Volicon at SCTE Cable-Tec Expo 2015:Volicon will showcase a range of solutions that enable cable enterprises to maintain a unified monitoring ecosystem, from ingest to headend to hub and beyond. The company's Observer systems offer valuable functionality in specific applications such as compliance monitoring, ad verification, and quality of experience monitoring for both linear and VOD services, as well as a view of the cable infrastructure in its entirety. Volicon will demonstrate how its Observer solutions enable users to determine that loudness, closed captions, and the elements of the transport stream all remain in compliance with governing standards.
Compliance Monitoring: Closed Captions, Transport Stream Integrity, Loudness
Closed-Captioning Compliance in Partnership With Nexidia
Addressing the FCC's rules governing closed-captioning compliance, the Observer -based closed-captioning quality monitoring solution from Volicon and Nexidia, the Emmy Award-winning developer of dialogue and audio analysis technology, provide automatic closed-captioning analysis, alignment of captions and media, and identification of missing or incorrect caption segments. The Volicon Observer system gives users access to a stream of the broadcast output (live or recorded) along with frame-accurate metadata describing that content, thereby accelerating and streamlining the process of evaluating programming and the presentation of closed captions according to the FCC rules.
Transport Stream Monitoring With Improved Configuration
To assist in troubleshooting and compliance, the Observer TS system logs 100 percent of the native MPEG transport stream. Users can proactively monitor and quickly troubleshoot a range of items, from the details of MPEG metadata - AC-3, Dialnorm, PSIP, and subtitles - all the way down to the quality of the rendered content, including loudness and closed caption quality. Volicon has enhanced the Observer TS system with an improved configuration interface that makes it much simpler for users to issue IGMP joins and modify the TS sources that they are logging.
Loudness Monitoring
In loudness monitoring applications, Volicon's Observer TS and Observer RPM systems allow operators to measure loudness levels of all commercials accurately and simultaneously, as well as to burn measurements into the A/V asset for a clear affidavit. Integrated content recording not only ensures unparalleled loudness-compliance metering, but also makes the process of performing spot checks easy and unambiguous. Accommodating the latest ITU BS.1770-1/3 and ATSC A/85 standards, Volicon's Observer systems incorporate simultaneous surround (full 5.1 mix) and stereo downmix measurements. Thus, users can confirm that their loudness levels will remain within acceptable parameters while meeting the intent of the latest A/85 revision - no matter how customers watch and listen to programming.
Linear Set-Top Box-Based Monitoring and Troubleshooting
Ad Monitoring and Verification
Throughout the SCTE Cable-Tec Expo, Volicon will demonstrate powerful approaches to ad monitoring and verification applications. The companys Observer RPM and Scout systems enable the automatic capture of post-set-top box (STB) ad insertions for proof of broadcast, quality assurance, troubleshooting, and review. The Observer system can automatically change channels in anticipation of an ad window, record the entire window as it would be experienced by a viewer, and create a clip incorporating all of the metadata associated with that window. Observer users can then easily search for particular clips based on the metadata collected and export that content, complete with a timestamp, as an affidavit of performance.
The triggered recording application for Observer systems allows the operator to identify and record an impairment - as well as its potential impact on viewer satisfaction - when it occurs. This tool automatically creates an A/V clip from a specific service based on a fault notification, in turn providing audio and video that aid not only in troubleshooting, but also in verification and proof of experience. Offering electronic program guide data via an intuitive interface, a scheduled recording application for Observer systems makes it easy for operators to select specific time slots or programs for recording.
Distribution Monitoring
Offering an alternative to unreliable, inflexible consumer-oriented place- and time-shifting devices, Volicon addresses quality-of-experience (QoE) monitoring at the edge with a low-cost, enterprise-grade solution that allows networks to perform remote troubleshooting and proactive remote monitoring of services. The company will feature its Observer Scout A/V logging and monitoring solution, which facilitates QoE-based content monitoring, video recording, remote viewing, and troubleshooting of post-set-top box (STB) A/V feeds. Capable of connecting to as many as 16 different STBs, Observer Scout supports cost-effective troubleshooting across a high number and variety of STB models. Support for the Observer Scout interface across all browsers enables users working across multiple platforms to work through the same intuitive user interface equipped with the same functionality. Automatic video input scaling allows users to record inputs in any format, which in turn enables fast, simple plug-and-play system deployment.
Over-the-Top (OTT) Monitoring From the Cloud and the Device
Volicon's Observer OTT provides networks, video service providers, and broadcasters with a solution for logging (recording) and monitoring the over-the-top (OTT) A/V services that stream content to computers, tablets, and smartphones. With the same suite of tools already proven for set-top box (STB) and transport stream monitoring, the solution offers a complete, cost-effective quality monitoring
