Entering our Third Decade of Leading the Broadcast Compliance Logging and Monitoring Solutions for Technical and Content Monitoring

Actus Empowers CTN with Quality and Compliance Solution Across its Network

Discover how Actus Digital’s solution has become essential for CTN’s operations, helping them manage quality control, streamline operations, and meet FCC regulations across its expanding network.

2024 marks a milestone for Actus Digital as we proudly celebrate 20 years of redefining compliance logging, now enhanced with advanced AI capabilities.
Key highlights:

Third-Consecutive NAB Award:

Actus continues to be recognized for excellence and innovation, receiving the Best of Show award at NAB 2024.

Product Enhancements:

This year, we launched new multiviewer features, including the round-robin (carousel) mode and a new penalty box that enables immediate rewind on your multiviewer wall.

In addition, we introduced our new AI-driven media insight, with more AI options added to the Actus Intelligent Monitoring Platform. Users can now quickly analyze content through features like transcription, translation, summarization, identification of key highlights, facial recognition, and ad/content matching… with keyword alerts and automatic clipping.

Global Partnerships:

New partnerships combine increased features and capabilities on a centralized platform. Enhanced integrations with Skyline’s DataMiner, Pikolo’s ITracker, and Suitest enable a unified approach for orchestration and quality-monitoring of vast video distribution workflows with a centralized real-time alert center for faster response to issues. 

Team Expansion:

In alignment with our growth and commitment to providing exceptional service and support to our clients, we’ve welcomed new hires across technical support, product development, and customer success roles in the U.S. and globally.

Thank you for being a part of our journey over the past two decades, your support has been invaluable to our success.

Channel Pinning

Channel Pinning allows any channel to stay visible while performing other tasks within the platform.

To pin a channel, simply click on the Pin icon in the top-left of the video window and it moves to the left margin. This reserves the rest of the screen to work in any part of the GUI while still monitoring pinned channels and even interacting with features such as pause, forward/rewind, mute/unmute, and take screenshot.

Comply with Confidence,
Monitor with Precision

Actus Recruits Tech Veterans John Ryan and Reuben Sivan

Actus Digital, the premier solutions provider for Quality Assurance (QA) alerting, compliance logging, and multiviewer monitoring, announces the addition of two key technical hires: John Ryan as Senior Technical Support Engineer and Reuben Sivan as Senior Developer. Expanding Actus Support Headquarters outside of Los Angeles and Business Headquarters outside of Boston highlights Actus Digital’s dedication to delivering top-tier, customized solutions for our growing U.S. customer base. As demand increases, enhancing local support has become a critical priority, ensuring that our American clients receive fast, efficient, and reliable service from a team committed to meeting their specific needs.

John Ryan — Senior Technical Support Engineer
Including nearly 15-years as Volicon Senior Technical Support Manager, John Ryan brings decades of experience and technical expertise in troubleshooting and supporting broadcast customers with very similar technology. His background will be instrumental in helping Actus provide hands-on technical support to ensure customers maximize the benefits of their Actus solution, including supporting Spanish-speaking organizations in their native tongue.

“From our work together at Volicon, I already know John will be a huge asset to Actus,” said Ken Rubin, Senior Vice President at Actus Digital. “His extensive knowledge of how to support our systems within broadcast workflows will help us maintain our reputation for the best support in the industry, including to many Spanish-speaking customers.”

Ryan said, “I’m excited to join Actus Digital and be part of a company that’s truly leading the way in broadcast technology. I look forward to working closely with our customers to ensure they get the most out of their solutions.”

Reuben Sivan — Senior Developer
Reuben Sivan has been a senior software engineer and led highly successful software development teams for decades. As an Actus Senior Developer, Reuben will focus on helping Actus innovate and customize its platform to meet specific customer requirements and support emerging technologies that will increase the value of the Actus platform.

“Reuben’s experience strengthens our development team and allows us to be more agile in supporting advanced solutions for our customers,” explained Rubin. “His ability to develop robust and innovative software will help Actus expand our offering and increase our value in broadcast workflows.”

Sivan said, “Joining Actus Digital is a fantastic opportunity to help drive the next phase of growth, and I’m excited to contribute my experience to further enhance the powerful platform Actus provides.”

As Actus popularity climbs in the U.S. and throughout the Americas, the additions of Ryan and Sivan fortify the company’s U.S. footprint and emphasizes its focus on delivering solutions that cater to the specific needs of American broadcasters and providing customers with the very best support in the industry.

Enhanced Actus QA Compliance Logging

We introduced the new multiviewer features, including the popular round-robin (carousel) mode and a new penalty box interface for error by exception.

Actus Media Insight: Advanced AI for News & Content Monitoring

Our Media Insight now offers more powerful AI capabilities, changing the news and content monitoring. Media Insight is the only way to monitor and analyze a large volume of content, accurately and quickly, with no language barriers.

Seamless Integration with DataMiner

The DataMiner integration with the Actus System provides a centralized way for customers to manage and monitor their recording channels and transcoding jobs. Operators receive real-time alerts, ensuring quick responses to any issues. It’s all about efficiency and proactive management!

We were thrilled to hear such positive feedback on several key areas:

Intuitive User Interface

Customers love our UI: User-friendly and intuitive, yet features rich, that can be used by both technical and non-technical users, after a short training.

Scalability Across Departments

Customers appreciate our solution’s scalability, which allows multiple departments to work seamlessly within one platform. The ability to expand over time was a key highlight for many (rather than needing to purchase an additional system).

Reliability

Our reliable solutions are always mentioned, allowing teams to focus on their core tasks without having to spend unnecessary time on system maintenance.

Innovation 

For the past 20 years, our customers have consistently recognized us as thought leaders, with our innovation driving richer compliance and monitoring solutions—all within a single platform. The latest addition of AI to our platform further expands its capabilities, adding a wide range of new use cases and scenarios that previously required significant time and manual effort from our customers.

The industry continues to evolve, and Actus is on top of it:

AI-Driven Solutions for Efficient and Automatic Workflows

AI is now a part of many broadcasting systems. Our new AI-based Media Insight for intelligent content monitoring and automatic clipping received great feedback.

Unified Systems

The push for an integrated solution, where one system can serve different departments and different use cases: compliance logging, technical monitoring, multiviewer, OTT monitoring, advanced clipping and export to social, and advanced AI options, all on one platform, allowing the customer to purchase what is needed now and expand later.

OTT Stream Monitoring: QoE and QoS

With the rise of OTT, the demand for ensuring Quality of Experience (QoE) and Quality of Service (QoS) is growing. Our customers love the fact that both their OTA and OTT can be mixed into one system.

Actus Digital, the leading provider of compliance logging and monitoring systems, has proudly integrated with DataMiner systems for many years, enabling customers to centralize information from multiple sources. DataMiner’s powerful platform offers customizable real-time monitoring, analytics, control & orchestration capabilities, ensuring efficient management and operations of any modern media infrastructure, ultimately enhancing the customer experience.

The integration between DataMiner and the Actus System provides customers with a unified approach to managing and monitoring their recording channels and transcoding jobs. Operators can receive real-time alerts, enabling quick responses to any potential issues. This integration is all about driving efficiency and proactive management.

At IBC 2024, Actus Digital is excited to announce an extra level of integration with DataMiner, providing even more valuable insights and capabilities.

“Many of our customers have been using DataMiner systems in conjunction with Actus QA Compliance Logging for years. This enhanced integration will allow additional data from the Actus system to be seamlessly displayed within DataMiner, including new options like playing media directly from Actus,” said Sima Levy, CEO of Actus Digital. “Our customers prefer having all their information centralized, eliminating the need to switch between applications for analysis.”

Visit our booth at IBC 2024, Hall 7.C21, to learn more about how the Actus-Dataminer integration can benefit you.

Boston, MA — August 20, 2024 — Actus Digital, winner of the NAB Best of Show Award for its AI-enhanced QA Compliance Logger and Intelligent Monitoring Platform, will showcase the enhanced compliance and monitoring suite at IBC 2024. This year marks a significant milestone for Actus Digital as they celebrate their 20th anniversary. In that time, Actus Digital has delivered over 1,300 reliable monitoring systems initiated by its four global offices: USA (HQ), Europe, Emirates, and Asia.

The Future of Compliance Logging – Comprehensive Intelligent Monitoring

QA Compliance Logger: Compliance Logger requirements continue to evolve, with new regulatory mandates, existing functionalities adapted for new workflows, and new video standards in the broadcast industry emerge that require ongoing support.

For two decades, the Actus QA Compliance Logger has been a pivotal tool in broadcast and streaming compliance logging. It monitors for loudness compliance, SCTE 35/104, closed captions/subtitles, multiple audio languages, NAVE, EAS, EPG, and provides metadata extraction. It supports every industry input, including newer protocols like ATSC 3.0 in the U.S., SMPTE ST 2110, NMOS, and online streaming formats such as HLS, MPEG-DASH, and SRT. All these inputs are seamlessly integrated into a single system and user interface.

Additionally, it integrates external metadata such as as-run logs and schedules, providing detailed discrepancy reports for complete accuracy and compliance.

Actus QA Compliance Logger extends beyond traditional compliance with enhanced QA alerts for audio and video issues, missing SCTE markers, loudness discrepancies, and absent metadata. Its interactive, software-based multiviewer eliminates the need for additional hardware.

Leveraging the Best AI Engines for Comprehensive Audio and Video Analysis

Actus AI Media Insight enhances our recording, monitoring, and clipping capabilities with advanced AI-based insights on the content, such as transcription, translation, summarization, highlights, ad detection, facial recognition, PG rating, and content decency, as a few examples. Customers can search for any spoken content, receive keyword alerts for relevant topics, and get summaries and highlights of programs in any language, all with a single mouse click. This drastically reduces time-consuming processes and manual work, delivering results with relevant information more quickly. The transcription capability also allows for easy export of clips with subtitles to social or VOD platforms, in any language.

Actus AI Media Insight is versatile and not limited to specific engines. Instead, it integrates the best available engines for each type of analysis, ensuring customers benefit from the most accurate results. This solution is available both as a cloud-based and on-premises option.

Showcasing at IBC 2024

Actus Digital is thrilled to bring our latest technologies to IBC 2024. The company’s Intelligent Monitoring suite includes: QA Compliance Logger for compliance logging/quality monitoring, Clip Factory Pro for advanced clipping and content repurposing, OTT StreamWatch for OTT Monitoring, and Actus RVM for remote post-STB monitoring.

The Intelligent Monitoring Platform is designed to be flexible, allowing each product to function as a standalone feature or be integrated with others, deployable on-premises, virtual machine (VM), or as a SaaS solution.

Join Actus Digital at IBC 2024

Visit Actus in  Booth 7.C21 during the IBC show to explore its solutions and celebrate the company’s 20th anniversary. Experience firsthand how Actus Digital can enhance your broadcasting operations with its unique suite of products.

Actus Digital CEO Sima Levy shares, “Our participation in IBC 2024 is not just about showcasing our products, but more so about meeting our customers and partners, getting their views on the industry, requirements, and feedback. This year, it will be even more special for us, as we celebrate two decades since the company’s founding and gained  1,300 installations all over the world. We could not be prouder.”

Actus Digital is exhibiting in Amsterdam at IBC 2024 in booth 7.C21 between September 13-16.

In the fast-paced world of digital media, publishing content swiftly across social media, VOD and over-the-top (OTT) platforms is paramount. The dynamic nature of online audiences—who crave fresh, timely content—demands tools that streamline content creation and distribution.

Speedy content publication on social media, VOD, and OTT platforms has become increasingly vital in today’s digital age. In saturated media markets, the ability to publish content quickly can serve as a significant differentiator and brands that publish first can capture audiences’ attention early and establish themselves as industry leaders.

The promptness of content publication is crucial

Social media platforms thrive on immediacy, with users constantly seeking new and relevant content. By publishing quickly, creators and brands can capture and maintain their audience’s attention, positioning themselves at the forefront of discussions, gaining higher interaction rates, and increasing their visibility and reach.

The lifespan of trending topics on social media is notoriously short. Swiftly posting content allows creators to capitalize on trending topics and increases the likelihood of their content being seen and shared. This can result in significant increased exposure, as content aligned with trending topics garners more views, shares, and engagement.

Many social media platforms employ algorithms that prioritize recent content so posting promptly enables content creators to leverage these algorithms so their posts reach a larger audience; another reason timeliness plays such a crucial role in audience building and maintaining visibility across platforms.

Retaining viewer engagement

Viewers often turn to VOD and OTT platforms to catch up on missed content or rewatch their favorite programs at their convenience. Therefore, delaying the republishing of such content can result in missed opportunities to capture viewer attention and maintain platform relevance.

The need for quickly republishing content to VOD and OTT platforms is vital to staying relevant and competitive. Time-sensitive content, such as breaking news updates, trending topics, or viral moments, requires immediate republishing to capitalize on audience interest and engagement.

By promptly republishing content, platforms can meet viewer demand for timely and relevant material, enhance viewer satisfaction, drive eye-balls back to their primary broadcast platform, and ultimately gain and retain audience loyalty in an increasingly competitive media landscape.

Utilizing metadata for effective content management and compliance

Effective use of compliance metadata involves understanding legal and regulatory constraints, selecting and editing content appropriately, and applying filters to ensure that only relevant content reaches social media. By analyzing audience demographics and preferences, creators can tailor their content to resonate with their target audience, increasing engagement and interaction.

Additionally, integrating metadata-driven insights into content creation strategies allows for more personalized and appropriate content delivery. Adding engaging elements such as captions, calls-to-action, and interactive features further enhances audience engagement and encourages interaction with the content. Moreover, scheduling posts for optimal times based on audience behavior patterns maximizes reach and ensures that content is delivered when it is most likely to be seen and shared. Continuous monitoring and adaptation based on audience feedback and compliance changes ensure the content remains effective and within legal bounds, while also staying relevant to the evolving needs and interests of the audience.

Enhance your content creation process and add streamlined efficiency by adding Actus Clip Factory Pro automated workflows to your technical compliance solution

Actus Clip Factory Pro (CFP) is a standout solution, offering a suite of editing tools tailored for rapid, efficient content creation. This innovative software supports multi-segment editing, impactful effects, adding graphical elements, and leverages AI to enhance videos with transcribed/translated captions, summaries, and key points, significantly speeding up the content preparation process.

Adding automated CFP workflows to an Actus compliance recording solution allows creators to swiftly capture and edit content all in one system, bypassing the need for costly, high-end equipment and specialized editing skills. The focus shifts towards leveraging content creators’ insights to determine the most engaging material to publish, ensuring relevance and viewer engagement.

A critical aspect of this accelerated content creation process is the utilization of metadata. Actus CFP harnesses AI-generated metadata for automated clip creation, adhering to compliance standards while ensuring content remains current and relevant. This automation leverages the integration with playout systems, enabling the extraction and editing of content in near real-time based on program and advertising names and times, thus significantly reducing manual labor and speeding up content availability on VOD and OTT platforms.

The synergy between Clip Factory Pro and Actus’s compliance logging and quality monitoring solutions represents a significant leap forward in content creation and distribution. By simplifying the content production process and ensuring rapid deployment to social media and OTT platforms, Actus empowers creators to stay ahead in the digital age, maintain viewer engagement with trending content and stay atop of their competition.

https://theiabm.org/actus-digital-accelerating-digital-content-publishing-with-automated-workflows-from-compliance-logging-systems/ 

In today’s fast-paced broadcast environment, staying compliant and efficient is not just a necessity but a critical component of success. This is where our advanced compliance logging solution comes into play, offering an integrated approach with SMPTE 2110 inputs, advanced clipping for social media, a comprehensive multiviewer, and a reliable backup option.

Client Overview:

Our client, Global News Network (GNN), is a leading international news broadcaster, renowned for its 24/7 coverage of global events. GNN strives to maintain the highest standards of broadcasting compliance while ensuring timely and effective content delivery across various platforms, including social media.

Challenge:

GNN faced multiple challenges in its broadcasting operations:

• Transitioning to an IP-based infrastructure with SMPTE 2110 compatibility

• Efficiently clipping and sharing broadcast content on social media platforms

• Monitoring multiple live feeds simultaneously for compliance and quality assurance

• Implementing a reliable backup system for uninterrupted operations

Solution:

They partnered with Actus!

Our comprehensive compliance logging solution meets GNN’s specific needs:

1. SMPTE 2110 Input Integration:

We upgraded GNN’s infrastructure to support SMPTE 2110 inputs, facilitating seamless integration with IP-based workflows and enhancing the quality and flexibility of media handling.

2. Advanced Clipping for Social Media:

We provided its Clip Factory PRO with advanced clipping tools specifically designed for fast-paced news environments.  This enabled GNN to quickly edit and publish key news segments to social media, thereby engaging a wider audience.

3. Multiviewer Capability:

We implemented a state-of-the-art browser based multiviewer system, allowing GNN’s operators to monitor multiple channels and feeds on a single dynamically configurable interface.  This significantly improved their ability to view their channels, manage their content, and ensure their compliance.

4. Robust Backup System:

We integrated a comprehensive backup solution which ensured the preservation and quick recovery of logged content.  This safeguarded GNN from data loss and system failures.

Results:

GNN experienced a transformative impact on its broadcasting operations:

• Enhanced operational efficiency and flexibility with the SMPTE ST 2110 standard.
• Increased social media engagement due to timely and relevant content sharing.
• Improved compliance monitoring with the multiviewer feature.
• A significant reduction in downtime and data loss risks due to the robust backup solution.

Conclusion:

Actus’ custom compliance logging solution not only addressed GNN’s immediate challenges, but also set a new standard in their broadcast operations. By embracing advanced technologies and integrative solutions, GNN reinforced its position as a leading news broadcaster, ready to adapt to the evolving media landscape.

OTT StreamWatch, Remote Video Monitoring, and Version 9.0 of the Actus Intelligent Monitoring Platform Make BCA Debut; Benefits of Enhancements Reach Broader Range of Customers

 BOSTON, MA — May 25, 2023 — Actus Digital, the premier solutions provider for compliance logging and Intelligent broadcast and OTT monitoring, will introduce two new products along with significant improvements to the latest version of its AI-based Intelligent Monitoring Platform at the BCA convention. An exhibitor since 2007 with a large customer and partnership base, and an Asian office, BCA is a key tradeshow on the Actus calendar.

“We’re committed to providing top-level support to our customers and partners in Asia,” said Sima Levy, CEO of Actus Digital. “Our significant user base in the region allows us to tailor our solutions to the specific requirements and workflows of this market. We’re proud of the relationships we’ve established and are the only compliance logging vendor exhibiting at BCA. Our office in Asia provides pre-and post-sales support, allowing us to perform better and faster service to our Asian customers. We work closely with our customers and enhance our solution with their specific needs and ideas in mind.”

Among the biggest news at BCA is our new OTT Monitoring, OTT StreamWatch – a game changer for OTT quality assurance. In addition to 24/7 quality assurance, it provides compliance logging, OTT stream monitoring, and aircheck recording of native HLS and other OTT ABR streams. It can be deployed as a stand-alone solution or as part of the Actus Intelligent Monitoring Platform – providing customers with a central interface. OTT StreamWatch is the first product that makes it economically feasible to monitor FAST, IPTV, and OTT streaming channels throughout the entire workflow. It is a cost-effective option for OTT content owners, streaming companies, and service providers of all sizes.

“OTT StreamWatch combines features that have never been in a solitary product before,” said Sima Levy, CEO of Actus Digital. “It enables aircheck recording of native HLS and other OTT ABR (Adaptive Bitrate) streams. It clearly displays QoS information so users can easily evaluate bandwidth usage, streaming media download times, missing SCTE, and buffering issues within OTT streams. And it summarizes data so operators can recognize and address potential issues before they impact viewer quality. It does all this at a price well below what the combination of products required would cost for those same functions.”

Another new product on display at BCA will be Remote Video Monitoring (RVM) within the Actus Intelligent Monitoring Platform. Designed as a quality assurance solution for multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs), the Actus RVM allows MVPDs to gain real-time insights into their viewers’ quality of service (QoS) and verify local ad insertion and timing. It enables MVPDs to remotely connect to STBs at head ends and hub sites to examine one channel at a time or the entire channel lineup via multiviewer monitoring and proactive QoS alerts. When Actus RVM is deployed at multiple probe points and/or in multiple locations, it shows how widespread an issue is and pinpoints the exact location it entered the video distribution workflow. This allows operators to rapidly identify, diagnose, and resolve QoS problems without costly truck rolls.

Also included within the new Version 9.0 of the Actus compliance logging and Intelligent Monitoring Platform are more AI-enabled options, such as speech-to-text and translation to any language. This is particularly beneficial for news monitoring purposes, allowing searches for specific keywords and quick and accurate audio and video analysis. Moreover, Actus will present improvements to its compliance logging, advanced editing and clipping workflow for social/OTT, browser-based multiviewer, automatic ad detection, and more.

The additions and improvements to the Actus portfolio benefit a broad range of users: broadcasters, OTT providers, cable, satellite, and playout operators, government, and news agencies.

Current applications of the latest Actus technology in the Asia Pacific region, as some examples, include broadcast playout provider, MediaHub Australia, and broadcast media conglomerate MediaCorp in Singapore. MediaHub utilizes the Actus monitoring platform as part of a mux-based DTT broadcast headend, recording 18 proxy channels for 132 services. And MediaCorp is currently using the Actus platform for both compliance logging and clipping for its OTT streaming service.

To meet with Actus in person during the show or to schedule an online demonstration, visit https://actusdigital.com/events/tradeshows/  For more information about Actus Digital’s products, visit https://actusdigital.com.

Improved Workflow and Efficiency, New Automation Options Among Upgrade Highlights

BOSTON, MA — May 04, 2023 — Actus Digital, the premier solutions provider for Intelligent broadcast and OTT monitoring will present the latest version of the platform at CABSAT 2023.

Actus will demonstrate version 9.0 of its Intelligent Monitoring Platform in Booth #106.

The latest Intelligent Monitoring Platform includes improvements and new solutions required by a range of customers: broadcast engineers searching for a compliance logging, Multiviewer and technical monitoring, digital media producers that need an advanced, cost-effective and simple to use clipping workflow for social/OTT/VOD clips; governments and news agencies who need advanced AI options to search and receive alerts when relevant topics are mentioned on news channels; and media regulators that need to make sure broadcasters comply with the regulatory requirements.

A part of the new Actus Intelligent Monitoring Platform version 9.0 is OTT StreamWatch for OTT monitoring. It can be deployed as a stand-alone solution or part of the monitoring platform, which provides customers with one central interface.

“OTT StreamWatch is a game changer in the OTT Quality Assurance market,” said Raphael Renous, Actus CTO. “It addresses OTT quality issues that lead to viewer churn and loss of revenue with a unique combination of features and benefits that have never been combined in a solitary product before.  – The price is well below that of the combination of products it would take to deliver similar benefits.”

OTT StreamWatch provides 24/7 quality assurance, compliance logging, OTT stream monitoring, and aircheck recording of native HLS and other OTT ABR streams. It is the first product that makes it economically feasible to monitor FAST, IPTV, and OTT streaming channels throughout the entire workflow. The solution is affordable to OTT content owners, streaming companies, and service providers of all sizes.

It analyzes OTT content at the manifest level, at the encryption level, and at the HTTP level. OTT StreamWatch displays QoS information clearly so users can evaluate bandwidth usage, streaming media download times, missing SCTE, buffering issues within OTT streams, and it summarizes data so operators can recognize and address potential issues before they impact viewer quality.

“The Actus Digital monitoring platform is appreciated by our many global and specifically by our UAE regional customers not only for its reliability and feature-rich platform, but also for our company’s commitment to the UAE market, said Mark Barkey, Sales Director, Actus Digital, UAE. “We’re the only company specializing in broadcast monitoring that has local presence and support. A few examples of customers we work with in the region are Sky News Arabia, MBC, the Dubai Government, Al Aan TV, Al Araby, QTV, and many more. Our platform serves broadcasters, media operators, governments, news agencies, and more. The flexibility of the platform allows each customer to select only the options needed yet have all monitoring capability centralized within an all-in-one platform.“

To meet with Actus in person during the show or to schedule an online demonstration, visit https://actusdigital.com/events/tradeshows/. For more information about Actus Digital’s products, visit https://actusdigital.com.