Defining a new approach to VoD & IPTV Testing
VoD & IPTV testing is notoriously difficult to undertake without the considerable expense of building your own test facilities. Testing is also the task in any VoD or IPTV systems integration where corners are most likely to be cut and testing not as rigorous as it needs to be. All this results in problems occurring just where and when you don’t need them - at launch and in the live environment where they are hard to track down and fix.
Using their purpose built VoD & IPTV testing facility in Southampton, BCi have developed a range of VoD & IPTV Testing Services that allow operators to have robust test programmes without the expense of procuring their own test environment.
As well as the VoD & IPTV testing facilities, BCi has developed a testing methodology where components or entire systems are tested against a pre defined list of scenarios - designed to show how the system will behave in the live environment. BCi’s VoD & IPTV testing service provides clients with peace of mind that tests will be applied in a representative VoD or IPTV environment using a ‘load stressed’ platform and monitoring of real set top boxes.
Clients with their own VoD or IPTV testing labs can also benefit from BCi’s VoD & IPTV testing solutions as they can be installed in a rack on the client’s site - enhancing and complementing existing testing facilities.
BCi’s Director of Operations Mark Hooper commented:
“As you would expect from BCi, our VoD & IPTV testing solutions have been designed with low cost and fast set up times in mind. You’ll get a more comprehensive testing solution at a price considerably less than doing it yourself or using a large systems integrator or consultancy”
To find out more about BCi’s VoD & IPTV Testing Solutions contact BCi here.
BCi continues to invest in its Southampton Lab by adding 4 x 1 GigE network cards to one of the Sun servers. The Lab provides a representative broadcast eco-system to support development and testing of IPTV and VoD components and systems. The addition of these cards allows us to present in excess of 3000 concurrent video streams. This is particularly important to create appropriate test conditions for Edge QAMs, Conditional Access kit, rate shapers or SRM’s (Session Resource Managers). It perfectly compliments our RTSP test client as they will form a very effective pair for cost effective capacity testing.
This upgrade forms part of a larger investment BCi are making in the Lab. These changes will further our growth into the IPTV/VoD Consultancy and System Integration support services. In particular it will broaden our Test services and allow clients to ’stress test’ components and systems prior to launch.
IPTV & VoD Test Facility upgraded
We recognise the importance of keeping our Southampton IPTV ecosystem fresh with changes in the industry. This internal project is being led by one of our IPTV/VoD System Integration Engineers who has recently completed a number of key roles on live IPTV deployments. He will be consulting with the rest of the BCi team to ensure our broad experience is brought to bear on this important test facility. The enhancements will build on an already rich feature set and will include increased storage (for digital assets), a purpose built back office system with client/project sections, more digital content streaming via VLC, improved content management via the back office systems and additions to the Headend satellite functions.
Clearly this investment will build upon our reputation as Europe’s leading IPTV/VoD System Integrator and Consultancy. These changes will support the next phase of growth for BCi by providing broader IPTV/VoD testing and prototyping services.
