Sept. 28, 2020 - DekTec's real-time SDI analyzer, SdEye, has been enhanced with triggering on and decoding of SCTE-104 ad-insertion messages. These messages are located in the VANC space of an SDI stream. By definition, they last only a single frame and are somewhat difficult to capture.

Ad-insertion messages must be captured before they can be analyzed. You can command SdEye to freeze when an SCTE-104 message is detected, and capture a few SDI frames around the frame containing the message. This feature allows you to examine the exact timing relation between the ad-insertion message and the video.

When triggered, SdEye will decode and show the fields in the SCTE-104 message, including message number, splice-insertion type, splice-event ID, unique program ID, break duration and more.

The new SdEye version is available for download for any user with a current license.

Automated Ad Insertion with SCTE-104 and SCTE-35 Messages

Broadcasters use SCTE-104 messages in SDI streams to indicate where in the stream advertisements can start and end, and which ads to insert. Video encoders translate SCTE-104 "requests" in SDI to SCTE-35 messages in an MPEG-2 transport stream. A downstream splicer interprets the SCTE-35 messages and splices the video at the specified times for smooth ad insertion.