Cable Technology Feature Article
October 22, 2009
U.S. Cable Television Operators Deploying Mixed Signals' Consul Product
By Anil Sharma, TMCnet Contributor
Mixed Signals’ power appliance, Consul, which gives video service providers an aggregated regional or national view of video quality and availability, reportedly has been deployed by several cable television operators, including three of the five largest U.S. operators.
In a release, Mixed Signal officials said that Consul provides a comprehensive view and analysis of the health of audio and video programming throughout service providers’ networks by integrating with the company’s source-to-edge monitoring solution.
Company officials said Consul organizes and displays the prodigious amount of information generated by the Mixed Signals monitoring solution deployed network wide to identify trends in video quality over time, find problem areas that impact viewers’ service availability and quality of experience (QoE).
“Ensuring subscribers enjoy an optimal level of service is a comprehensive task that requires great understanding of video quality trends and performance over time and across locations,” said Eric Conley, CEO of Mixed Signals, in the release.
Conley said that Consul gives operators the ability to quickly understand the major problem areas across multiple systems and allocate resources appropriately. The reporting elements of Consul will prove invaluable to video service operations, he added.
Mixed Signals says that it provides the most comprehensive and scalable 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. Mixed Signals’ innovative products offer unparalleled visibility into video streams and digital services in real time.
In July Mixed Signals announced significant new capabilities for its Sentry digital content monitoring solution including the ability for video service providers to optimize their bandwidth to deliver the maximum amount of programming, and the ability to record video and audio errors for more detailed analysis and repair.
Sentry’s new Program Group Bandwidth Analysis tool allows video service providers to accurately track the bandwidth utilization of all the video programs they deliver, enabling them to optimally configure their networks to deliver the maximum number of programs while guaranteeing each program can receive the bandwidth required for pristine picture quality.
In a release, Mixed Signal officials said that Consul provides a comprehensive view and analysis of the health of audio and video programming throughout service providers’ networks by integrating with the company’s source-to-edge monitoring solution.
Company officials said Consul organizes and displays the prodigious amount of information generated by the Mixed Signals monitoring solution deployed network wide to identify trends in video quality over time, find problem areas that impact viewers’ service availability and quality of experience (QoE).
“Ensuring subscribers enjoy an optimal level of service is a comprehensive task that requires great understanding of video quality trends and performance over time and across locations,” said Eric Conley, CEO of Mixed Signals, in the release.
Conley said that Consul gives operators the ability to quickly understand the major problem areas across multiple systems and allocate resources appropriately. The reporting elements of Consul will prove invaluable to video service operations, he added.
Mixed Signals says that it provides the most comprehensive and scalable 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. Mixed Signals’ innovative products offer unparalleled visibility into video streams and digital services in real time.
In July Mixed Signals announced significant new capabilities for its Sentry digital content monitoring solution including the ability for video service providers to optimize their bandwidth to deliver the maximum amount of programming, and the ability to record video and audio errors for more detailed analysis and repair.
Sentry’s new Program Group Bandwidth Analysis tool allows video service providers to accurately track the bandwidth utilization of all the video programs they deliver, enabling them to optimally configure their networks to deliver the maximum number of programs while guaranteeing each program can receive the bandwidth required for pristine picture quality.
Anil Sharma is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Anil’s articles, please visit his columnist page.
Edited by Patrick Barnard
