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In the DigitalTV industry CA Systems (Condition Access Systems) are of great importance for protecting valuable media. It is equally important for Cable, Satellite, Terrestrial and IPTV media distribution.

All Digital TV operators use a Conditional Access system to protect the media content carried in their system and the CA system is a frequent source of problems for digital TV operators. The ETSI TR 101 290 specification does not cover monitoring of Conditional Access systems and regular monitoring equipment can not detect problems regarding the CA systems.

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This means that errors often go unnoticed until subscribers start to call and complain. CA systems are surrounded by a lot of secrecy and finding the cause of the problems affecting the customers are difficult. Problems with the Conditional Access system often lead to a lot of finger-pointing between the different vendors. The multiplexer vendor blames the CA system, the CA vendor blames the set-top box and the STB vendor blames everyone.

CAS

Illustration: A typical head end system with descrambling of the input signals and encrypting of the signals with the operators CA system

Seeing the need for monitoring solutions for CAS Bridgetech have implemented full analytics and alarming of the CAS in all products with the ETR 101 290 option. BRIDGETECH developers with experience from the CAS industry have made it possible to create the first product in the world with full monitoring of the CA systems.

The monitoring automatically detects all common CA problems and notifies the operator of errors long before the customers notice any problems. The monitor verifies EMM and ECM PIDs, monitors the Control Word changes for all encrypted channels and vaildates the CA descriptors in the CAT and PMT tables. The operator can also specify a list of service components that must meet a specific scrambling requirement, for instance specifying that HD video must be scrambled while STB middleware is required to be clear.

The checks are designed to catch errors caused by network problems in the headend, faults in the CA system servers and misconfiguration of multiplexers and CA equipment. The monitoring is performed without having to descramble the signals thereby significantly reducing the complexity and cost of the monitoring solution. Read our whitepaper on CAS monitoring.

ETR290

Illustration: A screenshot of CAS monitoring functionality

The CAS monitoring can be used to monitor Digital TV transmitted over IP-TV, Cable, Terrestrial and Satellite networks. Operators using Bridgetech equipment to monitor their CA system have reduced their operational costs associated with the CA system as they are now automatically notified of problems before they affect the customers.

Advanced trouble-shooting tools help them pinpoint the source of the problem and make solving the problems easier by offering advanced analysis. CA system vendors have also started to use the BRIDGETECH monitoring equipment both in their development labs and to monitor customers networks.

CAS monitoring and ETR 101 290 analysis is included as standard with all VB12/VB120 products and is an option for VB20/VB220. For more information please visit www.bridgetech.tv, call +47 22 38 51 00 or visit our website to find your closest Bridgetech representative.

ABOUT BRIDGE TECHNOLOGIES
BRIDGE Technologies design, develop and manufacture advanced analysis, measurement and monitoring solutions for the digital broadcast and telecommunication industries. The award winning VideoBRIDGE series provides an advanced industrial strength platform for converging media services employing all DigitalTV standards. A privately held company with headquarters in Oslo, Norway, BRIDGE Technologies have worldwide sales operations through business partners in the European, US and Asia/Pacific markets.

BRIDGE Technologies, Mølleparken 4, N-0459 Oslo, Norway. eMail: info@bridgetech.tv.

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NEWSLETTER
Oslo, June 12 2009	Click here to read the newsletter online >