FAST Operations

The four operational runbooks every FAST channel needs

1. Playout incident response

What happens when the stream goes down? You need:

• monitoring alert → on-call notification within 5 minutes
• runbook: CDN flush → playout restart → test → confirm
• escalation path to platform technical support
• incident log template

2. Content ingestion and QC

Every new asset entering the schedule needs:

• ingest checklist (codec, resolution, audio, subtitle spec)
• QC pass criteria (no black frames, audio sync, subtitle timing)
• metadata validation (title, description, ratings, genre)
• schedule placement confirmation

3. Schedule update workflow

Weekly schedule maintenance:

• content refresh decisions (what to add, what to rotate out)
• SCTE-35 marker review for new content
• EPG feed update and validation
• platform delivery confirmation

4. Partner reporting

Monthly obligations:

• viewer metrics from platform dashboards
• ad performance summary
• revenue reconciliation
• SLA compliance review

Monitoring setup

At minimum, instrument:

• stream uptime (target 99.9%)
• bitrate and segment delivery errors
• CDN cache hit rate
• ad fill rate and error rate per break position