Cable Operators Can Ensure the Quality of Their Adaptive Streaming-based Services with Tektronix Sentry

“Cable operators are realizing as they utilize adaptive streaming technology to compete with the growing number of over-the-top (OTT) providers, that an exceptional QoE is the best way to ensure the superiority of their services,” said Eben Jenkins, general manager, Video Product Line, Tektronix.  “Sentry’s combination of advanced audio and video quality monitoring capabilities and proven performance make it an ideal solution for ensuring adaptive streaming quality and is another demonstration of our commitment to ensuring that Sentry addresses operators’ most pressing QoE requirements.”

The key to Sentry’s new adaptive streaming monitoring capabilities is its ability to perform its unique Perceptual Video Quality (PVQ) analysis on video streams encoded in the H.264 codec used for adaptive streaming.  PVQ enables Sentry to identify video artifacts that are due to over-compression, which commonly happens with motion-intensive programs like sports and action movies.  Such over-compression artifacts are virtually undetectable by simply looking for packet loss and represent a major threat to video quality.

In an adaptive streaming monitoring application, Sentry examines H.264 video streams immediately after they have been transcoded from MPEG-2 and just prior to them being fragmented and encrypted.  This is a critical point in the adaptive streaming process as transcoding can introduce QoE-impacting video errors that are virtually undetectable after encryption.  Simultaneously with the H.264 monitoring, Sentry examines the accompanying audio programs encoded in the AAC codec predominantly used in adaptive streaming.  This combination ensures that operators can detect video and audio issues that will propagate downstream and degrade customers’ viewing experience.

Tektronix will demonstrate Sentry’s H.264 video PVQ, and AAC audio QoE and loudness monitoring capability, and other advanced capabilities at the upcoming Cable-Tec Expo, November 15-17 in Atlanta.

Sentry is an award-winning, comprehensive content monitoring solution for cable, telecom, IPTV and other video service providers. Sentry enables the early detection and diagnosis of video and audio issues (i.e., video freeze, macro-blocking, loss of audio, etc.) whenever or wherever they occur in the network, so service providers can deliver services with excellent quality, thus ensuring an optimal QoE for subscribers.  Sentry accomplishes this insight through its unique combination of an unprecedented visibility into network anomalies at the IP and content layers, scalability to monitor every program in the network, and its real-time, 24/7 operation.