Tektronix Adds New Capabilities to its Sentry Line of Digital Content Monitors

Tektronix, the market leader in broadcast video test, monitoring and analysis solutions announced that it has added significant new features and capabilities to its award-winning line of Sentry® digital content monitors, which are widely used by cable television operators and other video service providers (VSP) to help deliver services with optimal video and audio quality.

"We are continually adding new features, functions and capabilities to ensure our Sentry line addresses VSPs' most urgent requirements, from improving the early detection and diagnosis of video and audio issues to regulatory compliance," said Eben Jenkins, general manager, Video Product Line, Tektronix. "This commitment to regularly enhancing Sentry is one of the key reasons it remains the industry's most advanced solution for ensuring quality of experience (QoE)."

The latest capabilities added to the Sentry line are enabled by its latest software release. These new capabilities include:

• The ability to capture "thumbnail" images of programs, which enables VSPs to validate program content and verify when program outages have occurred.
• An ad cue report that combines thumbnails with audio level graphing to create a single report capturing all the data that VSPs need to provide the FCC to demonstrate compliance with the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act. This report provides visual validation of ad presence, that the correct ad aired at the appropriate time and during the right program, as well as noting whether the ad was too loud or too quiet.
• Enhancements to Sentry's unique Perceptual Video Quality (PVQ) capability (which gauges precisely how much video compression artifacts impact viewers) that is now sensitive to certain artifacts caused by over-compression that specifically affects chroma detail.

The award-winning Sentry is the industry's premier content monitoring solution, used by leading VSPs to identify and diagnose video and audio errors in MPEG-2 and H.264 content that can impact viewers' quality of experience (QoE). Sentry is proven in deployments with nine of the top 10 U.S. cable operators and four of the top five Canadian operators.

For more information about Sentry visit http://www.tek.com/products/video-test/digital-content-monitors.html

About Tektronix
For more than sixty five years, engineers have turned to Tektronix for test, measurement and monitoring solutions to solve design challenges, improve productivity and dramatically reduce time to market. Tektronix is a leading supplier of test equipment for engineers focused on electronic design, manufacturing, and advanced technology development. Headquartered in Beaverton, Oregon, Tektronix serves customers worldwide and offers award-winning service and support. Stay on the leading edge at www.tektronix.com.