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Digital TV Europe IPTV@IBC09 > Quality assurance
Quality assurance
IPTV operators are waking up to the fact that the quality of video being displayed in the
homes of TV viewers is becoming an increasingly important factor.
While
competition remains fierce in the pay-
TV market place, quality control is key
and service providers are starting to address the issue.
For IneoQuest’s (IBC 4.A99) vice-president of strate-
gic solutions Gino Dion, Quality of Experience is becom-
ing an important area of concern for the industry.
“Service providers realise this is the key to winning new
subscribers and keeping existing ones,” he says. “They
have realised that a proactive approach to quality assur-
ance not only saves operating expenses by identifying
network trouble spots that could have the potential for
impacting video quality but also reduces customer churn
by enabling faster repair and response times.”
Eric Conley, CEO of digital media monitoring compa-
ny Mixed Signals (IBC 2.C19) agrees that service divide between broadcast and IT worlds. “Providers have Bridge Technologies
providers are likely to invest more into ensuring they pro- therefore tended to bolt on unrelated monitoring sys- has focused on
vide the best QoE. At IBC, Mixed Signals will demon- tems in a bits-and-pieces way, without ever getting the spanning the divide
strate Sentry, its flagship content monitoring solution overall, end-to-end view of the whole delivery chain,” says between IT and
that includes new features like the Executive Reporting the spokesperson. broadcast.
Package and the Video and Audio QoE Scoring System, Winfried Schultz, marketing manager of test and
which the company claims to be the first solution of its measurement company Tektronix (IBC 8.C75) says that
kind that tells service providers precisely how much each service provider requirements will focus more on the
video and audio error impacts subscribers. “Simply put, video layer going forwards to enable high-quality and
not all errors are created equal, with some causing no sig- high availability services. The company’s technology is
nificant impact to the subscriber, while others can ruin script-based, and Schultz says means it can be easily tai-
the viewing experience,” says Conley. “However, first- lored to measure and correlate various kinds of different
generation tools that only detect packet loss are unable to parameters. “This is an absolute must in the current
provide any distinction, only noting that packet loss has stage of IPTV rollout, as operators are still encountering
occurred. The result is that headend personnel treat all technical challenges they did not expect to see,” he says.
errors with equal urgency…or lack thereof, which in turn Tekronix has taken the approach of separating the net-
results in subscriber complaints when major issues are work into different layers: transport and video. The chal-
not quickly solved.” Mixed Signals addresses this issue lenge today, says Schultz is to isolate parameters from
with its video and audio QoE scoring system, which different layers, correlate them and then build a trend for
enables service providers to gauge how much each video each one, which helps to identify issues before they
and audio impairment affects subscribers. become visible for the viewer.
One concern raised by a Bridge Technologies (IBC John Williams, director of emerging markets at
1.A30) spokesperson is that IPTV service providers have JDSU’s communications test and measurement busi-
sometimes been guilty of having in-depth knowledge of ness segment says that service providers need to move to
IT but little of broadcasting technology. “The realisation a centralised test approach and only dispatch engineers
that errors creeping in at one point in the delivery chain to fix problems, rather than find problems. “To make
can cause problems downstream – and that problems management of IPTV more accessible to a wider user
can ‘cross the divide’ between broadcast and IT tech- within the operator, the test systems must have more
nologies – has come about only gradually,” says Bridge intelligence built into the system and an intuitive user
Technologies. Another issue is that some monitoring interface that allows users to quickly isolate and fix IPTV
systems available on the market only give a view of lim- issues,” Williams says. This is an area JDSU has priori-
ited parts of the IPTV delivery chain, and still reflect the tised its IPTV R&D activities. ●
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