UK‘s TalkTalk Deploys Agama Solution for IPTV Head-End Quality Assurance
(Linköping, September 6, 2011) – Agama Technologies, the DTV quality assurance expert, today announces that the UK service provider and YouView partner TalkTalk has deployed a powerful service monitoring solution from Agama in its IPTV head-end. With continuous real-time monitoring of all streams, detecting everything from packet loss to freeze-frame conditions, TalkTalk gains true control and understanding of the service quality as it leaves the head-end.
Ensuring that the audio and video content-level payload is correct and of high quality is crucial for the end user’s perceived quality of a TV service. Errors introduced in the head-end, or even before entering the head-end, need to be detected early to avoid costly misdirected troubleshooting downstream. Discovering these problems requires content level monitoring, as they can’t be detected in regular IP, transport stream or deep packet inspection analysis. For this purpose, TalkTalk, one of the leading ISPs in the UK and part of the YouView project, has taken the first step in true end-to-end IPTV service quality assurance and selected Agama Technologies to provide a cutting-edge head-end monitoring solution.
“It’s with great pleasure I see that our powerful head-end monitoring offering proved to be the best fit for TalkTalk, enabling massive content level analysis in a cost and space efficient way,” says Mikael Dahlgren, CEO, Agama Technologies. “We warmly welcome TalkTalk as a new Agama customer, and look forward to being their quality assurance partner in the exciting future ahead of the UK market.”
The installation includes Agama Analyzer H-E, a powerful tool for 24/7 full-service quality monitoring in the head-end, as well as Agama Enterprise Server for central management, presentation, and extensive alarm handling. With advanced monitoring of numerous simultaneous video streams also before encryption, TalkTalk can efficiently verify the outgoing content feeds their head-end produces. The solution detects conditions such as black screen, freeze frame, audio silence and excessive macroblocking, but also provides complete syntactic and semantic verification of all levels of the TV stream. It also features add-on functionalities for live confidence monitoring, validation of configured properties of transport streams and error triggered stream recording.
Media contacts:
Emelie Svensson
Marketing Communications Manager
Agama Technologies
+46 13 240 330
Debbie Roff
PR and Digital Media
TalkTalk Group
+44 203 417 1614
About TalkTalk
· TalkTalk now has over 4.2 million broadband and phone customers signed up to TalkTalk and AOL Broadband.
· TalkTalk operates a fully unbundled network, which extends to over 2,000 exchanges and covers over 80% of our customers.
· In uSwitch’s Customer Satisfaction Report 2010, TalkTalk was voted the best value for money home phone provider. And in Top10.com’s Broadband Awards 2010, TalkTalk Essentials was voted the best home broadband. TalkTalk also picked up Top10.com’s best broadband and home phone award.
· TalkTalk’s site is the online hub for customers to manage their account, use their webmail, resolve their problems and access a range of information and entertainment content. The site is used by nearly three million users every month.
· TalkTalk is one of seven partners behind YouView, the new internet-connected TV service, along with the BBC, ITV, BT, Channel 4, Arqiva and Five. YouView is expected to launch to UK homes in 2012.
· Follow TalkTalk on Twitter and on our blog: @TalkTalkTips and www.talktalkblog.co.uk.
About Agama Technologies
Agama Technologies is a trusted provider of video quality assurance and monitoring solutions enabling IPTV, Cable, Broadcast and OTT operators to increase service quality and customer satisfaction while reducing costs and churn. As the first company to provide complete and proven end-to-end, multi-metric monitoring solutions, Agama continues to pioneer and innovate. Today, more than 60 operators worldwide rely on Agama’s solutions to ensure TV service quality and customer satisfaction. Agama Technologies AB is based in Linköping, Sweden, and is privately held. For more information, visit www.agama.tv.
