coverstory1012_cover story 10/12/2015 18:22 Page 6
not want to be offering a 4K service without
this ability to know how far you can push
your systems before they break down.
Rohde & Schwarz: With the addition of 4K
to the OTT services, operators will face
potentially unpredictable new monitoring
requirements as a result of the higher
streaming standards in place, including
Apple HLS, Adobe HDS, Microsoft Smooth
Streaming, and MPEG-DASH. While 4K
video clearly impacts bandwidth
requirements, recent advancements in video
compression algorithms have resolved these
issues. Relying on the HEVC video
So change is a constant, and while service
providers may opt for one standard over
another pro tem, they have to retain the
ability to switch relatively easily if and when
it becomes advantageous to do so. From a
manufacturer’s point of view, we have to
enable them to do this, and that means
bandwidths. A flexible software based
platform mitigates risk for future expansion
or change of protocols, standards, resolutions
or measurements. A well designed software
T&M solution allows more automated and
faster fault finding techniques, reducing
overall OPEX, while remaining flexible
enough for future expansion, also protecting
CAPEX well into the future.
S3: There is no question that 4K distribution
in the home will put increasingly more
pressure on home gateway bandwidth.
Whereas core networks have large amounts
of fibre and consequently are better placed to
adapt to the growing bandwidth demands of
4K content, bandwidth in whole-home
environments is affected by the simultaneous
use of multiple devices within the home. As
such, we’re actively working with customers
compression standard, operators can provide
a much better video quality than SD or HD at
the same bit rate. Having said that, operators
need T&M equipment in place that can
monitor HEVC video, as HEVC is
significantly more complex than its
predecessor H.264. Operators should choose
a system that is flexible, offering support for
a wide range of video compression standards,
including MPEG-2, H.264, and HEVC.
Selecting a system that is softwareupgradeable is also important because it
allows operators to easily adapt to support
future video formats like 4K and 8K, as well
as advancements in video compression. In
addition, being able to analyse the buffer in
real time is critical in the 4K environment,
since this is often where issues such as
pixelisation may occur.
offering good support for all the standards
even if we think one or two of them are
moribund, and others are promising but not
yet widely adopted.
Tektronix: Many content providers use
multiple ABR standards, so yes, it is
necessary to support them. Having said
that, there are distinct similarities between
the multiple standards, which simplifies the
development process somewhat. As far as
DRM is concerned, that is an issue if you
want to look at the video and audio quality
post packager. In DVB systems, which do
not use DRM, but instead use conditional
access, it is typical to use a bulk de-crypter
in front of the monitoring device, which
then allows the monitoring of video and
audio in the clear.
Torque: No, we don’t think so. What
standards are
supported by
operators and T&M
vendors alike is
really dictated by opportunity. If no one is
using a particular standard, it is unlikely
any profit-driven organisation will invest in
supporting it, unless there is some clear and
positive future benefit.
Triveni: Choosing a video quality
assurance solution that supports multiple
standards is important for providing
superior QoS on all devices. Although this
can be a challenging prospect for operators,
since it increases complexity and costs, it’s
an imperative feature in today’s multiscreen
world.
VeEX: In a perfect world, yes and often as
T&M we are victims of dealing with the
global scene where not everyone is doing
the same thing. Here, if you want to be
successful you need the flexibility of
supporting most, if not all standards.
However, the core of monitoring is not on
the complexity of Streaming and DRM
standards, but on the metrics that can be
derived, proactively calculated and
measured to ensure proper bandwidth for
service delivery.
“What standards are supported is really dictated by opportunity.”
as they transition to 4K to ensure they have
T&M capabilities in place to manage
bandwidth constraints, not only in the
delivery process to the home but also within
it. This requires running T&M activities at
full 4K resolution with consumer devices to
accurately capture the end-user experience.
Tektronix: If HEVC/H.265 is used to
encode 4k/UHD, it will require about twice
the bandwidth of HD content encoded using
AVC/H.264. This makes it likely that
operators will attempt to use higher levels of
compression to keep bandwidth to a
minimum. If this is done, it is critical that the
content is monitored to ensure that excessive
compression artefacts such as blockiness,
softness and washed out images have not
been introduced by the encoding process.
Torque: It is really just more of the same.
The change from HD to 4K is pretty much
like the change from SD to HD: the
resolution went up a lot. However, the bitrate
stayed about the same given the efficiencies
of better encoding algorithms.
Triveni: Currently, there are multiple
VeEX: There is a myth here - that because
you have the best T&M gea