2024年3月21日
By 雅安Hinard withbe首席运营官
博客

供应商从QAM转向IP视频传输网络的考虑

The broadcast industry’s transition between different video delivery methods for streaming TV has led to a massive shift in technology, 质量控制(QC), 以及日常运作. 在这个转变过程中, operations and QC teams at video service providers are facing new challenges for testing and monitoring, 由于动态广告插入等快速发展的技术而变得复杂. This article will look at the common challenges and strategies for teams in the middle of this paradigm shift.

在北美, digital television has been widely distributed through Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) networks. QAM在拨号调制解调器和Wi-Fi上都能工作, 它已经被有线电视公司使用了二十多年. 经历了这么久, teams delivering their video service over QAM gained a deep understanding of how it worked. 然而, an essential transition has happened over the last few years with companies progressively stopping their QAM practices to rely entirely on IP digital video delivery.

处理机顶盒第三方业务

Service providers who own and manage set-top boxes face the major issue of dealing with third-party services. 他们需要像Disney+这样的视频应用, 网飞公司, and Peacock on their device in order to make it appealing as the main TV watching device in the household. It doesn’t matter that these apps are provided by third parties — viewers at home will hold the set-top box provider responsible for their performance being anything less than perfect. This places a unique burden on providers to ensure quality is consistent not only across their own service but also across services from other companies.

第三方视频应用也会对提供商的主要服务产生负面影响. Witbe’s testing on real set-top boxes has observed several instances of a 网飞公司 app causing errors when viewers switch back to linear TV programming. These types of errors can only be observed over the real devices and networks that customers as using because they are unique to the systems being tested.

质量控制测试的新考虑

这些类型的视频错误说明了QC测试的必要性, although that process has also been dramatically changed by the transition to IP delivery. 与QAM视频交付, 大多数供应商控制着他们提供服务的平台. 大多数IP机顶盒都是基于Android TV或Comcast的RDK平台. These platforms receive framework updates frequently with limited control or warning for providers. 平台更新后, providers need to test the quality of their own service again to see if it has been affected.

The same is true for providers who offer their service over IP delivery on third-party devices. 视频应用需要在比以往更多的设备上进行测试, 包括苹果电视和Fire电视等消费级电视. 视频应用程序也越来越多地内置到智能电视中, 哪一个处理操作系统的大量碎片. 智能电视通常有超过15种不同的操作系统, 所有这些都需要单独测试. 在这种情况下，持续的测试自动化对提供者来说是必不可少的, allowing them to test their video apps at scale when they run on dozens of different devices that can all receive a significant update at any time.

处理动态广告插入和可发现性

A specific factor that can go underdiscussed in this transition is content discoverability. In a crowded and competitive TV environment, discoverability has become more important than ever. 提供者应该实现深度索引, which allows the customer’s universal or voice control search requests to be directed to the provider’s application. 没有深度索引, 搜索通常指向默认的平台处理程序, 通常是YouTube或Google Play Store. Deep indexing is the best way to make sure that the provider’s content will be discoverable whenever a user is looking for it.

Another process that is vastly different over IP delivery is Dynamic Ad Insertion (戴). 广告支持的视频最近一直在蓬勃发展, not just in linear TV but in streaming video that had once seemed set to replace 广告 with subscriptions. 使用IP流媒体, 广告被插入到视频播放器中，来自大量的内容, 通常发源于不同于主要内容的服务器.

戴过程可能导致各种各样的视频错误, 包括冻结屏幕, 音频问题, 空白的石板, 视觉表现不佳, 难以回到主要内容, 整个设备崩溃. Inserting 广告 correctly is essential to providers who rely on revenue from third-party advertisers. 这些视频错误应该在真实设备上进行监控, as they will observe system-side errors that may go undetected through other forms of video monitoring.

远程协作和IP视频传输的未来

当然, the technology involved isn’t the only difference between the classic days of QAM and the modern era of IP delivery. Today, most operations and QC teams work remotely, sometimes even in different countries. Teams need reliable and secure technology that allows them to access their real devices from wherever they are. Remote access allows them to work collaboratively and still test in the market where their service operates, 即使他们在世界的另一边工作.

对于电视提供商来说，从QAM到IP视频传输的转变是一个重大转变. 运营和质量控制团队正在处理不同的平台, 第三方应用程序, 戴, 远程协作. Through testing their services on real devices and using reliable remote device access technology, 他们可以帮助平稳转移，并在世界任何地方安全操作. 在IP交付世界中，视频测试和监控是必不可少的.

[编者注:这是来自 Witbe. 流媒体接受供应商署名完全基于它们对我们读者的价值.]

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