Compromised quality can erode margins through unnecessary support issues and defection of customers to other providers. Amidst an increasingly crowded stage of new video sources, new viewing devices and rapidly evolving network architectures, SSIMPLUS™ Live Monitor addresses the industry’s need for a unified end-to-end system that analyzes and informs optimization to viewer experience and delivery efficiency – regardless of the infrastructure and display.
Affecting the viewing experiences of tens of millions of North American subscribers
Built for scale, this software enables operators to simply and cost-effectively create a unified, end-to-end monitoring environment for Viewer Score, QoS and regulatory compliance.
Designed for digital by Emmy Award winning researchers, SSIMPLUS Live Monitor delivers viewer-first real-time monitoring of input and output video quality including audio at every stage of the delivery ecosystem. SSIMPLUS Live Monitor provides a clear view of any potential problems—including root causes, frequency and solutions—often before subscribers notice them.
End-to-end real-time monitoring and insights
SSIMPLUS Live Monitor is unique in that it addresses two traditional hurdles for comprehensive video Test and Measurement:
- A need for correlated real-time monitoring solutions for each function of the network through to playout
- A product that independently monitors and evaluates encoders and transcoders
SSIMPLUS Live Monitor uses computationally efficient software-based probes to monitor video and audio quality at all five points in the content ecosystem, including: Source; Encoding and Demux Output; Aggregator Output; Delivery Across the Demarcation Point; and Playout by End-User Devices. Importantly, SSIMPLUS Live Monitor is alone in offering the industry’s first real-time independent monitoring of encoders, allowing operators to secure the weakest link in the current ecosystem.
Operational benefits
SSIMPLUS Live Monitor is operationally designed to answer key questions that impact the video experience, notably:
- What is the service and stream level infrastructure performance from a viewer experience and regulatory conformance status?
- Where did the degradation happen?
- When did the degradation happen and how frequently?
- Why did the degradation happen?
- How to fix the issue?
Business benefits
- Single-solution for both Live (linear), VOD (on-demand) and Ad workflows;
- Viewer score simplicity for entire linear channel lineups and title libraries;
Accurately measure infrastructure performance against subscriber expectations - Benchmark and objective set SLAs for encoders, transcoder, packager, CDN and player vendors
- Comply with regulatory standards including closed captioning and audio loudness
- Redirect staffing resources currently devoted to monitoring operations;
- Reduce the total number of vendors required for a comprehensive correlated solution; and
- Subscription-friendly solution provides flexibility between OPEX:CAPEX spending.
Single-pane dig deep dashboards
Complex algorithms and big data meaningfully presented for executives to make critical business decisions and engineers to identify and fix quality problems.
Bring the accuracy of 100,000 human views to every stage of the video workflow
A scalable metric is required across all aspects. Existing video quality metrics do not account for impact of transformations on perceptual video quality.
| SSIMPLUS™ Live Monitor | VMAF – based | SSIM – based | PSNR – based | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Across content types | Yes. One score across all types of content | partial | No | No |
| Across resolutions | Yes | No | No | No |
| Across frame-rates | Yes | No | No | No |
| Across dynamic ranges | Yes | No | No | No |
| Across bitrate to linear quality scale | Yes | Not linear | Not linear | Not linear |
| Across encoder standards | Yes | No | Image based | Image based |
| Across playback devices | Yes. One score across all devices. | No | No | No |
| Against subjective viewers | >100,000 actual human views | No | No | No |
| Sample duration | Continuous Live & VOD; Faster than real-time. | VOD only | Sample | Continuous |
| Deployment solution | Software platform | Algorithm | Hardware/Software | Hardware |
Technical Specifications
System requirements
SSIMPLUS Live Monitor is a software based solution that deploys on commercial off-the-shelf hardware. Run a single instance on a single server or scale to multiple instances on a cluster.
- Bare-metal (Redhat, CentOS)
- Virtual machines (VirtualBox and VMWare)
- Database redundancy
- Geo-diverse deployment
- Hierarchical aggregation
- Built for All IP Video workflows and bridging from Legacy workflows
Supported formats
| Content delivery | Uncompressed: SDI, SDI over IP MP2TS: IP/UDP/MCAST ABR: HLS, DASH-IF, DASH-CIF HDMI 1.4a: HDCP 1.4 Enabled |
| Video codecs | H.264/AVC/AVC-Intra/XAVC, H.265/HEVC, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4. |
| Audio codecs | PCM Audio (WAV/AES/BWF), AAC, HE-AAC, Dolby Digital (AC-3), Dolby Digital Plus (EAC-3), MPEG-2 (L1,2,3), MPEG-1 and IEC61937 (AC-3). |
| Captions and Subtitles | CEA-608/CEA-708 in Line 21 video. |
| Ad-insertion | SCTE35 Type 5, SCTE35 Type 6. |
| Container Wrappers | M2V, M4V, MKV, MOV, MP4, MPEG, MPG. |
| Display Device Adaptive Video QOE Monitoring | TV, Tablet, Phone, Monitor, Laptop. |
Supported video, audio and compliance metrics
| Video | Single-ended source QoE Full-reference encoder/transcoder QoE Degraded-reference output QoE Quality of Delivery (QoD) Errored seconds Format checks Container checks |
| Audio | Quality-of-Delivery (QoD) True Peak Loudness measurement Integrated Loudness measurement Short term measurement Momentary loudness measurement Format checks Container checks |
| Closed Captions | QoE QoD Timing checks Text checks Format checks Container checks |
| Ad insertion | Timing information QoE transitions Loudness transitions |
Actionable dashboards
| Organizational levels | Network & Region level Market level Service & Stream level |
| Reporting | Market level reporting Service level reporting |
| Settings & Configuration | Global settings Alert template configuration Server manager Support portal Help portal |
Get Live Monitor working for you
Download the product sheet, request a trial or talk to a representative.
