Frequency Documentation

The ACCOUNT tool can be accessed via the internet using a browser at: https://cms.frequency.com

In order to log in, the user must have admin credentials for an account. The credentials are provided by Frequency Networks and are required for a successful login:

Here you can define your account name, brand logo, description, and status. The former three are all for personal usage, and not exposed externally. The latter status (ENABLED/DISABLED) determines the highest level status of everything available downstream. Frequency administrators can make changes to the account profile.

Here you can define the availability of your content grouped by Source for how they will be distributed at the Country and Operator level. By default, a Source is automatically created with the account. You can add additional Sources if you need additional granularity in rights of content. Please contact your Frequency administrator to set up additional Sources.

Create New Rights Profile

You can create new Brands using the ADD BRAND button. The Brand Name must be unique and cannot be a duplicate of another Brand Name.

View Source Rights

You can view the rights of a Source by using the dropdown icon (+) on the left side of each listing.

Edit Source Rights

You can edit Source Rights by using the pencil icon on the right side of each listing once expanded. Choose the Country(ies) and Operators where your content can be distributed.

Brands (or "Channels") represent defined constructs of where associated content is attributed as branded packages. If you have multiple distinct properties you want to upload content to, this is one way they can be organized. These brands will show up as places to upload and manage content (See MANAGE user guide).

The user can also filter by the title of the Brand, status, and sort by date when managing an account with a larger number of brands.

Create New Brand

Step 1 of 2: Add Brand Logos

You can create a new brand by using the ADD BRAND button. Select and upload the 6 required image type and shapes by our system. This is to ensure distribution compatibility as these would cover a wide variety of display implementation in consumer-facing applications.

Square images require a minimum resolution of 720x720 pixels and must have a 1:1 aspect ratio. Rectangular images require a minimum of 720 pixels and can have any aspect ratio other than 1:1

Asset definitions/style guidelines:

Step 2 of 2: Add Brand Metadata

Fill out the Brand's required metadata:

View Brand Details

In the main screen for Brands, you can view a brand's details by mousing over your brand and clicking the bullet list icon. You can view the content within a brand by clicking the eyeball icon (This will take you to MANAGE to view the videos within this Brand).

Edit Brand Details

General Details

When viewing the Brand Details's General tab, clicking on the Edit Details would allow you to edit the Brand. Saving it would take into effect immediately.

Brand Images

When viewing the Brand Details's Images tab, clicking on the Pencil icon when hovering over one fo the six image types allows you to replace the image. Select the correct image from your computer. Changes take into effect immediately after upload is successful. Refer to Brand Logo Asset definitions/style guidelines above for specifications.

Linear channels plays out VOD and live content based on scheduled programming.

Note: New linear channels do not automatically provision the backend servers to begin video playout until approved and activated by Frequency administrators. However, all linear channels may begin schedule programming without playout.

Creating a new Linear Channel

Step 1: In ACCOUNT, Select Linear Channels and then click Create Channel .

Step 2: Add a Channel thumbnail.

Select the target symbol to add a thumbnail for your channel.

This is the image displayed with your linear channel within Studio.

Accepted file formats are: Portable Network Graphics (*.png) or JPEG (*.jpg)

Minimum image resolution: 720x720, 72dpi

Step 3: Fill in the Linear Channel Information for your channel.

• Linear Channel: The title of the channel being created. This cannot be blank.

• Description: Channel Description.

• Time zone: This is the origin time zone for the channel.

• Country of origin: This is the country of origin for majority of your channel’s content.

• Language: This is the primary language for majority of your channel’s content.

• Genre / Sub-genre: The Frequency genre and sub-genre classification for your channel. At least one is required. More than one genre is supported. Sub-genres are optional. Please see appendix for full list of Genre/Sub-Genre combinations.

• Parental Rating: This is the Parental Rating of the channel as a whole. If there is no rating for this channel and the channel is meant for general audiences, please select PG. If there is no rating for this video and this video is meant for adult audiences, please select NR.

• Technical Specification: This is the primary resolution rendition for your channel.

Step 4: Add a Channel Bug overlay by clicking “Upload”. The Channel bug must be positioned in image where you would want this displayed in your channel. The rest of the overlay must be a transparent layer.

Resolution: Must match primary resolution rendition for your channel as specified in Channel Technical Specification in Linear Channel Creation Step 3.

Accepted file format: Transparent Portable Network Graphics (*.png)

Step 5: Add an Ad Pod Fallback video by clicking “Upload”. When an ad fails to play, this is the video that plays instead. This video must be exactly 3 minutes (180 seconds) long and contain an audio track.

Resolution: Must match primary resolution rendition for your channel as specified in Channel Technical Specification in Linear Channel Creation Step 3.

Accepted file format: *.MP4

Step 6: Add a Technical Difficulty Fallback video by clicking “Upload”. When there are issues with the stream, this is the video that plays instead. This video must be at least 30 seconds long and contain an audio track.

Resolution: Must match primary resolution rendition for your channel as specified in Channel Technical Specification in Linear Channel Creation Step 3.

Accepted file formats are: *.MP4

Step 7: Add a Time Stretch video by clicking “Upload”. This video fills in programming gaps that are less than 30 seconds. This video must be at least 30 seconds long and contain an audio track.

Resolution: Must match primary resolution rendition for your channel as specified in Channel Technical Specification in Linear Channel Creation Step 3.

Accepted file formats are: *.MP4

Step 8: When done editing Channel details, click on Create Channel at the bottom of the screen. Your Linear Channel is now ready to be scheduled with Linear Programs.

Note: your new linear channel loads only the schedule in “Offline” mode. The action of changing to “Online” requires a call to your account manager to enable the channel for distribution.

Once a Linear Channel is created, the updated linear creatives will undergo validation and transcoding.

Best Practices

• Creating the perfect “Ad Pod Fallback” experience: Advertising is delivered over-the-top (“OTT”) is typically done in increments of 30 seconds. Therefore, when you create your 3-minute video for the “Ad Pod Fallback”, create three distinct 30 second videos so that if an ad doesn’t load in the first, second, or third position. This way it will create a sense of visual variety for the viewer.

• Creating the perfect “Technical Difficulty Fallback” experience: In the event that your channel should have an error, this experience will play. The video file will loop when it reaches the end. In general, the video should be produced in a way that it looks like an “infinite loop” without pause. Using simple graphics and subtle music work, but you can also stage elaborately produced videos that give the “infinite loop” appearance. It’s up to your brand voice and creativity to decide how you make define your experience.

• Creating the perfect “Time Stretch” experience: In the event that you need to fill a small duration of time in a linear program, a “Time Stretch” event will play. This event is designed to fill odd pieces of time (e.g., 4 seconds and 12 frames), not to be a replacement for advertisement or actual content. As such, the “Time Stretch” event should be understated, subtle. Ideally, a soft music track that is more ambient sounds vs. produced music. A rotating logo vs. produced video. The goal of time stretch is to bridge the gap between content, not draw attention to a brief gap in programming.

This section allows a Producer administrator to manage Metadata field mappings that can be applied, optionally, to videos ingested in bulk via our backend systems. This is used to normalize metadata values from content ingestion to improve content distribution and management. A separate metadata map can be used per Source Name.

View Mapped Values

Mapped Metadata values are shown as a summary in the main screen. When clicking into a Mapped Field, the user is presented with the current values mapped for that field.

Values for the following fields are supported:

• Genre

• Network

• Series

• movie

• Content Format

• Content Type

• Periodicity

• Cut

• Language

• Country

• Parental Rating

Manage Mapped Values

To manually enter mapping values, click on "Set Up" next to a Map Type name (e.g.: Genre). Enter the Source Field Name (external), Source Value (external), and Mapped Value (Frequency's normalized value for this metadata field).

Bulk Mapped Values Import

To import values in bulk, click on the Bulk Set Up button and download the Excel compatible template. After filling out the template, import it back into the tool. This method allows bulk import for mapped metadata values for multiple field names at the same time.

This shows you the transcoding rendition settings for your account.

Manage users within your account. Control which tools a user has access to, their role for each tool, and what data (Brands, Linear Channels, etc.) they can access. By default, all users can access all content within the account once they are given access to a specific tool.

User Information

Roles & Permissions

Data Access