Bridge Technologies will use the upcoming IBC Show (Booth 1.A71) to announce a significant new feature option for its VB330 and VB220 compressed monitoring probes: the ability to play out transport stream (TS) files across IP networks. The new functionality transforms the probes from passive monitoring tools into a far more comprehensive, expansive broadcast asset – allowing broadcasters to fulfil a full range of regulatory and compliance activities, as well as vastly improving their technical, operational and strategic decision making.
The TS playout feature builds upon the existing recording capabilities of the probe, introduced last year and allowing for round-robin and alarm-triggered recording of up to 200 streams, with an inbuilt clip editor for export. The new TS playout feature expands upon this, taking a recorded stream and playing it out to any TS receiver, supporting bitrates up to 100 Mbps per stream with up to 12 simultaneous playouts and a total throughput of 1 Gbps (or 2 Gbps with ST 2022-7 redundancy activated). The probes support both Single Program Transport Streams (SPTS) and Multiple Program Transport Streams (MPTS), as well as both Constant Bit Rate (CBR) and Variable Bit Rate (VBR) files. Streams can be played once or set to loop with adaptive handling to avoid continuity counter errors and can be sent to either multicast or unicast destinations. For multicast delivery, the probe can also monitor its own output using its full built-in analysis toolset. Files can be uploaded via the web interface, and recordings made by the probe can be used directly as playout sources.
This makes it invaluable for production engineers seeking to set up networks for live events, in environments where speed is of the essence. With this signal generation feature, engineers can generate test content for live events before cameras are in place – allowing them to verify the wider network architecture ahead of time. Crucially, the probe makes use of PTP network synchronisation to achieve highly accurate playout timing – achieved at a LAB-grade standard with much lower PCR jitter than in comparable systems, thus preventing buffer synchronisation issues at the receiver side and minimising latency. This is crucial for ensuring accurate, error free flow along the full broadcast chain, even in environments where the network has been integrated and coordinated on an ad-hoc basis, such as when the production feeding the distribution network originates from OB trucks, temporary pop-up studios, and fast-turnaround event setups.
The inclusion of this feature reflects a broader evolution in Bridge’s philosophy: the development of tools which go far beyond simple alarming and monitoring and instead become holistic parts of the wider broadcast chain, incorporating deep diagnostics, proactive network management, reporting and compliance, practical production tools (in the case of the VB440), and now signal generation for network and broadcast setup. Furthermore, this expansion within the VB330 supports a wider industry trend which has seen broadcast as a whole begin to converge across compressed and uncompressed environments, eroding the distinction which once existed between production and distribution as separate arenas and disciplines.
Commenting on the announcement, Bridge Technologies Chairman Simen K. Frostad said: “Live production brings increasing challenges in terms of the speed with which the setup must be introduced, and the accuracy and reliability with which it must deliver on the day. With TS playout, network engineers can generate a test signal and validate their entire distribution chain ahead of time – even before cameras, switchers or encoders are in place. But we also have customers right now using this functionality not just for setup, but on-air too. It is crucial to effective operations».
He continued: «This new development in our distribution side probes marks a really important evolution in their role, placing them front and centre in a broadcast engineer’s arsenal and taking them far beyond their original monitoring roots. It takes functions that would normally be deployed on separate devices and condenses them into a single box. This results in a single interface and a more streamlined workflow, reduced space and energy requirements, and lower operational costs. It fully reflects Bridge’s central ethos – using our unrivalled understanding of IP network behaviour and appliance engineering to deliver increasingly more functionality with increasingly less physical infrastructure”.
