On The NAB Exhibit Floor: Tektronix

Tektronix | Booth SU5006 | TEK.COM

Tektronix will showcase innovative solutions that ensure content quality, signal integrity, and regulatory compliance as the transition to next generation networks, workflows, and delivery mechanisms accelerates. Visit the Tektronix booth at SU5006 to see the latest advances in:

Hybrid IP and SDI media analysis solutions — Tektronix PRISM offers broadcast engineers and IT professionals connectivity, monitoring and analysis for ST 2110 (-20 (video), -30 (audio) and -40 (metadata)), ST 2022-6 and ST 2022-7. With a broad range of measurements and trend graphs and session displays, PRISM gives engineers visibility into network or content issues including intermittent loss of video, audio, or data content. In addition to the new ST 2110 capability, Tektronix has extended its Precision Time Protocol (PTP) timing analysis to include ST2022-7 timing for system setup and maintenance. PRISM can perform IP and SDI (12G/3G/HD/SD) measurements and offers simple ways to switch between either type of input.

A fundamental requirement of a hybrid IP and SDI infrastructure is the ability to synchronize the facility in a mixed packet and frame-accurate environment. Tektronix SPG8000A master sync and PTP grandmaster clock generator offers PTP support for such a hybrid IP and SDI media infrastructure. Using the SPG8000A with the Tektronix ECO8000 series of change over units enables designers to build highly reliable timing solutions for both IP and SDI networks.

4K/UHD with HDR video monitoring solutions —  The new generation of media providers and traditional broadcasters are vying to monetize and provide differentiated services in an increasingly competitive consumer market. 4K/Ultra High Definition (UHD), High Dynamic Range (HDR) content and the use of Wide Color Gamut (WCG) are technologies that are all being brought to this battle.

Tektronix offers a range of solutions to enable content providers to capture and produce stunning content that makes use of these technologies. The PRISM platform enables shaders and operators to setup cameras for Live HDR using a proprietary STOP waveform and automated conversion support for a wide selection of camera log curves adopted by various camera manufacturers including S-Log, S-Log 2, S-Log 3, C-Log and Log-C. The platform also supports both SMPTE ST 2084 standard and Hybrid Log Gamma (HLG) as per the ARIB ST B-67 standard. In post production, colorists and editors can easily master their content to different standards and across different color spaces such as REC 709, ST 2020 using familiar Tektronix measurement tools regardless of content type.

To protect the investment customers have already made in Tektronix products, graticules specifically designed for set up of 18% grey (20NITS) and 90% reflective white (100NITS) for easy adjustments to correct grey and white points in HDR applications have been added to both the WFM8000 series and WFM5200 series waveform monitors. The WFM8000 series offers support for 4K and the use of WCG. The WFM5200 addresses the needs of those working with HD-HDR. Both products support a wide range of camera log curves and HDR gammas.

These HDR capabilities can easily be added to existing WFM/WVR8000 and WFM5200 series products with the purchase of Option PROD (a field upgradeable software-only option). Customers with valid software option key license for PROD can upgrade their instruments free-of-charge with the new firmware that can be downloaded from tek.com/downloads.

Quality assurance in a virtual or cloud environment — Tektronix Aurora file-based QC tools and Sentry monitoring tools now provide the visibility and control needed by content providers in virtual and cloud environments. Sentry is the scalable monitoring solution that can measure the Quality of Experience (QoE) experienced by viewers. These measurements look at the actual content being provided to ensure there are no major quality issues (blocking, audio drop out, frozen frames) and that the content meets regulatory compliance requirements (SCTE35 Type testing, Closed Caption and Loudness testing). With Digital Rights Management (DRM) support, Sentry ABR can decrypt each program applying DRM and can view and report on the content seen by subscribers.

Aurora, which supports the latest IMF standards and has expanded AWS workflow compatibility and S3 storage support, can be set up to automatically perform a wide range of fundamental content quality tests including TekMOS picture quality, video analysis, and format compliance. TekMOS is a non-reference picture quality analysis algorithm that provides a Mean Opinion Score (MOS) that has a high correlation to how viewers would rate the quality of the content. Using graphical displays, TekMOS provides actionable reason codes for quality measurements enabling providers to take corrective action. EBP measurements will ensure that switches between streamed profiles will be seamless and not impact the viewers quality of experience.

Read all of TVNewsCheck‘s NAB 2018 news here.