Bridge adds over-the-top capability to probes

Bridge Technologies is adding over-the-top monitoring capabilities to its entire range of probes as part of the company’s comprehensive solution for OTT service providers, the company has said.

The new capabilities will allow operators of TV Everywhere and over-the-top services to monitor data quality and performance at all points in the delivery chain, from ingest onward, according to Bridge Technologies. In conjunction with the company’s new microAnalytics system that extends OTT monitoring right to the viewer’s device, the OTT-enabled Bridge Technologies probes allow monitoring and analysis of OTT streams at any point before the operator’s content delivery network (CDN), and at any point beyond it, according to the company.

Bridge Technologies’ active OTT technology is a key ingredient of the monitoring option for its digital media probes, allowing deployment anywhere in the delivery chain for accurate evaluation of OTT stream availability and delivery in that part of the chain, according to Bridge.

In a typical architecture, Bridge Technologies probes with OTT capabilities are located at the origin server to monitor stream quality and integrity prior to the CDN, and then at the exit point of the CDN, as well at the ISP and edge networks. For monitoring of the home network – the subscriber’s network of content-reception devices – the Bridge Technologies microAnalytics System can be deployed to integrate data gathered from the set-top box, connected TV, computers, and mobile devices into the operator’s centralised monitoring and analysis environment.

The new microAnalytics system allows operators to remotely access real-time data from set-top boxes, connected TVs, iPad, iPhone, and other mobile devices. The system is an extension of Bridge Technologies’ existing microVB miniaturised probe.