In Broadcast - May 2021 - 50

www.inbroadcast.com | Vol: 11 - Issue 5 | May 2021

InMedia

Monitoring OTT - The new
challenges monitoring 'all IP' brings
Performing automated analysis of video and data on thousands of signals while keeping
costs down requires sophisticated Adaptive Monitoring, explains TAG Video Systems...

atellite, cable, and telco operators
Paul Briscoe, Chief Architect, TAG
are increasingly using OTT delivery Video Systems says, " It is more
to supplement and even replace complex than an SDI workflow but
traditional media delivery methods but because ST 2110 mirrors legacy wiring
monitoring doesn't get any easier. To the leap can be made. OTT, however,
maintain high quality of experience is of an order of magnitude more
for their customers, operators complex and a far bigger departure
need a way to monitor hundreds - from the monitoring broadcast
sometimes thousands - of channels engineers are used to. "
without compromising real-time error
detection. In most cases, the immense OTT complexity
scale of their service offerings makes
OTT delivery is built on a complicated
continual visual monitoring of all processing
infrastructure
with
streams impossible.
many moving parts. The distributed
In contrast, SMPTE ST 2110-based infrastructure supporting the end-toIP
workflows
are
relatively end delivery chain often includes thirdstraightforward. ST 2110 enabled party systems and solutions. Scaling
the ability to transport independent of resources for short-term events
streams of video, audio, metadata - poses further challenges, including
as many you want associated with a management of associated peaks in
program. Aside from monitoring the monitoring requirements.
fundamentals of IP transport such as
The capability to encode with
jitter and packet loss, ST 2110 requires Adaptive Bit Rates (ABR) means the
the raw essence of each component operator can send more than one
to be synchronized. Taking just one variant of the stream to optimise the
example, audio timing is vital.
user experience. This means
For lip sync, of course, but
monitoring, detection, and
imagine doing a live mix from
alarms all along the OTT
The Proms, when audio from
delivery chain, from the
every mic in the orchestra
camera to the consumer's TV,
pit has to be phased in
tablet, or smartphone.
accurately.
Because it often involves
" More streams (essences)
different
formats
and
mean
more
content Alain Beauvais
streams,
various
CDN
monitoring, "
says
Alain
and cloud vendors, and
Beauvais, Director of Service
even multiple workflows
and Support, TAG Video
within a single operation,
Systems. " Plus, we also
each OTT implementation
have to keep an eye on the
is unique, with unique
Precision Time Protocol to
monitoring
requirements.
synchronize clocks in the
No
two
deployments
network so everything stays
should
command
the
in time and locked. "
Paul Briscoe same monitoring solution.

In addition, there is the perennial
challenge of keeping costs low and
service quality high.
" Then what happens when the
industry advances to the point where
they want to enable a live streamed
sports event and give the viewer
additional live cameras to select? " says
Beauvais. " Each of those versions now
requires monitoring to meet different
bandwidths at different bitrates.
" Your operator can receive an alarm
and won't know where it is or what it
means or how to solve it. Everything
can get out of control. Whenever video
or data is manipulated, whether it's
being moved between facilities or run
through a process such as encoding
or transcoding, error detection is
essential. "

Bringing back control
One option for operators is to
monitor the video signal across many
different points, but this approach can
rapidly soar in expense, particularly
as the channel count grows. In
conventional monitoring deployments,
the cost of licenses and compute

power for full-time monitoring would
place a ceiling on the number of points
that could be monitored.
Fortunately, help is at hand. As
operational workflows across the
media industry have evolved to
resemble true IP or IT workflows,
the presence of errors across the
delivery chain can be determined
with sophisticated software solutions
that minimize the need for human
intervention.
" If you know any operator who
can stay awake constantly checking
a thousand monitors on a screen,
sign them up for life, " says Briscoe.
" The fact is, operators don't need
to look at each and every stream
all the time. They just need to make
sure all streams are being probed
and monitored and that problematic
streams are automatically brought to
their attention. "
Using thresholds set by the operator
or triggered by an API command
from external devices monitoring the
overall ecosystem, the monitoring
software should automatically ensure
optimal monitoring of all streams at
all times and full visualization of errors
whenever there is an alarm.

Adaptive Monitoring
Here's how it works. In full
monitoring mode, the input source is
fully decoded and can be displayed in
real time in a tile of the multiviewer's
mosaic output while being continually
probed, analysed, and alarmed for
errors. This is the mode typically used
to keep an eye on premium or popular
channels, as well as any problematic

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