Tektronix Helps Video Service Providers Ensure Regulatory Compliance & Multiscreen Service Quality

07/09/2014

Tektronix the market leader in broadcast video test, monitoring and analysis solutions, announced the addition of significant new monitoring capabilities to its award-winning Sentry family of digital content monitors. These new capabilities will enable cable operators, broadcasters and other video service providers (VSPs) to comply with new Closed Captioning regulations, to better identify audio issues – including overly loud commercials – and to ensure the quality of their OTT and TV Everywhere services.

"From delivering picture-perfect multiscreen video to meeting new FCC regulations that combat loud commercials and ensure the quality of Closed Captioning, VSPs constantly face new challenges which we remain committed to helping them overcome," said Sudeep Bose, product and business development manager, Video Network Monitoring, Tektronix. "The new capabilities we have added to our Sentry family specifically address VSPs' most urgent monitoring requirements and are the latest examples of our ongoing commitment to helping customers deliver high quality, compliant programming."

The new capabilities for the Sentry Portfolio include:

• The capturing of "thumbnail" images when audio issues occur, which allows VSPs to visually confirm the relative location of the audio issues. For example, users can see whether errors occurred during programming or ads, helping in the diagnosis of the underlying issue.
• Support for Dolby Digital Plus (DD+) – also known as Enhanced AC-3 (E-AC-3) – which further enhances Sentry's audio loudness monitoring capabilities.
• The ability to audit closed captioning to determine if VSPs are in compliance with new FCC guidelines, which include being able to determine if closed captioning is actually present on all channels.
• Doubling of the number streams monitored, representing an unprecedented gain in scalability and density.
• Along with the ability to monitor multiscreen programming packaged in HLS, Sentry now includes Adobe's HDS adaptive bit rate (ABR) streaming protocol, which enables VSPs to ensure their TV Everywhere / OTT programming assets are properly stored, that they are ready for immediate delivery when requested and the correct fragments for the available bandwidth are delivered.

Tektronix, Inc., www.tek.com