Insertion of transparent advertisement overlays into coded video is much more robust against ad blocking and further removal techniques compared to side channel advertising such as via HTML5 or Adobe Flash. However, such an approach typically requires rather complex transcoding to permanently fuse advertisement and video in the pixel domain.
Fraunhofer HHI has developed a lightweight technique for advertisement insertion into HEVC coded video in the compressed domain to avoid these complex transcoding operations. The technique consists of merging several input video bitstreams into a single output video bitstream. Pre-encoded pictures are then inserted to form the desired alpha-blended composition through standard prediction tools.
This lightweight approach is computationally much less demanding than transcoding-based solutions, which is a valuable benefit for service scalability. The technique allows for higher compression efficiency than transcoding, i.e. lower bitrates at a given quality. On end devices such as mobile phones using only a single standard-conformant HEVC video decoder limits hardware costs and battery drain.
The exhibit at the Barcelona Mobile World Congress 2016 demonstrates live insertion of transparent advertisements into coded video bitstreams. IPTV service prototypes using the presented technique have been demonstrated together with Deutsche Telekom Innovation Laboratories before.
