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difficult to identify and isolate problems and
then deal with them across a multi-screen
environment. Software defined networking
(SDN) is essential in understanding the
types of content being pushed across the
network and the demands of the multiscreen
environment.
Nexidia: The trend continues for more
government regulations in the area of access
for persons with visual or hearing
disabilities. Mandates for closed
captioning/subtitles and audiovideo
descriptions exist in the USA, Canada, and
UK already with the rest of the EU likely to
follow suit.
S3 Group: We see three major trends
impacting on our solution delivery to the test
and monitor segment: Firstly, we are
witnessing continued strong growth in the
consumption of over-the-top video services.
But this isn’t uniformly the case as a number
of the more forward-looking incumbents
have already begun to offer OTT services as
part of their bundled offering.
Secondly, we are seeing a continuing shift
towards consumption of content on devices
other than the main TV screen, the so called
‘multi-screen’ phenomenon.
Thirdly, we are seeing a significant
architectural shift in the platforms delivering
TV and related services to viewers.
Tektronix: The major development over
the last couple of years is adaptive bitrate
(ABR) streaming which has caused an
explosion in the number of content owners,
providers, operators and broadcasters
offering OTT streaming services. This will
be exacerbated by the advent of the
HEVC/H.265 which offers significant
bandwidth savings as well as 4K, with some
content providers aiming to introduce 4k
streaming services over the next 12 months.
Triveni Digital: As Internet delivery of
content continues to increase, so does the
complexities of testing and monitoring. In
particular, quality of experience (QoE) can
be problematic, as it is highly dependent on
the particular path the content takes to reach
the viewer, in addition to congestion and
impairments found along the way. All of
these elements can change dynamically:
measurements for one viewer can’t
necessarily predict the experience for
another. In a captive, managed network
these issues are mostly alleviated, but are
still not completely eliminated.
Witbe: Every service is now IP-based
making quality unpredictable. We have
moved from a Network-centric to a Usercentric delivery model where the only
tangible reality is what customers actually
hear and see. This forces the industry to
S3 group’s StormTest HS64 variant as launched at IBC2013
deploy a new generation of T&M equipment.
Wohler: As broadcast facilities increasingly
work in the file-based domain, the need for
MPEG and IPTV monitoring is rising
explosively. The ability to monitor these
additional signals has become critical.
Euromedia: How is the Test and Monitor
segment responding to these new
challenges?
ADB: It has become clear that QoS support
within the home is a n enabling factor for
QoE, but that’s only part of the picture. We
have been adding support for TR-069
bridging technologies into our gateway
software so that monitoring solutions based
on TR-069 can monitor devices in the home
which do not support TR-069 directly. These
software bridges make it much easier to get a
handle on what’s going on within the home
network, device by device and service by
service, so that operators can take remote
action to solve problems.
Agama: Operators need insight into the
service delivery to each individual customer
– regardless of platform. It’s therefore
fundamental to have a business support
system for service quality assurance that can
create transparency under these conditions
and offer insight to the entire operator
organisation. Necessary properties for such a
system include end-to-end coverage and the
ability to process and aggregate service
focused data from each and every viewing
device and monitoring location. It must
gather and work with the dimensions of
services, customers and infrastructure in the
same system; and, handle both the real-time
as well as the systematic ‘over time’
perspectives. Most importantly, it has to
create actionable insight to support the
operator organisation and processes, and the
real-world challenges they are handling.
Bridge: Manufacturers in the test and
monitoring sector have to push hard to keep
bringing out innovations that give service
providers access to the tools they need now
and may need very soon. In the past few
months, we’ve added a lot of new
functionality to our OTT solution, such as
support for https and MPEG-DASH. The
landscape is changing so rapidly that
manufacturers have to make it possible for
service providers to adapt and change
direction, knowing that the technology they
bought will give them room to do that, and
will not tie them into obsolescent standards
and methodologies.
DTVL: We have announced or introduced a
number of new products, recognising some
of the challenges faced in deploying such
technologies. Examples include a
comprehensive MPEG DASH-AVC/264 test
suite for those looking to deploy a MPEGDASH player, irrespective of device type, and
an HbbTV/CI+ integration test suite, for
forward-thinking operators and their supply
chain who wish to drive new revenues via
HbbTV applications secured via CI+
functionality. Recognising the importance of
audio in a media-centric environment, in
partnership with Fraunhofer IIS, we have
undertaken to introduce a test suite for
MPEG-4 HE-AAC conformance,
supplementing the company’s existing Dolby
testing lab facility. Finally, we are investing
in services that aid in application
development and deployment, for
broadcasters, operators and apps developers.
Edgeware: Specialist media analytics
solutions focus on improving the efficiency
of the collection and analysis of these raw
ABR log files to produce reports as near as
possible to real-time. We enable an
alternative approach by aggregating
thousands of ABR logs into ‘virtual sessions’
on our Content Delivery Network (CDN)
servers. A session is created for delivery of a
specific video file to a specific consumer
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