NAB 2013: Harris Broadcast To Demo Test and Measurement Enhancements

Harris Broadcast comes to the NAB 2013 Show with several new Videotek test and measurement products and enhancements.  Notably, the company will inject loudness monitoring and enhanced multi-image display capabilities into its MSA Series of multi-source analysis software products, enabling more test and measurement functionality in the compressed domain.

Harris Broadcast offers its MSA Series for full testing of compressed video conformance, audio levels and data services of over-the-air broadcast, cable, satellite and IPTV signals.  Its multi-source capability means that engineers can analyze many transport streams at once, including IP, RF and ASI encoded video signals.

At the NAB 2013 Show, the company will demonstrate how engineers can simultaneously test and monitor multiple transport streams in various display configurations.  For example, users can monitor the four most critical signals in quad-split configurations while “shadow testing” other signals in the background — with the ability to quickly bring different signals to the forefront.

ATSC broadcasters and cable/satellite operators further benefit from the ability to measure, monitor and log audio levels for multiple program streams — a timely enhancement with the FCC passage of the CALM Act to reduce loudness in TV advertising.  Internationally, new MSA Series capabilities allow DVB-T2 broadcasters to demodulate program-related descriptors and metadata in transmission headends, giving users a more complete picture of content going to air.

“Broadcast and media facilities today require full testing and quality assurance of their transport streams, without being limited to one stream at a time,” said David Guerrero, vice president and general manager, Videotek test and measurement solutions, Harris Broadcast. “This ensures they can monitor many over-the-air channels, web streams and other video, audio and data signals without hindrance or exception.”

Reference and Legalizer Products
Harris Broadcast will introduce two new Videotek products at the show. This includes the VSG-4TSG test signal generator, ideal for confirming video and audio integrity through 3G/HD/SD/composite test generation; and the DL-870 video legalizer to evaluate and correct 3G/HD/SD signal formats.  The DL-870 helps broadcast, post and production operators confirm how color space, bit rates and other characteristics compare across various formats — and what adjustments must be made to “legalize” a signal for use in multiple formats.

The VSG-4TSG completes Harris Broadcast’s portfolio of 3 GB/s-capable test signal generation products, along with its VSG-4MTG master timing generator and VSG-4CSD clock system driver introduced at IBC 2012 in September.  The master timing generator and clock system driver products will receive their North American debut at NAB.  All four products, including the DL-870, are built on common platforms to provide familiar, user-friendly operation across test and measurement applications.

NetGain Media Software Toolset
Harris Broadcast enriches business intelligence for media executives and sales teams with new analytic tools that improve insight into current business and advertising models — and offer unparalleled foresight into future revenue-generating opportunities.

Harris Broadcast will introduce these and other new enhancements to its NetGain business intelligence and analytics software.  The company will demonstrate new visual analytics, mobile dashboards, interfaces to social media data and access to embedded and third-party data mining capabilities as part of its new NetGain v2.4.2 release.

Through the new visual analytics capability, NetGain gives broadcasters and media organizations unique capabilities to proactively pull data from many sources, and quickly compare and analyze that data to fully understand current business landscapes through an intuitive visual interface.  Users can quickly publish the generated dashboards and reports to mobile devices, via e-mail or portal.  Meanwhile, new “visual foresight” tools leverage predictive analytics to help customers develop forward-looking metrics, from anticipated earnings to potential media buys for advertisements.

NetGain v2.4.2 also incorporates the following new tools and benefits:

• Access to Wisdom Professional for performing advanced analytics on Facebook user data.  This provides media companies with advanced capability to analyze viewing audiences and enhance advertising placement.
• More than 300 predefined data mining and predictive analytics functions.
• Integration with the open-source “R” analytics library, unleashing limitless access to analytics and statistics for business modeling.

NetGain integrates these new tools while retaining its ability to load data and generate reports with speed and efficiency, allowing customers to share business intelligence information locally or across the enterprise within minutes.  Furthermore, the wealth of information generated ensures that users can get a complete view of all available business opportunities.

“Broadcasters today need to optimize their inventories beyond over-the-air channels and across the web, mobile and other digital media opportunities,” said Harris Morris, CEO, Harris Broadcast.  “They also need to visualize the total trend versus looking separately at television spots versus digital.  NetGain ensures that broadcasters, cable networks and other media groups can achieve a complete view of their businesses as opposed to a ‘siloed’ approach,” while enabling visibility into future results based on multiple scenarios.”

Harris Broadcast now pre-integrates NetGain with its various traffic, billing, sales and scheduling platforms (OSi, Novar, Landmark, and Vision) as well as third-party data sources to maximize data sourcing and flexibility.  NetGain users can also now directly import data from Salesforce to better track and measure advertising campaigns across multiple channels.

Additionally, the enhanced mobile capability provides a strong sales-enablement tool for account executives on the go.  This allows sales managers to arm their teams with easy-to-read, interactive dashboards on tablets and other mobile devices, simplifying customer presentations and detailing business performance.

“There are two clear benefits to NetGain’s enhanced mobile capability,” said Scott Criley, director, media and workflow, Harris Broadcast.  “Our customers can leverage the back office capability of NetGain to better understand the current situation and future opportunities in advance of client meetings.  For client presentations, NetGain efficiently makes clean reports, dashboards and marketing material accessible from a mobile interface, making it an ideal tool for revenue generation in the field.”