Tektronix To Show Cloud-Native Video Monitoring Solutions At NAB

Tektronix will introduce what it describes as “the first truly cloud-native solutions — new Sentry CX container and Aurora solutions on AWS Marketplace — designed specifically for streaming service providers” at the NAB  Show next week. Tektronix experts will be on hand to demonstrate the new Sentry CX cloud-native container probe products and Aurora on-demand software at its booth, SU5006.

The need for scalable, cloud-native solutions is critical as demand for over-the-top (OTT) streaming continues to rise. While early OTT services rolled out with traditional, cable-like infrastructures, the industry has quickly seen the benefit of providing services using cloud architectures including automation.

As this transition to cloud-based infrastructure gains speed, providers need new tools and solutions to effectively deliver content. Success is marked in this space by the ability to monitor the quality of content, gather insight into potential faults and receive the correct information necessary to remedy any problems.

“When customers can easily change providers, the quality of video experience provided becomes critical to the brand,” said Dan Murray, product manager at Tektronix. “New Sentry CX serverless probes is an industry-first cloud-native monitoring solution for live streaming, and Aurora file QC on AWS Marketplace, provides operators with scalable on-demand quality assurance probes designed for automated workflows.”

Tektronix’ Aurora and Sentry CX products offer cloud-native solutions on Amazon Web Services (AWS) that brings increased monitoring efficiencies and automation options for quality control. The result is an improved OTT service monitoring platform that works seamlessly with cloud workflows. Both Aurora and Sentry CX cloud-native probes will be made available through the AWS Marketplace.

Aurora — Automated QC for a File-Based Video Workflow in AWS

Aurora is the scalable, file-based QC system that saves media providers time and money by driving efficiency, quality, and cost savings in their workflows. Starting with Aurora version 7.0, it will be available on AWS Marketplace as an application image with on-demand and reserved instance pricing options. Aurora instances can be programmatically spun-up when new QC jobs are required, either automatically testing new files being delivered to S3 buckets, or when requested using Aurora’s powerful API.  Utilizing the AWS infrastructure means that operators do not need to provision their own data centers for peak demand; they can scale up or down as required, only paying for actual resource usage.

Sentry Live Stream Monitoring Solution

Sentry is the software-based quality monitoring solution deployed worldwide by cable, broadcast and OTT streaming service providers in a variety of operational, engineering and business environments.

New Sentry CX cloud-native probes are ideal for automated OTT service monitoring. They leverage AWS Cloudformation template, AWS API Gateway, Lambda and Container services for on-demand flexibility and scalability across the global AWS footprint. Operators automating cloud video workflows can now include quality monitoring in their formation templates.

OTT streaming providers use Sentry on the cloud to ensure the quality of the stream, gain visibility into the workflow, and access diagnostics that assist with fault isolation and remedy. The system allows operators to monitor incoming streams and CDN to assure service availability, alignment, and performance. Automated alerting enables operators to increase efficiency and quickly switch to redundant streams.

With a robust offering of cloud-based video and audio analysis tools — and now with HDR capabilities — Sentry provides a picture quality rating on multiple live video streams concurrently, which correlates directly to how viewers would rate the quality of the content. Scores can be viewed through graphical displays or extracted using an API along with reasons for not achieving a perfect score. This removes the guesswork from diagnostics and enables quick and effective corrective action.

Tektronix will showcase its entire suite of cloud-native monitoring solutions at NAB 2019, including Aurora and Sentry solutions.