SSAI Integration: Server-Side Ad Insertion

LtvAdx SSAI stitches ads directly into your HLS or DASH stream before the player receives the manifest. No client-side SDK required — ads are indistinguishable from content segments, eliminating ad blockers and reducing buffering.

SSAI vs client-side VAST

How SSAI works in LtvAdx

1. Session creation — Your origin server (or the CTV app at stream start) calls the LtvAdx SSAI session endpoint with the publisher manifest URL, channel ID, and HouseholdID. LtvAdx returns a stitched manifest URL unique to this viewer session.
2. Player setup — The CTV player loads the stitched manifest URL instead of the origin manifest.
3. Break detection — When LtvAdx encounters a SCTE-35 cue point in the origin manifest, it runs the waterfall auction and splices the winning creative segments into the manifest stream.
4. Tracking — LtvAdx fires all VAST quartile beacons server-side as segments are delivered. No client-side beacon calls required.

Step 1 — Enable SSAI on your channel

In the dashboard, go to Publisher Portal → Channels & Apps → [your channel] → Ad Config. Toggle SSAI Enabled on. Save and publish your configuration.

Step 2 — Create an SSAI session

Call the session creation endpoint at the start of each viewer session. This is typically done server-side (to protect your manifest URL) or from the CTV app at stream initialisation:

# Create SSAI session
GET https://ads.ltvadx.com/ssai/session/create
    ?publisherManifestUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fstream.yourdomain.com%2Flive.m3u8
    &channelId=chan_fast_news_01
    &householdId=hh_a1b2c3
    &platform=ROKU
    &ifa=xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx

# 200 Response
{
  "sessionId":            "sess_xyz789abc",
  "stitchedManifestUrl":  "https://ads.ltvadx.com/ssai/hls/sess_xyz789abc/manifest.m3u8",
  "expiresAt":            "2026-06-03T21:00:00Z"
}

Step 3 — Point the player at the stitched manifest

Return the stitchedManifestUrl to the CTV player. The player loads it exactly like a normal HLS/DASH manifest. The URL is opaque to the player — it does not need to know it is stitched:

# Stitched HLS manifest (player loads this URL)
https://ads.ltvadx.com/ssai/hls/sess_xyz789abc/manifest.m3u8

# Manifest content — ads appear as additional segments:
#EXTM3U
#EXT-X-VERSION:3
#EXT-X-TARGETDURATION:10
#EXT-X-MEDIA-SEQUENCE:0

# Content segment
#EXTINF:8.008,
https://origin.yourdomain.com/seg001.ts

# SCTE-35 break detected — ad pod starts
#EXT-X-DISCONTINUITY
#EXT-X-DATERANGE:ID="ltv-1",CLASS="com.ltvadx.ad",START-DATE="2026-06-03T20:30:05Z",DURATION=30
#EXTINF:15.0,
https://cdn.ltvadx.com/ads/creative_abc_p1.ts   ← stitched ad segment 1
#EXTINF:15.0,
https://cdn.ltvadx.com/ads/creative_abc_p2.ts   ← stitched ad segment 2

# Ad pod ends — content resumes
#EXT-X-DISCONTINUITY
#EXTINF:8.008,
https://origin.yourdomain.com/seg002.ts

Step 4 — DASH integration

For DASH streams, LtvAdx stitches via the same session model but returns an MPD manifest URL:

# DASH session creation
GET https://ads.ltvadx.com/ssai/session/create
    ?publisherManifestUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fstream.yourdomain.com%2Flive.mpd
    &channelId=chan_fast_news_01
    &householdId=hh_a1b2c3
    &manifestType=DASH

# Response
{
  "sessionId":           "sess_dash_abc",
  "stitchedManifestUrl": "https://ads.ltvadx.com/ssai/dash/sess_dash_abc/manifest.mpd"
}

Tracking events

LtvAdx fires server-side beacons as ad segments are delivered. The following events are tracked automatically:

For click tracking in SSAI, include an overlay or companion creative via client-side VAST (use the companionAds field in the stitched VAST). Overlay clicks fire through the standard VAST click redirect URL.

Redundancy and fallback

If the LtvAdx SSAI service is unavailable or the session creation call times out, your app should fall back to the origin manifest URL directly (no ads stitched). Configure a 2-second timeout on the session creation call. If no stitchedManifestUrl is returned, use the origin URL and log the failure.

Multi-CDN creative delivery

LtvAdx transcodes and stages winning creatives to a CDN edge cache before stitching. Creative segments are available at the nearest PoP within 200ms of the auction. If your stream region has specific CDN requirements, contact our solutions team for CDN peering configuration.