OTT StreamWatch, Remote Video Monitoring, and Version 9.0 of the Actus Intelligent Monitoring Platform Make BCA Debut; Benefits of Enhancements Reach Broader Range of Customers

 BOSTON, MA — May 25, 2023 — Actus Digital, the premier solutions provider for compliance logging and Intelligent broadcast and OTT monitoring, will introduce two new products along with significant improvements to the latest version of its AI-based Intelligent Monitoring Platform at the BCA convention. An exhibitor since 2007 with a large customer and partnership base, and an Asian office, BCA is a key tradeshow on the Actus calendar.

“We’re committed to providing top-level support to our customers and partners in Asia,” said Sima Levy, CEO of Actus Digital. “Our significant user base in the region allows us to tailor our solutions to the specific requirements and workflows of this market. We’re proud of the relationships we’ve established and are the only compliance logging vendor exhibiting at BCA. Our office in Asia provides pre-and post-sales support, allowing us to perform better and faster service to our Asian customers. We work closely with our customers and enhance our solution with their specific needs and ideas in mind.”

Among the biggest news at BCA is our new OTT Monitoring, OTT StreamWatch – a game changer for OTT quality assurance. In addition to 24/7 quality assurance, it provides compliance logging, OTT stream monitoring, and aircheck recording of native HLS and other OTT ABR streams. It can be deployed as a stand-alone solution or as part of the Actus Intelligent Monitoring Platform – providing customers with a central interface. OTT StreamWatch is the first product that makes it economically feasible to monitor FAST, IPTV, and OTT streaming channels throughout the entire workflow. It is a cost-effective option for OTT content owners, streaming companies, and service providers of all sizes.

“OTT StreamWatch combines features that have never been in a solitary product before,” said Sima Levy, CEO of Actus Digital. “It enables aircheck recording of native HLS and other OTT ABR (Adaptive Bitrate) streams. It clearly displays QoS information so users can easily evaluate bandwidth usage, streaming media download times, missing SCTE, and buffering issues within OTT streams. And it summarizes data so operators can recognize and address potential issues before they impact viewer quality. It does all this at a price well below what the combination of products required would cost for those same functions.”

Another new product on display at BCA will be Remote Video Monitoring (RVM) within the Actus Intelligent Monitoring Platform. Designed as a quality assurance solution for multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs), the Actus RVM allows MVPDs to gain real-time insights into their viewers’ quality of service (QoS) and verify local ad insertion and timing. It enables MVPDs to remotely connect to STBs at head ends and hub sites to examine one channel at a time or the entire channel lineup via multiviewer monitoring and proactive QoS alerts. When Actus RVM is deployed at multiple probe points and/or in multiple locations, it shows how widespread an issue is and pinpoints the exact location it entered the video distribution workflow. This allows operators to rapidly identify, diagnose, and resolve QoS problems without costly truck rolls.

Also included within the new Version 9.0 of the Actus compliance logging and Intelligent Monitoring Platform are more AI-enabled options, such as speech-to-text and translation to any language. This is particularly beneficial for news monitoring purposes, allowing searches for specific keywords and quick and accurate audio and video analysis. Moreover, Actus will present improvements to its compliance logging, advanced editing and clipping workflow for social/OTT, browser-based multiviewer, automatic ad detection, and more.

The additions and improvements to the Actus portfolio benefit a broad range of users: broadcasters, OTT providers, cable, satellite, and playout operators, government, and news agencies.

Current applications of the latest Actus technology in the Asia Pacific region, as some examples, include broadcast playout provider, MediaHub Australia, and broadcast media conglomerate MediaCorp in Singapore. MediaHub utilizes the Actus monitoring platform as part of a mux-based DTT broadcast headend, recording 18 proxy channels for 132 services. And MediaCorp is currently using the Actus platform for both compliance logging and clipping for its OTT streaming service.

To meet with Actus in person during the show or to schedule an online demonstration, visit https://actusdigital.com/events/tradeshows/  For more information about Actus Digital’s products, visit https://actusdigital.com.

With OTT StreamWatch, Engineers can Monitor the Quality of Linear OTT Streams
at One or Many Stages in the Delivery Workflow 

BOSTON, MA — April 11, 2023 — At the 2023 NAB show, Actus Digital will introduce OTT StreamWatch, its new SaaS/on-prem product that provides 24/7 quality assurance, compliance logging, OTT stream monitoring, and aircheck recording of native HLS and other OTT ABR (Adaptive Bitrate) streams. It is the first product that makes it economically feasible to monitor FAST, IPTV and OTT streaming channels throughout the entire workflow.

Actus OTT StreamWatch analyzes OTT content at the manifest level, at the encryption level, and at the HTTP level. It displays QoS information clearly so users can evaluate bandwidth usage, streaming media download times, and buffering issues within OTT streams. It also summarizes the data so operators can recognize and address potential issues before they impact viewer quality.

Live OTT video streams can be displayed on multiviewers (of one or many workflow probe-points) highlighting affected renditions/probe-points as issues occur. Email/SMS/SNMP and other notifications can be sent when alert parameters are violated for QoE issues, including missing/frozen video, audio too low/too high/missing, missing captions/subtitles. Log entries are made and notifications can be sent to alert engineers to QoS issues also, including errors with Media HTTP, Media Decryption, Manifest HTTP, Manifest Parsing, SCTE Parsing, and Missing SCTE.

“OTT StreamWatch will disrupt the OTT Quality Assurance market,” said Ken Rubin, Actus Digital Senior Vice President. “It addresses OTT quality issues that lead to viewer churn and loss of revenue with a unique combination of features and benefits that have never been combined within one product before – at a price well below what the combined products would cost to deliver similar benefits.”

SVP Rubin continued, “The market needed a comprehensive OTT quality assurance solution that is affordable to OTT content owners, streaming companies, and service providers of all sizes. We’ve taken the feedback from our customers and incorporated their requests into the design of OTT StreamWatch.”

Key Features

• Supports native-HLS, MPEG DASH, CMAF
• Intuitive GUI handles hundreds of OTT channels or probe-points
• Unlimited, easily-customizable multiviewers for visibility of live streams
• Define and manage parameters for QoE and QoS alert notifications
• Single dashboard for identification of QoE, QoS, SCTE, and other issues
• Zoom from all daily HLS network activity to individual HTTP/network requests
• Reports with comprehensive insights and link to video recordings from any timecode
• Integrates with traditional broadcast formats to combine OTT with OTA on one platform
• Advanced clipping for collaboration, compliance, and repurposing

OTT StreamWatch can be purchased as a turnkey system with perpetual software licenses or as a SaaS solution on AWS, any public cloud, or a customer’s Virtual Machine infrastructure/private cloud.

Adding OTT StreamWatch to a new or existing Actus Intelligent Monitoring Platform installation, provides one interface for both professional Transport Stream OTA Quality Assurance (QA) and compliance as well as HLS and other formats of OTT QA and compliance.

Actus OTT StreamWatch has been named a finalist to receive a 2023 IABM BaM Award® and has been nominated for NAB 2023 Product of the Year.

Actus will demonstrate OTT StreamWatch at the 2023 NAB Show in Las Vegas in the West Hall, booth W-1767.

To meet with Actus in person during the show, to schedule an online demonstration, or for more information about Actus Digital’s products visit https://actusdigital.com/events/tradeshows/.

New Actus OTT StreamWatch Adds Advanced Streaming Quality-Assurance to Award-Winning Actus Intelligent Monitoring Platform – for both SaaS and On-Prem Applications

BOSTON, MA — March 14, 2023 — Actus Digital, the premier solutions provider for Quality Assurance (QA) alerting, compliance logging, multiviewer monitoring, broadcast analysis, and asset repurposing, will unveil its latest solutions for TV, radio and MVPD (multichannel video programming distributors) at the 2023 NAB Show. Actus v.9.0 expanded offerings address the needs of traditional broadcasters and MVPDs, and the new OTT StreamWatch, extends benefits to those creating and distributing OTT FAST/IPTV streaming channels.

New OTT StreamWatch
Available via SaaS and on-premises solutions, OTT StreamWatch provides 24×7 OTT stream monitoring and recording of native HLS streams. It makes it easy for engineers to monitor and maintain the quality of linear FAST/IPTV channels through the workflow – from encoding through delivery.  OTT StreamWatch– handles a range of resolutions and speeds returning from various CDNs across unmanaged networks.

Live OTT video streams can be displayed on multiviewers at various probe-points in their workflow and combined with traditional TV station/broadcast content. This approach highlights affected probe-points as issues occur, demonstrating how widespread those issues are, and immediately identifying where they began so engineers can quickly remedy them.

In addition to the issues being identified on the multiviewer, the Actus platform sends real-time alerts on critical audio-video Quality-of-Experience issues like missing/frozen content, and compliance violations such as Loudness and missing closed captions/subtitles.

With the addition of OTT StreamWatch to a traditional Actus Intelligent Monitoring Platform, detailed OTT Quality-of-Service (QoS) information is added to transport stream analysis. The same professional OTA Quality Assurance (QA) and compliance from the Actus monitoring platform is extended to OTT QA. Among other OTT QA analysis, OTT StreamWatch evaluates bandwidth usage, streaming media download times, and buffering issues for each rendition included within an HLS stream. It also includes SCTE insertion information, ensuring digital ads are played accurately and indicating when QoE/QoS issues occurred while commercials were playing.

The Actus platform provides a single interface that is intuitive and searchable for content based on channel/date/time, issues, closed captions, advertiser, program names and more. Taking advantage of the content and metadata captured within the Actus platform, optional AI-based workflows make it easy to create and edit clips together, manually or using automation for effortless creation and monetization of VoD content and publishing to social media to optimize viewer engagement.

 Version 9.0 Enhancements to Digital Monitoring Platform

 Version 9.0 of the Actus Digital Intelligent Monitoring Platform adds significant enhancements. Among these are support for additional standards which now include ingest of every popular format, including ATSC 3.0, SMPTE 2110/2022-6/7, and most streaming standards.

Specific improvements were also achieved in the Actus Remote Video Monitoring (RVM) tools for MVPD engineering and operations, and in Actus AdWatch that makes it easier for TV station sales teams to produce AI-generated Zero-Run and Delta-Report lead lists.

“While many customers deploy Actus systems solely for locally ingested or OTT streaming content, those that are responsible for delivering content for both OTA and OTT can deploy a hybrid approach on Actus Digital’s traditional Intelligent Monitoring Platform using OTT StreamWatch for multiviewer monitoring, compliance logging, QA alerting, and many other use cases and advanced workflows,” said Ken Rubin, Actus Digital Senior Vice President. “For companies that deliver only FAST/IPTV channels, as well as those starting to include OTT, Actus is proud to offer SaaS, on-premises, and hybrid solutions for professional media monitoring and quality assurance.”

 Actus will demonstrate its new OTT StreamWatch and version 9.0 of its Intelligent Monitoring Platform including Clip Factory Pro, AdWatch, and RVM (Remote Video Monitoring), in Booth W-1767 at the 2023 NAB Show, running April 15-19 in Las Vegas.

To meet with Actus in person during the show or to schedule an online demonstration, visit https://actusdigital.com/events/tradeshows/. For more information about Actus Digital’s products, visit https://actusdigital.com.

About Actus Digital (www.actusdigital.com)

 Actus Digital is the world’s leading supplier of compliance logging and intelligent QA monitoring solutions addressing many requirements for media companies and business enterprises. Since 2005, over 700 customers have deployed the Actus solution to help them affordably improve quality, comply with regulations, and automate the analysis and repurposing of content.  
 
The Actus Digital on-prem platform or SaaS subscription allow its users to address needs for both traditional linear broadcast television and OTT/FAST/IPTV channels as it reliably records content 24×7 from any combination of a variety of inputs, including: baseband (SDI, HDMI, etc.), transport stream (ATSC-1 and ATSC-3 via antenna, IP, ASI, and QAM), IP (including SMPTE 2110), and streaming (HLS, MPEG-DASH, RTMP/RTSP, etc.).

Offering the most comprehensive yet affordable set of tools in the market, the core Actus license provide unlimited simultaneous users with browser-based multiviewers with aircheck recording and compliance logging (for things such as missing closed captions/DVB subtitles and loudness violations), QoE quality assurance alerting, and deeper inspection of things like SCTE 35/104, NAVE, TS Analysis, HLS QoS, and much more. Other advanced features are offered, including graphical display of ratings data next to video for competitive news analysis, integrated playlist to as-run log discrepancy reporting, advanced clips creation for content repurposing and social media, and AI-enabled content detection and speech-to-text.

Actus Digital headquarters is in the US with superior 24×7 support provided from four support offices, including in the US, Europe, UAE, and Asia.

By NewsCheckStudio Staff | March 6, 2023 | 5:00 a.m. ET.

Over-The-Top (OTT) content delivery significantly impacts the way broadcasters distribute live linear content and ensuring the quality and compliance of that OTT delivery is essential for them to protect their brand, maintain their reputation, and stay ahead of the curve in the rapidly changing media landscape. 

To ensure the quality of their streaming services without investing in additional OTT-only monitoring tools, successful broadcasters and streaming media providers are adding OTT Quality Assurance (QA) monitoring to their existing compliance logging workflow.

Broadcast engineers beginning to distribute OTT had no way to know about the quality of the video streams received by their OTT viewers unless they received complaints and they’d have to wait for their Content Delivery Networks (CDN) to provide statistics before they could ensure service level agreements had been met.

Typically, OTT streams follow several distribution paths and stream multiple renditions  (consisting of several resolutions and bitrates) to multiple CDNs and content owners have minimal insight into the viewers’ quality of experience.

The Weather Channel (and dozens of others) have combined OTA and OTT Quality Assurance and Compliance Monitoring on the same Actus Platform for years.

Comprehensive One-Stop Platform Now Includes OTT

Actus Digital’s solution brings the entire monitoring process from both OTA and OTT, into a single user interface where engineers can see all related data from encoding to distribution, with simplicity and clarity.

The platform monitors traditional OTA broadcast returns alongside OTT streams at multiple probe-points. The one-stop interface displays the overall status for each OTT stream, SCTE information, stream-quality as advertisements were streamed, and overall Quality-of-Service (QoS) statistics, including transport, download, and playback speed.

The recently enhanced Actus OTT tools monitor native HLS streams at all key places within the delivery workflow, including the media source, encoders, decoders, and return streams from CDNs at one or several geographic locations.

Operators monitor the technical performance and can see the HLS streams live from the dashboard and receive alerts of problems that genuinely impact the viewers’ experience, without overloading them with issues that have not affected viewer quality.

Through a rich dashboard, operators can watch in real-time as Actus inspects and provides data about HLS delivery at the HTTP level, the manifest level, and the content level, including all renditions in Adaptive Bit Rate streams.

Not only is the analysis and data available for review, but because Actus records the native HLS streams, the content from any time can be played back to inspect and verify the quality of any and all renditions, from any probe-point.

The Actus platform includes a comprehensive set of tools including customizable multiviewers, transport stream analysis, SCTE analysis (for DAI trouble shooting), loudness (for CALM Act Compliance), and more.

Broadcast Compliance, Quality Assurance, and Multiviewer Monitoring

These OTT monitoring benefits are added to Actus Digital’s comprehensive features for quality alerting, compliance logging, multiviewer, and aircheck recording. They enable engineers to easily perform their jobs better by using the same platform for all formats, including not just OTA and OTT but also baseband (SDI, HDMI, etc.) and Transport Streams from IP, ASI, 2110, etc.

Compliance logging and monitoring is a must-have solution in most parts of the world and keeps evolving because of new regulatory requirements, and new video protocols, formats, and metadata standards.

Customers expect their compliance logging solution to stay current with regulatory requirements and alert them when they are in violation of those requirements. This includes recording and archiving all aired content so they can clip and send proof of airing for things such as EAS (Emergency Alert System) messages and reply to inquiries about missing closed caption/subtitles/teletext or violations of loudness regulations.

Beyond compliance logging, these solutions are not whole without the ability to provide quality assurance monitoring and deeper analysis of things like SCTE, NAVE, and multiple audio languages. Multiviewers are another vital component of a complete Compliance Logging and QA Monitoring solution, providing a comprehensive view of all content in real-time.

Most-Advanced and Easy-to-Use Multiviewers in the Market

Some of the key advantages of the Actus Digital multiviewer are that it is very low latency, extremely user-friendly, and accessible from any web browser.

It is fully customizable, allowing users to tailor the display to meet their specific needs, viewing only the streams relevant to optimize their viewing experience. The Actus multiviewer is so popular because it leads in flexibility and value enabling any number of multiviewer views to be created with unlimited simultaneous users selecting them to display wherever they are needed.