Checking an ad before delivery

What it is for

A station or a platform can turn a spot away for one frame too many, a disclaimer that is too small, or sound that is too hot. The Ad Delivery Check looks for those before you send the file. It measures and reports. It never changes the project, never moves a level, never fixes anything on its own and never ticks a box for you. Every fix is yours to make, in the normal editor, and you can check again as often as you like.

Opening it

  • Export → Ad Delivery Check in the menu bar.
  • Export Check in the Export dialog, just under the estimated output. This closes Export and opens the check with the platform preset you had chosen in Export.

Two buttons do the measuring:

  • Check Timeline checks the edit as it stands. The first time, it renders the timeline's sound once, mixed exactly as an export would mix it, and measures that. Changing a title or a setting afterwards does not need a new render; changing the sound does, and the results say so.
  • Check Exported File... asks for a finished file and measures it. The file is only read.

Do both and a third list appears, Edit against export, which shows where the file you are about to send differs from the timeline: a different length, a different loudness, or a different frame size. That usually means the file is an older export, or was made with other settings.

Reading the results

Each line has a status, a short name and a plain reason with the measured numbers.

  • ✕ Fail: the spot is outside a limit you set or a hard fact of the delivery, such as being longer than the slot.
  • ▲ Warning: worth a look; it may be intentional.
  • ✓ Pass.
  • ○ Note: something the check cannot decide, explained.

Lines about a moment in time have a Go to button. It closes the check, puts the playhead on the problem and, where one clip is responsible, selects it. Nothing else changes. Open Export → Ad Delivery Check again and the results are still there.

Length, to the frame

Choose Spot length: 15, 30 or 60 seconds, or a custom length. The check counts frames, not seconds, and tells you how many frames over or under you are. A spot counts in whole frames of its nominal rate, the way a timecode reader counts: a :30 is 900 frames whether the project runs at 30 or 29.97 frames per second.

Over is a fail, because it will not fit the slot. Under is a warning.

The disclaimer

The check looks for a text clip containing the words in Text to look for. The default is Paid for by; change it to whatever your disclaimer says. Capitals do not matter.

The three disclaimer settings are yours to set: the text, the Minimum time on screen and the Minimum text size. AVPrep3 does not know which rules apply to your ad, and it does not tell you what the law requires. Set them from the rules you are working to, or from what the station or platform has told you.

For the disclaimer it finds, the check reports how long it is on screen, how large the text is as a share of the picture height (measured as font size, and given in pixels of the delivered frame), and whether it sits inside the title safe area. It also fails a disclaimer on a hidden track or one that is mostly transparent, since neither would be readable in the export.

The check reads the text on the timeline. A video file has no text layer, so on an exported file the disclaimer line is a note asking you to look at that frame yourself.

Safe areas

Safe areas for follows the export frame unless you choose otherwise:

  • Landscape broadcast: the title safe area, the middle 90% of the picture.
  • 9:16 Reels, Shorts, TikTok: a margin at the sides and the places where the apps draw over your picture, which are the top bar, the caption and account name at the bottom, and the buttons down the right. These zones are approximate: the apps change their layouts.
  • 1:1 square: a 5% margin all round.

Every visible text clip is measured in the frame the export will actually deliver, after any crop to fill. Text that crosses a safe edge or sits under an app overlay is a warning. Text that runs off the frame is a fail. Text without a background is measured by its lines of text, not its whole box; text with a background is measured by the box.

Loudness

Two target sets, both editable:

  • Broadcast: -24 LKFS integrated, true peak no higher than -2 dBTP.
  • Social: -14 LUFS integrated, true peak no higher than -1 dBTP.

Integrated loudness is measured over the whole spot to EBU R128 and ITU-R BS.1770, the same measurement stations use. Within 1 LU of the target passes, up to 2 LU is a warning, further is a fail. Any true peak above the ceiling is a fail, and Go to takes you to the loudest moment. The check never adjusts the level. To bring a hot spot down, lower the clip or track volume yourself and check again. Levels, headroom, and loudness explains the numbers.

Black, silence, and sound past the picture

  • Black at start and Black at end: on the timeline, any stretch with nothing on screen; on a file, frames that measure black. A fade to black you added shows up here on the file, which is why it is a warning and not a fail.
  • Silence at start and Silence at end: more than one second of silence is a warning.
  • Sound past picture: sound still playing after the last picture ends. This is a fail. The usual cause is a music clip a little longer than the video, so the spot ends on black with music playing and runs long. Go to puts the playhead at the last picture frame and selects the clip that runs on.

Frame size, frame rate, format and file size

Delivery preset sets what these are compared against:

  • This project's export settings, the default, compares the file with what this project would export. Use it to catch a file made with other settings.
  • Broadcast HD: 1920 × 1080, 29.97 frames per second, H.264 and AAC in MP4 or MOV. This is a common delivery; your station's own specification wins if it says otherwise.
  • Each platform preset, at its size, H.264 and AAC in MP4, with its length limit.

On the timeline, file size is an estimate. On an exported file it is the real size, compared with the target file size saved with the project or with the preset's bitrate.

What it does not check

  • The caption track. Burned-in captions are placed by their own style; check them by eye.
  • Whether the words of the disclaimer are correct or complete. It only finds them.
  • An exported In to Out range: the comparison and the Go to positions assume the file is the whole project.

The exact measuring pass and the raw numbers are under Advanced: measurement details at the bottom of the check.