Bridge Technologies returns to NAB 2023 expanding the integration of SCTE 104 and SCTE 35 on its VB330

The continuous log recording function that will allow broadcasters to monitor, control SCTE 104 and SCTE 35 events with alarms, as well as document and review the integration of downstream announcements in the VB330, is one of the main new features of Bridge Technologies to NAB 2023.

Probe improvements VB330 Appliance, which follow the incorporation in 2022 of marker monitoring SCTE 104 and SCTE 35 to its set of emissions monitoring probes, will facilitate the recording up to 200 channels in parallel, triggered by events or in a loop memory with a user-customizable loop duration. This recording based on triggers is done by reference to the extensive set of error alarms SCTE 104/35 already present in the VB330 (of which there are more than 100, extracted from the TR 290 standards). The recording function uses a prefill buffer to ensure that the fault itself is recorded (e.g. loss of audio or frozen image, or in relation to complex faults of the PST/SI structure). In this way, the system allows engineers to create a cache of registers around the trigger points themselves. These logs can be used for validation, inspection, troubleshooting, and failure testing.

Alternatively, the recording can activate automatically based on the SCTE 35 input/output marker. In this way, a week of manual recording from a given channel can be captured for analysis or historical recording. File sizes are limited only by the storage system to which they are sent, and they can be stored locally or over a storage area network.

You can instantly access the files recorded directly from the VB330 timeline, where a user-friendly recording control panel has been integrated that contains an overview of the recording files with complete search functionality. Files are “intuitively tagged and quickly searchable,” making them easy to identify, with VLC playback made easy in less than a second. This means that files can be accessed from anywhere in the world, through any HTML-5 web browser.

Taking advantage of business opportunities

The addition of visual playback recording highlights Bridge Technologies' goal of providing broadcasters with the range of tools they need to ensure that viewers enjoy “the highest quality of experience and advertisers receive the results promised by operators, with data-based guarantees that justify their investment.”

According to the brand itself, the measurement and record keeping not only of the integrity and continuity of the signal, but also of real visual tests of the quality of the image received, are beneficial from a commercial point of view at all operational levels, since they allow “improved reporting at the sales and marketing level”, as well as “provide engineers with additional data from which to perform post-event diagnostics and long-term operational improvements.” In this way, Bridge Technologies reports, this improved integration of SCTE 104 and SCTE 35 reinforces the dual usefulness of the VB330 as a tool for problem solving and for long-term decision making in senior management.

Simen Frostad, president of the board of directors, values ​​the great commitment of Bridge Technologies for NAB 2023: "The ability to record all SCTE 104 and SCTE 35 events using data and visual records carries a high commercial value that is really important for broadcasters, especially in a market where advertising revenue is increasingly important and advertising delivery is increasingly sophisticated. As we constantly push both the capacity and performance of the VB330, we consolidate its position as an indispensable tool for broadcasters on both a commercial and engineering level: no other probe on the market maintains this capacity, this depth of functionality or this level of intuitive operation.”