The top five things to look for in your media monitoring solution

What operators, engineers and managers really need to know when considering media monitoring

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Published: April 20, 2023

What operators, engineers and managers really need to know when considering media monitoring

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Click.

That's the sound of a frustrated viewer changing channels a sound content owners never want to hear because the next sound could be their ratings falling. A high-quality video experience can make all the difference in a highly competitive digital marketplace where consumers have a multitude of choices.

Investing in overall Quality of Service (QoS) supports a company's ability to retain customers and attract new ones. Prioritising QoS leads to better Quality of Experience (QoE) for the consumer and ultimately growth and profit for the broadcaster.

There's a plethora of bumps and turns, however, on the road to QoE that must be considered, and it takes a cutting-edge monitoring system to get you there safely. Monitoring systems must cover all critical aspects of video delivery, from signal acquisition to delivery, and ensure complete, uninterrupted geographical and network coverage.

So, while pursuing a new monitoring system, keep the following five considerations top of mind. They may make the difference between the dreaded click and ca-ching:

Complete end-to-end coverage and visibility, compliance and quality assurance There are company-imposed compliance standards, and there are industry compliance regulations. A top-notch monitoring solution will track for compliance from camera to screen, checking that the correct audio and video formatting is captured and if delivery is following the correct protocols for OTT, broadcast, and cable/IPTV.

Quality assurance certifies that the content looks and sounds good and includes the required auxiliary data. Then, it determines the workflow's ability to deliver content through the delivery network with no issues, delays, or additional latency. Finally, it ensures that the consumer experience isn't affected by applications, software, or hardware.

Ascertain that the monitoring system offers end-to-end coverage and visibility. Operators and engineers should be able to view the whole process from source ingest to the end user.

Real-time status updates and alerts Real-time alerts notify operators of immediate issues and will prompt them to take proactive measures to ensure quality is maintained. The monitoring solution should filter information that makes it easier to identify and resolve critical issues.

The best solutions allow users to customise notifications to meet their preferences. Additionally, integrating real-time alerting with network automation tools allows fast resolution of common issues and reduces the risk of error by manual intervention.

Deep troubleshooting to reduce time-to-repair (TTR) Quick, effective troubleshooting will uncover deep errors and dramatically reduce repair time.

Engineers need a monitoring solution that will probe deep into the bits and bytes to uncover issues. Deep troubleshooting enables them to make a proper, well-informed diagnosis. A superior monitoring solution will archive this information and offer simple UI navigation throughout data points, allowing the exact location of the issue to be pinpointed.

Three key questions:

What happened? - Is it an issue with the video content or the delivery system?

Where did it happen? - Where did the error originate?

Why did it happen? -Is there enough information to determine cause?

The solution you choose should answer these questions with simple UI navigation, allowing a high-level view that progressively dives deeper.

Additionally, the higher the number of probing points, the more effective the system will be at finding errors across different formats, protocols, and vendors.

Advanced Reporting and Analytics Every point of data should be made available, from raw to descriptive metadata and should include alerts and incident events.

The monitoring solution should integrate seamlessly with business intelligence and analytics tools, more advanced open-source data analysis tools with AI capabilities, or other solutions that plug directly into your reporting and analytics software.

Advanced reporting and analytics will enable well-informed decisions needed to build improved business strategies.

Reduced operational costs Look for built-in capabilities that optimise on-prem, cloud, or hybrid workflows that will reduce operational costs and risks inherent in a rapidly changing industry.

Eyes on glass, or the time needed to watch each channel, increases as channels grow, making individual monitoring impossible. Monitoring-by-Exception tackles this issue by enabling operators to probe channels automatically.

Monitoring-by-exception notifies the operator of suspicious events, reducing manual searches, saving time and labor costs, and preventing critical revenue-damaging errors.

Monitoring solutions should also adapt their mode of operation to reduce CPU power with Adaptive Monitoring that allows operators to set priority levels, enhancing monitoring-by-exception while reducing power consumption.

Choose a Trusted Partner for Your Individual Monitoring Needs Monitoring systems should:

Quickly identify and mitigate potential issues

Scale to handle large numbers of streams

Handle various network technologies

Measure different metrics used to identify and resolve issues

Ensure high reliability, allowing effective monitoring and troubleshooting

Monitor streams at multiple points

Provide advanced analytical features

Integrate with other systems

When it comes to world-class monitoring, TAG checks all the boxes and more. A 100 per cent software, native IP solution, TAG adaptively monitors more than 500 probing

LINK:	https://www.tvbeurope.com/media-management/the-top-five-things-to-look...
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