Dynamic Ad Insertion: Live pre-roll + ad replacement

You can now enable both live pre-roll and ad replacement in an Ad Insertion service.

You can select a different Ad Server (or different Ad Server query parameters) for each feature.

When ad transcoding is enabled, this applies to both features.

Please see our API reference (liveAdPreRoll and liveAdReplacement objects) for more details about how this can be configured by API.

Please see below a screenshot of the WebApp showing the simultaneous configuration of Ad pre-roll and Ad replacement.

Support for DASH multi-period live sources

You can now use a DASH multi-period live source with broadpeak.io. This requires setting an advanced option to tell broadpeak.io that it should use existing periods in the live source to perform content insertion or replacement. Please only enable this option if your live source does contain multiple periods.

Please see the dashMultiPeriodInput parameter in the Live source API or the below screenshot showing this advanced option, hidden by default, in the Source edition form of our WebApp.

WebApp: Short summary of a service in the service list

You can now quickly see how a service is configured from the service list, without having to go to the edition pages.

Just click on the small arrow on the left of the service name. This will display the main information about the service, including sources, features and options.

Please see the below screenshot showing this feature:

WebApp: Update a service at any step

When editing a service, you no longer need to go to the last step to update it. You can click on the new >Update Service button, at the bottom of any step.

Please see the below screenshot, showing this button on the first step:

Query parameter forwarding

You can now configure the query parameters from the client requests that should be forwarded through the manifest manipulation process:

• To the media segment requests: they will be added to the media segment URLs in the manifests;
• To the media manifest requests (in HLS): they will be added to the media manifest URLs in the multivariant HLS manifest;
• To the origin server requests: they will be added to all manifest requests (multivariant and media in HLS) to the origin server.

This is available as advanced options for all types of services both through our API (see our API reference for Content Replacement, Virtual Channel and Ad Insertion) and our WebApp.

Please see the below screenshots of the Content Replacement Service edition page and API showing these advanced options.

Pause services (WebApp)

Following our August 4th release, which made available this feature by API, you can now temporarily pause services from the Services page of the WebApp.

This allows you to avoid consuming and paying for resources that you don't use, without having to delete the service and recreate it later.

Please see the below screenshots, which show the Pause button, in the actions menu and the resulting state in the Services list .

Sample sources and profiles

You can now create a set of sample sources and transcoding profiles, to help you test the possibilities of broadpeak.io.

These samples are created by default when you create a new broadpeak.io account.

You can also use our API and the WebApp to recreate them at any time.

Please see our API reference for more details.

Please see below a screenshot of the Sources page of the WebApp, where you will find the "Create Samples" button.

Maximum preroll duration for live services

The maxDuration parameter is now required in the liveAdPreRoll object of an Ad Insertion service.

This parameter configures the maximum duration in seconds of all ads played at the beginning of a new session. Its value must not be 0.

It is also mandatory in the WebApp, where it is called Maximum pod duration, as shown in the below screenshot.

Environment tags

These tags are now deprecated in our API reference. They will soon disappear from the WebApp as well. They will be replaced by a more generic tagging feature.

Preview a service through a CDN

In the Service Preview page, on the right, under the preview of the output service, you can now set the domain name to a different value than the default stream.broadpeak.io so that you can check that the service also works when there is a CDN in front of the broadpeak.io platform.

Please see the highlighted field in the below screenshot.

Pause services by API

You can now pause a service temporarily so that you avoid consuming and paying resources when you don't need them.

Please see the state parameter in our API reference for each service type. Possible values are enabled or paused:

• Content Replacement service API
• Virtual Channel service API
• Ad Insertion service API

This feature will soon be available in our WebApp.

Consumption display

In the dashboard page you can now display your consumption for selected date range and services.

See below a screenshot of the dashboard page showing the consumption.

Source validation API

The API now returns a warning message when the source is encrypted with a DRM.

Although broadpeak.io has no issue using such a source, it cannot be displayed in the service preview page.

Ad proxy (VMAP generator)

If your ad server only supports the VAST protocol and not the VMAP protocol, you can now use our internal VMAP generator to perform mid-roll and post-roll VOD ad insertion, in addition to pre-roll.

Opportunity placements can be provided in the streaming request to generate a dynamic VMAP.

Please see our Knowledge Center and our API reference for more details.

Service, source and category lists (WebApp)

You can now sort the following lists in the WebApp:

• Services by Name, Application or Tag
• Sources by Name, Type or URL
• Categories by Name

Next to each column title, you will find two small arrows that allow sorting in ascending or descending order.

See below a screenshot of the service list showing these arrows.