TRE-FOR Reduces Maintenance Costs For Bridge Technologies' Monitoring System

Danish public utility company and digital service provider TRE-FOR has substantially reduced maintenance costs for its IPTV operation after deploying a Bridge Technologies monitoring and analysis system.
TRE-FOR supplies broadband and digital media services to subscribers in the Southern Danish Triangle region via an all-fibre infrastructure and with the advanced analysis provided by the VideoBRIDGE system, the company has been able to reduce maintenance staffing costs considerably.
Now providing services to three other networks, and with a tenfold rise in subscribers during 2010, TRE-FOR uses the VideoBRIDGE monitoring system to provide diagnosis and detailed analysis of service-affecting faults. After consultation with Bridge Technologies engineers and tailoring the system configuration to TRE-FOR's needs, 85% of the previously experienced data errors were pinpointed by the system.
Using the VB270 probe to monitor the data downloaded from satellite, TRE-FOR was able to diagnose problems with its dishes that were the cause of data errors resulting in failures downstream. The VideoBRIDGE system also identified bandwidth-eating errors caused by extraneous PIDs in the data, allowing TRE-FOR to recoup more than 20M of bandwidth as a result.
In addition to the probes at the headend, TRE-FOR's VideoBRIDGE installation includes VB220 probes installed at the core sites, with VB220s and VB210s at access points. The system's built-in reporting capability is used by staff to oversee the progress of new infrastructure as it is rolled out to support the growing subscriber base, and VideoBRIDGE service level reports are fed in to weekly management meetings to inform ongoing technical work.
Fleming Breum, CTO, TRE-FOR, said: "Within six weeks, TRE-FOR was able to see an immediate effect on operating expenses and a distinct trend in patterns of service maintenance. The ability to run in the maintenance operation more efficiently while providing a very high level of service to subscribers is an important contributor to the successful expansion of the business."
The award-winning VideoBRIDGE series of probes offers an innovative approach to the monitoring and analysis of converging services employing stream-based IP packets. Compatible with all major stream-based industrial standards such as MPEG-2, H.264/AVC, DVB/ATSC and ETSI TR 101 290, the VideoBRIDGE series offers a complete end-to-end system for the continuous quality assurance of a network. With full support of the innovative MediaWindow, the VideoBRIDGE series is at the forefront of digital TV measurement and monitoring technologies.
Simen Frostad, Chairman of Bridge Technologies, said: "TRE-FOR's rapid growth and success illustrates strong demand for the kind of services the company provides. But providing a high level of customer satisfaction through excellent service quality requires both expert understanding of IP and broadcast and an effective end-to-end monitoring environment. With VideoBRIDGE, digital media operators have the best possible way of delivering top quality services."
Further information is available at: www.bridgetech.tv
(KMcA)