Interra Systems and Skyline Communications recently announced a new partnership to improve quality of service (QoS) and quality of experience (QoE) for linear and nonlinear OTT channels. The integration between Interra Systems' ORION-OTT system and Skyline Communications' DataMiner network management and orchestration (NMS/OSS) platform gives broadcasters and OTT service providers a single, automated, end-to-end solution to efficiently manage OTT content workflow orchestration and quality alerts.

"Audio and video errors can occur at any point in video streaming workflows, from transcoding to the final delivery. When the quality of video streaming goes down, it negatively impacts the quality of experience and increases the risk of losing customers," said Anupama Anantharaman, vice president of product management at Interra Systems. "Our joint solution with Skyline Communications' DataMiner NMS/OSS platform will allow service providers to have a single pane of glass through which to monitor and manage the quality of all linear and OTT channels. Throughout the entire delivery chain, channels can be monitored, with dynamic orchestration of probes on premises, in the cloud, or in a hybrid setup."

Automatic Probe Assignment

Using the solution's probe assignment capability, OTT service providers can automatically associate probes to new services and ensure efficient resource utilization. By performing in-depth monitoring of active services, the joint solution allows OTT service providers to avoid false positive alarms.

"The OTT supply and delivery chain is much more dynamic than in any other media delivery ecosystem. Content providers, broadcasters, and service providers need far-reaching automation of the media data, control, and monitoring planes all in one. For every channel change, the monitoring system has to be automatically reprovisioned to the new situation," said Steven Soenens, vice president of product marketing at Skyline Communications. "Pairing our world-class DataMiner platform with Interra Systems' industry-leading ORION-OTT system ensures effective and efficient OTT monitoring that is always in sync with the actual program lineup, even for occasional-use OTT services."

Leveraging industry-proven audio and video quality analysis technologies, ORION-OTT enables service providers to seamlessly monitor online video delivery for quality and compliance purposes. The software-based solution provides a comprehensive range of checks on content integrity and related network performance of ABR content for multiscreen service delivery.

The DataMiner platform relies on sophisticated AI technologies such as forecasting, anomaly behavioral analysis, intelligent fault detection, and automated incident analysis to enable proactive management of channels and streams. This allows service providers to detect issues before they impact QoS and QoE. Automated orchestration of the entire monitoring infrastructure has become a fully integrated part of operations with DataMiner. Through the platform, service providers can effectively reduce operational workload, reduce outages, and maximize resource utilization on premises and in the cloud.