Release 2.4 and Later Releases: Cisco StadiumVision Director Proof of Play

Change Summary

The following changes are made to proof of play support in Cisco StadiumVision Director Release 2.4:

• The exported data files were changed from comma-delimited to tab-delimited format for support of internationalization (i18N).

Note The file names continue to use the.csv file extention, but the data is in Tab Separated Values (TSV) format.

• The names of the supported file types have been changed from “Generic” to “Detailed” and from “KORE” to “Summary.”
• The following file names have been changed:

– detailed.csv (renamed from genData.csv for the generic report in prior releases)

– summary.csv (renamed from koreData.csv for the KORE report in prior releases)

• The raw proof of play data gathered from devices is stored in the /var/sv/pofp/raw directory (was /var/sv/pofp/dbDump in prior releases).
• The following register changes have been made:

– EnableProofOfPlay—Set to a value of “true,” which enables proof of play globally for the system by default.

– PofPDaysToKeep—Obsolete.

• To support localization, the column names have been changed to the format “locale_name (English Name).”
• Table 1 describes changes made to some of the proof of play report column headings by report type using the English version of the locale headings:

Note When you have installed a supported language pack for Cisco StadiumVision Director, the heading name in the “locale_name” portion of the column heading will be shown in that language.

Content Naming and Tagging

Use of a consistent naming strategy makes it easier to generate and manage reports. For example, prefixing region 2 content file names with “R2” (for example, R2_filename.jpg) allows you to generate reports on region 2 content since filters can be applied to look for “R2” at the head of the string. Other types of content should have unique identifiers like “FS” for full screen content, and so on.

Additionally, associating proof of play tags to content provides excellent metrics for reporting and filtering. Tag names are free-form so they can reflect an advertiser account number, campaign identifier, or other reporting metric. These tags will appear in the summary TSV file. For more information about tagging and the naming guidelines for tags, see the “Creating Tags for Content in Proof of Play Records” section.

Naming of groups and zones is equally important as they will be directly reflected in the report. A zone name of “Concourses” with group names of “Main Hall” and “Section 101” make for easier reading within the report. This also makes it possible to generate a useful proof of play report without detailed knowledge of how the system is configured.

Data Storage

StadiumVision gathers logs from all Cisco DMPs after the event. These logs contain, among other things, the content that was played during the event and when it was played for example, before the event, during the event, and after the event.

All proof of play data files are stored in the /var/sv/pofp/data/"script cookie" directory, with the following names:

• detailed.csv (renamed from genData.csv in prior releases)
• summary.csv (renamed from koreData.csv in prior releases)
• process.log
• rawData.csv
• snapshot.XML
• states.XML

Note Although the file names use the.csv extension, the default format uses a tab delimiter for data within the file in Cisco StadiumVision Director Release 2.4.

Raw Data Files

The raw proof of play data gathered from devices is stored in the /var/sv/pofp/raw directory.

Note The files in this directory are removed from the disk after 60 days.

Data Backup

Caution Proof of play raw data is not part of the backup process. Only proof of play report data that has been generated to the /var/sv/pofp/data directory (indicated by the green dot icon beside the script) is backed up. Therefore, it is very important that you transfer PoP messages from the raw data directory to "data/<cookie>" directory as indicated by a green dot next to the event, before 60 days of the event, after which time PoP messages in the raw directory will be deleted.

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Summary Proof of Play Reporting

This section includes information about the Summary type of proof of play reports:

• Compatibility for KORE Processing
• Working With Summary Data

Compatibility for KORE Processing

To support KORE data processing, Cisco StadiumVision Director aggregates proof of play data across DMPs and generates reports that show information based on total playout per sponsor rather than individual playouts per DMP.

Because Cisco StadiumVision Director exports data in TSV format as the default for release 2.4, you will need to either change the Cisco StadiumVision Director default configuration for proof-of-play reports, or open the data in a spreadsheet application and save it as CSV for use by KORE. For more information, see the “TSV File Format” section.

Note Localization data will not display well in CSV format.

Working With Summary Data

The summary file is the result of post processing the main proof of play file and condensing it by collapsing multiple entries with the same time played stamp into a single record or row. Once the data set is in this format, it is much more manageable (around 5-10 MB for the average event) and can be further manipulated in Microsoft Excel.

The advantage of using desktop software like Microsoft Excel is that it provides the ability to share, modify and distribute the information to others depending on their needs. By leveraging the inherent functionality of the Pivot Table feature in Excel, many views into the summary TSV data can be accomplished. For example you can set filters to view:

• Only the game states that represent the time period of interest.
• When and where content played by content file name and any included tags.
• The total number of plays for a piece of content throughout the venue.
• The total number of plays for a piece of content by specific Group or Zone association.
• The cumulative time a piece of content was displayed throughout the venue.
• The cumulative time a piece of content was displayed by a specific Group or Zone association.

TSV File Format

Beginning in Cisco StadiumVision Director Release 2.4, the format of the data exported for proof of play reports is formatted as tab separated values rather than comma separated values (CSVs) to support internationalization (i18N).

Note Although the default delimiter for data within the file is a tab rather than a comma, the file name still uses the.csv extension in the file name.

If you are using a data application (such as KORE) that requires a comma-delimited format, then you can change a register in Cisco StadiumVision Director to set a comma delimiter as the default format for proof of play reports. For more information, see the “Changing the Register to Support Comma-Delimited Data Format” section.

You can also open the file in a spreadsheet as a tab-delimited file, and then save the data as a CSV file for use in another application.

Note Localization data will not display well in CSV format.

Proof of Play Reports

Note In Cisco StadiumVision Director Release 2.4, the names of the supported file types have been changed from “Generic” to “Detailed” and from “KORE” to “Summary.”

Cisco StadiumVision Director supports two types of file reports:

• Detailed—Creates one record for each playlist that was played on a DMP.

If a single playlist was played across 20 DMPs, the generic TSV file will show an entry for each DMP.

• Summary—Aggregates proof of play data across DMPs and generates reports that show information based on total playout per sponsor, rather than individual playouts per DMP.

If a single playlist was played across 20 DMPs, the file will show only one entry, and the Device Count field displays the number of DMPs that played that advertisement.

Report Fields for a Detailed Proof of Play File

Figure 1 shows an example of the output format for a detailed proof of play report.

Figure 1 Sample Detailed Proof of Play File

Table 2 describes the fields in a generic proof of play report.

Report Fields for a Summary Proof of Play File

Figure 2 shows an example of the output format for a summary proof of play report.

Figure 2 Sample Summary Proof of Play File

Table 3 describes the fields in a Summary proof of play report.

Proof of Play Workflow Overview

Figure 3 shows the timeline for the proof of play workflow from preparing the playlists to downloading the final reports.

Figure 3 Timeline for Proof of Play Workflow

Proof of Play Interface Overview

The Proof of Play screen in the Cisco StadiumVision Control Panel displays the status of the collection of data required to demonstrate proof of play. Each entry in the window represents an event.

The Proof of Play screen displays the event name, the start and end time of the event, whether the event has finished, and whether the raw data was converted to a TSV file (Figure 4).

Figure 4 Proof of Play Screen

Table 4 describes the icons used to display the status of proof of play data for scripts:

Table 4 Script Status Icons for Proof of Play

Icon	Description
	Indicates that proof of play raw data is available for the script and a report can be generated.
	Indicates that the raw data has been generated into a TSV report file and is ready for download.

Changing the Register to Support Comma-Delimited Data Format

Be default, Cisco StadiumVision Director Release 2.4 exports data in tab-delimited format even though the filenames still use the.csv extension. If you have other data application requirements where comma-delimited values must be supported, you can change the register to support comma-delimited format globally in Cisco StadiumVision Director.

To change the register to support comma-delimited data format, complete the following steps:

Step 1 Log into Cisco StadiumVision Director as an administrator.

Step 2 From the Cisco StadiumVision Director main menu, click Management Dashboard.

The Cisco StadiumVision Management Dashboard is opened in a new window.

Step 3 From the Dashboard drawers, select Tools > Advanced > Registry.

Step 4 In the Registry Data box, go to the “pop.useCommaDelimiter” register.

Step 5 If the value is “false” (default), select the box and type true.

Step 6 Click Apply.

Enabling Proof of Play

This section includes the following topics:

• Enabling Proof of Play Globally (as required)
• Enabling a DMP to Generate Proof of Play Messages (required)
• Enabling Proof of Play for a Playlist (as required)
• Enabling Proof of Play for a Script (required)

Enabling Proof of Play Globally

By default in Cisco StadiumVision Director Release 2.4, proof of play support is enabled globally for the system with the EnableProofOfPlay register set to a value of “true.” If this register has been changed from the default, then you need to enable proof of play globally.

To enable proof of play globally in Cisco StadiumVision Director, complete the following steps:

Step 1 Log into Cisco StadiumVision Director as an administrator.

Step 2 From the Cisco StadiumVision Director main menu, click Management Dashboard.

The Cisco StadiumVision Management Dashboard is opened in a new window.

Step 3 From the Dashboard drawers, select Tools > Advanced > Registry.

Step 4 In the Registry Data box, go to the EnableProofOfPlay register.

Step 5 If the value is “false,” select the box and type true.

Step 6 Click Apply.

Step 7 Restart Cisco StadiumVision Director.

Enabling a DMP to Generate Proof of Play Messages

To use Proof of Play, you need to enable the Syslog for the DMP and also set the Syslog Collector IP Address. This address is typically the IP address of Cisco StadiumVision Director. By default, Syslog is disabled.

To verify DMP configuration for proof of play messages, complete the following steps:

Step 1 Log into Cisco StadiumVision Director as an administrator.

Step 2 From the Cisco StadiumVision Director main menu, click Management Dashboard.

The Cisco StadiumVision Management Dashboard is opened in a new window.

Step 3 From the Dashboard drawers, select Monitor and Status > All Devices.

Step 4 Select a DMP from the device list.

Step 5 At the bottom of the box, click the Settings tab.

Step 6 To view the current syslog configuration for the selected DMP, click Syslog.

For proof of play support, the configuration should be “Enabled” and the IP address should match the IP address of Cisco StadiumVision Director.

To enable a DMP to generate proof of play messages, complete the following steps:

Step 1 Log into Cisco StadiumVision Director as an administrator.

Step 2 From the Cisco StadiumVision Director main menu, click Management Dashboard.

The Cisco StadiumVision Management Dashboard is opened in a new window.

Step 3 From the Dashboard drawers, select DMP and TV Controls > DMP Commands > Update MIB.

Step 4 In the Update MIB command parameters box, add the following Name:Pair values:

• init.syslog: on
• init.syslog_collector: <IP address of Cisco StadiumVision Director server>

For more information about updating MIB settings, see the Cisco StadiumVision Management Dashboard Device Configuration Commands guide.

Step 5 Select the checkboxes for the DMPs that you want to enable.

Step 6 Click the play button to send the command to the selected DMPs.

Step 7 Verify the DMP configuration to see that the appropriate values are set.

Enabling Proof of Play for a Playlist

Proof of play for each playlist is enabled by default. If the playlist default has been changed, you need to re-enable it to support proof of play.

To enable proof of play for a playlist, complete the following steps:

Step 1 Log into Cisco StadiumVision Director as an administrator.

Step 2 From the Cisco StadiumVision Director main menu, click Control Panel.

The Cisco StadiumVision Control Panel is opened in a new window.

Step 3 Click Content.

Step 4 Select the playlist that you want to enable.

Step 5 Select Yes for the “Enable Proof of Play” setting, as shown in the following example:

Step 6 Click Update.

To support proof of play for a playlist, the associated script must also be enabled for proof of play. For more information, see the “Enabling Proof of Play for a Script” section.

Enabling Proof of Play for a Script

To limit the amount of data gathered by Cisco StadiumVision Director, proof of play is enabled by default for each playlist, but it is disabled for event scripts. To generate proof of play data, you must enable it at both levels.

For more information about playlist proof of play, see the “Enabling Proof of Play for a Playlist” section.

To enable proof of play for a script, complete the following steps:

Step 1 Log into Cisco StadiumVision Director as an administrator.

Step 2 From the Cisco StadiumVision Director main menu, click Control Panel.

The Cisco StadiumVision Control Panel is opened in a new window.

Step 3 Click Control.

Step 4 Select the script that you want to enable and click Start, as shown in the following example:

Step 5 In the Start Script dialog box, select Yes for the “Proof of Play” setting, as shown in the following example:

Step 6 Click Start.

Creating Tags for Content in Proof of Play Records

Creating tags for content in proof of play records allows you to attach a label to a proof of play record that can be used to identify that record. For example, you can tag the records with a label that identifies the advertiser or sponsor.

Guidelines

Tags must be created according to the following guidelines:

• The name uses the following naming convention: <tag name> _PoP, where <tag name> is the name for your proof of play label, and the “_PoP” suffix is required to designate the label for proof of play processing.

Note The “_PoP” suffix does not appear in any proof of play reports. Only the <tag name> is shown.

• The following characters are not supported in tag names: / ? < > \ : * | "
• Content in multiple playlists can use the same tag. The number of playlists that have content assigned to a tag displays under the # column in the Content Navigation window next to the tag name.

Tip You can display the playlists that have content assigned to a tag, by clicking the tag name in the Content Navigation box.

To create tags for proof of play records, complete the following steps:

Step 1 Log into Cisco StadiumVision Director as an administrator.

Step 2 From the Cisco StadiumVision Director main menu, click Control Panel.

The Cisco StadiumVision Control Panel is opened in a new window.

Step 3 Click Content.

Step 4 In the Playlist box, select the playlist that has the content that you want to tag.

Step 5 In the Content Navigation box, click the arrow next to the All Content folder to display its sub-folders.

Step 6 Click the arrow next to the By Tag folder to open it.

Step 7 Click the Add New Tag icon (folder with green plus sign), as shown in the following example:

A New Tag entry displays under the By Tag folder.

Step 8 Type a name according to the guidelines for proof of play tags.

Tip Be sure to include the “_PoP” suffix in your tag name.

Step 9 From the Playlist items window, click and drag the content you want to assign onto the tag you just created in the Content Navigation window, as shown in the following example:

The content in the playlist is now labeled with the tag and the number in the # column increments.

Generating a Proof of Play Report

A green status icon is displayed beside the script name when proof of play raw data is available for report generation.

Guidelines

Before you generate a proof of play report, consider the following guidelines:

• It is recommended that you generate Proof of Play reports within 14 days of an event.
• Proof of play records are not available until the script completes.
• While the proof of play report is processing, there is a delay between the end of an event and the availability of the reports in the Proof of Play screen. Click the refresh button before generating and viewing a proof of play report to be sure the latest report status is displayed.
• Depending upon the amount of data you have in the script, it may take from 10 seconds to several minutes to generate the report.
• For zero-duration non-video items in a playlist, the proof of play record will show the airtime when the item started to play and the Duration as 0 (zero).
• Cisco StadiumVision Director is unable to generate proof of play for an event if proof of play is turned on for a Dynamic Menu Board playlist. Therefore, before generating a proof of play report, be sure to turn off proof of play for all Dynamic Menu Board playlists.

To generate a proof of play report, complete the following steps:

Step 1 From the Cisco StadiumVision Control Panel, click Setup > Proof of Play, as shown in the following example:

Step 2 Select an event script with a green status icon indicating that proof of play raw data is available.

Step 3 Click Generate Report.

The date and time of the report generation will display in the Last Report Creation column. Also, the Generate Report icon will display in the Status column while the file is being generated.

For long events (several hours), it may take a few moments to finish compiling the report. Click Refresh to get the latest update.

Downloading Proof of Play Reports

A yellow report status icon is displayed beside the script name when proof of play raw data has been generated into a TSV report file and is ready for download.

Note In Cisco StadiumVision Director Release 2.4, proof of play reports use tab-delimited format but still use the.csv file extension.

To download proof of play reports, complete the following steps:

Step 1 From the Cisco StadiumVision Control Panel, click Setup > Proof of Play.

Step 2 Click the yellow report icon beside the script whose proof of play report has been generated, and that you want to download.

Step 3 In the Proof of Play report generation confirmation box, click Yes.

Step 4 In the script report selection dialog, select the checkbox for the type of report that you want to download and click Get as shown in the following example.

Tip You can select both Detailed and Summary report types at the same time.

Step 5 In the “Select location for download” dialog box, select the location and file name that you want to use to save the Detailed report. Click Save.

If you have downloaded more than one report type, the Detailed report will be downloaded first and then a dialog box will appear for you to confirm download of the Summary report.

Step 6 Click OK when prompted to download the next file:

Step 7 In the “Select location for download” dialog box, select the location and file name that you want to use to save the Summary report. Click Save.

Step 8 Go to your local drive, navigate to the location where you saved the reports, and open the tab-delimited files with.csv extension in Microsoft Excel.

For information about how to open these tab-delimited.csv files in Microsoft Excel, see the “Converting a Tab-Delimited Proof of Play Report to Columns in Microsoft Excel” section.

Converting a Tab-Delimited Proof of Play Report to Columns in Microsoft Excel

To convert a tab-delimited proof of play report to columns in Microsoft Excel, complete the following steps:

Step 1 Open the.csv proof of play report file in Microsoft Excel.

Step 2 Click the top of the first column of data to select that column of cells.

Step 3 From the menu bar, click the Data tab.

Step 4 Click Text to Columns.

The Convert Text to Columns Wizard - Step 1 of 3 dialog box opens.

Step 5 With the Delimited option selected (default), click Next.

The Convert Text to Columns Wizard - Step 2 of 3 dialog box opens.

Step 6 With the Tab checkbox selected in the Delimiters box (default), click Next.

The Convert Text to Columns Wizard - Step 3 of 3 dialog box opens.

Step 7 With the General checkbox selected in the Column Data Format box (default), click Finish.

Working With Pivot Tables

This section describes some advanced reporting features that you can use to work with your proof of play data in Pivot Tables in Microsoft Excel.

It includes the following sections:

• Generating Pivot Table Reports
• Applying Filters to Pivot Tables

Generating Pivot Table Reports

To extract some meaningful information from the proof of play data, you can create a PivotTable® report in Microsoft® Excel. A PivotTable is an interactive table that automatically extracts, organizes, and summarizes your data. You can control how Microsoft Excel summarizes the data—for example, by sum, average, or count-without entering a single formula.

In a PivotTable report, you can quickly:

• Add or remove categories of data.
• Rearrange the data.
• View a subset of the data.
• Show the details you want.

The example_pivot.xlsx at the link below provides an example of a proof of play file that was created using the PivotTable® report functionality in Microsoft® Excel:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/15928784/PoP/example_pivot.xlsx

When you open the example_pivot.xlsx file, there are four tabs:

• Total Plays in Venue tab—Displays a basic play count of each ad listed by content filename and any associated content tags, detailed by group and zone.
• Summarized Play Time tab—Adds a “Played …” column to each group and zone. This column takes the number of plays and multiplies it by the length of time the content played to establish a total amount of time the content aired per group and zone.
• Content Time Stamps tab—Lists all the timestamps of proof of play per content filename.
• Example Data Set tab—Default view which shows the entire proof of play data set.

Note The sample data in this file is from an earlier Cisco StadiumVision Director release.

Applying Filters to Pivot Tables

This section describes how you can adjust the proof of play reporting view by applying filters to a PivotTable. It includes the following sections:

• Timestamp Filtering
• Content Filtering
• Group and Zone Filtering

Timestamp Filtering

Proof of play reporting starts when the event script begins—usually before the event—and ends well after the event. Therefore, you might need to make some adjustments to the data to retrieve an accurate accounting of plays during the actual event versus the timeframe the event script was running. You can do this by setting a filter in the PivotTable so that the proof of play report displays only proof of play data for content that displayed during the actual event. In the example_pivot.xlsx file, you can set this filter in cell B2.

In Figure 5, the filter is has been adjusted to remove play information outside the duration of the game. Clearing the “Daily” checkbox for the event script activities causes matching proof of play entries to drop from the report.

Figure 5 Timestamp Filtering Example

Content Filtering

In the example_pivot.xlsx file, cell A7 contains a content filter to trim the entire list of content filenames to just the “what” items you are interested in. Individual content items can be selected for the report, or a standing pattern matching filter can be established for the report.

In this example, the content filenames that start with “R2” detail the region 2 advertising content. By setting up a “Begins With” filter in the “By label:” filter space with a value of “R2_P,” the report will list only region 2 content. In this example, the region 2 content is the team's self-promotion advertisements.

Figure 6 Content Filtering Example

Group and Zone Filtering

In the example_pivot.xlsx file, cell B4 contains the Group and Zone filter. This filter can have two different standing sets of matches to truly refine the “where” of the reporting. They can be used singularly or in combination to refine the detail of the report.

Choose Zone from the “Select field” pull down menu to set a filter that displays only the zones of interest in the report. If you check only “Concourses,” all other zones in the data set will not be listed in the report.

Choose Group from the “Select field” pull down menu to set a separate filter that displays a subset of the concourse groups of interest in the report. The Groups filter is used in conjunction with the Zones filter.

Figure 7 Group and Zone Filtering Example

Displaying Proof of Play Data in Seconds

To display proof of play data in seconds, complete the following steps:

Step 1 Copy data from the new report ( your_summary_report.csv) to the example worksheet containing the PivotTables ( example_pivot.xlsx):

a. Open the example PivotTable file named example_pivot.xlsx.

b. Open the new data file your_summary_report.csv.

c. Right-click on the your_summary_report.csv tab in the same window and choose “Move or Copy…”. The Move or Copy dialog box displays:

d. In the To book: drop down box, select example_pivot.xlsx.

e. Select the Create a copy checkbox and click OK.

Step 2 Find the last cell data in the your_summary_report.csv tab in the example _pivot.xlsx file:

a. In the example _pivot.xlsx window with the your_summary_report.csv tab being shown, scroll down to the last row of data. The column will be “Q.” (CTL+q is the shortcut).

b. Locate the last row that contains data and make note of it. In this example, it is 28263.

Step 3 Reset the PivotTable data range to the new sheet, by completing the following steps:

a. In the example _pivot.xlsx window click the desired tab: Total Plays in Venue, Summarized Play Time, or Content Time Stamps.

b. Select the rows that you want to include in the PivotTable. This updates the Microsoft Excel toolbar.

c. Select Insert > PivotTable from the tool bar. The Data > PivotTable toolset displays in the ribbon menu:

d. Click on the “Change Source” tool in the ribbon. The Change PivotTable Data Source dialog box displays.

Note The information displayed in the dialog box will be incorrect as it will reference the Example Data Set tab.

e. Type the Location for the data set. Follow this string format with the tab that contains the data set and the row value obtained in Step 2b:

f. Click OK.

Step 4 Repeat Step 3 to update the other sheets within the PivotTable file.

Step 5 Save the modified template example_pivot.xlsx file as a.xlsx formatted file with a new name so that you do not overwrite the example.

Step 6 You can delete the sample Example Data Set tab to reduce the file size. Simply right click on the tab and choose Delete.

Removing Proof of Play Data in the Disk Directories

To remove proof of play data in the disk directories, complete the following steps:

Step 1 Clean up proof of play data in the disk directories by referring to Table 5 , which describes the directories where proof of play data is stored and can be removed.

Table 5 Disk Directories for Proof of Play Data

Directory	Description
/var/sv/pofp/data	This is the actual data for each game. You might want to keep a backup copy.
/var/sv/pofp/raw	This is raw files from devices and does not need to be saved. Caution Do not delete the directory itself.

Removing Proof of Play Entries From the Control Panel

To save disk space on the server, you can periodically remove old proof of play entries that are no longer needed. The delete operation will fail if you attempt to remove a proof of play entry while an event script is running or while a TSV report is processing; however, if you delete an entry before generating the raw data into a report, all of the proof-of-play data will be lost.

Caution Removing proof of play entries is irreversible and must be executed with caution.

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To remove proof of play entries from the Control Panel, complete the following steps:

Step 1 From the Cisco StadiumVision Control Panel, click Setup > Proof of Play.

Step 2 Select the script proof of play entry that you want to remove.

Step 3 Click Delete.

Registers for Proof of Play

Table 6 describes the Cisco StadiumVision Director registers related to proof of play and their default values.

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