Video Clarity Launches RTM 3.0

Video Clarity has launched the RTM 3.0, the next generation of the company's RTM real-time audio and video monitoring systems.

RTM 3.0 contains three major updates: MPEG transport stream (TS) recording, IP-network packet-loss monitoring, and built-in uncompressed video playback while monitoring and testing are underway.

"We consider it an obligation to add functionality continually to our systems so that users have more test options as their environments evolve," said Blake Homan, president and founder of Video Clarity. "We want our systems to be additional sources of information for our customers, and we're making it happen by adding these enhancements. RTM 3.0 gives users a new and very valuable set of functions for no extra cost."

Developed based on feedback from Video Clarity's program-delivery and manufacturing customers, RTM 3.0 helps product developers; program originators; content networks; and television, cable, satellite, and IPTV service providers perfect their systems. It is especially beneficial for IP-network transmission-solution developers who run test routines to check product and network performance while continuously making changes to their IP-delivery networks. While RTM is running, users can apply programmed impairments to the network. RTM 3.0 monitors for artifacts and captures them for visual inspection in the uncompressed video domain. With this capability, users can study the effects of network errors on content and know what to look for in their network-analysis tools that might cause problems for video and audio.

With the MPEG TS recording feature, RTM records out-of-threshold uncompressed video and audio and simultaneously captures the same error segments in the corresponding transport streams. Being able to record the MPEG transport stream at the same time as the video or audio errors means users can run a secondary test on the transport layer or correlate the recording to transport tests that are already in place — and do so using any analysis tool they choose.

Another improvement is IP-network packet-loss monitoring. With this feature, RTM 3.0 continuously monitors the attached video network to assess network conditions and graphs the results. In this way, users will know whether the basic functionality of their IP streams is intact and can immediately see the effects of any packet loss on video quality — which in turn might influence the RTM quality score and the error recordings being saved. Results appear as both a red tick mark on the existing graph in the RTM user interface and as a live updated graph on a browser tab in the RTM Manager.

Finally, the new player function enables RTM 3.0 to play full-HD video to the device or network under test at the same time it is comparing that video to its downstream processed version. It also provides an independent record function for ingesting video sequences that, after recording, may be played at the time of the RTM test routine. The new play and record functions eliminate the need for extra player hardware, saving users money and space. The playback feature is available only on certain RTM models, including all RTM 4K models and RTM 3G model RTM-2043.

www.videoclarity.com