CTN Relies on Actus Digital to Spread the Word  

By Yolanda Morris
President
Christian Television Network

For over 45-years, CTN has pursued a vision to broadcast the gospel into every home in America. We have grown our broadcast-footprint to include 24 US on-air television stations, satellite broadcasting, internet streaming, and many cable stations. 

We spread the message of Christianity through a diverse array of content, including sermons, talk shows, music programs, and family-oriented films and cater to a wide demographic that seeks uplifting and educational programming, not just to entertain but also to educate and inspire their Christian faith.  

CTN operates three channels, including our primary CTN channel that focuses on televangelism, CTNi that is also televangelism-based but with all programming in Spanish, and CTN Lifestyle that includes secular syndicated programming, Christian talk shows (such as the 700 Club), movies, and Christian-themed entertainment programs. And, we are now adding a fourth channel in many of our markets. 

CENTRALIZING QUALITY CONTROL 

Maintaining the highest quality standards as we continue to expand our TV stations, channels, and distribution partners is an ever-increasing challenge.  

Having the robust Actus QA Compliance Logger in our centralized Network Operation Center in Largo, Florida has enabled us to maintain the highest quality standards. It provides visibility across all of our stations and eliminates the need for personnel at each. 

One of the main benefits for us is that the platform alerts us to any quality issues that arise, such as audio dropouts, video freezing, or signal degradation… so that we can act swiftly to remedy it and ensure our viewers experience seamless programming. 

Actus also provides us with insightful reports that allow us to assess our performance trends over time to proactively address potential issues before they escalate and maintain the consistent level of quality that our audience expects. 

Not only does the Actus Multiviewer professionally display all of our channels across several large portrait-hung displays for our NOC engineering team to monitor live, but it also enables unlimited simultaneous users to log in remotely and access live or recorded content, as well as clip and share content when needed. 

Compliance with FCC Regulations 

Another advantage of using the Actus system is its comprehensive compliance features. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) imposes strict regulations, requiring stations to meet specific standards such as maintaining Closed Captions and not violating the CALM Act, which demands similar volume between programming and commercials. 

As a non-profit organization without unlimited funds for equipment, Actus was an affordable option to ensure we meet all regulatory requirements on a platform that also monitors broadcast performance. This dual role is crucial for us, given the expansive geographies in which we operate.  

This streamlined Actus approach allows us to maintain consistent quality across all channels and provides us with peace of mind knowing that we are FCC compliant. This not only protects our license but also strengthens our programming for our viewers and stakeholders. 

Streamlining Operations

The integration of the Actus system has also streamlined our operational processes. The user-friendly interface allows our technical staff to easily navigate and utilize the system, reducing training time and increasing overall efficiency.  

Additionally, the centralized monitoring capabilities reduce the complexity of our operations and allow our team members to communicate more clearly, leading to a more organized approach and faster resolutions. 

Conclusion

Actus has empowered us to make the corporate office a support hub for all our stations, streamlining our efforts and improving efficiency.  

Our organization is truly excited to move forward with this advanced level of monitoring. It represents a significant step toward modernizing our operations and enhances our ability to excel in what we do.  
 
The Actus system is a crucial piece that we’ve been needing and has become an integral part of our quality assurance strategy across all of our local television stations. 

NEWSnet and Sports News Highlights Optimize Engineering Efficiency with State-of-the-Art Actus Multiviewer and 24×7 QA-Alerting Intelligent Monitoring Platform

BOSTON, MA — August  27, 2024 — Bridge Media Networks, operator of the NEWSnet and Sports News Highlights networks, announces the integration of Actus Digital’s advanced monitoring solution to optimize its broadcast operations. With a focus on delivering high-quality content to viewers across multiple platforms, Bridge Media Networks sought a comprehensive system to streamline monitoring and ensure consistent viewer quality.

Bridge Media Networks has a hybrid distribution model for NEWSnet and Sports News Highlights that includes both OTT platforms and a range of broadcast stations nationwide. This requires a centralized approach to monitoring and managing broadcasts. Although other brands were considered, Actus emerged as the clear choice based on its robust features and user-friendly interface.

“We recognized the need for a centralized multiviewer to monitor our extensive distribution network,” said Eric Wotila, President of Bridge Media Networks. “Actus provided the perfect solution, offering not only centralized multiviewer monitoring but also automated alerts that allow us to immediately address issues, often times before viewer quality disruption.”

Actus Digital’s system enables Bridge Media Networks to monitor signals, detect anomalies, and receive real-time alerts that ensure uninterrupted broadcasting at optimal quality. The platform’s browser-based access allows for remote connection and improves efficiency by empowering team members to monitor the entire network from any location.

“Our previous manual monitoring process was time-consuming with limited notification of issues. Actus QA Compliance Logger is a significant upgrade, allowing remote access to all stations from one GUI with an impressive depth of monitoring and alerting,” said Wotila.

In addition to traditional OTA broadcasting, Bridge Media Networks is committed to expanding its reach through over-the-top (OTT) platforms and appreciates Actus Digital’s ability to seamlessly monitor OTT feeds and provide insight into stream quality and download performance.

“It was apparent from the very first demo that Actus was exactly what we were looking for. The comprehensive features and cost-effectiveness made it the clear choice,” concluded Wotila. “Actus was very willing to work with us to customize a solution that worked well to meet all of our needs for our NEWSnet and Sports News Highlights networks.”

Bridge Media Networks’ collaboration with Actus Digital underscores its commitment to innovation and excellence in broadcasting. By leveraging Actus’s advanced monitoring solution, Bridge Media Networks aims to enhance their viewer experience and maintain its position as a leading provider of news and sports content.

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

Background:

One of the largest Asian telecommunications conglomerates, offering an extensive range of services including fixed broadband, mobile telephony, digital services, and pay television, required a robust solution capable of integrating compliance logging with an automated Video-On-Demand (VOD) workflow within a single platform.

Challenges:  

The conglomerate aimed to achieve:

1. Comprehensive Compliance Monitoring: A turnkey IP/TS/SDI compliance logging and technical monitoring, including TS Analysis, TS Native recording and As Run integration from their playout system.
2. Scalability: Easily accommodate the expansion of channels and integration of additional sites.
3. Comply with regulatory requirements and beyond: Support all regulatory requirements such as loudness management, Closed Caption (CC)/subtitles monitoring, multiple audio tracks, SCTE monitoring, and technical alerts for audio/video/missing metadata issues (including SNMP traps). Additionally, advanced capabilities beyond compliance were needed, including advanced clipping and metadata options, ad detection, and a multiviewer with an interactive penalty box
4. Automatic VOD Workflow: The integrated solution needed to leverage compliance and native TS recording to quickly and efficiently create clips for their VOD platform.

Solution Implementation:

After evaluating various options, Magna Systems and Actus Digital were selected for the implementation of the Actus Digital monitoring system. Besides the Actus monitoring platform’s reliability, scalability, and excellent support, Actus was chosen for its solutions that go beyond compliance and technical monitoring. Through Actus Digital’s Rest API for advanced clipping and customized XML integration, the system facilitated quick, effective, and automatic clip creation, reducing manual work and accelerating content availability on the VOD platform. Utilizing the same platform for compliance logging, technical monitoring, and generating clips for the VOD platform proved to be cost-effective, benefited from integrated solutions, and provided a single point of contact for the conglomerate.

Outcome:

The solution was successfully deployed across two sites. Initially monitoring a total of 226 channels, with provisions to expand to additional sites and channels as required. Magna Systems played a pivotal role in the project, offering vital contributions through demonstrations, proof of concepts, gathering requirements, installation, configuration, and training. Consolidating all compliance requirements, technical monitoring, and automated clipping workflows for the VOD platform into an “all in one” monitoring platform proved to be cost-effective and eliminated the need for separate systems, showcasing the conglomerate’s commitment to efficiency and innovation.

BOSTON, MA — February 26, 2024 — Actus Digital, a cutting-edge broadcast monitoring and compliance solutions provider, has played a pivotal role in transforming the operations of WTCI, the public broadcaster based in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Recognized for its innovative and reliable platform, Actus Digital has enabled WTCI to enhance its monitoring capabilities, ensuring the highest standards of compliance and content quality across its four channels.

WTCI joins dozens of PBS stations deploying Actus systems, as Actus has established itself as the U.S. value, feature, and support leader for quality assurance multiviewers and compliance logging systems.

Serving a vast audience across Tennessee, North Georgia, Alabama, and North Carolina, WTCI sought to upgrade its monitoring and compliance infrastructure to better serve its diverse viewer base and growing technical needs. Facing the limitations of manual monitoring methods and the inadequacies of a home-built system, WTCI turned to Actus Digital for an affordable solution that offered unparalleled functionality.

“We looked at two other brands, but Actus Digital was the only one that provided the affordability and the advanced features we needed for quality assurance, including real-time monitoring, automatic alerting, and comprehensive compliance,” stated Bryan Fuqua, WTCI SVP Technical Services.

Key features of the Actus platform that have proven invaluable to WTCI include its intuitive user interface, reliable monitoring and alerting, and the flexibility to customize settings for each broadcast channel. Fuqua continued, “The capabilities of Actus are perfect for WTCI. It’s been rock solid since the day we put it in. Actus gives our engineering team confidence even when we aren’t watching because we know our Actus system is always watching.”

The Actus solution at WTCI delivers sophisticated capabilities for satisfying underwriters and addressing viewer issues, with easy access to recorded content for review and analysis. “We can easily pull up programs that have already aired, check the captioning, audio/video, verify the airing of interstitials, and even export clips to demonstrate compliance,” Fuqua added.

This partnership between Actus Digital and WTCI is an example of Actus Digital’s role as a trusted provider of broadcast monitoring and compliance solutions to TV stations of any size.

Actus Digital Intelligent Monitoring Platform Supports a Diverse Range of Use Cases, Including Compliance Recording and Technical Monitoring

BOSTON — November 14, 2023 — Actus Digital, the premiere solutions provider for broadcast compliance logging, quality monitoring, alerting, advanced editing, content repurposing, and AI-based workflows, announced today that A1 Telekom Austria Group, a leading operator in Austria, is expanding its use of the company’s intelligent monitoring platform. With the Actus platform, A1 Telekom Austria Group can monitor its in-house quality of service as well as provide its broadcast customers with remote content monitoring, clips creation and export capabilities, and more. The operator is using the Actus platform for a diverse range of use cases such as for compliance recording; monitoring of loudness, SCTE-104/35, subtitle, multiple audio languages; as well as for technical monitoring and real-time alerts on audio, video, and metadata issues.

“As a network operator and media service provider, supporting our broadcast customers’ evolving requirements is a top priority for us,” said Josef Windisch, technical project and presales manager at A1 Telekom Austria Group. “Actus Digital’s monitoring solution is easy to use and offers functionalities beyond mere compliance tasks so that we are ready for future requirements. The platform’s unparalleled efficiency, reliability, and feature-rich capabilities are reasons why we continue to be a longtime, satisfied customer of Actus Digital.”

Actus Digital’s platform offers a wider range of features compared with traditional broadcast monitoring systems, providing increased value to customers. A1 Telekom Austria Group’s broadcast customers can remotely access the Actus platform, enabling them to instantly monitor their content, quality of their channels, and ads.

A1 Telekom Austria Group is also using the Actus platform to improve its quality of service assurance. By providing real-time alerts on a variety of A/V impairments, the Actus platform helps the operator to ensure outstanding audio and video quality.

“With more than 5.4 million mobile and 2.3 million fixed-line customers, A1 Telekom Austria Group is a media operator with a growing number of broadcast monitoring requirements,” said Sima Levy, CEO at Actus Digital. “We’re happy to support the evolving needs of A1 Telekom, as they expand their reach, with a one-stop-shop solution for everything from broadcast monitoring to quality alerts and more.”

Actus’ Intelligent Monitoring Platform Supports Numerous Broadcast Use Cases, Including Compliance Recording, Technical and OTT Monitoring, and Advanced Clips Creation

BOSTON — Dec. 15, 2022 — Actus Digital, the premiere solutions provider for broadcast compliance logging, quality monitoring, alerting, advanced editing, content repurposing, and AI-based workflows, announced today that Dubai, United Arab Emirates-based regional television channel Al Aan TV is utilizing the company’s intelligent monitoring platform. The Actus platform provides Al Aan TV with a highly adaptable and future-proof solution for compliance recording, content monitoring, advanced clips creation and export, and more, helping the broadcaster to increase viewer engagement and assure a high quality of service (QoS) for one of the leading Arabic channels in the Middle East.

“Our legacy broadcast monitoring system had reached its end of life, and we needed to find a replacement that was robust, reliable, and flexible to support our evolving requirements and provide solutions that not only support the requirements of the technical department but also those of other departments such as the digital media and OTT,” said Cesar Eid, deputy head of technical operations at Al Aan TV. “Actus Digital’s platform provides us with a feature-rich solution that supports countless capabilities beyond compliance and technical monitoring. The Actus platform enables us to rapidly turn around new content and increases our workflow efficiencies while also being intuitive and easy to use. Based on our success, we are looking to expand the solution in the near future as we add more channels and functionalities.”

Actus’ compliance and monitoring software is hardware-agnostic, enabling Al Aan TV to deploy the platform on existing, on-premises servers. The implementation was achieved in record time, thanks to Actus Digital’s comprehensive deployment expertise, training, and 24/7 support.

The Actus platform offers a wider range of features compared with traditional broadcast monitoring systems, including a multiviewer functionality that allows Al Aan TV to review a mix of over-the-air and OTT sources on a single large screen. The browser-based multiviewer provides Al Aan TV a bird’s eye view of QoS issues, speeding up error resolution, while offering remote access with super-low latency and simple layout customizations. Al Aan TV is also using the Actus Clip Factory PRO to quickly repurpose content for online distribution. The Actus platform provides Al Aan TV with advanced editing and exporting options, allowing fast content publishing to boost viewer engagement.

“Over the last decade, Al Aan TV has grown and evolved in order to meet viewers’ demands for exceptional-quality news and entertainment content,” said Sima Levy, CEO at Actus Digital. “We’re excited to help Al Aan TV expand with an all-in-one, best-of-breed solution that addresses all of their compliance recording, content monitoring, clips creation requirements, and so much more, in a single platform.”

USE CASE 1: RTV Slovenia

The Slovenian public broadcaster uses Actus Clip Factory Pro (CF PRO) to easily select News, Weather, and Sports clips, add metadata, and quickly publish to their website(s), enabling them to be first-to-digital, with any news or relevant content. RTV’s Actus Intelligent Monitoring platform captures a mix of SDI and IP video that provides their team simultaneous local and remote access to simply select clip(s) and choose a profile that may contain graphic overlay, pre- or post-rolls, and distribution instructions to publish full HD content to their VOD platform or transcode for website resolution.

The Actus Intelligent Monitoring Platform is even smart enough to select a program from the EPG (Electronic Program Guide), identify and automatically remove all commercials, and publish the concatenated program using the same branding and transcoding settings.

USE CASE 2: Woodbine Racetrack

Canada’s top horse racing venues upgraded their media workflow infrastructure with the addition of Actus Clip Factory Pro. Woodbine and Mohawk are now using the Actus platform, not only for monitoring quality on their linear channels but also for quickly clipping and repurposing content with metadata to multiple social media sites.

USE CASE 3: Back-to-Air

Actus CF PRO was recently deployed in NY and Chicago as an original-quality capture and clipping platform. Using Actus CF PRO as a frontend tool for monitoring, searching, and selecting content, this major broadcaster enhanced its media workflow and prepares content daily for over 75-Million viewers.

USE CASE 1:

Station-Group/Network Monitoring

Actus Digital’s largest US customer is a group of about six-dozen stations that have deployed Actus edge systems for QoS monitoring and FCC compliance.

Their engineers love the comprehensive Actus toolset and low-latency multiviewers that display return feeds from all markets onto large-screen multiviewers in their station-group operation center that show all primary channels and highlight any violating tight QoS parameters for frozen/missing video, missing/low/high audio, etc., as well as FCC compliance for missing CC or CALM Act violations.

Pods dedicated to portions of the country are manned by operators that use the Actus system for TS analysis, confirming SCTE trigger and NAVE code accuracy, and to research issues and collaborate with engineers from other shifts, making notes tagged to content for things such as ‘Make Good required’.

Whenever required, they export video files with overlaid channel name, date/timecode, captions, LKFS values, etc., enabling them to reply to FCC and viewer inquiries.

Actus systems were deployed at all stations in 2020 and in 2021 the Network deployed Actus infrastructure to monitor the distribution of programming.

USE CASE 2:

Small-Station Monitoring

The greatest quantity of Actus customers are smaller stations that deploy Actus for an almost identical use-case, only for a single MPTS delivered in their local market.

With the quantity and type of inputs and probe-points customized for each station, each can deploy a configuration with the features that most benefit them.

In addition to the ATSC-1/3.0 OTA feeds, many of these stations also monitor the Transport Stream on the way to the transmitter (via ASI or IP), HDMI returns from Set-Top Boxes, and/or HLS and other OTT simulcast feeds from IP.

The new V8 Actus multiviewer includes Actus Synchro shortcuts that quickly pinpoint where issues enter the workflow so they can be quickly remedied.

One of the Actus benefits most appreciated by stations are the graphs and displays of SCTE triggers with detailed information that allows them to ensure proper downstream ad-insertion.

This saves them money because when SCTE triggers are improperly formatted or missed altogether, distribution partners don’t pay for those ads, directly impacting their bottom line.

While the use-case explored in this article is by far the most common reason for investment in an Actus system, many of these stations provide access to the rest of their organization and deploy one or more of the other use-cases… which shall be further explored in the subsequent three articles in this series.