SWR Media Services GmbH, based in Stuttgart, is a subsidiary of Südwestrundfunk. Among other things, it markets advertising time and sponsorship for the SWR radio and television program. The company's tasks also include ensuring that the spots booked by advertising customers are broadcast in full length without any loss of quality. For example, broadcasting errors that cause commercials not to be broadcast in full length include interruptions due to reports of wrong-way drivers.

Workload reduction and improved transparency for advertising customers

Previously, employees were responsible for checking the commercials and sponsor information broadcast. They had to listen to the recorded advertising blocks and document whether the spots were complete and error-free.

"The need for process optimization and the suggestion for a technical solution came from our department. In collaboration with the Fraunhofer IDMT, both requirements were optimally realized," explains Sascha Hübner, project manager at SWR Media Services GmbH. "The automated audio matching of the reference spots and the aired commercials and sponsorship announcements makes the day-to-day work in our department much easier. After a training and test period, the detection and documentation of the broadcasted commercials and sponsorship announcements work very reliably. Thanks to the automated checks, our clients can be sure that they get the best possible advertising playout for their budget. And if something should go wrong during the broadcast, the spot will be re-aired at an appropriate time.“

Checking the radio program in real time

The audio matching software recognizes and documents with high precision whether the commercials were broadcasted in the program and if so, with what level of matching. To do this, the software initially creates unique acoustic fingerprints of all reference commercials and sponsor mentions. The software then compares these fingerprints with the live stream of the radio program in real-time.

The audio matching software even distinguishes between nearly identical sponsorship announcements. In most cases, they vary only by individual words, for example, "the weather was presented" and "the weather is presented". This precise differentiation is important, as even almost identical spots must be clearly assigned and documented.

Automatic notification when commercials and sponsorship mentions are interrupted.

If the software recognizes that the fingerprints of the reference commercial match the audio signal that is actually played but do not meet the specified match value, the software sends a warning e-mail within a few minutes. For example, the predetermined quality score can be undercut if moderation announcements partially overlay the spot or if the spot could not be broadcast in full due to traffic announcements. By sending the warning e-mail promptly, the incorrectly broadcasted commercials can be re-aired immediately.

The reports regarding the commercials and sponsor information aired are documented in tabular form after each advertising block and as a complete daily report. This ensures a verifiable documentation for the advertising clients.

Preview: Monitoring of sponsor mentions also for SWR television programs

There are currently plans to use the Fraunhofer IDMT's audio matching software to check the audio tracks of TV broadcasts. The testing phase has already started in cooperation with SWR Media Services.

Information on audio matching technology can be found here: https://www.idmt.fraunhofer.de/en/institute/projects-products/query-based-audio-matching.html