Creating Blue-Ocean Business Opportunities with iVAd

There has been a large increase in video advertising off the TV screen, and revenue from such advertising is increasing every year. Soaring television advertising fees and exponential growth in the number of television channels means that advertisers have to spend more to reach a wider audience. Many advertisers have therefore invested in outdoor video advertising.

Media and advertising companies are developing video terminals to expand their advertising coverage. Interactive video terminals have been launched one after another, and this opens good opportunities for operators to develop outdoor video advertising. ZTE has developed an interactive video advertising system called iVAd. The system uses cutting-edge Internet techniques to tackle tough OAM issues in traditional electronic screens used for advertising. iVAd manages video advertising screens in different areas in a centralized way.  

iVAd is based on ZTE’s IPTV platform, which supports large-scale IPTV and guarantees carrier-class QoS. Using IP streaming media technology, iVAd releases interactive advertisements via the IP network in a timely and accurate way. It uses digital multimedia technology to release picture, text, message, and video advertisements.

The iVAd architecture consists of management and capability platforms. The management platform manages IPTV and electronic advertising services, and the capability platform is used for STB access, service presentation and control, content delivery, streaming service, and downloading. A load can be shared across many nodes, each of which supports 2500 concurrent users and can be smoothly expanded to support hundreds of thousands of concurrent users.

iVAd has IPTV technology for building geographically distributed content-delivery networks (CDN) that support multiuser concurrent access and smooth capacity expansion. All key devices are capable of load sharing and are highly reliable. iVAd is also an open system that allows access to STBs from different suppliers.

iVAd uses browser/server architecture. The iVAd system can be maintained via a web browser, and terminals can be remotely monitored and maintained anywhere and at any time. Remote maintenance involves powering on/off, rebooting, sleep mode, controlling volume, deleting files, and upgrading software. A synchronization mechanism is used between the OAM server and processor. The synchronization is configured and modified without restarting the service processor.

iVAd supports terminals with different-sized screens. The terminals support portrait and landscape displays and may be installed on a wall, pole, or on the floor. Touchscreen terminals allow users to interact directly with devices. iVAd also provides advertising templates and sites for videos, pictures, and texts as required by advertisers. Through remote web access, advertisers can monitor and manage the content, time, and frequency of an advertisement in real-time.

ZTE's iVAd provides

• video training services such as regular enterprise training or corporate culture promotion
• video advertising in densely populated areas such as airports, railway stations, corridors, business halls, and CBDs
• emergency announcements for severe weather, earthquake, hazardous materials, fire alarm, and tsunamis
• fire prevention announcements in corridors of residential areas
• information query services in residential areas
• wireless city services related to tourism, utility fees, weather forecasts, online booking, and government affairs.

iVAd provides an independent virtual business environment. With a new iVAd platform, operators can widely deploy iVAd terminals in key areas. The prospect of reaching a large audience appeals to advertisers and brings in considerable profit. iVAd provides operators and enterprise users with a superior platform for video advertising and user management and helps them create blue-ocean opportunities.