...is now shipping for all Bridge Technologies probes. The OTT engine can be added as an option to the entire line of rack mounted and portable probes, to give true end-to-end OTT monitoring capability alongside monitoring of cable, satellite and terrestrial services, without adding unnecessary extra layers of infrastructure. Operators of ‘TV everywhere’ and OTT services can now monitor OTT data quality and performance at all points in the delivery chain, from ingest onwards. In conjunction with the VBC server, data from different sites can be correlated and systemwide performance can be easily understood and monitored through the system’s intuitive graphical displays.

Deployed anywhere in the delivery chain the active OTT technology gives accurate continuous evaluation of OTT stream availability and delivery in that part of the chain. Intelligent self-configuration capabilities ensure minimal set up requirements, without requiring specialist knowledge, and operations center staff can start monitoring streams simply by entering the url. To achieve comprehensive coverage, Bridge Technologies probes with OTT capabilities can be located after the encoders to monitor stream quality and integrity prior to the CDN, and then at the exit point of the CDN, as well at the ISP and edge networks. For monitoring of the ‘home network’—the subscriber’s network of content-reception devices—the Bridge Technologies microAnalytics™ System can be deployed to integrate data gathered from the STB, connected TV, computers, and mobile devices into the operator’s centralized monitoring and analysis environment. Users can upgrade their probes online to add OTT monitoring functionality to the existing capabilities, while the OTT features are available as an option with all new probes.

Shipping now is the Company's new heavy-duty OTT monitoring engine for its high-performance VB330 core network probe. The engine’s advanced OTT monitoring capabilities combined with the VB330’s high capability for traffic analysis make it a powerful solution for deployment at head-end origin servers and core locations both before and after the content distribution network. The optional Bulk OTT Engine can be enabled on any existing VB330 to provide sophisticated monitoring of large volumes of OTT streams. The OTT engine tests manifest files, profiles, chunk download speed and many more parameters, to deliver comprehensive data on OTT service quality, together with customizable alarms to alert staff to potential or actual problems. The engine supports Smoothstream, HLS and HDS, and is M-DASH-ready. Designed for extremely high-density applications at points of maximum data throughput in today’s 10GB core networks, the VB330 with OTT option offers telcos, network operators, and digital media organizations a monitoring solution with the potential for scaling to match almost any level of throughput.