NAB 2009 April 20-23, 2009 : Booth SU8823
Volicon Observer® at the 2009 NAB Show
As the industry standard for video monitoring and logging, the Volicon Observer® captures, stores, and indexes broadcast content from multiple channels, offering users simultaneous, 24/7 access to video from their desktop computers. The Observer brings new levels of efficiency to critical broadcasting tasks including monitoring and troubleshooting transmissions, ensuring compliance, verifying advertising broadcasts, and tracking and analyzing viewer ratings and public relations information.
At the 2009 NAB Show, Volicon will introduce a number of new product extensions and partnerships designed to enhance the ways operators can access, repurpose, share, and troubleshoot different types of audio and video content.
Producer Module
Volicon will demonstrate its new Producer Module — an option for the Observer® that enables broadcasters to capture and repurpose content in a variety of industry formats for outside use. The Producer provides operators with an easy-to-use platform for browsing aired content that has been recorded by the Observer and searching for and retrieving the desired video segment down to the individual frame level. The Producer then transcodes the segment into one of several industry-standard formats and automatically provides the output to either DVD, Web/FTP site, or via e-mail to the third party. By making it much easier to locate small or obscure video segments quickly, the Producer opens the door for broadcasters to publish their content for a variety of uses, such as selling it to other news organizations or providing video clips to viewers who request them.
Reconciliation Report Module
Volicon is introducing its new Reconciliation Report Module, a comprehensive discrepancy reporting that reconciles data from various sources, such as as-run logs, traffic schedules, and operator sign on/off data. The Reconciliation Report Module is ideal for broadcasters who need to centralize and archive critical data and share information across different departments and facilities. The Reconciliation Report Module receives as-run data from the automation system and marries it with the original schedule provided by the traffic department to pinpoint discrepancies, such as commercials that did not air according to the original schedule. The Reconciliation Report Module can be set to provide automatic notifications to the sales department in the event of discrepancies, and it enables master control operators to annotate the reconciled log with a description of the error.
Closed Caption Monitoring and Logging
New with Version 5.0, the Observer® enables operators to obtain closed captions from CEA-708 video streams through the extraction of the closed-caption data, which can be easily exported using the system’s Content Export module. This feature is especially valuable for helping broadcasters comply with the FCC’s new Form 355, a quarterly report that each station must file to demonstrate its compliance with FCC programming rules including closed captioning. By providing a comprehensive log of all aired content, the Observer enables the station to easily search for and retrieve specific video segments in order to prove that they meet closed-captioning requirements.
Content Matching Module
Volicon will demonstrate its new content matching module, which enables operators to flag and access specific audio cues when they appear in a broadcast. The user supplies a prerecorded segment, which is stored on the server, and whenever the audio appears in a broadcast, the system issues a “content matched” alert with a link that gives the user immediate access to the video in which the segment occurred. The Content Matching Module has myriad uses for public information, government, and public relations professionals, such as the ability to track political campaigns, monitoring coverage of advertisements and infomercials, or confirm airing of public service announcements.
New Observer® Options
Optional modules for Observer® that promise to expand the system’s usefulness include a module that uses logo-recognition technology to automate commercial identification and tagging in streaming and archived video; integration with video archiving software to create a comprehensive monitoring and storage system that incorporates managed RAID as well as robotic LTO; and multilanguage speech-recognition technology to automate speech conversion to annotated text in real time.
Also at the 2009 NAB Show
Observer® 5.0
Driven by customer requirements, the Observer® 5.0 offers a range of new features designed to give operators greater flexibility and broader options in different content monitoring situations, including monitoring and recording of HD content. New HD features include support for Surround Sound Dolby® 5.1 and support of bit rates higher than 3.0 Mbps to enable improved monitoring of high-quality HD video.
Observer® RPM
The Observer® RPM (Remote Program Monitor) is Volicon’s solution for MSOs, independent cable operators, IPTV, and satellite operators who need to automatically evaluate the quality of their NOC/headend and remote hubsite broadcasts from a central location. The Observer RPM scans hundreds of channels around the clock and automatically tests signal integrity, issues alerts (via e-mail and SNMP), and captures the problematic content when channels do not conform to pre-specified limits.
Observer® QoE Module
With the new QoE quality-assurance/quality-of-experience module, 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.