Imagine Communications – The Need for Video-Aware Monitoring Solutions With End-to-End Network Visibility
Dan Walsh, Senior Vice President, Product Management, at Imagine Communications
For the media and entertainment industry, the introduction of SMPTE ST 2110 marked the beginning of the transition from legacy SDI to IP-based video networks. While this shift has unlocked unprecedented flexibility and scalability, it has also introduced a new level of operational complexity.
In IP environments, there are far more variables at play than in SDI networks. Switchers, routers, firewalls, and video processing equipment all have the potential to affect video quality in ways never seen in traditional workflows. Even small disruptions can cause visible degradation that impacts the viewer experience.
Despite this, most monitoring tools used today were designed for general-purpose IT networks, not the unforgiving demands of real-time video. Here, we look at how these tools come up short, creating gaps that only video-aware monitoring solutions can fill.
The Current State of Video Network Monitoring
For today’s video providers, network monitoring often relies on a mix of high-end IT applications and homegrown systems built on freeware, each covering only part of the workflow. And critical components, such as video processing equipment, may not be supported at all.
General-purpose IT tools require APIs, drivers, or other interfaces for every device in the network. Because these solutions are built for the broader IT market, vendors focus on products from major networking companies, leaving specialized video devices without coverage. The result is a patchwork approach with blind spots that make diagnosing and resolving problems far more difficult.
Managing a video network is also fundamentally different from managing a standard IP data network and calls for a different set of capabilities from monitoring solutions. IT networks are typically resilient by design, and the primary concern is whether devices are online and if applications are running. If data packets are moving, all is well.
Video networks, however, demand more. Maintaining peak performance at every stage in the workflow is essential to ensuring content is delivered successfully and with the highest quality. A monitoring solution must be able to analyze devices and applications based on how effectively they process content, not just whether they’re operational.
To achieve this, monitoring must be video-aware, understanding the network’s nuances and measuring the right indicators to confirm optimal performance. And those indicators go far beyond standard IT metrics. They include video processing buffers, lip sync analysis, bridge router saturation levels, service availability — not just for the service itself but for the individual programs within it — and more.
The Need for a Video-Specific Solution
As viewer expectations for video quality continue to rise, the media and entertainment industry needs monitoring solutions designed by video engineers specifically for video networks. A critical capability these solutions must provide is true end-to-end visibility — the ability to see the complete path content takes through the network and correlating data from all the devices along that path.
In video workflows, an alert from a specific device doesn’t always mean the fault lies there; the root cause may be upstream. So, without end-to-end visibility, it takes longer to detect problems and even more time to troubleshoot and isolate their source. This can lead to complete service outages or quality degradation that harms the viewer experience. And when performance problems disrupt ad delivery, the impact extends beyond audience satisfaction, directly affecting revenue growth.
Another essential capability is configurable monitoring sensitivity. Operators require the ability to focus resources where they’re most needed. A broadcaster confident in an overbuilt switch infrastructure might concentrate monitoring on edge devices or streaming applications, where problems are more likely to arise. Conversely, another operator facing the risk of switch oversubscription — a common IT issue, but far more disruptive in video — might increase visibility and alerting on switch performance.
Finally, smart alerting is critical. Operators can be overwhelmed by floods of low-priority notifications, which can bury the alerts that matter most. Purpose-built solutions should filter and prioritize notifications so operators see only the most urgent, actionable information.
Media and Entertainment OEMs Must Lead the Way
For many operators transitioning to IP, the shift has been eye-opening. Networks are more complex than expected, and their current tools aren’t giving them the visibility they need. Some have tried to fill the gaps themselves using freeware. But then they face the burden of developing and maintaining that software to make it work effectively alongside other products in their network. They often give up, realizing the effort costs too much and still doesn’t deliver complete coverage.
Media and entertainment OEMs know video networks better than anyone. They are the experts in the unique challenges, workflows, and performance demands of these environments, which puts them in the best position to solve the problem. By designing interoperable, video-aware monitoring solutions that integrate seamlessly into mixed environments, OEMs can eliminate costly workarounds, restore full visibility, and protect both content quality and revenue in an increasingly IP-driven world.
