coverstory1012_cover story 10/12/2015 18:22 Page 4
cloud-based workflows.
Torque: Yes, and no. T&M
must follow the signal. If the
signals are in the cloud, so
must be the systems which
monitor them. But television
monitoring in particular has
always been about ‘end-toend’ monitoring, where signal
integrity must be monitored at
multiple way-points along the
transmission chain. Our
viewers don’t live in the cloud, so
monitoring cannot possibly be constrained
to it.
Triveni: Yes, some T&M functionalities
can be moved to the cloud, especially for
file-based quality of experience (QoE)
analysis. However, moving all T&M
capabilities to the cloud isn’t truly realistic.
Operators will still need access to a physical
interface in the field and transmission
infrastructure in order to monitor broadcasts
in real-time.
VeEX: Yes, and no. T&M has already moved
to the cloud for various pieces of it.
However, T&M often needs to be as close to
the customer as possible, to monitor each
and every one of its users, guaranteeing
them satisfaction and high QoE.
Euromedia: What are the new challenges
for IP distribution for unmanaged devices at
no extra cost, but the same customer
“T&M devices need to be
upgradeable to new
distribution methods to
protect investments.”
expectation?
Bridge: We don’t think there is a huge
difference. It’s exactly the same paradigm.
The challenge is not in the monitoring and
testing – it’s in the network architecture and
the way you deploy the service; the
monitoring part is more or less the same.
Rohde & Schwarz: The challenge is to
ensure a high QoS to protect customer
loyalty and avoid their migration to
competitors. This can only be achieved by
using extensive monitoring & T&M. To
enable this without any or small additional
revenue, operational monitoring workflows
for unmanaged IP
distribution needs to be
streamlined and unified with
existing workflows to keep
OPEX as low as possible.
Furthermore, T&M devices
need to be upgradeable to
new distribution methods to
protect investments.
S3: Customers increasingly
want to access video on
unmanaged COAM
(customer owned and maintained) devices.
After a number of years where delivery to
unmanaged devices was considered a bolt-on
service, to be delivered and maintained at
the lowest possible cost, operators are now
starting to see it as a core delivery platform
for their digital native generation of users.
As a result, we are now starting to see
operators investing in T&M teams to ensure
QoE across devices that they have not
historically controlled. It’s simply part of
doing business in a multiscreen world in
which operators want consumers to turn to
them for their premium video needs.
Tektronix: Probably the biggest issue with
IP distribution to unmanaged devices is the
performance of in-home networks.
Torque: Operators are offered no additional
revenue for providing service to unmanaged
devices, yet, they are burdened with the
responsibility and expectations of service
Connected living trends spark
demand for IoT testing
As the trend towards
connected living and the
Internet of Things (IoT)
continues to permeate
home, work and city
solutions, the need to keep
tabs on a myriad of
connected devices will
thrust the global IoT
testing and monitoring
equipment market into the
spotlight. The
incorporation of machineto-machine (M2M)
communication – central to
IoT deployment – as well
as modules that require
less power and bandwidth
will bring with it several
challenges that turn into a
boon for testing and
20 EUROMEDIA
monitoring vendors.
Analysis from Frost &
Sullivan finds that the
market earned revenues of
$346.9 million in 2014 and
estimates this to reach
$900.1 million in 2021.
“As the escalating
number of connected
devices adds breadth to the
IoT concept, solutions that
can proactively monitor, test
and zero in on anomalies in
the infrastructure will garner
a su