Software Solutions

Cast Monitor

CAST MONITOR is a system for the remote surveillance and supervision of analogue and digital TV signals, and FM radio signals for radio transmitters, audiovisual control bodies and broadcasting network operators.

Features

General Features

The system lets users measure the radio-electronic parameters of the transmissions they want to monitor. Alarms can be set to give warnings when levels fall outside the programmed limits.

The system can also program the recording of content (video, audio, teletext, interactive, etc.) on DTT, analogue TV and FM radio transmissions.

It also allows for remote content viewing and/or listening in real time through compressed format streaming and configurable quality (MPEG4 for video and MPEG1 Layer 3 for radio).

System Architecture

The system comprises a central server and several measurement units distributed over the area covered by the signals to be monitored. The server provides a web application from which authorized users can check the status of the transmissions and manage the measurement units.

The measurement units receive orders from the server and execute them by generating content capture and quality measurements that are then sent to the server.

The server stores all the information generated by the units, in addition to the data needed to run the system: users and user privileges, transmission centers, alarm management, etc. All this information is then published on the system’s web site and made available to the entire organization in order to control content and signal quality.
The server stores all the information generated by the units, in addition to the data needed to run the system: users and user privileges, transmission centers, alarm management, etc. All this information is then published on the system’s web site and made available to the entire organization in order to control content and signal quality.

Functionalities

Functionalities of Analog Television

  • Video, croma and audio carrier levels
  • List of video/audio carriers
  • Type and level of secondary audio carrier
  • C/N list
  • Level measurement of adjacent channels
  • Video frame capture
  • Teletext frame capture
  • Video sequence capture
  • Video streaming
  • VBI test lines capture

Functionalities of Digital Television

  • Level of digital signal
  • VER
  • Measurement of level of adjacent channels
  • Video frame capture from a multiplex service
  • Video sequence capture from a multiplex service
  • Streaming from a multiplex service
  • Transport Stream capture from a multiplex

Functionalities of FM Radio

  • Level of FM carrier
  • Measurement of RDS parameters
  • Capture of audio sequence
  • Audio streaming

Modules

BOOKING

Measurement unit

Each measurement unit comprises a field measurement device and a PC with hardware and applications to carry out radio and TV functionalities. Actions can be programmed periodically or daily at a given time. Depending on the hardware, one unit can take multiple TV, radio and radio-electronic measurement captures simultaneously.

Central server system

The central server system includes a database, an FTP server and a web server that allow them to carry out various communication and management tasks with the measurement units, including downloading, storing and publishing results.

The web application CAST MONITOR is the interface that lets users manage the measurement system and look up results. It provides control over the status of all the active measurement units through color codes and a situation display.
 
The quality of the recording of video and audio signals can be programmed through this interface. The web interface allows measurements to be viewed and also permits the reproduction of both TV and radio captures and live transmissions received by each unit via streaming.
 
User access to the system’s different options can be regulated by assigning user profiles and privileges that are configurable through the same web environment.
 
CAST MONITOR lets users define their own quality measurement limits. Users can be notified of the detection of levels falling outside the chosen limits in three ways:
  • Web publication
  • Alarms via e-mail
  • Alarms via GPI ModBus protocol
Advantages
  • Monitoring and recording of content from analog TV, DTT and FM radio signals in one system.
  • Advanced measurement functionalities with configuration flexibility.
  • System architecture scalable to the number of measurement points required.
  • Useful for controlling content that has been broadcast. 
 
 

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