Bridge Technologies has announced a series of training courses designed to help users of the award-winning VideoBRIDGE digital TV monitoring system get the maximum benefit from end-to-end fault tracking and performance analysis in the broadcast delivery chain.

Developed in response to demand from digital media operators, the Bridge Technologies Academy will provide technical personnel with the cross-technology operational expertise necessary for complete understanding of the entire digital TV delivery chain. Training courses will be scheduled through 2010 and provided at Bridge Technologies’ Oslo headquarters, or by arrangement at the operator’s facility.

“The digital TV delivery chain is highly complex and comprises many different technologies,” said Bridge Technologies Managing Director Rolf Ollmar. “While the VideoBRIDGE system gives an outstandingly transparent view of the chain in a form that is easy to interpret and navigate, it is still a big help for customers to have a greater depth of understanding into the nature of all the technologies across the chain. Just as there has been a lack of end-to-end monitoring solutions for digital TV until recently, there is also a lack of training opportunities where engineers and maintenance staff can acquire both the overview and the detailed knowledge they need. With these courses, customers can now acquire that expertise directly from Bridge Technologies.”

The courses are aimed at technical support engineers with some knowledge of IP and with either a broadcast or telco background. Course content will include:
• Fundamentals
• The transport stream, IP protocol stack
• IPTV protocol mappings
• Relevant standards, unicast vs. multicast, IGMP
• Digital TV measurement techniques
• General considerations, standards
• What to measure, where to measure
• Packet drops, packet jitter
• Common network problems, common video problems
• Case studies, inter-arrival time, jitter robustness
• Stuffed versus unstuffed streams
• The MediaWindow™
• Product training
• Probes, extractor, generator, VBC

For further detail on course location and schedules, please contact Hilde Andersen by phone at +47 22 38 51 00 or by e-mail at training (a) bridgetech.tv.

The VideoBRIDGE system is the first true headend to set-top box monitoring solution available in the industry and includes a full range of IP Probes for analysis at any point in the chain from satellite to set-top box. The award-winning VideoBRIDGE series of probes offers an innovative approach to 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, and DVB/ATSC - 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 MEDIA WINDOW™ (patented), the VideoBRIDGE series is at the forefront of digital TV measurement, monitoring, and analysis technologies.