Sentry is Industry’s Only Solution for Monitoring Delivery of EBIF Applications
NCTA’s The Cable Show 2010
LOS ANGELES – Mixed Signals, the leading provider of digital content monitoring solutions, has added significant new capabilities to its Sentry® product that enable it to monitor enhanced television (ETV) and advanced advertising applications based on the Enhanced TV Binary Interchange Format (EBIF). Cable television operators and programmers are increasingly looking to these EBIF-enabled applications to generate new revenues and to enhance viewer interactivity with the content. This drives the need for comprehensive monitoring to ensure that these applications are being accomplished properly.
“The revenue potential of EBIF is substantial for cable operators, programmers and advertisers alike, but realizing this potential involves complex interactions between video streams, ads, triggers and associated data that must be performed precisely and on a large scale,” said Eric Conley, CEO of Mixed Signals. “This effort is non-trivial with many potential points of failure, but Sentry’s advanced EBIF monitoring capabilities provide the insight necessary for a successful deployment of EBIF-based ETV and advanced advertising applications.”
For EBIF-based applications to work properly, triggers must be embedded into program streams and when these triggers are activated (by viewers) the additional data must be delivered to set-top boxes. Determining if all these steps are performed correctly across an entire channel line-up is not possible by simply measuring packet loss alone or using other first-generation approaches for ensuring quality of experience (QoE).
Sentry’s advanced detection capabilities, coupled with its constant 24×7 operation and scalability to simultaneously monitor hundreds of programs, ads and EBIF-widgets make it the ideal solution for the performance monitoring of EBIF-based applications.
Complementing its advanced detection capabilities are Sentry’s extensive reporting features, which allow video service providers to identify issues and trends over time. Sentry catalogs all the key transactions and interactions it monitors for up to 60 days so service providers can analyze performance issues at a very high level or closely examine a particular element.
Mixed Signals will be demonstrating its new EBIF monitoring capabilities in the CableNET pavilion at The Cable Show in Los Angeles, May 11-13, 2010.
About Sentry
Mixed Signals’ award-winning Sentry is a comprehensive and scalable monitoring solution that uniquely enables video service providers to better manage their networks to deliver services with optimum quality and to reduce their operational expenses. Sentry identifies anomalies in the network at the IP and MPEG layers, as well as in QoE, identifying hundreds of issues, including video freeze, video black and the loss of audio, which represent the bulk of trouble calls from subscribers. Sentry’s single rack unit (RU) appliance ensures easy deployment in even the smallest hubs and its ability to be remotely managed eliminates the need for technicians to service Sentrys installed in remote locations.
Sentry is in widespread use with top tier video service providers, including the top nine U.S. cable operators, three of the top five Canadian cable operators and other providers all over the globe.
Complementing its sales success, Sentry’s advanced capabilities and market-leading performance have been recognized with seven industry awards.
About Mixed Signals
Mixed Signals’ industry-leading digital content monitoring solutions enable video service providers to proactively identify, diagnose and repair picture and audio quality errors that degrade the television viewing experience. Proven in deployments worldwide – including nine of the 10 largest U.S. cable television operators – Mixed Signals’ solutions utilize deep packet inspection techniques and other advanced monitoring capabilities to detect errors that competitive products often miss. In addition to ensuring the best possible quality of experience (QoE) for their subscribers, Mixed Signals’ solutions enable video service providers to increase uptime and reduce their operational expenses by eliminating the traditional labor-intensive and time-consuming process for troubleshooting video and audio errors.
