Selecting an event-to-editorial-content mapping model

Overview

OpenTV Video Platform supports two models for mapping broadcast events to editorial and technical contents (which affects the number of catch-up and recording workflows that must be run):

• One-to-many – multiple events can be linked to a single editorial content, which in turn can be linked to multiple technical contents.

• One-to-one – only one event can be linked to each editorial content, which in turn can be linked to multiple technical contents.

The benefit of the one-to-one model is that it avoids the issues that can occur with the one-to-many model, such as:

• Multiple instances of the same event are available to the client, such as with an event that is broadcast multiple times (original broadcast and repeats)
  This can make it difficult to decide which one to present to the user.

• Misuse of metadata can lead to large numbers of technical contents being generated for the same editorial content (including different episodes being linked to the same editorial), which can lead to multiple catch-up items being created where only one is actually needed. This can greatly increase load on the system and wastes storage space.

For new deployments, the one-to-one model is recommended.

For existing deployments, a thorough review is essential before switching to the 1:1 model. Please contact your NAGRA representative.

Impacts of model choice

Ingest

In the one-to-one model, the contentLinkId provides the link between an event and the editorial content that it corresponds to. When an editorial content is created from an event (for catch-up or recording), this value is copied to the editorial content’s contentLinkId field.

This means that it must be set to the correct value when:

• Ingesting content as XML
  See editorialChannel (editorial-based).

• Creating events via API calls
  See Creating events.

This means that the metadata provider should populate the contentLinkId field in both the editorial content and the corresponding event.

Workflows

Using the one-to-one model will typically result in fewer user recording and catchup extraction jobs than the one-to-many model.

See Managing content workflows.

OpCon

When using the one-to-one model:

• You can search by content link ID.

• When viewing an event or an editorial content, the content link ID is a link. Clicking the link performs a search for events and editorial contents with the same content link ID.

See:

• Event search

• Search facility

• Viewing event details

• Editorial details

• Content catalogue

• Editing Editorial information

Client

A client can perform a search for content. If using the one-to-one model, the number of events returned will typically be less than with the one-to-many model. In addition, the client can request that results be rolled-up (grouped) or flat (ungrouped).

See Search Facade.

Recommendations

If using the one-to-one model, recommendations will return a single instance of content that is the same, that is, that has the same content link ID (or a single instance per channel when a channel filter is specified or when results are grouped by channel), instead of multiple instances.

See Recommendations Façade.