Mixed Signals demonstrated Sentry Edge, a monitoring solution for switched digital video (SDV) and video-on-demand (VOD) deployments at the Cable-Tec Expo. With Sentry Edge, cable operators can efficiently monitor the increasingly multifaceted SDV and VOD environments to make sure a high Quality of Service (QoS) and Quality of Experience (QoE) is given to their customers.

 

Mixed Signals provides the digital content monitoring solutions from the source to the edge, including digital services, transport streams, ad insertion, switched digital video, video on demand and interactive content.

 

SCTE Cable-Tec Expo has been the industry's engineering show of the year, hosting more than 10,000 annual attendees and delivering the latest in cable technology, products and services. Mixed Signals is presenting in booth #623.

 

In SDV architecture, operators set up Sentry in its head-end to identify network irregularities in the network at the IP, MPEG and content layers, identifying hundreds of categories of issues, including video freeze, video black and the loss of single and multi-channel audio, which represent the bulk of trouble calls from subscribers.

 

“Switched digital video architectures are complex to begin with, but even more so now that so many different components are emerging from numerous vendors,” said Eric Conley, CEO of Mixed Signals. “We consulted with operators to create a solution that will mitigate the troubles that these complex deployments are presenting. Sentry Edge, by comprehensively monitoring all the critical aspects of a switched digital video deployment, enables operators to quickly identify and rectify these problems in order to deliver an outstanding viewer experience.”

 

Mixed Signal states that their monitoring solution is a result of reading into cable operators requirements. Operators are now considering providing switched digital video and for that they are testing or deploying equipments. This involves installation and integration of substantial amounts of new equipment, including edge QAMs (Quadrature Amplitude Modulation), switch/routers, servers and session resource managers in many cases from multiple vendors. The variation of equipments leads to a complex heterogeneous environment that will grow into a difficult to manage situation. Sentry Edge has been specifically designed to quickly identify these issues and correct them, thus enabling operators to maintain a high-quality and continuous viewing experience for subscribers.

 

Even the tested equipment goes into trouble when it is pressed into real world service. Operators have seen several operational problems to date, such as over-subscribed QAMs, “channel not available” messages and switching errors that cause the wrong channel to be delivered to the subscriber.

 

Sentry Edge is claimed to overcome not only the obstacles by just informing switching activities and valuable statistics such as bandwidth utilization, but can also alert the operator to critical SDV complications such as switching errors, bandwidth oversubscription and cross-content issues prior to distribution. Mixed Signal claims that their Sentry digital content monitor and Medius remote monitoring and management system can be combined with Sentry Edge to provide a broader monitoring of the entire network. For more information please visit www.mixedsignals.com