InBroadcast
Expanding viewing platforms and evolving regulations require better content quality control and monitoring of all parts of the delivery platforms.
That broadcasting has become more complex with the advent of OTT services is an understatement. Playout is no longer the final point of quality control. Going further down the content delivery chain, CDN edge points, targeted ad-insertion, multi-language support, and event-based channels require the expert scrutiny of broadcast engineers. The need to manage a more complex ecosystem with an ever-growing list of logging and compliance requirements has become a priority for content owners and regulators alike.
The sheer scale of the problem is compounded by the fact that there is almost no point in trying to monitor those streams back in the facility.
“When it comes to monitoring live channels over multiple OTT streams and ABR profiles, it is no longer practical for display panels to mirror all the possible video outlets,” argues Erik Otto, CEO, MediaProxy. “There is a wide choice of devices and delivery outlets that need to be supported and viewers expect the same level of service, no matter how they are accessing content. The days of tracking one channel in one format and resolution are long gone.”
Though content may be correctly streaming from the playout encoder, an edge location may experience its own issues, which could be local or originating from within the CDN. Issues such as local blackouts, bandwidth discrepancies and re-buffering may not be immediately apparent to OTT streams downstream of the CDN.
“Also, what happens if national and regional feeds deviate?” poses Otto. “Or when the wrong program, or an incorrect version, is played out? What happens if the wrong graphics or tickers are mistakenly overlaid on a live broadcast? These issues are becoming increasingly critical for comparing traditional linear services with OTT representations and are very difficult to pinpoint by only looking at OTT playout.”
Having a large volume of content increases the chance for errors. Some of the common issues that can impact streaming quality of experience include poor video quality caused by over-compression during content preparation, profile alignment issues causing glitches in playback when the player switches bitrates, encryption-related issues, and server-related problems such as HTTP failures caused by client or server errors. Issues can also occur during the delivery phase, causing long join times or frequent stalling and switching during playback.
Since OTT content is delivered over the internet, which is unmanaged, the quality and bandwidth of the delivery changes based on network congestion. Broadcasters have minimal or no control during the last mile delivery for OTT content, so quality is never guaranteed. In addition, content protection becomes more important since data flows on a public network. And with multiple stakeholders involved in the delivery chain (CDNs, ISPs etc.) as well as an evolving technology, it can be hard to identify and resolve QoS issues.
“Deploying an OTT monitoring solution that works in tandem with a file-based QC tool will allow broadcasters to quickly and correctly address any issues, all the way from ingest to delivery,” says Anupama Anantharaman, vp product marketing at Interra Systems.
When it comes to compliance, automated quality control (AQC) has become critical for just about any media facility doing business outside their immediate territory.
Explains Howard Twine, director of software strategy, EditShare, “If you are delivering to Japan or the UK, you need to check against PSE levels. With the UK, its DPP AS-11 for broadcasting material and for many OTT platforms, you need to comply with IMF standards. And of course, there is verifying files on the way into the facility to ensure that valuable post time is not wasted on non-compliant files. AQC is a time and money saver all around and simply a must for delivery workflows.”
OTT delivery follows on from the file-based content preparation workflows and the good news is that the latest OTT QC and monitoring solutions are well-suited to address file-based content preparation and distribution workflows.
Interra’s Baton, available both on-premise and in the cloud (hybrid QC) supports a combination of automated and manual QC checks. It integrates with cloud computing infrastructure like (Amazon S3, IBM Cloud Object Storage, Avid Interplay and Google Cloud and with the linear as well as streaming media workflows.
Baton+ is an add-on tool that offers QC trend analysis across multiple Baton systems to improve workflow efficiency. Among its benefits are time-based reports to analyse daily, weekly and monthly QC data. Baton Winnow is a AI/ML based software for content classifying content based on specified criteria, such as explicit scenes, violence, profane language.
To address the complexity, Mediaproxy LogServer enables operators to log and monitor outgoing ABR streams as well as Transport Stream and OTT stream metadata including event triggers, closed captions, and audio information, all from one place.
Red Bee Media recently selected ogServer for compliance monitoring at the world’s first software-only uncompressed playout deployment. LogServer MoIP (Media over IP) software interfaces with Red Bee’s playout system and will also provide caption, loudness and SCTE trigger detection and monitoring.
EditShare’s AQC solution QScan Pro is for mid-sized post facilities and allows Each department such as audio, grading, VFX, and editing to set up parameters to test their files, with up to four files being tested simultaneously. QScan Max is the enterprise version allowing a large operator to test hundreds of files concurrently.
This solution now supports high-speed transfers with Aspera Orchestrator via a plug-in. Facilities can set up AQC workflows that ensure files meet compliance coming in and leaving the facility and apply a patent pending QScan Single-Pass Analysis process can at any point during the workflow.
“This gives businesses confidence that what they are handing off is spot on - whether it’s to the post department for colour grading or to an OTT provider,” says John Wastcoat, vp, business development, Aspera. “In an industry where deadlines are tightening, there is no room for file errors, so this integrated solution can be a fundamental part of our customers’ workflows.”
The test requirements for SDI systems are relatively well known and documented. However, as the industry transitions to IP-based technologies a whole series of new measurements is required to understand what is happening on the network. Timing is particularly important when dealing with the ST2110 standard where the video, audio and data are sent in separate streams. Being able to test the integrity of the separate data paths is essential to ensuring that the transmission reliability is maintained.
The need to help customers deal with this complexity in part drove the development of Tektronix hybrid IP/SDI monitoring line Prism.
“As the industry matures and we see more widescale IP deployments we’re going to add all the things to the platform that I think people expect Tektronix to provide,” says Charlie Dunn, general manager for Tek’s Video Product Line. “So, all the operational concerns, all the QC concerns, all of the compliance concerns are all going to be part of what we call the PRISM platform.”
To support this transition, Tektronix will now, as standard, include all the necessary connectivity needed for SMPTE ST 2022-6/7, ST 2110, and PTP (ST 2059) on the latest additions to the Tektronix Prism line. The media analysis instrument is packed with familiar editing and live production features like Waveform, Vector, and Diamond and has a 25G upgrade path.
Sentry, the firm’s QoE and QoS video network monitoring solution, now has a way of providing picture quality ratings that closely correlate to the viewer’s actual experience. TekMOS uses machine learning techniques to generate a Mean Opinion Score (MOS) for the content along with reasons for not achieving a perfect score. This, says Tektronix, reduces the guess work involved in diagnosis and enables quick and effective corrective action.
The company’s new pricing options include subscription-based pricing per stream and on-demand options for live and VOD quality assurance.
Vidchecker is Telestream’s dedicated QC system that functions almost entirely without human interaction (outside of reviewing the final QC reports). Simply select the file(s) you’d like to QC test, choose the template to test against, and continue working while Vidchecker does all the heavy lifting in the background. If you choose, Vidchecker can fix many common errors, exporting a new file (which passes QC) that can then be delivered to the client, distributor, or broadcaster.
Telestream offers two different versions: Vidchecker and Vidchecker-post. The latter is identical in functionality to the higher-end Vidchecker but is limited to processing a single file at a time (as compared to four simultaneous files with the full version) and utilizing only 8 logical CPU cores. Vidchecker-post is also restricted from using Vidchecker Grid, which enables additional processing nodes from your network to increase processing speed.
At IBC this year, Qligent introduced Vision-VOD, a new automated, file-based solution for front-end QC and back-end QoE verification of VOD content.
“Few companies offer both upfront file-based QC and back-end/last-mile VOD content verification, and only Qligent offers a service capable of supporting large enterprise-level deployments in a SaaS-based model,” said Ted Korte COO, Qligent on launch. “Vision-VOD is virtualized for deployment in large-scale networks to quickly ramp up end-to-end verification of VoD-based networks, without the need to install, train and staff the operation. Its most important value is removing dependency on human resources, while verifying the content quality and automating business-critical procedures.”
Veneratech’s Pulsar is a file-based AQC system, which combined with the firm’s Rapid add-on module, can be used to perform quick scanning, QC, auto sorting and in-depth verification at any stage of the workflow. Among its attributes is a claimed 6x faster than real-time processing of HD files and performance of technically complicated checks such as Field Dominance, Cadence Digital Hits or Active Aspect Ratio.
EditShare has implemented IMF (Interoperable Master Format) package testing into QScan, its AQC range is based on the acquisition of Quales technology. In addition, all QScan models carry compliance certification from the DPP and AMWA which includes support for PSE testing. QScan aids in the IMF QC workflow by detecting the existence of the corresponding XML files (CPL, PKL, OPL, AssetMap, Volume Index) reading the contents and providing information about the structure of the entire IMF package (IMPs).
Twine elaborates, “It is particularly interesting the way QScan shows the information of these XML files. QScan provides a timeline view of the CPL where all essence files are described, thus helping the user better understand the structure of the whole IMP. This approach educates while simplifying the entire process.”
QC Checks for UHD HDR Content
With HDR TV shipments expected (by ABI Research) to surpass 4K TV shipments by 2020, attention is turning to the potential for the wider colour gamut to cause more QC challenges.
Comprehensive HDR checks include frame-maximum light level, frame-average light level, light level over the entire content, local and global contouring, contrast loss due to panel mismatch, and customised checks for compression artefacts. These checks should incorporate all the existing HDR standards like Dolby PQ, HDR10, HDR10+, HLG and so on.
Interra addresses this with Baton. Tektronix’ Aurora file-based QC system can be used to validate 4K-HDR content, and Venera’s support for HDR includes reporting and analysis of HDR metadata. Users can also check the correctness of metadata.
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