This article navigates an account administrator through the session rules in Revma.com and explains the different uses.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Session Rules Overview
Session Rules refer to a filtering method, that allows users to route the listeners through a certain stream or a group of streams, with various actions being applied.
Some examples of how the rules can be applied are:
redirecting listeners from different countries to alternative content, different bitrates and even particular advertising serving static media files and/ or on demand vast ads.
Allowing specific groups of listeners to reach a station’s broadcast only on specific time-frames.
Via the account's management portal, users have access to the Session rules administration panel, under which all Session rules related tools can be configured.
In this article you will also find some more specific session rules scenarios: Revma session rules scenarios
Session Rules should be created and managed via the account and not the station level
Actions
There are five different kinds of actions: Drop, Continue, Redirect, Loop, Vast.
Each one is explained below:
Drop
With the Drop action, a listener connection is dropped (access to the stream is restricted), with an optional media injection (media prompt).
The media prompt file is not required to have same audio settings as the stream, as Revma transcodes it in order to air successfully.Continue
The Continue action intercepts and allows the connection with an optional media prompt (used to play a specific media to the listener before starting the stream). This is widely used in order to serve advertisements or promos before listeners actually tune-in.
In the "interval" field, you can set the time (in seconds) in which the media prompt will be repeated on. For example, if you set interval to "60", the media prompt will air when a listener enters the stream and then every 60 seconds, interrupting the stream every time. If the "interval" field is left empty (as is the default), the media prompt will not be repeated. This is available only for Continue actions.
The media prompt file is not required to have same audio settings as the stream, as Revma transcodes it in order to air successfully.Redirect
Using the Redirect action, listeners are redirected to another HTTP location (i.e. another stream URL)
Loop
With the Loop action, a static media file (media prompt) can be broadcasted in a continuous loop.
The media prompt file is not required to have same audio settings as the stream, as Revma transcodes it in order to air successfully.Vast
The Vast action allows media to be served on (a group of) listeners, using a VAST compatible provider’s inventory. This media can be served during a listener’s connection (midroll) and/or upon the listener's connection (preroll).
Content Providers
In this section of the Session Rules is where content providers can be added. These are the ad providers that can be used by rules that contain the Vast action.
To add a provider you will first need to enter a URL from which pre-roll ads will be served and a Midroll URL from which midroll ads will be served. If no Midroll URL is added, it will try to fetch content from the URL in any case.
Under Type is where the content provider’s type (i.e. Triton, AdsWizz) can be selected. This is required to be correct in order for the content provider to function properly, as different providers use different settings.
Furthermore, under the content provider section, there are several other option for a user to choose from:
Append Listener Id: This indicates whether or not to append the listenerId query parameter in the VAST request. By default this is selected as active. It’s advisable that the Append Listener Id box remains ticked at all times, as, including the listener id in the ad request url, more targeted advertisements will be generated.
Delay Report: This indicates whether or not to report VAST impressions and tracking events with a delay. By default this is not selected as active; however, the Delay Report is best kept ticked, as it delays the reports coming through by a few seconds, in order to balance the misbehaviour of different web players.
Sequential: This indicates whether or not to perform sequential requests to this provider until no or empty response. Only then, the next request will be made to the next provider. By default this is not selected as active.
Append Listener Query: This indicates whether or not to append the listener's query parameters in the VAST request. By default this is not selected as active.
Cache Response: Property to indicate whether or not to cache VAST responses. By default this is not selected as active. In case companion ads are being served by the provider, this needs to be enabled.
Last but not least, under the Content Providers section you can add Modifiers. Modifiers can be used in order to replace a query originating from the listener's/player's end with another query that will reach the provider.
A modifier consist of two params. "Query" will be the parameter key that, if found in a listener's query string, it will be substituted according to this entity. "Provider" describes the way that the parameter key will be altered.
Stream Groups
This section is where you can create groups of Stations under your account to use for Rules that might require them. For example, a target group of people located in a specific country, can be set to only listen two stations, which have been categorised in this section already as a stream group with the name of the account admin’s choice.
Geo Groups
Geo Groups are groups of Countries of the account admin’s choice.
Geo Areas
Geo Areas are more specific areas of the map that can be created in another location (i.e. google maps) and be added here. Unlike the Geo Groups, the choice does not depend on countries.
Geo Areas are based on a protocol called KML geographic areas.
Here are the steps to create one using Google Maps.
On the Revma side, force downloadable KML files need to be in the form of a URL, so this KML file needs to be public on any drive and accessed directly via a URL. That URL is the value of the KML area.
The URL of the area created, can be added to the KML file URL field
IP Groups
In this category you can create IP groups to have available to use for your Rules. The types of IP groups vary. You can create one based on the CIDR notation, the IP Range or just a single IP address.
Rules
Creating a rule is a multi-step process.
Only one rule applies per listener connection
priority
In case more than one rules match, the one with the lowest integer value priority applies (0 being the highest priority). Prioritizing rules is required in a number of cases and is used to handle advanced scenarios.
Make sure that you do not create multiple rules with the same priority, as only one of them will randomly apply.
source
As source we refer to any certain IP or groups of IPs, Geo Groups or Geo Areas, filtering (groups of) listeners etc. that the rule will apply to.
target
This is the step where the rule's target is selected. The Target could be a single stream, a group of streams (i.e. 30 out of 150 streams operating under an account) or all streams (any target) operating under an account.
action
Here is where an action is configured to apply once stream(s) and rule(s) match.
percentage
Configuration of the percentage of listeners (that match the rule) the action will apply to.
schedule (optional)
Once a rule is created, it will be active immediately (scheduled to always apply) or can be scheduled to apply in certain time frames. Scheduled slots can either refer to day(s) or hour(s) or both. Additionally, there can be combinations of different slots.
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