Tektronix Delivers Industry's Most Comprehensive and Proactive Quality Control Solution for Multi-Screen TV Services

BEAVERTON, Ore., Oct. 22, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Tektronix (www.tektronix.com), the market leader in broadcast video test, monitoring and analysis solutions, today unveiled Sentry ABR (adaptive bit rate), the latest member of the award-winning Sentry line of digital content monitors and a critical component of the company's comprehensive solution that enables video service providers (VSP) to ensure the quality of their ABR-based TV Everywhere and over-the-top OTT services.

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Subscribers are not merely demanding to watch any program at any time and on any screen, they expect their TV Everywhere and OTT experiences to be pristine, with superior sound and picture quality.  Accomplishing this is not easy and we have engineered our Sentry ABR to help VSPs address this critical need for quality after the video is segmented or packaged for multi-screen delivery," said Eben Jenkins, general manager, Video Product Line, Tektronix. "The combination of using Sentry to catch video and audio QoE errors pre-fragmentation, plus Sentry ABR to monitor QoS post-fragmentation enables VSPs to deliver the best possible TV Everywhere experience."  

Sentry ABR uniquely enables VSPs to ensure that all of their TV Everywhere and OTT video assets are intact, and available for immediate streaming when requested by viewers.  Sentry ABR does this by validating all assets, bitrate profiles and manifest files based on a highly parallel HTTP fragment fetching engine.  Sentry ABR supports up to 250 top manifests, which translates into a much higher monitoring capacity as each manifest can support up to 12 profiles of each program. Manifest files and fragments can be fetched from any place on the network – such as origin servers and content distribution network (CDN) caching servers – to simulate a subscriber's request for content.

Complementing Sentry ABR are other models of the Sentry family, which can be used at the start of the entire quality control (QC) process for ABR content. The first step is to use a Sentry to identify any quality of experience (QoE) errors in programs when they are ingested at VSPs' headends. The second critical step is to detect any errors created when these programs are transcoded from MPEG-2 into the H.264 format required for ABR.  It is after transcoding, and after the programs have been fragmented and "packaged" that VSPs then use Sentry ABR to monitor manifest/playlist availability, integrity and correctness; the availability of all fragments of all the representations and to check the network latency/delivery performance of each fragment.

The value of Sentry ABR has been recognized in the Broadband Gear Report's annual Diamond Technology Reviews, which granted it a stellar four Diamond ranking.  The judging in this highly regarded program is by an all-star panel of senior engineering and technology executives with some of the nation's largest U.S. cable operators.  Tektronix has traditionally scored well in the Diamond Technology Reviews and this marks the sixth time a member of the Sentry family has been awarded four or more Diamonds.

Tektronix is demonstrating Sentry ABR at its booth (529) at Cable-Tec Expo, which is in Atlanta and runs from October 22 through October 24.

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About Tektronix
For more than sixty five 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 equipment 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.

SOURCE Tektronix