The Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE) said it has begun defining the final three of seven new technical standards associated with the delivery of addressable advertising.
Though none of these proposed standards have been ratified, at least one MSO, which the SCTE did not identify, is planning to trial the DVS 629 system for VOD applications within the next month, before the end of 2007.
The work is not associated with Project Canoe, which is also looking at addressable advertising via CableLabs, though the SCTE effort may end up being congruent with the goals of Canoe.
The SCTE Digital Video Subcommittee – DVS 629 – comprises seven parts or individual standards. The first four parts have been in development and have been issued for technical comments, the consensus balloting stage, according to the SCTE.
The remaining three parts of DVS 629 on which work has begun include Part 5 – the Placement Opportunity Information Service, which defines the interface between software routines of the ad-placement query and notification functions. The Subscriber Information Service interface specified in Part 6 implements the subscriber information (some level of demographical data) query functions.
And Part 7, Message Transport Compliance, provides the glue connecting the system together by defining the physical and messaging protocols that transport data between services that are specified in Part 2 through Part 6.
The earlier DVS 629 parts issued for balloting include Part 1, an Advertising System Overview, which provides an informative introduction and the overall description of the suite of DVS 629 standards.
Part 2 defines the Core Data Elements, including data types and messaging services within the digital advertising system. Part 3, Ad Management Service, explains the requirements of the interface that defines ad-insertion opportunities and the handling of subsequent placement decisions. The Content Information Service described in Part 4 defines the content query and notification functions.
The subcommittee has no specific deadline for completing DVS 629, the SCTE said, but added that given competitive pressures, the committee is working as quickly as possible.
