After you have transcoded video assets into HLS with AWS Elemental MediaConvert, one thing you might want to do is monetize your content. The AWS Elemental MediaTailor service helps you achieve just that. You may learn more about the service here.
This workshop will take you through creating an AWS Elemental MediaTailor configuration using a media asset from a storage like AWS Elemental MediaStore, and Ad Decision Server (ADS) that returns a VMAP response. VMAP is one of the ad serving protocols that AWS Elemental MediaTailor supports and lends itself well to VOD workflows. The VMAP protocol defines the ad breaks and their timings, and can be used with assets with no ad markers, which is what we will be using here. Once the basic MediaTailor configuration has been completed and verified, this workshop will also walk you through integrating the configuration with CloudFront for distribution.
Below is a diagram showing how the media asset interacts with AWS Elemental MediaTailor.
This lab assumes that you have the following:
- An HLS media asset either in Amazon S3, AWS Elemental MediaStore, or some other file storage. The asset need not have any ad markers. In this tutorial, we will use this asset stored in S3.
- An Ad Decision Server (ADS), or you may use a static VAST response XML hosted on a server. Here, we will use a sample VMAP response hosted and publicly made available by Google's DoubleClick for Publishers and can be found here.
Step-by-step instructions
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From the AWS Management Console, choose Services then select AWS Elemental MediaTailor.
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Click on Create configuration.
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Enter
MyTestCampaignfor the Configuration Name. -
For the Video content source, enter the S3 URL link to the asset Endpoint URL
https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/vast-demo-bucket/caminandes/master.m3u8but without the manifest filename. That is, omit master.m3u8. -
Enter
https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/ads?sz=640x480&iu=/124319096/external/ad_rule_samples&ciu_szs=300x250&ad_rule=1&impl=s&gdfp_req=1&env=vp&output=vmap&unviewed_position_start=1&cust_params=deployment%3Ddevsite%26sample_ar%3Dpremidpost&cmsid=496&vid=short_onecue&correlator=[avail.random]for the Ad decision server.
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Click Create Configuration. Click on the Configurations link to see the configuration you just created. Click on MyTestCampaign to see the Playback endpoints populated with playback URLs. Note down the HLS playback prefix as you'll need it in the next section.
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To verify that ads are making it into your video, you may use a standalone video player to view the HLS playback endpoint such as QuickTime, VLC or any workstation-based player that supports HLS. Alternatively, you may use one of the following web-based players to stream your video:
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Your full playback URL will be the HLS playback prefix (eg. https://f445cfa805184f3e8d86dc2ac1137efa.mediatailor.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/v1/master/cf6421621b389b384c1fd22e51603ee95db76ae0/MyTestCampaign/) concatenated with the manifest filename of the asset in MediaStore (eg. master.m3u8)
Provide the full playback URL to the player of your choice (eg. https://f445cfa805184f3e8d86dc2ac1137efa.mediatailor.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/v1/master/cf6421621b389b384c1fd22e51603ee95db76ae0/MyTestCampaign/master.m3u8)
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With the VMAP response used here, you should see a 10-second preroll ad right at the beginning. Then, 15 seconds into the video, you should see a 10-second midroll ad. And finally, a 10-second postroll ad at the end. Note that it can take a few minutes for the ads to get transcoded and then properly stitched into the HLS manifest generated by AWS Elemental MediaTailor. This means that you may not see all the ads right away when you first play the asset back.
Step-by-step instructions
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From the AWS Management Console, choose Services then select CloudFront.
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Click on Create Distribution.
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Select the Web delivery method for your content and hit the Get Started button.
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Under Origin Settings, enter the domain name of your origin for Origin Domain Name. In our case, this is the domain name of our S3 bucket (eg. vast-demo-bucket.s3.amazonaws.com).
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Under Origin Protocol Policy, select HTTPS only.
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Take the default for all the other settings. But scroll down until you see the Comment textbox and enter
CloudFront for MediaTailor. -
Click the Create Distribution button. This will take you back to the main Distribution page of cloudfront. Your distribution will be in an In Progress state. The quickest way to tell which of the Distributions is yours is by the comment you entered.
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Go back to the Origins and Origin Group tab, and click on the Create Origin button.
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Enter MediaTailor's hostname for the Origin Domain Name. This will come from the HLS playback prefix of MediaTailor (e.g. f445cfa805184f3e8d86dc2ac1137efa.mediatailor.us-west-2.amazonaws.com)
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Update the Origin Protocol Policy to HTTPS Only. Click Create.
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Go back to the Origins tab, and click on the Create Origin button.
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Enter MediaTailor's ad server hostname for the Origin Domain Name. If MediaTailor is being set up in us-west-2 then the Origin is:
ads.mediatailor.us-west-2.amazonaws.com -
Update the Origin Protocol Policy to HTTPS Only. Click on Create.
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Click on the Behaviors tab and click on the Create Behavior button.
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Enter
/caminandes/*for the Path Pattern. -
Under Origin, select the S3 origin.
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Click the Create button to add another cache behavior.
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Click on Create Behavior button.
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Enter
/v1/*for the Path Pattern. -
Under Origin, select the MediaTailor origin.
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For Query String Forwarding and Caching, select Forward all, cache based on all.
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Click the Create button to add another cache behavior.
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Select the Default behavior, and click on the Edit button.
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Make sure the Origin is pointed to the Ad Server origin (e.g. ads.mediatailor.us-west-2.amazonaws.com)
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For Query String Forwarding and Caching, select Forward all, cache based on all.
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Click on Yes, Edit button.
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Double-check the precedence of the caching behavior as this matters. Your primary precedence should be the MediaTailor origin (precedence 0), followed by the S3 origin (precedence 1), and lastly by the ads origin (which is at Precedence 2 and is the Default). If this is not the precedence reflected, select one of the Behaviors and Change Precedence by clicking on either the Move Up or Move Down button, to make the adjustment.
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From the AWS Management Console, choose Services then select AWS Elemental MediaTailor.
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Click on the Configuration (
MyTestCampaign) you created in section 1 and hit the Edit button. -
For the CDN content segment prefix, construct your URL by putting together the protocol, the CloudFront Domain Name, and the path of the MediaStore origin. For example: https://da4bw8c4fh0km.cloudfront.net/caminandes
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For the CDN ad segment prefix, construct your URL by putting together the protocol, and the CloudFront Domain Name. For example: https://da4bw8c4fh0km.cloudfront.net
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Once your CloudFront distribution is in the Deployed status, and Enabled state, try playing back your stream using the same player you selected in section 2 of this lab. Take your playback URL from Section 2, Step 2 and replace the MediaTailor hostname with the CloudFront Domain Name that was assigned to your distribution.
For example, if your MediaTailor playback URL is:
https://f445cfa805184f3e8d86dc2ac1137efa.mediatailor.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/v1/master/cf6421621b389b384c1fd22e51603ee95db76ae0/MyTestCampaign/master.m3u8
then your CloudFront playback URL is: https://da4bw8c4fh0km.cloudfront.net/v1/master/cf6421621b389b384c1fd22e51603ee95db76ae0/MyTestCampaign/master.m3u8)
Congratulations! You've successfully integrated your HLS video asset with AWS Elemental MediaTailor.
Return to the main page.
Select the configuration you created and hit the Delete button to clean up your resources.
Select the distribution that you created and hit the Disable button. Once the distribution's State reflects Disabled, select the same distribution and hit the Delete button.