FuboTV broadcasts with total reliability thanks to Tektronix Sentry

FuboTV, the first OTT live TV streaming service for sports in the United States, relies on Quality of Experience (QoE) monitoring from Tektronix solutions.

Working in the hyper-competitive multichannel video programming distributor (MVPD) space as an OTT provider means subscriber retention is critical.

Monthly contracts, no hardware rental requirements, and constantly updated offerings from competitors require high-quality performance.

Therefore, FuboTV, the first OTT live TV streaming service for sports in the United States, relies on Quality of Experience (QoE) monitoring from Tektronix.

Tektronix brings a FuboTV confidence in your QoE through Sentry, a real-time video quality content monitoring solution that delivers live and on-demand video quality assurance across cloud and virtual streaming workflows. Sentry simplifies quality monitoring in today's complex environments by delivering streaming content quality visibility along with in-depth analytics and compliance reporting for OTT/multi-screen services with global scalability.

FuboTV relies on this solution not only for current monitoring, but also to ensure its workflow is future-proof and stays at the forefront of MVPD technology offerings. The company was the first virtual multichannel video programming distributor (vMVPD) to offer content in ultra-high definition and high dynamic range. It was also one of the first streaming services to launch dynamic ad insertion, Cloud DVR, 60FPS image quality and in-app billing.

Billy Romero, director of video engineering and operations at FuboTV, highlights that "driving cutting-edge content for our customers is critical for us. That's where Tektronix comes in. As we moved to that level of 4K HDR10 broadcasting, we were able to use Sentry to evaluate exactly what we were offering to customers. It's so versatile. In fact, we've used it to not only analyze the quality of service of our service, but also the performance of the CDN in general. It allows us to select the encoder which works best for us before important games that are critical for our audience.”

Providing that visibility into content quality and where problems occur is critical to customer retention. By providing a single view that spans cloud, virtual, and on-premise workflows, Sentry simplifies quality assurance compared to alternatives that involve multiple monitoring platforms.

Charlie Dunn, general manager of Tektronix's video business, comments: "We've created APIs for FuboTV that allow them to easily monitor quality and react quickly to any issues. This is a fast-growing industry and providers need to have confidence that their content is being delivered correctly, regardless of the technology or scale they offer. Sentry provides that confidence while saving time and money on troubleshooting."

Scalable QoE monitoring

Sentry is a scalable QoE monitoring solution for streaming content. You can examine the actual content being provided to verify that there are no major quality issues (crawling, audio loss, freeze frames) and that the content meets regulatory requirements (SCTE35 type testing, closed captioning and loudness testing). With Digital Rights Management (DRM) support, Sentry ABR can decrypt each program applying DRM and can view and report on content viewed by subscribers.

Entre las capacidades de Sentry para la monitorización de servicios de streaming OTT que se demostrarán en el IBC 2018 se incluyen monitoreo de Inserción de Anuncios para ABR. Sentry proporciona análisis de inserción de publicidad con control programático para contenido de streaming OTT y se asegura de que los anuncios se coloquen correctamente dentro del flujo ABR y se reproduzcan con la misma calidad que el resto del contenido.

Also evident at IBC is its support for Common Media Application Format (CMAF): an emerging standard that allows streaming providers to encode media content in a common format rather than multiple formats, CMAF greatly reduces the number of streaming variations required to deliver services.
Finally, highlights the improvements in 4K streaming and HbbTV DASH as Sentry ABR supports HEVC DASH 4K cloud streaming, including improvements in HbbTV MPEG-DASH.

Otras mejoras a Sentry incluyen pruebas ABR de Video on Demand (VoD), soporte para streaming seguro HTTPS y soporte para suscripciones basadas en la nube.