“We’ve processed nearly 20,000 episodes and movies, with around 90% of ad breaks placed correctly, with very little manual adjustment.”
Shawn Copenhaver — Head of Network Operations, Olympusat
The challenge: ad break placement at scale
Olympusat is a major television media company, distributing more than 50 TV networks across the United States.
Before working with Synchronized, ad break placement across FAST channels relied on fixed, time-based rules. Commercial breaks were inserted every ten minutes, without considering scene transitions or narrative structure.
This approach frequently resulted in ad breaks placed in the middle of scenes or dialogues, negatively affecting viewer experience and creating a heavy manual workload for editorial teams.
A content-aware approach to ad breaks
Synchronized enabled Olympusat to move away from rigid timing rules toward a more intelligent, content-driven approach.
Instead of cutting at fixed intervals, Olympusat defines a time window (for example, between 10 and 12 minutes). Within that window, Synchronized automatically identifies the most appropriate break points based on:
- - dips to black,
- - audio stops,
- - sequence changes such as transitions from day to night or changes in lighting.
These moments are technically and narratively better suited for commercial breaks.
Results: speed, scale, and reliability
With Synchronized, Olympusat now processes:
- - nearly 20,000 episodes and movies,
- - around 300 hours of content in a single day,
- - with approximately 90% of ad breaks placed correctly on the first pass.
Only a small number of breaks require manual adjustment, making the workflow largely “set it and forget it”.
Compared to manual ad break placement, this represents a significant gain in operational efficiency at scale.
Operational impact
Automating ad break placement has allowed Olympusat to:
- - reduce repetitive, time-consuming manual work,
- - free editorial teams to focus on higher-value tasks,
- - maintain consistent ad break quality across large volumes of content.
The integration with Synchronized fits smoothly into Olympusat’s existing technical ecosystem, using cloud infrastructure and tools already in place.
A scalable approach for modern media operations
Olympusat’s experience highlights a simple reality for broadcasters and FAST channel operators: manual ad break placement does not scale.
A content-aware, automated approach makes it possible to handle growing content libraries while preserving both operational efficiency and viewer experience.
About Synchronized
Synchronized is an award-winning multi-service SaaS In-Video Intelligence platform that enables broadcasters, studios, OTT and FAST platforms to scale media preparation workflows that do not scale manually.
The platform combines AI-driven video understanding with configurable editorial and business rules to automatically transform video content into time-coded, actionable metadata and assets, providing precise control over downstream media workflows.
Synchronized offers a modular set of AI-powered services that clients activate according to their needs, including Smart-Ad Breaks, Smart-Thumbnails, Smart-Binge, Smart-Segmentation, and Smart-Composition—all designed to automate manual tasks while preserving editorial quality.
By automating media preparation at scale, Synchronized helps media organizations reduce operational costs, accelerate time-to-market, maintain consistent viewing quality, and unlock new monetization opportunities across an increasing number of distribution channels.
Recognized as an AI Product Leader by the industry, Synchronized is an AWS AI/Machine Learning Competency partner, an AWS Media Intelligence Global Solution launch partner, and a partner of Ortana.
Synchronized is the winner of Broadcast Tech Awards – Best AI Innovation (Workflow) 2024 and the IABM BaM Awards® 2021 for its Smart-Ad Breaks service.
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