Bridge Technologies Launches FSM: Full Service Monitoring Of IPTV Middleware

Bridge Technologies, a leading broadcast and telecommunications monitoring provider, has launched FSM (Full Service Monitoring), an extension of the company's VB20/220 IP probes that allows operators to monitor the functionality of the middleware controlling viewers' IPTV experiences.
With Bridge Technologies' FSM-enabled probes, IPTV operators can monitor not only the transport of the media, but also the functioning of all the elements contributing to the user's interaction with the service: subscription validation, programme listing displays, conditional access, VOD controls, and more.
With the addition of FSM, Bridge Technologies provides the means for operators to ensure full "confidence monitoring" of every aspect of their services.
"Even though multicasts are the core of the IPTV service, they are not the only critical component in the viewer's experience," said Simen Frostad, chairman, Bridge Technologies. "It is just as essential to the end user that these important middleware components work correctly as it is that the content is delivered without errors or quality issues. Any failure - either of the middleware or the media transport components - produces the same result: the viewer is unable to watch."
FSM is integrated into the functionality of the IP20 and IP220 probes, without requiring any additional hardware. FSM provides user-definable probing of servers and software devices, ranging from simple ICMP Echo requests to detailed monitoring with http get requests, delivering an emulation of the set-top box operation for diagnostic purposes.
FSM is available now for Bridge Technologies' IP20 and IP220 probes running software version 3.1 or later.
Further information is available at: www.bridgetech.tv.
(KMcA/JM)