I. Introduction
In past years, an increasing number of consumers are switching from analog to digital TV reception. To meet this growing demand, and to keep the prices down, manufacturers of IRD units (simply, “set-top boxes”) are increasing their production lines while doing everything possible to keep the manufacturing costs to a minimum. A critical component in keeping these costs down is the speed and efficiency with which these units can be tested on the production line. Validation test of the STB video output, if done manually, is always a complex and lengthy task. Time spent on testing normally depends on engineers' expertise and the used tools. Modern STBs are equipped with numerous inputs (RF, USB, LAN, etc) and outputs (HDMI, CVBS, YPbPr, S-Video, etc) which additionally prolong validation and testing process. This can range from hours to days or even weeks. Automated test systems not only save time-to-market, but also ensure accuracy, repeatability and consistency of test results even though they are performed in various locations by different engineers. Platform presented in this paper is able to process and validate output from several STB in parallel in an autonomous way. It is based on a network environment, thus providing spatial autonomy between video acquisition nodes and validation center. This spatial distribution allows this platform to be flexible, easily maintained and efficiently controlled. Platform can easily conform to any customer specific needs using customer's existing equipment.