New Solution Supports Broadcasters' Expansion Into OTT Realm by Enabling Straightforward, Cost-Effective Unified Compliance and Monitoring Workflow

Volicon introduced their new Distribution Monitoring solution, which leverages the company's Media Intelligence Platform® (MIP) to facilitate efficient and cost-effective end-to-end path monitoring for every point across both linear broadcast and OTT service delivery. The new solution provides users with a unified compliance and monitoring interface for content being distributed in any format, on any platform, to any geographic location.

"More and more content is being distributed on an increasing number of specialty channels and services across a growing array of platforms — linear and Internet-delivered — to an expanding global marketplace, and with this expansion comes a host of new challenges in maintaining the integrity of content and the consumer experience," said Gary Learner, CTO at Volicon. "Broadcasters need a convenient, flexible, and affordable way to make sure that all of these channels and programs are being delivered properly. With our new Distribution Monitoring solution, we provide a complete solution that extends monitoring from ingest to the set-top box output and to OTT devices such as smartphones and tablets."

Volicon's Distribution Monitoring solution addresses all variety of distribution mediums, whether linear or OTT feeds. By performing automated monitoring by exception across the full distribution path and full channel lineup, the solution radically reduces the amount of operator intervention required to identify and address issues with a program or channel. To prevent engineers from being overwhelmed by information about the many channels being monitored, the platform highlights only those channels experiencing a problem.

The path monitoring solution addresses the full signal- and program-generation workflow, with a fleet of low-cost systems performing monitoring at different points of this process. By comparing signals across key points, the solution can identify anomalies, track faults back up the distribution chain, and identify the source of the issue rather than the many resulting errors downstream. This approach allows users to address issues even if they lack a thorough understanding of the exact signal flow.

The Volicon solution is unique in that it captures a full recording of content, which in turn gives technical staff the flexibility to target priority problems first and then use stored audio, video, and metadata to examine and deal with past or intermittent issues. It also is unique in allowing users to hit "pause" or "rewind" when looking at either live or recorded content. Because the solution captures not just audio and video but also metadata, it can alert users to issues they can't detect with their eyes and ears, such as audio loudness, XDS, AC-3 properties, and NAVE. 

Volicon's multiviewer option for the Media Intelligence Platform allows users to extend the monitoring of multiple channels to the desktop or monitor wall. The company's OTT-Cloud and OTT-Device applications respectively make it easy to monitor the signals being fed to the cloud and to monitor what's being experienced via the streaming media application on the user device — without the need for manual checking of numerous devices. In addition to comparing the content sent by the operator with that received via the target device, users also can confirm the integrity of content being consumed across geographically distributed locations, even without access to the direct feed from the content delivery network (CDN).

"Broadcasters have to participate in this new digital media marketplace, and with the new Distribution Monitoring solution, we give them the ability to monitor a record of the real customer experience on any platform and assure it from end to end," Learner concluded.