Digital Headend System Integration 4

SYSTEM MANAGEMENT AND MONITORING
Management systems available on the market today, provide valuable information on the status of every individual building block individually, and some even add the complexity to view the system installed.
Experience has learned that creating visibility of the building blocks alone is not enough, monitoring and analyzing the broadcasted streams is what provides the real details on the services supplied to the end-users.

As said before, customer satisfaction is key when deploying Digital Television, this is where operators have to for control: ‘You inform your customer!’, instead of ‘your customer informing you!’ IMPEQ Technologies has developed and built a Broadcast Management Suite, that includes SNMP management and the Service Analyser and Monitoring system called SAM, to secure full control over the quality of the supplied end-user service in the operators network.

MEET SAM
The IMPEQ Service Analyzer and M o n i t o r i n g (SAM) system
was first l a u n c h e d during IBC 2006, being part of the I M P E Q
B r o a d c a s t Management
Suite. SAM provides the q u a l i t y information needed to secure quality of service for program delivery to the end-users. SAM monitors and analyses the broadcasted streams in the various stages of audio/video processing in your digital headend, it measures all services on quality and the presence of mandatory information (ETR290, bit rate, PSI/SI and more).

YOUR VIEW ON SERVICE QUALITY SAM provides a user friendly interface that displays the information you require in a single or multiple screen environment.

THE DIGITAL ROLL-OUT
When starting preparations for the rollout, the balance between investment and revenue has to be taken into account. Finding the right balance between the technical and marketing plans is crucial, to secure the launch of Digital Television services.

PLAN IN PHASES
Starting with the basics has proven to be the way forward when installing the digital headend.
By doing so, operators gain experience and get comfortable with the new installation and the basic services offered. Our experience shows that t h e deployment of set-top boxes to friendly users in this phase, provides the operator with the time needed to build experience and to expand customer care in the path to full digital services. Digital Television in many cases provides unique situations when dealing with the end customers (one-to-one), this in comparison to broadcasting before (one-to-many).
The moment more complexity and intelligence is added to the digital headend, more services, like Pay TV, may be offered to the customers. In the near future interactivity like Video on Demand (VOD), Gaming and Voting can be offered. Also here we strongly recommend the use of friendly customers as a test-base for new services before moving to full interactivity.
The main purpose to plan in phases is to align the technical planning and the marketing roadmap, by doing so operators can work towards one common goal, the deployment of Digital Television services.

LESSONS LEARNED
Dealing with an international customer base, IMPEQ Technologies has over 15 years of experience in Digital Television. In many projects we have seen, that the following points need careful attention.

GUIDELINES
• Balance between investment and revenue
• Use of open or proprietary standards
• System Flexibility and Scalability
• Plan carefully and start with the basics
• Gradually add intelligence to the headend
• System and Service availability
• Monitor the broadcasted services
• Select the set-top-boxes carefully
• Pre test and validate the set-top-boxes prior to roll-out
• Customer care is of high importance

Customer satisfaction requires constant attention. In the world of Digital Television, the operator becomes an experience provider, giving the end-user the ability to enjoy interactive and individual and personalized services.