TV Everywhere services are more popular now than ever and that popularity isn’t slowing. According to recent research from Adobe, TV Everywhere viewing has increased by 246 percent over last year and 157 percent in the first quarter of 2014 alone– and that doesn’t include live streaming of the Sochi Olympic Games. Not too surprising, sports programs are a driving force for the increase of TV Everywhere services.
The popularity of multiscreen TV Everywhere services is blessing for video service providers (VSP) as they strive to deliver new services a. However, making the TV Everywhere experience happen effortlessly for the viewer is a complex technical effort, requiring multiple steps which, if not performed correctly, can ruin the viewing experience. With one in five households watching multiscreen services, ensuring TV Everywhere services are delivered with the most pristine quality is important. This has caused products that monitor the quality of TV Everywhere content, like Sentry ABR, to become not only more prevalent, but necessary.
Due to this growing trend, we developed a product that would meet the industry’s needs: Sentry ABR. The product was recently recognized in the 2014 Cable Spotlight Award for the Product of the Year for its contribution to the advancement of cable technology solutions.
With Sentry ABR, we offer VSPs a comprehensive “source-to-edge” solution portfolio for ensuring the quality of linear broadcast services, digital ad insertion and adaptive bit rate (ABR)-based multiscreen services. This portfolio, comprised of Sentry ABR and other members of the Sentry line of digital video quality monitors, allows VSPs to closely monitor every critical step in all their services, including the entire ABR process – from ingest and transcoding to asset verification – to ensure quality service delivery.
The Sentry family has been proven in deployments with nine of the 10 largest U.S. cable operators and four of Canada’s five largest operators. Our company extended the Sentry family to include Sentry ABR to continue to meet the demands and rising challenges service providers actually face ensuring the content they are delivering. It’s this combination of features, performance and capabilities that make Sentry ABR and the rest of our comprehensive solutions unique in the industry.