TMCnet News
Tektronix Shows Off Sentry's Advanced Capabilities at The Cable ShowBEAVERTON, OR, Jun 13, 2011 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) -- Tektronix, the leading provider of digital content monitoring solutions, will demonstrate the advanced capabilities of its award-winning Sentry(R) digital content monitor in the CableNET Pavilion of The Cable Show, June 14-16 in Chicago. This year's demonstrations will include Sentry's unique Perceptual Video Quality (PVQ) scoring system and Sentry's ability to monitor enhanced television (ETV) and advanced advertising applications based on the increasingly popular Enhanced TV Binary Interchange Format (EBIF). Sentry's groundbreaking PVQ scoring system enables MSOs to accurately gauge the severity of video errors that are caused by over compression, which are difficult for other monitoring systems to detect because the transport streams often appear error free. Sentry can identify these errors due to its unparalleled ability to monitor the sequence layer, the GOP layer, the picture layer, the slice layer, the macroblock layer and the block layer. When detected, PVQ ranks errors similarly to the commonly used Mean Opinion Score (MOS) system, so that headend technicians can easily understand the significance of the errors and take appropriate action based on the severity of the problem. Sentry's PVQ is the industry's only 'non-reference' perceptual quality score that is fully calibrated against the Tektronix PQA 600 -- the industry standard for picture quality test and measurement, used by leading encoder manufacturers worldwide. Tektronix will also demonstrate how cable operators can monitor their EBIF-based ETV and advanced advertising applications with Sentry. Cable 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. 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 24x7 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. "Delivering the best possible viewing experience remains a priority for operators as they face ever more competition from telco, satellite and increasingly over-the-top providers even as they simultaneously strive to offer more compelling services and to generate new ad revenues," said Eric Conley, vice president, Video Network Monitoring, Tektronix. "We understand these complex needs and continue add new features and functionality to Sentry to ensure it meets their critical needs both today and tomorrow, whether it's EBIF, Tru2Way, 3D or adaptive streaming." Sentry is an award-winning, comprehensive content monitoring solution for cable, telecom, IPTV and other video service providers. Sentry enables the early detection, diagnosis and repair of video and audio errors (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 MPEG layers, scalability to monitor every program in the network, and its real-time, 24/7 operation. For more information about Sentry visit http://www.tek.com/products/video-test/digital-content-monitors.html or call 310.227.8620. Follow Tektronix on Twitter (@tektronix) and Facebook. About Tektronix For more than sixty years, engineers have turned to Tektronix for test, measurement and monitoring solutions to solve design challenges, improve productivity and dramatically reduce time to market. Tektronix is a leading supplier of test instrumentation for engineers focused on electronic design, manufacturing, and advanced technology development. Headquartered in Beaverton, Oregon, Tektronix serves customers worldwide and offers award-winning service and support. Stay on the leading edge at www.tektronix.com. Tektronix is a registered trademark of Tektronix, Inc. All other trade names referenced are the service marks, trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies. Media Contact: Amy Higgins PR Manager Tektronix 503-627-6497 Email Contact SOURCE: Tektronix http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/emailprcntct?id=2BC290959897BDC3 |