Volicon Observer® RPM 100 Improves Customer Quality-of-Experience
BURLINGTON, Mass. — June 16, 2010 — Volicon [http://www.volicon.com/] today announced that Western Broadband, a cable television operator serving several communities in central Arizona, has installed the Volicon Observer® Remote Program Monitor (RPM) 100 to provide continuous quality of experience (QoE) monitoring for the company’s top-tier lineup of 14 off-air and 14 HD channels.
“With the RPM 100, our transmission troubleshooting has gone from a reactive process driven by incoming subscriber compliant calls to a proactive system in which we’re able to identify and troubleshoot problems before they turn into customer complaints,” said Jerry “Chief” Scullawl, director of technical operations for Western Broadband. “As a result, the overall number of trouble calls has been reduced and our staff is freed from having to perform manual scans. I know instantly when an error has occurred because the RPM 100 automatically sends me an email notification on my BlackBerry®, complete with a clip showing the problem.”
Western Broadband provides triple-play services to the Arizona communities of SaddleBrooke, Sun Lakes, SunBird, and Robson Ranch. A fiber optic link brings in broadcast channels from Tucson, and these channels go through two repeater stations before reaching Western Broadband subscribers. In the past, this made it more difficult to isolate and solve transmission problems. Previously, when the company received a customer complaint, operators used a Slingbox® device to view the broadcasts and try to identify the problem.
Now, the Observer RPM 100 installed at the company’s headend in SaddleBrooke continuously scans all 28 top-tier channels, automatically issuing an e-mail alert when it detects a video or audio fault such as black screen or low audio with the RPM 100’s QoE module. This process traditionally has required human intervention to spot the on-screen anomalies.
“Western Broadband is an excellent example of the value the Observer RPM can bring to cable, IPTV, mobile, and satellite video service providers of any size,” said Andrew Sachs, senior director of marketing at Volicon. “As a post-set-top box solution, the RPM 100 gives Western Broadband a powerful tool for monitoring and troubleshooting transmissions to ensure the highest QoE for its viewers.”
More information about the Volicon Observer product family is available at http://www.volicon.com.
About Western Broadband
Western Broadband is a full-service provider of cable television, HDTV, high-speed broadband Internet, and telephone services to customers in the Arizona communities of SaddleBrooke, Sun Lakes/SunBird, and Robson Ranch. For more information, visit http://www.westernbroadband.net.
About Volicon
Volicon provides the broadcast and cable industries with the most efficient, reliable, and cost-effective automated multichannel video content logging and monitoring system for compliance, media analysis, content repurposing, and quality of service. Its Observer® real-time digital video monitoring and logging solutions are based on Volicon’s patent-pending Video Monitoring Architecture (VMA). VMA is comprised of a multichannel video streaming engine, interactive search, content analytics, and service monitoring and alarming capabilities. Volicon products and services meet the demanding requirements of broadcasters, cable and IPTV service providers, and enterprise and government organizations looking to improve broadcast product quality, enhance video management, and lower costs. More information is available at http://www.volicon.com.
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