As the market moves progressively toward contribution and distribution over unmanaged (internet) networks the number of possible faults in the transport stream multiplies exponentially. Left unchecked and the video service provider will bear the cost of failing to live up to consumer expectation or client contract.
Issues include, but are not limited to, packet loss (incorrect packet order or a packet occurs more than twice), errors causing frozen frames and loss of lip sync and buffering caused by traffic congestion, rerouting and equipment failure among others.
Media networking needs to adapt to different scenarios like high/low latency, high/low bandwidth (or high/low cost), reliable/unreliable networks, high-end/low end productions. This implies that different networks will be used for different solutions.
The sheer volume of streams flowing back and forth from venue to production hubs across the internet demands a comprehensive, agile and operationally sophisticated monitoring solution to match.