We’re changing our processing delay for Freewheel V4 Logs

Starting October 15, 2022, Watching That’s default rollup processing delay of Freewheel V4 Log files will be changing from 15  to 120 minutes.

What’s the situation?

For over 2 years Watching That has provided a Freewheel v4 Logs Data Connector.  Customers who have deployed it have benefitted from all of the Watching That platform functions and features with this one data feed that requires no coding / development effort.

Watching That collects the log files with a regular frequency and processes the information contained within them to provide our users access to the Ad Sessions, Ad Break Sessions and Viewing Sessions.  Indeed we recently announced a raft of new metrics and dimensions including support for Audiences, Campaigns, Insertion Orders and DMA.

Continuing our drive to provide the most efficient data connection with Freewheel’s V4 Logs, on October 15, 2022, we will be changing the default rollup processing delay from 15 minutes to 120 minutes.

Why are we making this change?

After analysing the last couple of years of delivery data (from collecting the log files) we’ve determined that we need to update our timing expectations of when these files will be available for us to process.

By doing this change we will improve data accuracy and consistency for all aspects across the Watching That platform.  If we continue to try and process the data too quickly then you might experience unexpected results in our Reporting and Monitoring modules.

What impact might I experience after this change comes into effect?

The biggest difference you might notice is a new latency in your reports that are powered by Freewheel V4 Logs data connections.  The delay is related to the rollup service that produces the data sets used by the Reporting Module and the Monitoring Module, and the freshness of the data will be “now” minus 2 hrs.

There will be no data loss or slow down, just the latest data will be at least 2 hrs behind “now”.  In the vast majority of use cases it is likely you’ll experience minimal impact due to this change.

Wait!  But I want my data to remain closer to “now’!

If you’re not keen on this change, don’t worry, you have a couple of options:

1.  You can choose to override this new default and choose a shorter delay time.
2. You can implement our Collector API into your playout end points and apps.  This integration will ensure your data availability can be be minutes, if not seconds, behind “now”.

To learn more about the above options and to discuss your specific requirements, please get in touch with your Customer Success Manager.