Bridge Technologies launches Full Service Monitoring for IPTV middleware

July 15, 2008 - Norwegian firm Bridge Technologies has launched a new product called Full Service Monitoring (FSM), an extension of its VB20/220 IP probes, which allows IPTV operators to monitor the functionality of the middleware controlling their viewers' experiences.

With FSM-enabled probes, IPTV operators can monitor the transport of media, as well as the functioning of all elements contributing to the user's interaction with the service, such as subscription validation, programme listing displays, conditional access, VOD controls and more.

"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 of Bridge Technologies. "It is just as essential to the end user that these important middleware components work correctly so 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."

Full Service Monitoring is available now for Bridge Technologies' IP20 and IP220 proves running software version 3.1 or later.