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Mixed Signals, the leading provider of digital content monitoring solutions, today announced that it has added significant new reporting and analysis features to its award-winning Sentry® digital content monitoring solution that enable video service providers to track, isolate and repair even the most complex video and audio errors in their programming. Mixed Signals is demonstrating Sentry’s new Reason Codes capability in its booth (714) at this week’s Canadian Summit of the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE) in Toronto.

Reason Codes are an enhancement to Mixed Signals’ state-of-the-art Audio and Video QoE Scoring System – which accurately gauges the severity of errors – and provide added detail to show the causes of impairment behind a particular quality of experience (QoE) score. The combination of Reason Codes together with Sentry’s unprecedented ability to detect video and audio quality errors gives service providers a more complete picture of particularly complex and recurring QoE issues, which enables more accurate and quicker diagnoses and repairs.

“We continue to listen to our customers to provide the capabilities and tools they need to zero-in on even the most complex video and audio quality errors,” said Eric Conley, CEO of Mixed Signals. “Sentry’s new Reason Codes are the latest example of our commitment to adding new features and functionality to Sentry to keep it the most advanced and comprehensive solution for ensuring that service providers deliver their programming with best possible quality while keeping operational costs low.”

Sentry’s Reason Codes will be available in an upcoming software update that will support already deployed Sentrys and will come standard with new models.

About Sentry

Mixed Signals’ award-winning Sentry is a comprehensive and scalable monitoring solution that uniquely enables video service providers to better manage their networks to deliver services with optimum quality and to reduce their operational expenses. Sentry identifies anomalies in the network at the IP and MPEG layers, as well as in QoE, identifying hundreds of issues, including video freeze, video black and the loss of audio, which represent the bulk of trouble calls from subscribers.  Sentry’s single rack unit (RU) appliance ensures easy deployment in even the smallest hubs and its ability to be remotely managed eliminates the need for technicians to service Sentrys installed in remote locations.

Sentry is in widespread use with top tier video service providers, including the top nine U.S cable operators, three of the top five Canadian cable operators and other providers all over the globe.

Complementing its sales success, Sentry’s advanced capabilities and market-leading performance have been recognized with seven industry awards.

About Mixed Signals
Mixed Signals provides the most comprehensive and scalable digital content monitoring solutions from the source to the edge including digital services, transport streams, ad insertion, switched digital video, video on demand and interactive content. Mixed Signals’ innovative products offer unparalleled visibility into video streams and digital services in real time. The Company’s products are known for their ease of use and deliver critical intelligence about overall network transport stream behavior, trending analyses, and actionable alerts when anomalies are detected. More than any other product on the market today, Mixed Signals monitoring solutions enable cable and satellite television operators, broadcasters, content aggregators and IPTV providers to simplify deployments of new services and applications, and to future-proof and maximize the return on the investment in their digital networks.

For more information visit www.mixedsignals.com or call 310.227.8620.

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Mixed Signals, the leading provider of digital content monitoring solutions, will demonstrate the advanced audio monitoring capabilities of its award-winning Sentry® digital content monitoring solution at next week’s annual Winter Conference of CableLabs®, the research and development consortium for the cable television industry. Mixed Signals worked closely with major television industry leaders to create its audio monitoring solution, which enables service providers and broadcasters to identify loudness issues in programming and commercials, giving them the critical information necessary to quickly fix dramatic volume changes that occur during channel changes and when commercials run.

Sentry’s new audio monitoring capabilities are particularly timely as legislation before Congress will require video service providers to ensure that ads be no louder than the programs they accompany. The Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act has already been approved by the House of Representatives and is now with the Senate, where passage is expected. Unless the industry can implement a viable solution for addressing loud commercials, it is feared that Congress will task the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) with specifying a solution that operators must adopt regardless of cost or complexity.

Mixed Signals has upgraded Sentry specifically for monitoring audio level issues in the multi-channel cable environment. Complementing its existing ability to continually monitor hundreds of channels simultaneously, Sentry now supports the ITU-R BS.1770 audio specification for monitoring program loudness. Developed by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), the BS.1770 specification is shortly expected to be adopted by the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) here in the U.S., which in turn will lead to its use by broadcasters and then cable and other multi-channel video service providers. Operators already using Sentrys can easily add support for BS.1770 via a software upgrade.

“The first step in ensuring that commercials air at the same volume as the programs they accompany is to actually identify overly loud commercials, which can be a daunting task for service providers who deliver hundreds if not thousands of channels of programming,” said Eric Conley, CEO of Mixed Signals. “Sentry gives operators the capabilities they need to find the loud commercials in all of their programming and to do so in a cost-effective and scalable fashion.”

About Sentry
Sentry is a comprehensive content monitoring solution for cable, telecom, IPTV and other video service providers. Sentry enables the early detection, diagnosis and repair of video and audio errors (i.e., video freeze, macro-blocking, loss of audio, etc.) whenever or wherever they occur in the network, so service providers can deliver services with excellent quality, thus ensuring an optimal quality of experience (QoE) for subscribers. Sentry accomplishes this through its unique combination of unprecedented visibility into network anomalies at the IP and MPEG layers, scalability to monitor every program in the network and its real-time, 24/7 operation. Sentry is proven in deployments with service providers worldwide, including nine of the top 10 U.S. cable operators.

About Mixed Signals
Mixed Signals provides the most comprehensive and scalable digital content monitoring solutions from the source to the edge including digital services, transport streams, ad insertion, switched digital video, video on demand and interactive content. Mixed Signals’ innovative products offer unparalleled visibility into video streams and digital services in real time. The Company’s products are known for their ease of use and deliver critical intelligence about overall network transport stream behavior, trending analyses, and actionable alerts when anomalies are detected. More than any other product on the market today, Mixed Signals monitoring solutions enable cable and satellite television operators, broadcasters, content aggregators and IPTV providers to simplify deployments of new services and applications, and to future-proof and maximize the return on the investment in their digital networks.

For more information visit www.mixedsignals.com or call 310.227.8620.

CONTACT INFORMATION

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Technorati Tags: digital content monitoring | mixed signals | video monitoring | video programming | cablelabs

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Here at Cable-Tec Expo 2009, Mixed Signals, Inc., the leading provider of digital content monitoring solutions, and Miranda Technologies, a manufacturer of high-performance hardware and software for the television broadcast industry, announced today a joint solution that enables video service providers to ensure an exceptional quality of experience (QoE) for viewers. The solution is a pairing of Mixed Signals’ award-winning Sentry® digital content monitor with Miranda’s proven iControl Quality of Experience monitoring system, to create a complete and cost-effective monitoring solution.

“Partnering with Miranda expands the reach of Sentry into other vertical markets, including broadcasters and content providers, where Miranda has established a well-deserved reputation for excellence,” said Eric Conley, CEO of Mixed Signals. “With Miranda, we can offer an enhanced QoE monitoring solution to the industry and expand our customer base, which already includes nine of the top 10 major U.S. MSOs.”
With the Mixed Signals and Miranda integrated solution, video service providers can cost-effectively and visually track service quality, from end to end in real time across hundreds of programs, and perform the following:

• Monitor video service quality and manage operations based on viewers’ actual video and audio QoE
• Set different priority alerts based on how much and how long customers are impacted by video and audio errors
• Track subscribers’ QoE by service (or program) from acquisition to the network edge
• Make timely decisions on fail over to minimize customer impact and increase service up time
• Simplify operations by pinpointing the source of the problem and reducing the amount of alerts generated

“By partnering with Mixed Signals, we’ve strengthened our Quality of Experience monitoring by offering a broader and more comprehensive array of electronic monitoring capabilities,” says Marco Lopez, Senior Vice-President, Interfacing, Monitoring and Control at Miranda. “The Miranda iControl monitoring and Network Management System will combine the rich monitoring solution of Mixed Signals, along with Miranda’s deep visual probing technology, reducing the MTTR to resolve subscriber impacting problems.”

The joint solution will be available through Miranda, and will be on demonstration in booth #1060 at this year’s SCTE Cable-Tec Expo in Denver, Colorado, October 28-30.

About Miranda Technologies
Miranda Technologies Inc. (TSX: MT) develops, manufactures and markets high-performance hardware and software for the television broadcast industry. Its solutions are purchased by content creators, broadcasters, specialty channels and television service providers to enable and enhance the transition to a complex multi-channel digital and HD broadcast environment. This equipment allows customers to generate additional revenue while reducing costs through more efficient distribution and management of content as well as the automation of previously manual processes. Miranda employs approximately 560 people at its Montreal headquarters and in its facilities located in Wallingford (UK), Grass Valley (California, USA), Springfield (New Jersey, USA), Paris (France), Tokyo (Japan), Zaltbommel (Netherlands), Dubai (United Arab Emirates), Beijing (China) and Hong Kong. Miranda is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange. For more information, please visit www.miranda.com.

About Mixed Signals
Mixed Signals provides the most comprehensive and scalable digital content monitoring solutions from the source to the edge including digital services, transport streams, ad insertion, switched digital video, video on demand and interactive content. Mixed Signals’ innovative products offer unparalleled visibility into video streams and digital services in real time. The Company’s products are known for their ease of use and deliver critical intelligence about overall network transport stream behavior, trending analyses, and actionable alerts when anomalies are detected. More than any other product on the market today, Mixed Signals monitoring solutions enable cable and satellite television operators, broadcasters, content aggregators and IPTV providers to simplify deployments of new services and applications, and to future-proof and maximize the return on the investment in their digital networks.

For more information visit www.mixedsignals.com or call 310.227.8620.

Mixed Signals, Inc., the leading provider of digital content monitoring solutions, is demonstrating the upgraded audio monitoring capabilities of its award-winning Sentry® digital content monitoring solution here at Cable-Tec Expo 2009 in the company’s booth #16043.  Mixed Signals worked closely with major cable television industry leaders to create a solution that enables cable operators to identify audio volume issues in programming and commercials, giving them the critical information necessary to quickly fix dramatic volume changes that occur during channel changes and when commercials run.

At the heart of the advanced solution is Mixed Signals’ award-winning Sentry which now supports the ITU-R BS.1770 audio specification for measuring the loudness of video programs. As overly loud commercials have become particularly problematic, proposed legislation is now before Congress that would require video service providers to address this pressing issue. The Commercial Advertising Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act would require video service providers to ensure that commercials not be any louder than the average volume of the programs they accompany.

“We understand the irritation from both cable operators as well as subscribers when it comes to loud commercials interrupting an otherwise enjoyable television experience – which is why we have upgraded Sentry to help solve this frustration, especially as new legislation regarding this issue is progressing quickly, ” said Eric Conley, CEO of Mixed Signals. “Our number one priority is to make sure cable operators have the tools they need to catch these service affecting issues, which is why Sentry’s upgrade enables operators to cost-effectively monitor their entire programming line-up in a scalable way that identifies loudness issues immediately when they occur.”

Developed by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), the BS.1770 specification is shortly expected to be adopted by the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) here in the U.S., which in turn will lead to its use by broadcasters and then cable and other multi-channel video service providers.  Service providers with Sentrys already deployed in their networks can easily add support for BS.1770 via a software upgrade.

About Sentry
Sentry is a comprehensive content monitoring solution for cable, telecom, IPTV and other video service providers. Sentry enables the early detection, diagnosis and repair of video and audio errors (i.e., video freeze, macro-blocking, loss of audio, etc.) whenever or wherever they occur in the network, so service providers can deliver services with excellent quality, thus ensuring an optimal quality of experience (QoE) for subscribers.  Sentry accomplishes this through its unique combination of unprecedented visibility into network anomalies at the IP and MPEG layers, scalability to monitor every program in the network and its real-time, 24/7 operation.  Sentry is proven in deployments with service providers worldwide, including nine of the top 10 U.S. cable operators.

About Mixed Signals
Mixed Signals provides the most comprehensive and scalable digital content monitoring solutions from the source to the edge including digital services, transport streams, ad insertion, switched digital video, video on demand and interactive content. Mixed Signals’ innovative products offer unparalleled visibility into video streams and digital services in real time. The Company’s products are known for their ease of use and deliver critical intelligence about overall network transport stream behavior, trending analyses, and actionable alerts when anomalies are detected. More than any other product on the market today, Mixed Signals monitoring solutions enable cable and satellite television operators, broadcasters, content aggregators and IPTV providers to simplify deployments of new services and applications, and to future-proof and maximize the return on the investment in their digital networks.

For more information visit www.mixedsignals.com or call 310.227.8620.

Here at Cable-Tec Expo, RGB Networks, the leader in network video processing, is demonstrating the latest addition to its Video Multiprocessing Gateway (VMG) product line, the VMG-6, which it introduced today. Like the larger VMG-14, the new VMG-6 is a carrier-class, chassis-based platform that provides an array of digital video solutions for service providers as it can perform multiple advanced video processing functions on both MPEG-2 and MPEG-4/H.264 video streams, including transrating, ad insertion, statistical multiplexing and transcoding. The five rack unit VMG-6 is ideally suited for operators that require a smaller form factor chassis for deployment in hubs, whereas the 13 rack unit VMG-14 is better suited to headends.

The ability of the VMG-6 to transcode MPEG-4/H.264 programs into MPEG-2 utilizes RGB’s recently announced content repurposing technology, and is particularly timely for cable operators as programmers increasingly deliver their content in MPEG-4/H.264. Though first generation, single-channel, “pizza box” transcoders work for the few programs currently delivered in MPEG-4/H.264, they will be far too costly and operationally inefficient once most programs are in MPEG-4/H.264. Additionally, integrated transcoders in satellite receivers lack the high availability, redundancy and networking flexibility of the all-IP VMG. The VMG-6’s ability to transcode an unprecedented number of streams drastically improves workflow and reduces operational expenditures while enabling operators to cost-effectively convert an entire MPEG-4/H.264 channel line-up into the MPEG-2 format that their networks support. In addition, the VMG’s content repurposing technology prepares operators for future “three screen” delivery.

“RGB is committed to providing customers with the widest range of video processing solutions to meet their unique requirements and applications. With the addition of the VMG-6 we offer a scalable, carrier-class solution that ideally complements our already proven single rack unit products, each addressing a different set of needs,” said Ramin Farassat, RGB Networks’ Vice President of Product Marketing. “Furthermore, the VMG-6 is our latest solution for content repurposing, which enables operators to process multiple video streams from different sources and deliver them seamlessly and simultaneously to TVs, PCs and mobile devices in real time and optimized for viewing on each platform.”

Cable operators – and their competitors – are all racing to deliver their programming to TVs, PCs and mobile devices simultaneously, but implementing a multi-device service in a cost-effective and scalable manner has been elusive. The VMG-14 and VMG-6 address this challenge with their ability to transcode and process an unprecedented number of streams in real time, while simultaneously performing a number of other functions, including aggregation, grooming, replication, transrating and ad insertion, all within the same platform. This ultra-high-density, integrated approach of RGB’s content repurposing technology offers operators a scalable solution, allowing multiple video processing functions to be applied to each stream in real time, as needed, to prepare the video for its intended receiving device.

The high-density VMG-6 can accommodate up to six modules that perform a variety of advanced video processing functions. The integration of these modules within a single chassis provides a unique solution with very high reliability due to its full intra-chassis redundancy capabilities. The VMG-6 utilizes the same application modules as the VMG-14, thereby providing operational cost savings and flexibility in deploying both platforms at various network locations, based on the applications and capacity requirements.

Cable-Tec Demonstration
At its Cable-Tec Expo booth (#15059) RGB will demonstrate key functionality of the VMG, including transcoding from MPEG-4/H.264 to MPEG-2, MPEG-4/H.264 ad insertion and statistical multiplexing of MPEG-2 and MPEG-4/H.264 streams. RGB will highlight how this integrated platform approach to video processing reduces operational complexity and allows for the seamless deployment of a variety of applications with easy, license-based upgrading and scalable, pay-as-you-grow expansion of services.

About RGB Networks
RGB Networks is revolutionizing video, delivering leading-edge video processing solutions that address the complexities of the changing video delivery model. With advanced solutions for bandwidth optimization, content repurposing and addressable advertising, RGB’s products enable operators to deliver the next generation of highly personalized video services, which are relevant to individual subscribers and delivered anytime to any device. The company’s products are based on its unique Video Intelligence Architecture™ (VIA), enabling them to process an unprecedented number of video streams with the highest video quality. RGB’s scalable solutions dramatically reduce the cost to deliver both broadcast and unicast services, and help operators maximize their existing network infrastructure. More than 7,000 RGB products are deployed in the field by over 170 service providers in 25 countries worldwide. Learn more at www.rgbnetworks.com.