Generating a Proof of Play

Proof of Play is a method of generating a record of video files played by the timeline.

Proof of Play is available in all Designer versions after and including r17.1. It is a tool for producing a .csv file which contains a list of video files that were played in the timeline. This feature is valuable for installations or venues where ad revenue is received as a proof of exactly how long a video has played, or to check which content files are dropping frames.

Note

Proof of Play tracks video files only. It is not available for RenderStream or other non-video content types.

How to enable Proof of Play

Proof of Play is an Advanced Project Setting and must be enabled on each machine in the system.

1. Right-click on the name of the project folder in d3manager.
2. Select Advanced project settings.
3. Under the Settings tab, set enableProofOfPlay to on by ticking the box. Proof of Play is now enabled.

Note

In a network with multiple servers, Proof of Play will only write a csv of content that an individual machine outputs. If one screen is being fed by only one server, the proofofplay.csv will only record the pieces of content that were sent to the individual screen by that individual machine. The .csv file does not compile a list of all media within the project.

4. Open the project and enter a play mode in the Timeline.
5. Quit the project and open the project folder at the Windows level.
6. In the output folder there will now be a proofofplay.csv file containing information about all of the videos that were played in the project session.

Note

The proofofplay.csv file is written as the content plays in the Designer project. If the file is open while running the project, it will not update.

Example: proofofplay.csv details

proofofplay.csv open containing details about 3 videos

Each line is a discrete video entry:

Start time - Time file began playing.

End time - Time file finished playing. This is based off computer time.

Layer - The container on the timeline the video was played back in.

Video - Name of video file, including path to access it.

Frames played - How many frames of the video were played. If you drop frames during playback, this will be less than total frames even if the video plays to completion.

Total Frames - Total video length in frame.

Accessing Proof of Play data via API

The same playback data is also available in real time via the Disguise Developer API, without needing to wait for the session to end or the CSV to be written. This is useful for integrating with content management systems or third-party reporting platforms.

See the Proof of Play API guide on the Disguise Developer site for details.