Euromedia November December | Page 20

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