Responding to Covid-19 travel restrictions, video streaming solutions provider VisualOn has launched Remote Lab, what it claims is the industry’s first ultra-low latency testing and debugging suite that resolves the pain points of managing disparate devices, teams and streams.
The solution has been launched to help providers find and resolve video playback issues during the vastly increased demand for streaming services through lockdowns and social distancing. One example of this has been the huge surge in Netflix subs during the first quarter of 2020.
Remote Lab is designed to ensure a high quality of service (QoS) standard for global over-the-top (OTT) video service providers and was built in recognition that testing and device qualification are major issues when streaming video. VisualOn notes that they are expensive, time-consuming and requires on-site support from specialists. Geo-blocked streams, shipping equipment and travel for personnel bring additional complexity.
The company adds that unlike virtualisation labs that attempt to recreate conditions, Remote Lab enables testing within real-world network conditions at over 30 frames per second to accurately and efficiently troubleshoot issues with a specific device, location, stream, or the combination of all. Remote Lab also features machine learning-powered automation tools to pinpoint the exact moment when an issue occurs, and flag potential problems before they happen. It analyses where re‐buffering, frame drops or other errors occurred and marks those events for analysis and testing. Real-time analytics and reports are also available.
In operation, Remote Lab can be used by the VisualOn customer service team for remote support, or built to support customers’ in-house R&D programmes when launching and monitoring their OTT services.
“We initially developed Remote Lab to help our application engineers provide quicker and more cost-effective support when our customers were launching and monitoring their OTT services across different regions,” explained Michael Jones, SVP of business development at VisualOn. “But with the travel restrictions due to Covid-19 and the rise in streaming video, we have found this solution suite to be invaluable for our customers in a number of use cases to ensure consistent quality playback.”
Remote Lab is designed to ensure a high quality of service (QoS) standard for global over-the-top (OTT) video service providers and was built in recognition that testing and device qualification are major issues when streaming video. VisualOn notes that they are expensive, time-consuming and requires on-site support from specialists. Geo-blocked streams, shipping equipment and travel for personnel bring additional complexity.
The company adds that unlike virtualisation labs that attempt to recreate conditions, Remote Lab enables testing within real-world network conditions at over 30 frames per second to accurately and efficiently troubleshoot issues with a specific device, location, stream, or the combination of all. Remote Lab also features machine learning-powered automation tools to pinpoint the exact moment when an issue occurs, and flag potential problems before they happen. It analyses where re‐buffering, frame drops or other errors occurred and marks those events for analysis and testing. Real-time analytics and reports are also available.
In operation, Remote Lab can be used by the VisualOn customer service team for remote support, or built to support customers’ in-house R&D programmes when launching and monitoring their OTT services.
“We initially developed Remote Lab to help our application engineers provide quicker and more cost-effective support when our customers were launching and monitoring their OTT services across different regions,” explained Michael Jones, SVP of business development at VisualOn. “But with the travel restrictions due to Covid-19 and the rise in streaming video, we have found this solution suite to be invaluable for our customers in a number of use cases to ensure consistent quality playback.”
