VAST Tracking

Generally, there are two types to report the play out of ads: Client-Side and Server-Side tracking. While Serverside.ai comes with server-side tracking enabled out of the box and without additional effort it may not be suitable for your dedicated use case. To enable client-side tracking an additional implementation is needed in your app or website.

VAST Standard

The IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau) defines standards around online video advertising which allow ads to be described, tracked, made interactive, and scheduled. VAST (Video Ad Serving Template), is the fundamental specification and defines advertisement types, formats, file locations, player-control-handling, and tracking. Serverside.ai takes this information to condition every advertisement to fit exactly into the requirements of your live and VoD channels. But additionally, the player-control and tracking information is made available to the client so that your app or player on a device can send the necessary tracking information to the ad server or hide controls.

Getting Started

The VAST information is provided slightly differently depending on the format and playback type you are using. The following sections outline the correct client-side tracking usage for DASH as Live-Stream, DASH as VoD, HLS as Live-Stream, and HLS as VOD.