The MoPR Blog

Every year, CED Magazine compiles a list of the 50 most compelling and important technologies, people and trends influencing the industry.  For 2008, their writers again consulted the industry’s leading technical minds to craft their list.  Not surprisingly, we immediately noticed three trends on the list that strike close to home based on our clients and our own experience.

1. Targeted Ads: This was listed as No. 2 on the big 50 list.  Needless to say, targeted ads have swept the industry and the technology behind their delivery has exploded. RGB Networks announced back in May 2007 their revolutionary approach to targeted advertising with the use of digital overlays and it would seem as though the industry has caught on.  The ability to deliver ads to an advertiser’s specific target demographic is where the operators are making big money these days.
2. Customer Retention: Listed as No. 4, this topic has been arguably the most popular subject for 2008.  As Brian Santo writes, “It’s desirable to play good offense and good defense.” And how to do that?  Monitor, monitor, monitor! Mixed Signals has been at the forefront of this trend- having pushed for content monitoring back at its inception in 2004- and have remained a strong proponent for content monitoring as way for operators to retain subscribers.The need for cable operators to ensure that their subscribers enjoy the highest Quality of Experience (QoE) is a key priority as subscribers are being wooed aggressively by satellite and telecom. Closely monitoring their programming to quickly solve video and audio glitches is a primary way operators can improve QoE.
3. Show Mergers: Combining the big trade shows comes in at No. 18 on this year’s list, which might not be a bad idea, especially to keep travel expenses down as travel budgets are increasingly dropping.As Traci Patterson writes, “In April, Washington, D.C., will host the NCTA’s The Cable Show, CableLabs’ conferences and the SCTE Conference on Emerging Technologies (ET), all at once. And in October, CTAM Summit, the SCTE Cable-Tec Expo, the Cable Center Hall of Fame Dinner and a CableLabs seminar will come together in Denver.”

I guess we’ll just have to wait and see if it works. But for now, we’re thinking this has the potential to be very convenient and hopefully successful show.

A recent article in Communications Technology magazine highlighted companies with the most interesting technologies at this year’s Cable-Tec Expo in Philadelphia. The top picks include companies addressing cable operators need for content monitoring solutions to meet subscriber demand for a superior Quality of Experience (QoE).

Quality of Experience as defined by Wikipedia as a:

subjective measure of a customer’s experiences with a vendor.

To put it even more simply and in cable industry terms, QoE defines whether or not customers are pleased with their overall viewing experience.

QoE issues include what viewers experience when the audio goes out, squiggly lines or blocky images invade their screen, or the screen either freezes or just goes black.  All of these problems are clumped in the “issues” group associated with QoE and they represent the bulk of subscriber complaints.

The race to enable cable operators to prevent these issues is on. Companies like Mixed Signals and Symmetricom (both noted in the article as being popular in the field), along with IneoQuest, Veramatrix and Pixelmetrix, offer solutions to help operators ensure a high Quality of Experience for subscribers.

As service providers rush to offer more complex services such as HD and video-on-demand, there is an increasing need to ensure an optimal QoE, especially since monitoring these advanced services is no easy task. Service providers receive their programming (e.g., HBO, ESPN, etc.) from multiple sources, the programming then goes through numerous network devices and is manipulated many different ways to maximize bandwidth, carry local ads, etc..  It’s safe to say that ensuring QoE can be daunting-which is why operators need comprehensive solutions.

As mentioned in the article, Mixed Signals goes even further to address these issues with its Sentry product that “monitors, diagnoses and validates video and audio content and is able to detect video freeze and video black, audio silence, bandwidth utilization, and a host of other parameters.”

Recognized as a leader in the field of digital content monitoring, Mixed Signals also authored an article in Broadband Gear Report addressing the importance of QoE in the marketplace.

Starting off the article, Mixed Signals’ Steve Liu says that “ensuring superior quality of experience (QoE) for cable subscribers is vital as competition continues to increase with satellite and IPTV providers.”

With all of the competition in the marketplace for subscribers, cable companies must keep up with the demand for better service and overall viewing experience- or else they may lose them to the telcos.

So how do they maintain happy customers?  By monitoring their services.  Because let’s face it, no one likes a squiggly line through their favorite show or audio loss during the Olympics broadcasting.

Heavy Reading’s Sam Masud recently studied IPTV providers and their need to keep up with QoE in order to remain competitive.  But the article warns IPTV providers to make sure they are getting the right testing equipment for their services.

“It’s okay and even necessary for these QOE measurement vendors to put substantial effort into marketing their solutions. But what’s often missing from the marketing effort is a clear picture of how a particular vendor’s solution can help the network operator understand if there is an issue with the quality of the video,” states Masud.

So it’s fair to say that not all monitoring solutions are the same.  Masud is urging IPTV vendors to choose wisely.  But nevertheless, he is still stating that they need to choose.

And it’s not just the Mixed Signals and Symmetricoms who are asking you to take notice.  CED Magazine covered this year’s Cable-Tec (opens as a PDF file) and on the front page of their Show Daily the topic was how CEOs all agreed (not surprisingly) that customer service and improving the quality of their product is the top priority right now.

It’s clearly a hot topic. And the best news of all is that consumers are ultimately benefitting. Competition in the marketplace means that each operator is forced to step up their services.  You hear the saying all the time that ‘when companies compete, you win’- and when they are competing to deliver you the best Quality of Experience… you can’t really argue with that.