Bridge Technologies will be demonstrating advances in QoE and QoS monitoring at ANGA COM including its Gold TS Protection, a new technology that makes monitoring for digital services much quicker to set up, and fault-tracking much faster, more accurate and more secure. The time taken for error resolution is greatly accelerated – typically by a factor of 10-15, the company says. This enables maintenance staff to effectively monitor larger numbers of streams.
Gold TS Protection includes all the checks specified by the ETR290 standard but goes much further to include testing for critical conditions missed by ETR290 that can seriously affect subscribers, but that are overlooked by standard monitoring systems based only on ETR290.
Bridge Technologies will also reveal a new-model services package initiative in Cologne. This provides customers with automated off-site data backup, system-wide automated software updates, remote hands-on technical support and a planning and provisioning consultancy package. The company is also describing new virtualized probes that allow users to pick-and-mix the most effective combination of software and hardware monitoring nodes.
Bridge Technologies is also focused on its award-winning Objective QoE with QoS monitoring technology, claiming new levels of functionality and productivity for operators and improved viewing experiences. This solution delivers quantifiable video and audio monitoring of MPEG-2, H.264/MPEG-4 and H.265/HEVC streams at the point of transmission. It provides data and error alerts based on the detection of key errors occurring in media delivery including audio silence, colour freezes, colour black and freeze frames. An alarm based on these criteria means that a genuine failure requires immediate remedial action. “Unlike traditional systems, the methodology delivers no false positives, maximizing user confidence in its output,” the vendor says.
A key element within Bridge Technologies’ Objective QoE is the VB288 Content Extractor, a server-based system for confidence verification and monitoring of QoE. This allows technical personnel to view each channel as transmitted, from any point within the transmission chain. It combines monitoring of real-time streams and OTT services within a browser-based video wall that delivers full, view-anywhere visual status and analysis.
The VB288 provides the same status information as for a real-time broadcast video stream, including thumbnails, audio decoding, and an array of alarms (including loudness compliance alarms). There are specific alarms for OTT errors such as misalignment of different profiles within the stream. Deployment for a typical system is achievable within a few hours – a key benefit when rolling out this type of hard-to-calibrate service, the company says.
“The traditional conception of separate domains for QoE and QoS is now out of date,” declares Simen Frostad, Chairman of Bridge Technologies. “With Bridge Technologies’ advanced monitoring systems, QoE and QoS are part of the same continuum, both capable of delivering objective, empirical data. QoE and QoS data may come from different points in the delivery chain and be represented in different ways to the monitoring staff, but it’s the close correlation between QoE and QoS data within the same integrated environment that allows operators to reach a higher plane in the pursuit of quality.”
