Digital Television Monitoring Systems: Challenges and Opportunities

Today's broadcast facilities are increasing in complexity by an order of magnitude. The relatively straight-forward media formats of the past are being replaced by elaborate packet protocols that combine multiple video, audio and metadata into a digital multiplex. In such a highly computerized system there are many opportunities for error but there are also opportunities for self correction, intelligent report generation, and operator notification. This paper will describe various system monitoring architectures, categorize the types of errors that can be detected, and discuss a number of strategies for recognizing, logging and correcting errors.