Powerful New Tektronix Compressed Video Monitor

MTM400A Transport Stream Monitor with New FlexVuPlusTMUser Interface Enables SuperiorDTV and IPTV Service Quality

BEAVERTON, Ore., February 2008- Tektronix, Inc., a leading, worldwide provider of test, measurement and monitoring instrumentation, announced the new MTM400A MPEG Transport Stream Monitor. With the MTM400A, broadcasters and network operators will be able to detect signal degradation caused during transmission and distribution to find and diagnose errors more quickly to prevent viewers from experiencing loss of signal. The MTM400A features a powerful new FlexVuPlusTM user interface that leverages the deep measurement capabilities of the MTM platform to deliver greatly simplified DTV monitoring and diagnostics. The MTM400A with FlexVuPlus provides a configurable common user interface for both confidence and diagnostic monitoring that improves communication handover between operator and engineer. The new MTM400A enables a faster understanding of initial fault reporting, accelerating time to overall problem resolution.

The worldwide DTV market continues to evolve. Shifting consumer viewing behavior combined with increasing competitive pressure is driving an explosion in broadcast channel count and overall capex investment. A key operational challenge for traditional broadcasters and Multi-Service Operators (MSO) is how to efficiently deliver superior Quality of Service (QoS) levels to maintain differentiation in this competitive market. The MTM400A supports this by providing an intuitive and simplified presentation of video quality and diagnostic information, to enable delivery of superior QoS levels in an increasingly complex broadcast environment. Additionally, the MTM400A is the only platform in the market that provides a common measurement engine for both confidence monitoring and diagnostic monitoring ensuring consistency in measurement results. Time lost verifying discrepancies between measurement instruments used in Operations and Engineering is eliminated.

“With increasing complexity and investment requirements, broadcasters and MSOs need test and monitoring instruments that provide greater capabilities and more intuitive operation,” said Arif Kareem, Vice President, Video Product Line, Tektronix. “The new MTM400A with FlexVuPlus provides theintegrated confidence and diagnostic monitoring to support broadcasters and MSOs in delivering superior QoS to maximise subscriber growth and advertising revenue. This is achieved through improved information delivery, presentation, and digital workflow. The MTM400A helps our customers with their transition to digital video, adoption of new technologies, and management of complex workflows.”

“The number of video services being transmitted is continuously increasing in the evolving digital era,” said Felipe Olvera, Director of Engineering, Network Center, Oregon Public Broadcasting. “This makes the need to monitor the Transport streams being transmitted ever more important. Broadcasters and network operators need a cost effective, scalable, distributable, and easy to use solution to detect signal degradation caused during transmission and distribution before it impacts the viewer. We’ve been using the MTM400A and found that meets our needs, helping us to provide high quality service to our customers.”

FlexVuPlus uniquely provides a structured hierarchical view of network information, media and data that allows an engineer to rapidly identify the root cause of underlying service problems. The new UI provides configurable key performance indicator (KPI) summaries within a four-window display that provides operations staff with comprehensive information made simple. Deep diagnostics capabilities in the MTM400A along with the more intuitive user experience provided by FlexVuPlus enables even non-experts to drill down to identify the root cause of a problem very quickly. With these capabilities, the MTM400Aenables operators and technicians to prove their service is delivering above defined thresholds for superior Quality of Service (QoS).

FlexVuPlus is a browser enabled, user definable interface that is powerful, personal and enables improved productivity. Up to four panels can be displayed in the UI window and can be sized and repositioned based on operational needs. FlexVuPlus provides a user definable “button strip,” “historical views,” and “short-cuts” that intuitively guide a user to key areas of interest to accelerate video delivery fault root cause analysis. Thumbnail displays with performance indicators show overall program status in addition to video PID status. All test failure views show currently failing tests in red and previously failed tests in orange on a single summary screen. Powerful new 7 day trending graphs coupled with dual level alarms and warnings provide an early indication of RF and IP transmission performance degradation. This alerts the operator to impending service quality issues before they are observed by the viewer.

The MTM400A also provides remote network access, ensuring the simultaneous availability of measurement results to multiple remote users. This provides the ability for key skilled resources to rapidly identify root cause and analysis of problems in the MPEG video transport streams. Easy integration with third party network management platforms supports wider distributed network intelligence. The MTM400A with FlexVuPlus also enables skilled engineers to accelerate introduction of new services to customers by ensuring all service delivery issues are fully resolved at the time of provisioning.

Availability
Shipments of the new MTM400A with FlexVuPlus begin in February, 2008. The new FlexVuPlus UI and System Software will also be available as a free of charge upgrade for existing MTM400 owners.
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