Apr 01, 2008

Volicon Releases Industry’s First Automatic Macroblocking Detector

New QoE Module Automatically Detects Macroblocking and Other Video Anomalies to Help Networks and TV Operators Monitor Quality of Experience

Volicon today announced the availability of the Observer® QoE, a new quality assurance / quality of experience module for Volicon’s industry-leading Observer monitoring and logging system for broadcasting and media analysis. With the QoE, the Observer is the industry’s first video monitoring solution of its kind to provide an automated method for analyzing a video image to detect macroblocking, a process that traditionally has required human intervention to spot the on-screen anomalies.

The Observer QoE was developed in cooperation with several major U.S. cable operators to quickly and reliably detect macroblocking, commonly known as “pixelization.” This undesirable phenomenon in digital video systems typically results from overcompression of images or from bit errors introduced into the MPEG stream. Image degradation due to macroblocking appears as either individual tiny blocks or as a rectangular texture on the screen. While traditional stream analyzers can detect bit errors, they are not able to detect image degradation due to overcompression, usually caused by a statistical multiplexer.

“Until now, cable operators and TV stations had to manually flip through the channel lineup to visually spot and correct macroblocking, a time-consuming and costly effort,” said Julius Perl, vice president of marketing at Volicon. “The Observer QoE gives operators a valuable tool for maintaining quality of service and quality of experience for the consumer.”

The Observer QoE employs advanced patent-pending technology, developed by Volicon engineers, to analyze video content and alert the operator whenever macroblocks are detected. In addition, the Observer QoE notifies the operator when it detects other transmission faults including black video, frozen image, or low audio.

The QoE module is currently available to Volicon Observer and Observer RPM products, which enable TV stations, MSOs, independent cable operators, IPTV suppliers, and satellite providers to automatically evaluate the quality of their broadcasts from a central location. In addition, the Observer can record content for later review, facilitating diagnostics by enabling technicians to carefully observe an intermittently faulty channel.

Events

Events
HDWorld Booth 1157 October 15-16 2008

Volicon’s Observer HD is the industry’s premier High Definition content monitoring solution for Broadcasters.

Observer …

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Awards

awards
Volicon Observer wins TV Technology STAR Award @ IBC 2006

Volicon, a leading provider of advanced solutions for monitoring broadcasts, logging, archiving, and streaming of digital video, …

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About Volicon

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About Volicon

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Volicon is the leading supplier of broadcast monitoring systems used by broadcasters and cable …

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