Video Events Specification
Detailed technical description of the syntax and general conventions for sending events when tracking videos.
RudderStack's video specification lets you define how a customer engages with your videos and the related ad content.
This documentation lists the conventions and best practices for sending events in case of video tracking videos. It will also clarify the overall structure and classification of these events.
Not all RudderStack destinations support video tracking. Refer to the individual destination's documentation to check if it supports this feature.
This guide is organized into the following three event categories:
Playback
Content
Ads
Playback
The playback events are associated with the actual playback of the video content and track the information about the video player.
For example, when a customer plays a video on your app, a Video Playback Started
event is sent along with a unique session_id
. All subsequent events generated from this session are tied to this same session_id
.
Suppose if you have a web page with two video players, you would have two separate sessions and session_id
associated with them. On the other hand, two separate videos played on the same video player would still constitute a single session with two contents associated with it.
All the playback events are tracked and recorded at the session level.
Playback Events
This section details all the video playback events.
For more information on each of the properties associated with these events, refer to the Playback Event Properties section.
Video Playback Started
This event is associated with the user action of pressing the play button on the video player to initiate the video playback.
A sample event is as shown below:
Video Playback Paused
This event corresponds to the user action of pausing the video playback.
A sample event is as shown:
Video Playback Interrupted
This event is sent when the video playback stops unintentionally. Network loss, user closing the browser, redirect, etc. are some of the common reasons. You can pass the cause within the property method
.
A sample event is as shown:
Video Playback Buffer Started
This corresponds to the event of buffering content or an advertisement.
A sample event is as shown:
Video Playback Buffer Completed
This corresponds to the event when the playback finishes buffering the content or an advertisement.
A sample event is as shown:
Video Playback Seek Started
This event is sent when a user manually seeks a certain position of the video content or an advertisement in the playback. The position
property indicates where the user is seeking from (time in seconds) and the seek_position
indicates the position in the playback where the user is seeking to.
A sample event is as shown:
Video Playback Seek Completed
This event is sent after a user manually seeks to a certain position of the video or ad in the playback. The position
property indicates where the user resumes the playback.
A sample event is as shown:
Video Playback Resumed
This event is sent after the user resumes the video playback after it was paused.
A sample event is as shown:
Video Playback Completed
This event is sent after the playback is complete and when the session is finished. Note that the position
property has the same value as the total_length
property.
A sample event is as shown:
Playback Event Properties
All the playback events share the same properties that describe the current state of the video player.
The following table lists all the properties of this playback event object in detail:
Property
Type
Description
session_id
String
A unique ID that ties all the events generated from a specific playback session. These events include playback, content, and ad events.
content_asset_id
content_asset_ids
String
Array [String]
Content asset ID/s of the video/s playing or
about to be played.
For Video Playback Started
events, an array
of unique asset IDs should be sent. For other
playback events, a singular content asset ID at the time of the event should be sent.
content_pod_id
content_pod_ids
String
Array [String]
Content pod ID/s of the video/s playing or
about to be played.
For Video Playback Started
events, an array
of unique pod IDs should be sent. For other
playback events, a singular content pod ID associated with the current content pod at the time of the event should be sent.
ad_asset_id
String
Array [String]
Ad asset ID/s of the video/s playing or
about to be played.
For Video Playback Started
events, an array
of unique ad asset IDs should be sent. For other
playback events, a singular ad asset ID at the time of the event should be sent.
ad_pod_id
String
Array [String]
Ad pod ID/s of the video/s playing or
about to be played.
For Video Playback Started
events, an array
of unique ad pod IDs should be sent. For other
playback events, a singular content pod ID associated with the current ad pod at the time of the event should be sent.
ad_type
Enum
Denotes the type of ad playing at the time of the
event. The values can be 'pre-roll
', ' mid-roll
', and
'post-roll
'.
position
Integer
Denotes the current index position of the playhead in seconds. It includes the duration of any seen ads. If the playback is a livestream, refer to the documentation of the relevant destination for steps on correctly passing the playhead position.
seek_position
Integer
Denotes the index position of the playhead where the
user is seeking to.
Only applicable on the Video Playback Seek Started
events. On Video Playback Seek Completed events,
the seek_position
should be equal to position
.
total_length
Integer
Denotes the total duration of the video playback
in seconds. Includes the whole duration of all
the content and ads included in the session.
Set to null
in case of a livestream playback.
bitrate
Integer
Bit rate of the video playback, denoted in kbps
framerate
Float
Denotes the average frame rate of the video
playback in fps
.
video_player
String
Denotes the name of the video player used for
playback. Example: youtube
, vimeo
, etc.
sound
Integer
Denotes the sound level of the video playback.
Range is from 0-100, where 0 represents mute
and 100 is full volume.
full_screen
Boolean
Set to true
if the playback is in fullscreen
mode.
ad_enabled
Boolean
Set to false
if the user has any ad blockers.
If the user can view your video ads, it is set to
true
.
quality
String
Specifies the quality of the video. Examples: 'hd1080', 'highres'
method
String
For the Video Playback Interrupted
events,
you can send this property denoting how the
playback was interrupted.
Some examples include 'device lock', 'call', and
'browser redirect'.
livestream
Boolean
Set to true
in case the playback is a live stream,
else set to false
.
Content
A content pod refers to a part / group / segment of the video content or the advertisement within the playback.
Suppose a video playback session has a video and one mid-roll advertisement. This means that the mid-roll ad splits the playback in two separate content pods. The mid-roll ad is included within a single ad pod.
The flow is as follows:
User starts and completes the first content pod
User starts and completes the ad
User starts and completes the second content pod
All of these events within the flow happen within one video playback.
Content Events
This section details all the video content events.
For more information on each of the properties associated with these events, refer to the Content Event Properties section.
Video Content Started
This event is sent once the user starts playing video content segment within a playback.
A sample event is as shown:
Video Content Playing
These events are sent as heartbeats every after a set interval to indicate the length of video viewed by the user, determined by the position
property.
A sample event is as shown:
Video Content Completed
This event is sent once the video segment within the playback is completed. Note that the position
property has the same value as the total_length
property.
A sample event is as shown:
Content Event Properties
All the content events share the same properties that describe the current state of the video content that is viewed by the user during the playback.
The following table lists all the properties of this playback event object in detail:
Property
Type
Description
session_id
String
A unique ID that ties all the events generated from a specific playback session. These events include playback, content, and ad events.
asset_id
String
Denotes the unique ID of the video content asset.
pod_id
String
Denotes the unique ID of the video content pod.
title
String
Denotes the title of the video content.
description
String
Describes the video content asset in short.
keywords
Array [String]
Denotes the relevant keywords associated with the
categorizing the video content
season
String
Denotes the season number, if applicable.
episode
String
Denotes the episode number, if applicable.
genre
String
Denotes the genre of the video content asset.
program
String
Denotes the name of the program / show of which
the video content is a part.
publisher
String
Denotes the publisher / creator / author of the
video content asset.
channel
String
Denotes the channel in which the video content
is playing.
full_episode
Boolean
Set to true
the video content asset is a full episode.
livestream
Boolean
If the video content is a live stream, this is set to
true
.
airdate
ISO 8601
Date String
Denotes the original date of airing / publishing
the video content.
position
Integer
Denotes the current playhead position into the
video content in seconds. This does not include
any ads played in this duration.
In case of live streams, refer to the relevant destination's documentation for details on how to pass this property.
total_length
Integer
The total duration of the video content in
seconds. This does not include any ads included
in the playback of this content asset.
For livestream playback, this should be set to null
.
bitrate
Integer
Denotes the current bit rate in kbps
.
framerate
Float
Denotes the frame rate in fps
.
Ads
Ad Events
This section details all the ad events.
For more information on each of the properties associated with these events, refer to the Ad Event Properties section.
Video Ad Started
This event is sent when an advertisement starts playing within the video playback.
A sample event is as shown:
Video Ad Playing
This event is sent between set intervals when the video ad is playing and is determined by the position
property.
A sample event is as shown:
Video Ad Completed
This event is sent after the user has viewed the video ad completely. Note that the position
property has the same value as the total_length
property.
Ad Event Properties
All the ad events share the same properties that describe the current state of the video ad content that a user is interacting with during the playback.
The following table lists all the properties of this playback event object in detail:
session_id
String
A unique ID that ties all the events generated from a specific playback session. These events include playback, content, and ad events.
asset_id
String
Denotes the unique ID of the ad asset.
pod_id
String
Denotes the unique ID of the ad pod.
pod_position
Integer
Denotes the position of the ad asset relative
to other ads in the same pod.
pod_length
Integer
Denotes the number of ad assets in the current
ad pod.
type
Enum
Denotes the type of ad. Values can be either of
'pre-roll
', 'mid-roll
', or 'post-roll
'.
title
String
Denotes the title of the ad.
publisher
String
Denotes the author/ creator/ publisher of the ad.
position
Integer
The current playhead position in relation to the
total length of the ad, in seconds.
total_length
Integer
Denotes the total length of the ad asset in seconds.
load_type
Enum
Denotes if the ads are loaded dynamically or if
they are the same for all the users.
Values can be either 'dynamic
' or ' linear
'.
content
Object
Some destinations require the content metadata
to be sent with the ad events.
You can send all the metadata as a Content Event Object under this property.
quartile
Integer
For the Video Ad Playing
event, this property
can be used to indicate when a specific ad quartile
is reached.
If you are using a client-side library to track your
video events, this property is optional as RudderStack
automatically tracks the ad quartiles.
Resuming Playback
Every Video Playback Resumed
the event should be followed by a heartbeat event (Video Content Playing
or a Video Ad Playing
event, depending on what asset the playback resumes to.
Video Quality
RudderStack also lets you track and analyze the performance and quality of your video content during the playback.
Whenever a user changes the video quality during playback, you can track a Video Quality Updated event along with the following properties:
bitrate
: Denotes the updated bit rate inkbps
.framerate
: Denotes the updated frame rate infps
.startupTime
: Denotes the time when the video quality was changed by the user.droppedFrames
: Indicates if any frames were dropped during the video quality change.
Events Lifecycle
The following event flow demonstrates how you can implement the RudderStack video specification:
1. User presses play on a video player
2. Video playback starts playing the content
3. User views the content for 10 seconds followed by a 10 second heartbeat
4. Video playback is paused
5. User resumes the video playback.
6. Ad (mid-roll) starts playing after user resumes playback
7. User watches the complete 15 second advertisement. RudderStack also tracks the 10 second heartbeats.
8. Video ad plays completely.
9. Video content resumes playing. Heartbeats are sent every 10 seconds.
10. User finishes watching the entire video content.
11. Video playback finishes.
FAQs
What are pre-roll, mid-roll, and post-roll ads?
Ads that appear before the start of the video playback are called pre-roll ads.
Ads that appear in the middle of the playback are mid-roll ads.
Ads that appear after the video playback are called post-roll ads.
These ads can be a promotional video by the sponsors or a piece of content offered by the content provider.
Contact Us
For more information on the RudderStack video spec, feel free to contact us. You can also start a conversation in our Slack community.
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