ID3 Transcoders

Engineering Portal / TV / ID3 Transcoders

In the face of rapidly changing technology, capturing a truly representative sample of audience viewing is a growing challenge. With pervasive access to computers, tablets, and smart phones, more and more people are streaming content on devices other than television sets. In order to measure audience viewing of such streaming content, Nielsen has extended its content-coding technology to include the carriage of NAES watermarks within ID3v2 Tags. These ID3 tags are inserted into MPEG-2 transport streams in compliance with industry standards.

The Nielsen ID3-tag inserter is always positioned downstream form a NAES encoder in the content-distribution chain because Nielsen ID3 tags are derived from NAES watermarks.

As with watermark encoders, ID3-tag inserters may be placed at several different points in the processing chain. In the above figure, an ID3-tag inserter is placed at the site of the content originator, where a NAES encoder inserts PC watermarks into the audio stream. A NAES decoder finds the watermarks and passes them to the ID3 tag-inserter.

Below figure shows a tag-inserter that is placed in a content-distribution facility (a cable operator or NOC, for example). At the distribution facility, a NAES encoder inserts FD watermarks, and then passes the stream to the ID3-tag inserter. The stream may pass through several content-distribution points before reaching the home.

After the content has been watermarked and tagged, it is transmitted to the home, where it may be viewed on TV and/or sent via Wi-Fi to computers and mobile devices. The computers and mobile devices send the ID3 tags back to Nielsen for crediting

Documentation

• PCM-to_ID3 2.3 SDK Developer Guide Version M
• Transcoder SDK Certification Process for Vendors
• Transcoder SDK Certification Process_Vendors Addendum Stereo 5.1
• Transcoder SDK Certification Process for Vendors Audio Profile Output
• Client Certification Stream Schematic
• Audio Profile Test Coverage Checklist
• Inventory of Content Provided to Nielsen
• Nielsen Transcoder Certification Notice
• ID3 Tag Validator SDK Developer Guide v1.7

Software Updates

PCM to ID3 SDK v2.3

• PCM-to-ID3 SDK v2.3.2 Linux x64 GLIBC 2.12
• PCM-to-ID3 SDK v2.3.2 Linux x64 GLIBC 2.17
• PCM-to-ID3 SDK v3.2.1 OS X
• PCM-to-ID3 SDK v2.3.2 Windows

ID3 Tag Validator

• PCM-to-ID3 Validator Windows v1.7
• PCM-to-ID3 Validator CentOS v1.7
• PCM-to-ID3 Validator Mac OS X v1.7

Transcoder Certificate Streams

• VendorCert-BOUNDARY-v01
• VendorCert-NORMAL-v01
• VendorCert-STRESS-v01

Test Stream – No Switching

• VendorCert-BOUNDARY-v03-noCHsw-SrdSnd
• VendorCert-NORMAL-v03-noCHsw-Stereo
• VendorCert-STRESS-v03-noCHsw-SrdSnd