TV Performance
Digital compression of cable television signals has enabled service providers to deliver high definition video, improved sound quality, more channels and interactive features to subscribers, at a lower impact to network bandwidth. Unlike analog signals, digital streams are not susceptible to noise that can create image corruption such as "ghosting," and can therefore generally offer inherently higher picture quality than traditional analog.
Digital cable, however, is not immune to quality degradation from a number of sources. These can include wiring problems or interference on the customer premises, network problems—such as congestion—that can occur intermittently and be difficult to locate, signal corruption introduced during analog-to-digital conversion, and even bad weather conditions.
When problems occur, it can be difficult for cable providers to isolate the exact cause—often resulting in expensive service calls and truck rolls that could be prevented with better remote diagnostic abilities. The widespread use of encryption for digital rights management can also make quality monitoring difficult. An effective performance management solution must either have access to the unencrypted video stream at each monitoring point, or be able to perform the necessary quality measurements without decrypting.
Telchemy's performance management solutions for Digital Cable TV support real-time, 24x7 monitoring of subscriber QoE for both encrypted and unencrypted video streams—as well as fast, efficient pre-deployment testing and remote problem diagnosis for existing cable subscribers.
SQlive is a compact drop-in software solution for video performance monitoring that can be installed on or embedded into a range of end system devices and CPE— including cable and IPTV set-top boxes—to obtain continuous real-time feedback on customer QoE, proactively detect problems, and perform advanced remote troubleshooting of video service quality.
SQprobe is a high-performance software probe that non-intrusively monitors all IP Video and VoIP streams traversing a service provider or Enterprise network, detects individual calls/video sessions, and measures their performance. SQprobe reports real-time estimated quality scores (including Video MOS) and an extensive set of diagnostic data, and can be used in conjunction with SQlive deployed on end system/CPE devices for end-to-end quality monitoring.
SQmediator is a sophisticated performance management application for Voice over IP that collects, correlates, and analyzes QoS/QoE reports sent by VoIP endpoints and probes, including Telchemy's SQlive and SQprobe. SQmediator's intuitive dashboard web UI features interactive Flash charts that provide real-time access to quality reports, alerts, and intuitive diagnostics for every video session and VoIP call.
DVQattest is an active testing and troubleshooting solution for IP Video and VoIP, utilizing compact software test agents that can be preinstalled on end system equipment such as cable set-top boxes or downloaded to customer desktops for on-the-fly testing. The DVQattest system enables service providers to perform fast pre-deployment testing of new subscriber throughput and service quality, and supports advanced remote problem diagnosis that can help reduce the number of equipment returns and costly truck rolls.