Direct Broadcast Satellite Company Streamlines Monitoring Operations	Industry Broadcast

Customized GUI-based system with complete, user-friendly signal monitoring capabilities positions company to add new channels and meet demands of 21^st century

Somewhere in the U.S., a family settles in to watch television, switching to a particular channel and never doubting that their desired program will appear as expected. What’s taken for granted by the consumer requires a great deal of sophisticated behind-the-scenes technology from their direct satellite broadcast provider. But it all happens smoothly and seamlessly enough as to be invisible to the end user.

This family sees the right program on the right channel because their direct satellite broadcast provider uses a design by CoreTech Consulting Group, a company known for its innovative, effective and flexible deployment of technology solutions. CoreTech custom-built a complex system for this direct broadcast satellite (DBS) company that helps them monitor and trouble-shoot services provided to customers.

The Challenge
CoreTech’s customer is one of the nation’s leading DBS TV services, delivering top-quality entertainment, sports, news and information and music programming to subscribers beamed directly from a satellite. The Company provides subscribers with a mini-satellite dish, which receives signals and channels them to a decoder box attached to the television. The Company currently provides more than 160 channels of programming.

To ensure that the leap from the service originator to the satellite and then to the customer’s in-home broadcast is made successfully, the Company has a Broadcast Center where every channel is monitored around the clock for quick detection and resolution of transmission problems.

"Before CoreTech came on board, this literally meant having operators watch a wall filled with a mind-boggling number of video screens," recalled a client representative. In the event of an error, the operators would then have to determine whether the problem was with the originator of the broadcast signal, a transponder in the satellite or a mishap within their own organization. With so many channels to monitor — and plans in place to add more — this was a cumbersome task, indeed.

The Company recognized that it needed to create a system that allowed operators to monitor the quality of incoming services in a more streamlined fashion and minimize the risk of human error.

This system would be one piece of a larger monitoring strategy plan the Company had already formulated to meet the challenges of the 21^st century.

The CoreTech Response
In response to this mission-critical need, the DBS company contracted with CoreTech to develop a GUI-based user-friendly system and implement the Company’s vision.

CoreTech stresses the importance of understanding how technology change impacts the way its clients and their people perform their jobs. The company’s staff of IT professionals is able to bring business value to organizations by assisting them in assimilating new technologies — the broadcast monitoring application, in this case. But it doesn’t just end with implementing technology. It also involves developing strong client partnerships and fostering knowledge transfer. CoreTech has been successful because it strives to develop an environment in which knowledge sharing and collaboration occurs between its experienced consultants and its client partners.

For this DBS company, "CoreTech worked closely with the client’s own IT people to understand the technology challenge and formulate the desired solution," said Program Manager, Application Technologies, Craig Hershovitz of CoreTech. "We then applied our IT expertise to the unique needs of this broadcast organization and crafted the resulting application."

Today, the system makes it easy for operators to continuously review all incoming channels, either by running a playlist that can rotate through a predefined set of channels or by manually entering channels. Operators can specify which channels they wish to view on which screens and how long they want it to remain there. They can also quickly freeze on a channel where a problem is detected.

The application supports a cluster of monitors and speakers and enables operators to easily monitor the video and audio signals. Each cluster consists of up to 27 physical screens of varying size, which are fed a subset of the services that the Company receives at any one time.

Workstations display incoming services on a video wall fed by a controlled router switch. The router switch sends signals from the satellite source to the appropriate screens on the video wall and is controlled by the custom software in the workstation via a messaging server. Within the custom software is an abstraction of the physical video wall that appears on the screen of each workstation — a sort of "virtual" video wall. From this screen, which is the heart of the system, the user loads, manipulates and modifies the operating mode of the video wall.

Benefits of a CoreTech Solution
At the outset, the Company had several specific objectives in mind to improve its broadcast center operations. "The CoreTech development team applied its technology expertise and came up with a system that realized all of our primary goals," said the client representative. "The new application definitely fosters a productive environment for the people in our broadcast center."

Flexibility
The application can be configured in many different ways and its video wall simultaneously. The modular architecture of the application allows the DBS company to scale up its capacity as needed.

Reliability
The application’s architecture keeps problems between individual client sessions isolated to their individual pods. The system requests to the messaging server are asynchronous, avoiding the possibility of locking up the multiple workstations even in the event of a server failure. As a result, all video walls remain operational.

Expandability
The application was created using a multi-threaded, object-oriented design. This allows new functionality to be easily added in future phases. "The system was designed to be scalable and to maximize availability," said Project Architect and Director of Application Solutions, Ira Klein of CoreTech. It was designed to take advantage of the Microsoft Component Object Model, allowing CoreTech to build the system out of independent, distributed components, which can be easily evolved, while maintaining backwards compatibility.

Customization
Based on the responsibilities of the cluster, playlists can be created and executed to rotate various services associated with transponders and bank switches. Changes may be made to application’s configuration quickly.

Effectiveness
The GUI interface makes monitoring service quality easy. Operators are able to access collections of services grouped by transponder, making diagnosis of signal problems fast, and they can click and drag icons in an easy-to-use Windows environment. Managers are able to review monitoring statistics to ensure quality control.

Looking Ahead
With the system up and running, the Company has been able to improve operational efficiencies considerably in its broadcast center and raise the quality of their signal monitoring process. This translates into reliable, high-quality viewing for the customer at home.

The Company is actively planning to add new channels to its lineup, eventually perhaps quadrupling the number currently available. "The custom system we developed is configured to accommodate new channels easily and quickly," explained Hershovitz. "Moreover, our technical team at CoreTech possesses the expertise and experience to help [the Company] respond to any new IT challenges that may arise in years to come."

CoreTech and the Company have built a strong working relationship that will serve as a solid foundation for future projects.

CoreTech Consulting Group, Inc. excels in making new technologies work for companies, maximizing business benefit while minimizing disruption and risk. More information about CoreTech may be obtained by calling 800-220-3337 or via the World Wide Web at:

http://www.CoreTech.com

This case study is for informational purposes only. CORETECH MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.

Microsoft and Windows NT are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Other product and company names mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

10/98

   [ About CoreTech ] [ Services ] [ News & Events ] [ Employment ]
[ Home ] [ Search ] [ Contact]

© 1999 CoreTech Consulting Group, Inc. All rights reserved.