Setting Ad Cue Points Using the Brightcove Advertising Module

This feature allows you to set ad cue points in single or multiple videos in the Brightcove Advertising module. For general information about cue points and the other techniques you can use to set and modify them, read Adding Cue Points to Videos.

This topic describes how to use the Advertising module for the following actions:

• Adding Ad Cue Points
• Editing Ad Cue Points
• Deleting Ad Cue Points

In order to use this feature with your players, you must enable mid-roll ads for the player, so that when cue points are reached, an ad request can be made.

You can also specify metadata for the cue points. The metadata is passed as key/value pairs when the ad request is made. You add, edit, or delete cue points from at the video level in the Brightcove Advertising module.
NOTE: Using the Brightcove Advertising module, you cannot delete all cue points at once, edit or delete non-ad (chapter or code) cue points, or preview a video and add cue points during playback. These features are being considered as future enhancements to the Brightcove Advertising module.

Quick Tour of the Cue Points Screen in the Advertising Module

You set cue points from the Cue Points screen accessible from the video level of the Brightcove Advertising module. The following shows the Cue Points screen in the Advertising module:

There is a green timeline at the top of the screen on which you click to add or select cue points. The starting point of all videos and the end point of the longest video are indicated with cue points (white down arrows) on the timeline. When you add new cue points, the newly added cue points are also shown as white down arrows on the timeline.

Below the timeline there is a list of the selected videos (you can select up to 100 videos).  The duration of each video is indicated with a blue filmstrip. If cue points have already been added to any of these videos, the cue points are represented on each video's timeline with a small, gray diamond. (You may notice that different videos have different cue points. This is because you can choose one set of videos and add cue points, then you can choose a different set of video and add different cue points). Whenever you add a cue point to a selected set of videos, that cue point will be set in all the selected videos.

If more videos are selected than can be displayed on the screen, you can use the up and down scroll arrows to view the videos that are not displayed.

Note: The pre-roll and post-roll cue points, located at the beginning of each video selected, and at the end of each video, are automatically added to the Cue Points edit screen. The Timecode and Name for these cue points cannot be edited from the Advertising module, but you can add or edit the key/value pairs associated with the pre-roll and post-roll cue points. Pre-roll and post-roll cue points will always be present on the Cue Points screen, but they will only be used if you enable pre-roll and post-roll insertion points at the Player level.

Note: Chapter and code cue points that have been added using one of the other methods display on the Cue Points screen in the Advertising module as small, gray diamonds. In the example below, each ad has one code cue point (before the 1 minute mark on the timeline) that was not added from the Advertising module.

These cue points look like any other cue point that was created during a different session. These cue points cannot be selected or added, modifed, or deleted from the Cue Points screen in the Brightcove Advertising module

Adding Ad Cue Points

To add ad cue points from the Video level: 

1. Open the Advertising module and select All Videos in the Navigation Pane on the left side of the screen.
2. Select the video(s) for which you want to add cue points from the data grid in the center of the screen. To select multiple videos, hold down the Ctrl or Shift keys while selecting videos. You can select up to 100 videos to edit at a time.
3. In the toolbar, select Edit. The Batch Edit Videos screen displays indicating the number of videos that have been selected in the title bar.
4. Select the Cue Points tab near the top of the screen. A timeline displays with each of the selected videos below it.

5. To add a cue point, click on the time at which you want to add a cue point in the Green Bar above the videos.
   A white down arrow appears at the selected time and a vertical line with diamonds appears on each of the selected videos to indicate where the cue point will be located. The Add New Cue Point dialog displays:

If you position the cue point beyond the end of any of the videos, a message displays in the dialog box indicating that the cue point is after one or more videos.

You can still add the cue point at that point, but you should be aware that it will have no affect on the video(s) that end before the cue point is reached.

If you place the cue point after the longest video, the same message appears, and you are automatically editing the post-roll cue point of the longest video.

This screen displays the Timecode of the cue point in hh:mm:ss:ms format.

6. To change the position of the new cue point, type a new time into the Timecode field.
7. Optional: Enter a name for the cue point in the Name field. An example of a name for a cue point might be "1 minute cue point".
8. Optional: Enter key/value pairs for the cue point. Metadata for the cue point is passed in key/value pairs. For example, you might specify a category for the cue point as a key/value pair. This might be useful if more than one ad will play during the video and you want to ensure that a different video plays at each cue point.
   
9. When you are satisfied with the settings for the cue point, select Add. (Select Cancel to close the Add dialog without saving the Cue Point.) If you click Add, you are returned to the Cue Point screen on which and the new cue point is shown in the Green bar with a down arrow:

10. From this screen you can add additional cue points by repeating Steps 6-9, or you can modify or delete cue points. When you are done making changes to cue points for the selected videos, select Save Changes to save all changes to the cue points. (If you select Cancel, all cue points that were added, modified, or deleted during this session are not saved.)
11. After you have added cue points, verify that mid-roll ads are enabled at the Player level. If mid-roll ads are not enabled, the cue points will not cause an ad request to be made.

Editing Ad Cue Points

To edit ad cue points using the Brightcove Advertising module:

1. Open the Advertising module and select All Videos in the Navigation Pane on the left side of the screen.
2. Select the video(s) for which you want to modify cue points from the data grid in the center of the screen. To select multiple videos, hold down the Ctrl or Shift keys while selecting videos.
3. In the toolbar, select Edit.
   The Batch Edit Videos screen displays indicating the number of videos that have been selected in the title bar.
4. Select the Cue Points tab.
   A timeline displays showing the duration of each video selected and all cue points is displayed.
5. To edit a cue point, click on the down arrow in the Green Bar for the selected cue point you want to modify.

NOTE: It is possible that two or more cue points are very close together and the white down arrows on the Green Bar are overlapping, as shown on the left in the image below. When you click on any of the overlapping white down arrows, a drop-down box displays as shown on the right in the image below. This drop-down shows the the timecode (minutes and seconds only) for each of the cue points. Select the appropriate cue point to edit from the drop-down box to continue. 

 The Edit Cue Point dialog displays.

6. Modify the Timecode, Name, or Key/Value Pairs fields, as necessary and select Update. When you click Update, you are returned to the screen on which all the ad durations are shown. The modified cue point is shown in the Green bar with a down arrow. 

7. From this screen you can edit additional cue points by repeating steps 5-6, or you can add or delete cue points.
8. When you are done making changes to cue points for the selected videos, select Save Changes to save all changes to the cue points. (If you select Cancel, all cue points that were added, modified, or deleted during this session are not saved.)
9. After you have edited cue points, verify that mid-roll ads are enabled at the Player level. If mid-roll ads are not enabled, the cue points will not cause an ad request to be made.

Deleting Ad Cue Points

You can delete cue points that have been saved; however, using the Brightcove Advertising module, you can only delete one cue point at a time. If multiple videos have a common cue point, you can select all those videos and delete that cue point from all videos with one action, but you cannot delete cue points with different time codes with one action. Each different cue point must be deleted separately.

1. Open the Advertising module and select  in the Navigation Pane on the left side of the screen.
2. Select the video(s) for which you want to delete cue points from the data grid in the center of the screen. To select multiple videos, hold down the Ctrl or Shift keys while selecting videos.
3. In the toolbar, select Edit.
   The Batch Edit Videos screen displays indicating the number of videos that have been selected in the title bar.
4. Select the Cue Points tab.
   A timeline displays showing the duration of each video selected and all cue points are displayed as down arrows.
5. To delete a cue point, click on the down arrow in the Green Bar for the selected cue point you want to delete.

The Edit Cue Point dialog displays.

6. Select the Delete button (the trash can) from the Edit dialog.

7. The seleted cue point is removed from the timeline. From this screen you can delete additional cue points by repeating steps 5-6, or you can add or edit cue points.
8. When you are done making changes to cue points for the selected videos, select Save Changes to save all changes to the cue points. (If you select Cancel, all cue points that were added, modified, or deleted during this session are not saved.)