copyright 2015 Elemental Technologies, Inc.

Delivering, Protecting and Monetizing Live-to-VOD Services

Figure 1 - Elemental Delta Ad Insertion Workflow

AD INSERTION STEP-BY-STEP
1. Elemental Live inserts SCTE-35 markers in MPEG-TS/UDP streams or decorated HLS manifests to
indicate to Elemental Delta commercial breaks in incoming programs.
2. The ad decision engine selects the most suitable ads to be inserted in the ad avails, overwriting the
commercials in the input program.
3. Elemental Delta inserts the ads #2 and #3 server-side in the output streams, as ordered by the ad
decision engine. Note the same URL http://<delta>/out/u/stream.m3u8 gives ad #1 or #3 on the fly,
depending on the user agent of the player.
4. This functionality can be performed at the origin or the edge in order to insert local commercials. The
insertion can be based on the client IP address (or geo-location), and just in time before packaging in
the suitable ABR format.
With advanced ad insertion capabilities, Elemental Delta live-to-VOD services can include targeted and
personalized advertising aimed at specific devices, users and locations. Depending on the type of live
content, advertisements can either replace existing ads or new ones can be inserted in pre-defined ad
slots using SCTE-35 messages. Third-party ad decision engines can be used to serve specific ads based
on user profiles. In addition, Elemental Delta has the ability to obfuscate manifest information in order to
circumvent ad blockers.
Elemental Delta applies just-in-time packaging to advertising content in the same way as to live-to-VOD
content only one rendition per ABR profile is kept in storage and ready for on-the-fly packaging. This
greatly reduces storage requirements and frees up space for additional ad content.

Copyright 2015 Elemental Technologies, Inc.

Delivering, Protecting and Monetizing Live-to-VOD Services

BUILDING AND MANAGING A LIVE-TO-VOD WORKFLOW

Service providers using Elemental Delta can create and deliver a variety of live-to-VOD services by
ingesting a live broadcast and converting it to a file-based asset. Live-to-VOD requires a different
workflow than traditional VOD as the service provider is responsible for creating the content from live
sources. Variations on live-to-VOD include catch-up TV, start-over TV, nPVR, pause-TV and delay TV.
Because Elemental Delta can repackage streams on the fly, a live source destined for real-time viewing
via an IPTV or OTT service can be simultaneously used for live-to-VOD services.
For multiscreen live-to-VOD services, Elemental Live may be used to transcode an incoming live stream
into multiple ABR profiles while segmenting content for ads as defined in the content source. The live
ABR streams are then received by Elemental Delta input filters, which define ingest points and control
storage locations for content, retention windows and content types. Multiple input filters can be used
simultaneously to manage concurrent services. Input filters can also be used to specify how long
Elemental Delta stores content; usually this is seven days for catch-up TV services, depending on local
regulations.

Figure 2 - Live-to-VOD Filter Configuration in the Elemental Delta Interface

Elemental Server may be used to conform advertisements to the ABR encoding parameters employed by
Elemental Live to ensure a proper end-user experience. Matching the encoding parameters between ad
content and live source content mitigates potential issues at the point where content is decoded for
playback. Elemental Server can also be used in conjunction with Elemental Delta and a CMS to create
frame-accurate cut points in programs or for ad placement opportunities when content program data isnt
available at the time of the original broadcast.

Copyright 2015 Elemental Technologies, Inc.

Delivering, Protecting and Monetizing Live-to-VOD Services

Once ABR streams are ingested and stored, Elemental Delta can repackage content for both live and
live-to-VOD multiscreen delivery. Setting up outbound live-to-VOD services can be done directly from the
Elemental Delta user interface using a variety of output filters. These filters can be set to define specific
live-to-VOD services, packaging, encryption and ad insertion options.

Figure 3 - Live-to-VOD Workflow with Elemental Solutions

Elemental Delta can detect the kind of device used for video playback and provide the appropriate
delivery encryption and streaming format to match the device and best meet network requirements. For
example, a set-top box will likely use a different content protection system than a tablet device.
Ad insertion workflows can be managed from either the Elemental Delta web-based user interface or
using RESTful APIs. Different ad insertion workflows can be assigned to different types of devices as
service providers may maintain existing linear television ads for smart TV and set-top box viewers, while
performing targeted ad replacement for mobile and web-based viewers. Third-party ad decision software
and ad servers can be integrated within the Elemental Delta workflow using the API and Web Services
REST interface.
Though many service providers will choose the Elemental Delta web-based GUI for everyday
management of live-to-VOD workflows, others may decide to use the REST interface for further
customization of services or use a CMS that is integrated with Elemental products. The Elemental Delta
user interface also provides a dashboard of statistics for real-time monitoring of system performance.
Regardless of the type of live-to-VOD service, Elemental Delta is able to simplify workflow management
while providing efficient ingest, storage and delivery of live-to-VOD assets. Learn more about Elemental
Delta in the Elemental White Paper Implementing Live-to-VOD Services.

Copyright 2015 Elemental Technologies, Inc.

Delivering, Protecting and Monetizing Live-to-VOD Services