vb7880 advanced content extractor user's manual version 5

VB7880 Advanced Content ExtractorUser’s ManualApplies to software release v5.6

Form 8124F • March 2020

VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor User’s ManualRevision af01131 (2020-03-23)

Copyright© 2020 Sencore, Inc. All rights reserved.3200 Sencore Drive, Sioux Falls, SD USAwww.sencore.comThis publication contains confidential, proprietary, and trade secret information. No part of this documentmay be copied, photocopied, reproduced, translated, or reduced to any machine-readable or electronicformat without prior written permission from Sencore. Information in this document is subject to changewithout notice and Sencore Inc. assumes no responsibility or liability for any errors or inaccuracies.Sencore, Sencore Inc, and the Sencore logo are trademarks or registered trademarks in the UnitedStates and other countries. All other products or services mentioned in this document are identified bythe trademarks, service marks, or product names as designated by the companies who market thoseproducts. Inquiries should be made directly to those companies. This document may also have links tothird-party web pages that are beyond the control of Sencore. The presence of such links does not implythat Sencore endorses or recommends the content on those pages. Sencore acknowledges the use ofthird-party open source software and licenses in some Sencore products. This freely available sourcecode can be obtained by contacting Sencore Inc.

About SencoreSencore is an engineering leader in the development of high-quality signal transmission solutions for thebroadcast, cable, satellite, IPTV, and telecommunications markets. The company’s world-class portfolioincludes video delivery products, system monitoring and analysis solutions, and test and measurementequipment, all designed to support system interoperability and backed by best-in-class customer support.Sencore products meet the rapidly changing needs of modern media by ensuring the efficient deliveryof high-quality video from the source to the home. More information about Sencore is available at thecompany’s website, www.sencore.com.

This product can include software developed by the following people and organizations with the followingcopyright notices:

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Copyright © 1998-2017. The OpenSSL Project. All rights reserved.• Webmin. Copyright © Jamie Cameron.

All trademarks and registered trademarks mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners.

www.sencore.com

www.sencore.com

Contents

Contents 3

Document Revision History 7

1 INTRODUCTION 81.1 About the VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81.2 How to Use This Manual . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

2 INSTALLATION AND INITIAL SETUP 102.1 System Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102.2 First-time Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102.3 Deploying in a Virtualized Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122.4 Maintaining the underlying Operating System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132.5 Verifying Correct Initial Setup and Software Activation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132.6 Initial Setup Troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152.7 Upgrading From a Previous Version . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

2.7.1 Upgrading by Re-Installing the System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172.7.2 Upgrading From Version 5.1.0 and earlier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172.7.3 Upgrading From Version 5.2.0 or later . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

2.8 Upgrading To a Maintenance Release . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182.9 Accessing the User Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182.10 Accessing Software Activation interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192.11 Deactivating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

3 QUICK SETUP GUIDE 213.1 Basic Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213.2 Input Signal Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

3.2.1 Multicasts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213.2.2 OTT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

3.3 Monitoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223.4 Adjusting Alarm Thresholds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223.5 License . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor User’s Manual version 5.6 3

4 REMOTE VIDEO WALL 234.1 Introduction to the Remote Video Wall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234.2 Accessing the Remote Video Wall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244.3 Remote Video Wall Widgets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

4.3.1 Alarm View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254.3.2 Clock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254.3.3 Constellation Diagram (requires VBC integration) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254.3.4 DataMiner Alarms (requires DataMiner integration) . . . . . . . . . . . . 254.3.5 DataMiner View (requires DataMiner integration) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254.3.6 Graphics View (requires VBC integration) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254.3.7 Image Viewer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254.3.8 Loudness Graph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264.3.9 Media Window (requires VBC integration) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264.3.10 RF Graphs (requires VBC integration) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264.3.11 Stream View (requires VBC integration) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264.3.12 Weather (requires Internet access) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

5 THE VB7880 GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE 275.1 Main . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

5.1.1 Main — Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295.1.2 Main — CPU usage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315.1.3 Main — Thumb overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325.1.4 Main — Eii graphing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

5.2 Alarms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375.2.1 Alarms — All Alarms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385.2.2 Alarms — Alarm setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

5.3 OTT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 445.3.1 OTT — Thumbnails (OTT — Active Testing, option) . . . . . . . . . . . . 445.3.2 OTT — Details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

5.3.2.1 OTT — Details — Profiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 465.3.2.2 OTT — Details — Manifest (Option) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 495.3.2.3 OTT — Details — Alarms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 515.3.2.4 OTT — Details — Thumbnails . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 525.3.2.5 OTT — Details — Alignment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

5.3.3 OTT — Channels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 565.3.4 OTT — Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 605.3.5 OTT — Thresholds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

5.4 Multicasts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 655.4.1 Multicasts — Thumbnails . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 655.4.2 Multicasts — SAP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 735.4.3 Multicasts — Join . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 745.4.4 Multicasts — Streams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 745.4.5 Multicasts — Content thresh. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

4 VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor User’s Manual version 5.6

5.4.6 Multicasts — Service thresh. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 825.5 Captions (Option) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

5.5.1 Captions — Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 865.5.2 Captions — Caption service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

5.5.2.1 Captions — Caption service — Captions . . . . . . . . . . . . 875.5.2.2 Captions — Caption service — Alarms . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

5.5.3 Captions — Thresholds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 885.6 RVW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

5.6.1 RVW — Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 905.6.2 RVW — Mosaic A–D . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

5.7 Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 945.7.1 Setup — Params . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 945.7.2 Setup — Colors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 965.7.3 Setup — Ethernet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 975.7.4 Setup — VBC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 975.7.5 Setup — Login . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 985.7.6 Setup — VBC thresh. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1005.7.7 Setup — Scheduling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1015.7.8 Setup — Routing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1025.7.9 Setup — Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

5.7.9.1 Setup — Security — Ports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1035.8 Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

5.8.1 Data — Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1045.8.2 Data — Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1055.8.3 Data — Eii . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

5.9 About . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1075.9.1 About — Release info . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1075.9.2 About — License . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1075.9.3 About — Technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1095.9.4 About — Credits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1095.9.5 About — System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

A Appendix: Monitoring Practices 111A.1 Dedicated interface for OTT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111A.2 OTT descrambling with Verimatrix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111A.3 OTT Bandwidth requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

B Appendix: OTT Profile Health 112B.1 OTT Profile Health Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112B.2 OTT Profile Health Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

C Appendix: Network configuration 114C.1 Web-based configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114


C.2 Command-line based configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

D Appendix: Enabling HTTPS 119

E Appendix: Enabling NTP time synchronization 123

F Appendix: On-line License Verification 124F.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124F.2 Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

G Appendix: Software Maintenance 127

H Appendix: Software Upload 128H.1 Obtain the software image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128H.2 Export and save the extractor configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128H.3 Transfer the image to the extractor and save . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129H.4 Wait while the software is being saved . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131H.5 Verify the new image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131H.6 Software upload troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131


Document Revision History

Date Version DescriptionFebruary 2020 5.6 Updated manual to reflect changes in v5.6 software

February 2019 5.5 Updated manual to reflect changes in v5.5 software



March 2016 5.2 Updated manual to reflect changes in v5.2 software


January 2014 5.0 Updated manual to reflect changes in v5.0 software


1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 About the VB7880 Advanced Content ExtractorThe VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor performs real-time loudness monitoring as well as objec-tive video and audio monitoring of MPEG-2 Transport Streams, carrying MPEG-2, H.264/MPEG-4,H.265/HEVC or JPEG 2000 video, and RTP streams carrying SMPTE 2022-6 uncompressed video,and offers a unique web browser based Remote Video Wall capability providing full visual statusfrom anywhere. The VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor enables operators to inspect massiveamounts of content services beyond human eyeball capability with dependable alarming on objectiveparameters having QoE impact.

In addition to providing automated Objective QoE of large amounts of services, the VB7880 offersthumbnail and metadata extraction for up to 100 streams (TV multicast streams or OTT) concurrently,depending on the license. The VB7880 with its RVW (Remote Video Wall) capability is idealfor visual at-a-glance monitoring in the NOC, VOC, head-end or remotely via any standard webbrowser.

The VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor is typically inserted before scrambling insertion in thehead-end and the extracted metadata and decoded imagery is fed to the VideoBRIDGE Controller.Disruption of descrambling services is one of the main causes for service production disruptions inthe head-end, and for the first time cost-effective monitoring of scrambling is available.

Further applications are in middleware scenarios for generating channel mosaics or for extractingchannel metadata such as picture resolution, video bandwidth or wide screen signaling information.


Each VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor runs an HTTP server with the client as a web browser,so there is no need to install custom software on computers needing access to the measurement data.

The VB7880 is designed to raise an alarm for descrambling failures at the head-end, before ingressinto the network. The VB7880 can also detect freeze-frame errors and audio silence. Alarming canbe masked during predefined time periods. The VB7880 enables at-a-glance monitoring remotelyvia any standard web browser and it will also work with the VideoBRIDGE Controller.

The VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor is a server appliance, that can be installed onto anyserver that meets the minimum requirements specified in chapter 2.

1.2 How to Use This ManualThis User’s Manual is valid for software version 5.6 of the VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor.

Throughout this manual the term stream is often used rather than unicast or multicast. One streammay consist of one or more services, and refers to one IP uni- or multicast.

Chapter 2 INSTALLATION AND INITIAL SETUP explains how to install the software on aserver.

Chapter 4 REMOTE VIDEO WALL introduces the Remote Video Wall.

Chapter 5 THE VB7880 GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE describes the graphical user interface(GUI) as seen when pointing a web browser to the VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor’s IP address.

A Appendix: Monitoring Practices explains some useful monitoring practices.

B Appendix: OTT Profile Health explains the OTT profile health bar and timeline.

C Appendix: Network configuration gives a brief introduction to the server OS network configu-ration.

D Appendix: Enabling HTTPS describes how to enable the HTTPS protocol.

E Appendix: Enabling NTP time synchronization provides some basic information about settingup time synchronization.

F Appendix: On-line License Verification outlines the on-line license verification procedure.

G Appendix: Software Maintenance briefly describes software maintenance licenses and howthey are used.

H Appendix: Software Upload explains how to upgrade the software on the VB7880 AdvancedContent Extractor.

Note that current version of the User’s Manual can be obtained from Sencore ProCare support byemailing [email protected].


mailto:[email protected]

2 INSTALLATION AND INITIAL SETUP

2.1 System RequirementsFor low/medium performance, the minimum hardware requirements are:

• Intel Xeon E5-2620 v2 (8 cores, 16 threads, 2.1 GHz)• 32 Gbyte 1600 MHz DDR RAM (remember to fill up all memory channels)• 100 Gbyte HDD• 10/100/1000T Ethernet Network Interface card with support for CentOS Linux 7 or Red Hat

Enterprise Linux 7

For average performance, the minimum hardware requirements are:

• Intel Xeon E5-2650 v3 (10 cores, 20 threads, 2.3 GHz)• 32 Gbyte 1866 MHz DDR RAM (remember to fill up all memory channels)• 200 Gbyte HDD• Dual 10/100/1000T Ethernet Network Interface card with support for CentOS Linux 7 or Red

Hat Enterprise Linux 7

For good performance, the minimum hardware requirements are:

• Intel Xeon E5-2690 v4 (14 cores, 28 threads, 2.6 GHz)• 32 Gbyte 2400 MHz DDR RAM (remember to fill up all memory channels)• 200 Gbyte HDD• Dual 10/100/1000T Ethernet Network Interface card with support for CentOS Linux 7 or Red

Hat Enterprise Linux 7

A good measure of the performance of the VB7880 server is the time between thumbnail refreshes.The VB7880 scales almost linearly with the number of cores, so doubling the number of cores willalmost double the performance.

Supported platforms:

• CentOS Linux release 7 (7.2 or later) for x86_64

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 7 (7.2 or later) for x86_64

2.2 First-time InstallationMake sure that the server hardware matches the requirements listed above and then follow theprocedure outlined below.


For more details, please refer to the CentOS Linux1 or Red Hat Enterprise Linux2 Installation Guide.

1. Obtain the latest installation kickstart image from Sencore.

Installation media is provided both for CentOS Linux and Red Hat Enterprise Linux. If youinstall the Red Hat Enterprise Linux version, you will need an active subscription for Red HatEnterprise Linux server.

2. Insert the installation medium into the server:

• For DVD-based installations, burn the downloaded ISO image to a DVD and insert intothe server.

• For USB-based installation, transfer the downloaded image to a USB mass storage deviceusing a tool such as dd (Mac, Unix, Linux) or USBWriter3 (Windows).

• For installation in a virtualized environment, attach the downloaded ISO image to avirtual DVD-ROM unit.Note: Please read the advice on how to configure the virtual machine in section 2.3 toensure optimal performance.

3. Boot the server and make sure that the primary boot device is set appropriately. If the systemfails to boot from the medium, you may need to configure the boot loader for ‘legacy BIOSmode’.

4. The installer will run, please follow the on-screen prompts to install the system, taking note ofthe following:

• IMPORTANT: Leave ‘Software selection’ at ‘Custom software selected’.

• IMPORTANT: In the ‘Installation Destination’, the default partitioning will create alarge /home partition, which is unused. To avoid this, use the ‘I will configure partitioning’option. Then use the ‘Click here to create them automatically’ and manually reduce thesize of (or remove) the /home partition, instead giving that space to the / partition.Please refer to the Installation Manual4 for details on disk partitioning.

• We recommend that you configure network settings (IP address, gateway, DNS) withinthe installer. Post-installation network configuration can be performed using the nmtuiutility, please refer to C Appendix: Network configuration for details.

1https://docs.centos.org/en-US/centos/install-guide/2https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_enterprise_linux/7/html/installation_

guide/index3https://sourceforge.net/projects/usbwriter/4https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_enterprise_linux/7/html/installation_

guide/appe-disk-partitions-overview


https://docs.centos.org/en-US/centos/install-guide/

https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_enterprise_linux/7/html/installation_guide/index


https://sourceforge.net/projects/usbwriter/

https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_enterprise_linux/7/html/installation_guide/appe-disk-partitions-overview

https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_enterprise_linux/7/html/installation_guide/appe-disk-partitions-overview

• The default installation does not provide any graphical user interface environment. Thiscan be installed later if desired, please refer to the CentOS Linux5 or Red Hat EnterpriseLinux6 Installation Guide for more details.

5. At the end of the installation procedure, the server is rebooted. Remove the installation mediaand ensure that the system boots up properly.

6. If you installed the Red Hat Enterprise Linux server flavor, make sure you follow the instruc-tions on how to subscribe the system to the Red Hat Customer Portal7.

If you install the CentOS Linux flavor, you may want to enable the Continuous Releaserepository8 to be able to get access to security updates as quickly as possible.

7. Enter the selected IP address in your web browser to access the Software Activation page. Ifyour host is using dynamic addressing, you can log in to the account created during installationand issue the command ip addr to display the address assigned to the system.

Continue to chapter 2.5 for details on how to enable the VB7880 Advanced Content Extractorsystem.

The kickstart will install CentOS Linux 7 or Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 on the server. Thedisks will be formatted and all contents lost. Make sure that any important data on the serverhas been backed up before beginning the procedure.

2.3 Deploying in a Virtualized EnvironmentIt is also possible to deploy the software in a virtualized environment. For optimal performance,check the processor configuration of cores per socket on your host server and use the sameconfiguration setting of cores per virtual sockets on the virtual machine.

It is also strongly recommended to configure the data network interface card(s) in pass-throughmode on the host server.

Please follow the steps from chapter 2.2 when installing the software in the virtualized environment.We recommended disabling any ‘Easy install’ or similarly worded option, and not selecting theoperating system type when initially creating the new virtual machine instance in your virtualizationenvironment. These options may override the installation instructions included in the providedinstallation image, causing an incomplete installation.

5https://docs.centos.org/en-US/centos/install-guide/6https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_enterprise_linux/7/html/installation_

guide/index7https://access.redhat.com/solutions/2532738https://wiki.centos.org/AdditionalResources/Repositories/CR


https://docs.centos.org/en-US/centos/install-guide/



https://access.redhat.com/solutions/253273

https://wiki.centos.org/AdditionalResources/Repositories/CR

Pre-built images for VMware (vSphere/Workstation/Player) are provided in OVA (Open VirtualizationFormat Archive) format. These images contains a system already installed according to the stepsdescribed in the previous chapter, with VMware Tools already installed and activated.

To deploy the image, you need to import it to the virtualization host, please refer to the documentationof your virtualization environment for more details on how to do this.

If installed in a VMware vSphere environment, the machine should report back its network configu-ration to the host environment. Please allow some time for it to do so, and then continue with point 6as described in the previous chapter.

When logging in to the console of the pre-built images, the default password for the root user is elvis.The same password is also used for logging in remotely using Secure Shell (ssh). Please changethe password for the root user after finishing the install, log in and use the passwd command todo this.

2.4 Maintaining the underlying Operating SystemThe software installed on the system is using CentOS Linux or Red Hat Enterprise Linux (dependingon the installation image used) as its base system. For information on how to maintain the operatingsystem, including how to update it to install security patches, please refer to the Red Hat EnterpriseLinux system documentation (this documentation is also valid for CentOS Linux).

An overview of Red Hat Enterprise system documentation can be found at https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/7/index.html

At this point, we recommend you read the After Installation chapter of the Installation Guide9.

2.5 Verifying Correct Initial Setup and Software ActivationOnce the software has been installed and restarted all further configuration takes place through theweb interface.

1. Launch a web browser application on the management system.

Any web browser with support for JavaScript can be used to access the Software Activationinterface, one of the following are recommended:

• Google Chrome

• Mozilla Firefox

• Microsoft Edge9https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_enterprise_linux/7/html/installation_

guide/part-after-installation (Red Hat)https://docs.centos.org/en-US/centos/install-guide/Part_After_Install/ (CentOS)


https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/7/index.html

https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/7/index.html

https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_enterprise_linux/7/html/installation_guide/part-after-installation

https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_enterprise_linux/7/html/installation_guide/part-after-installation

https://docs.centos.org/en-US/centos/install-guide/Part_After_Install/

Figure 2.1: Software Activation

• Microsoft Internet Explorer 11 or higher

• Apple Safari

2. Type the IP address of the server in the browser URL field and press Enter .

The network settings should have been set when the operating system was installed. If the webbrowser is unable to reach the web server, check the server’s network settings in the operatingsystem.

3. The Software Activation view should be displayed inside the browser. Software Activationis password-protected, the user name is admin and the default password is elvis. The pagedisplayed should look similar to figure 2.1.

The password should be changed from the default. Expand the More options heading andfollow the instructions under Change password10.

10If you forget the Software Activation password, you can reset it by logging in as root and issuing the command


4. If you already have an XML file with license keys for your system, click on the More optionsheading and upload this file under the Import license keys option. If you have the license keywritten down or in an e-mail, instead use the product page described below.

5. If this is a new server, and you need to obtain license keys for the purchased products, pleaseclick the link labeled export hardware keys as XML and send the downloaded file to yoursales representative as an e-mail attachment.

6. The VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor is not enabled by default on the newly installedserver. To enable it, use the link labeled Not activated next to its name. This will take you toa page giving you the details of the installed software, such as the installed version and thehardware key. If you have a license key that you want to enable and have not yet done so,enter the key in the field labeled Apply license key and click the Add license button.

7. Click the button labeled Activate software and wait for it to finish. If successful, the VB7880Advanced Content Extractor should now be activated, and you will be presented with a link tothe user interface. The next time you access the server using a web browser, you should betaken automatically to the enabled software.

Please note that it may take some additional time before the user interface of the activatedproduct becomes available. If you receive an error trying to access it, please wait for a fewminutes before trying again.

Note that it is not possible to activate the Software Probe and the VB7880 Advanced ContentExtractor on a single system at the same time.

To return to the Software Activation view to make changes, open the About — License tab in theVB7880 Advanced Content Extractor user interface and click the link labeled Manage installedsoftware.

By default, all web communication to and from the host running the VB7880 Advanced ContentExtractor is using un-encrypted HTTP communication. Please refer to D Appendix: EnablingHTTPS for information on how to enable HTTPS.

It is strongly recommended that the system time is configured to be synchronized against anexternal NTP server. Please refer to E Appendix: Enabling NTP time synchronization for moreinformation on configuring time synchronization.

2.6 Initial Setup TroubleshootingIf you are having trouble bringing up the Software Activation interface, or the VB7880 AdvancedContent Extractor web based management interface, verify the following:

/opt/btech/ssg/bin/reset_web_password


• Verify that the client machine and the VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor are configured onthe same subnet and that they have different addresses, or, if you use different subnets, verifythat the routing and gateways are set correctly on both the client machine and the VB7880Advanced Content Extractor.

• Make sure that the IP address of the gateway and the network interface are not the same.

• Verify that the appropriate Ethernet link indicators of the PC and the VB7880 AdvancedContent Extractor are lit.

• Verify that web browser proxy settings are not interfering.

• Verify that local firewall settings on the PC are not interfering.

• Try rebooting the server and make sure all services start as expected.

• Clear the browser’s cache.

• Verify that the web server is running, by entering the command

systemctl status httpd

on the server’s command line. If it is not running properly, or you are seeing DNS lookupfailure errors, try issuing the command

echo "ServerName localhost" >> /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf

and then restart the server by issuing the command

systemctl restart httpd

• If you can reach Software Activation but the VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor GUI is notworking, enter the command extractorhello on the server’s command line to verify that theVB7880 services are running. If services are not running, try re-installing the VB7880.

Please refer to C Appendix: Network configuration for more information on server network configu-ration.

2.7 Upgrading From a Previous VersionYou can either re-install the system as mentioned below, or by using one of the provided upgradeimages.


2.7.1 Upgrading by Re-Installing the SystemIf you want to re-install the system from scratch, please follow these steps:

1. Backup the system configuration (Data — Configuration — Full configuration). Log in tothe system as root and copy the file /opt/btech/extractor/etc/btech.xmlcfg1e (if you arerunning a version prior to 5.2, the file is located at /opt/btech/etc/btech.xmlcfg1e) to asafe location (off the system).

2. Export the current license (About — License — Export current license and softwaremaintenance keys; 5.1.0 or later) or write down the license key (About — License).

3. Possibly back up the system network configuration by logging in to the machine and copyingany files matching the wildcard /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-* to a safe location(off the system).

4. If you have uploaded custom images for the Remote Video Wall, make sure you have copiesof these available so that you can re-upload those separately.

5. Re-install the system as described above.

6. Using the Software Activation page import the previous license key (under More options); orre-enter it using the activation page) and activate the software.

7. Import the configuration from Data — Configuration — Import configuration XML.

If importing the old configuration fails with an error, please follow these steps:

1. Log in to the system as root and issue the command

systemctl stop vb288.ewe

2. Restore the backup of the file btech.xmlcfg1e that you made above as /opt/btech/extractor/etc/btech.xmlcfg1e

3. Issue the command

systemctl start vb288.ewe

2.7.2 Upgrading From Version 5.1.0 and earlierVB7880 Advanced Content Extractor version 5.6 will be able to upgrade VB7880 version 5.2 andlater only. Other versions of VB7880 will need to first be upgraded to VB7880 version 5.2.

Upgrading From Version 5.0.0


If you are running on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 beta, upgrades are not supported, and youmust re-install the system.

First upgrade the VB7880 to version 5.1.0 using the upgrade script. If you have updated your systemover the Internet after the initial installation, you may need to have an Internet connection availableto run the upgrade script.

Copy the installation script to the system, log in as root and issue the following command, and thencontinue as if you are doing an upgrade from 5.1.0 as described below.

bash vb288-5.1.0-5-upgrade.run

Upgrading From Version 5.1.0

First upgrade the VB7880 to version 5.2.0 using the upgrade image labeled upgrade from 5.1.0.Then continue as if you are doing an upgrade from 5.2.0 or later as described below.

2.7.3 Upgrading From Version 5.2.0 or laterPlease refer to chapter 5.8.2 and H Appendix: Software Upload for details on how to install theupgrade image.

2.8 Upgrading To a Maintenance ReleasePlease refer to chapter 5.8.2 and H Appendix: Software Upload for details on how to upgrade tomaintenance releases.

2.9 Accessing the User InterfaceOnce the software has been installed and activated all further configuration takes place throughHTTP.

The following web browsers are supported for the management interface:

• Google Chrome

• Mozilla Firefox

• Microsoft Edge


• Apple Safari


Figure 2.2: The VB7880 Graphical User Interface

Please note that, for optimum results, Chrome is recommended when displaying the Remote VideoWall.

The default management view should look similar to figure 2.2. If you have problems accessing theuser interface, refer to chapter 2.6 for troubleshooting.

2.10 Accessing Software Activation interfaceTo return to the Software Activation view after activating the VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor,you can either navigate to the About — License view and follow the Manage installed softwarelink, or navigate your web browser to the address http://<IP>/ssg, where <IP> is the IP address(or host name, if using DNS) of the server.

2.11 DeactivatingTo deactivate VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor, you must first access the Software Activationinterface (see the previous section) and make sure that it is not set to the default. Expand the More


options heading and change the setting under Set default software.

Once this is done, access the VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor user interface and de-activate itfrom the About — License view.


3 QUICK SETUP GUIDEThis quick setup guide is intended to provide a step-by-step explanation of how to setup the VB7880once the initial setup has been performed (as described in chapter 2).

More detailed instructions are found in chapter 5 of this manual.

3.1 Basic Setup1. Set appropriate parameters in the Setup — Params view.

2. Enabling Time synchronization is strongly recommended. Please see E Appendix: EnablingNTP time synchronization for further details on how to configure the date and time.

3. If access control is required, define a password in the Setup — Login view.

Note: it is important to read the instructions in the associated section of this manual, seechapter 5.7.5.

3.2 Input Signal Definitions3.2.1 Multicasts

1. Define multicasts using the Multicasts — Streams view. You can also import multicastlists from another VB7880 or probe using the Data — Configuration view, or add themautomatically from SAP announced streams using the Multicasts — SAP view.

Note: The sequence of the multicast definitions will be reflected in monitoring, so order themulticasts correctly if required.

2. Join multicasts in the Multicasts — Join view or in the Multicasts — Streams view.

3.2.2 OTT1. Define the OTT channel manifest URLs and channel names in the OTT — Channels view.

Leave the Threshold and VBC threshold settings at default values for now. Remember to tickthe Enable box in the dialog box.

Note: When monitoring both multicast (UDP) and OTT (TCP) traffic, we recommend usingdifferent network interfaces. Mixing the two traffic types on the same network can haveunwanted impact on the monitored signals. The interface used for OTT traffic is controlledusing the operating system network configuration.

2. Inspect the OTT monitoring progress using the OTT — Active testing (OTT Active testingoption) or OTT — Thumbnails dialog. Useful information on OTT monitoring can be foundin Appendix B.


3.3 MonitoringWhen input signal parameters have been set, the signals may be monitored.

For Ethernet multicasts the relevant monitoring views are Main, Alarms, Multicasts and RVW.OTT traffic monitoring is displayed in the OTT — Thumbnails view (OTT — Active testing ifthe appropriate license is installed).

3.4 Adjusting Alarm ThresholdsWhen the VB7880 channels and streams have been defined using default thresholds, the result willusually be a number of more or less permanent alarms, some which may not be relevant under thecurrent circumstances. In order for the user to get rid of unwanted alarms, the extractor providesalarm filtering functionality in the form of alarm thresholds and alarm on/off selection.

Multicasts

Creating a new threshold template is done either by copying an existing one and altering thecopy, or by creating a new threshold template from scratch. The Content thresholds are definedin the Multicasts — Content thresh. view. These thresholds are associated with streams in theMulticasts — Streams view.

In addition to the miscellaneous thresholds, that affect only the streams with which they areassociated, the Alarm — Alarm setup view allows the user to enable and disable alarms on anoverall basis. You can also define the alarm severity levels for different alarms in this view.

OTT

When an OTT channel is defined the default OTT threshold template is assigned to it. To changethreshold values create one or more new templates in the OTT — Thresholds view and assign themto OTT channels in the OTT — Channels — Edit view.

3.5 LicenseWhen first activated, the VB7880 comes with a 30-day trial license. To use it beyond this time,a license key is required. To generate the license code, you will need to provide the hardwarekey, which can be found under About — License, or from the Software Activation interface, asdescribed in chapter 2.5.


4 REMOTE VIDEO WALL

This chapter gives a quick introduction on how to use the Remote Video Wall feature of the VB7880Advanced Content Extractor.

4.1 Introduction to the Remote Video WallThe VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor gives the opportunity to monitor the content of up to64 multicast services or live OTT channel profiles spread across four web browser windows. TheVB7880 also provides measurements of the audio loudness level according to the ITU-R BS.1770-2standard. The measurement used is the EBU R128 momentary (400 ms) value. You can display thisdata by selecting LUFS/LKFS in the Remote Video Wall configuration. The raw measurementscan be gathered through the External integration interface (Eii). The specification of the Eii can beobtained from Sencore.

The Remote Video Wall can also be configured to display web-based widgets to convey importantinformation from within the system. Please see chapter 4.3 below for more information on theavailable widgets.

In addition the VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor can also be integrated with the VideoBRIDGEController enabling Network diagrams and alarm lists right next to crisp mosaics decoded from theselected streams.


When VBC integration is available, any streams for which the VideoBRIDGE Controller has activealarms will be shown with a colored border in the RVW. All other streams are displayed with agreen border. This makes it possible to discover stream alarms with just a quick glance. The VBCMicroTimeline is displayed under all multicast and OTT streams for which the VideoBRIDGEController has data. In addition, for OTT channels, a 24h OTT alarm graph will be displayed, usingdata from the VideoBRIDGE Controller connected probes monitoring the same channel (if any).

If VBC integration has not been enabled, the borders will be colorized according to locally generatedalarms, but no MicroTimeline or OTT alarm graph will be displayed.

4.2 Accessing the Remote Video WallThe Remote Video Walls can be reached by entering <IP address>/rvw/?m=1 in a browser’s URLfield. m=1, m=2, m=3 and m=4 selects Mosaic A, B, C and D, respectively, configured under the RVWtab, as described in chapter 5.6.2. The RVWs can also be reached through the management GUI inthe section RVW — Mosaic A–D by following the blue link in the upper left corner. In the examplebelow it has been renamed Left.

Go to chapter 5.6.2 for details on how to configure the Remote Video Walls.

Google Chrome is recommended for displaying the Remote Video Walls.

4.3 Remote Video Wall WidgetsIn addition to thumbnails, each Remote Video Wall slot can display a web widget. This chapterdescribes the Remote Video Wall widgets that are shipped with the VB7880 Advanced ContentExtractor.

Some of the widgets requires integration with a VideoBRIDGE Controller server, version 5.1.0 orlater.


4.3.1 Alarm View

This widget makes it possible to display a list of active alarms, either from the VideoBRIDGEController or the VB7880 itself. The alarm source is can be configured for each widget instance. IfVBC integration is disabled, the alarm source is ignored and the local alarms are always displayed.

The Alarm View widget is designed to be two RVW tiles wide and 1–4 tiles tall.

4.3.2 Clock

This widget lets you display the current time on the Remote Video Wall. Several different clockfaces are available, and they can be configured to display either local time (for the system runningthe browser displaying the RVW), or a specific time zone.

4.3.3 Constellation Diagram (requires VBC integration)

This widget lets you display the constellation diagram for a specific stream from one of the probesconnected to the VideoBRIDGE Controller. In the configuration you can select any RF interface onprobes available in the VideoBRIDGE Controller.

4.3.4 DataMiner Alarms (requires DataMiner integration)

This widget makes it possible to display the current alarm count from a Skyline DataMiner server.Active alarms on the server are grouped based on the severity as defined on the DataMiner serverand the numbers are displayed in the RVW.

4.3.5 DataMiner View (requires DataMiner integration)

This widget lets you display a diagram from the Skyline DataMiner inside the RVW. In theconfiguration you can select any of the diagrams configured on the DataMiner server that are visibleto the user whose credentials you are logging in with.

4.3.6 Graphics View (requires VBC integration)

This widget lets you display a network diagram from the VBC Graphics View inside the RVW. Inthe configuration you can select any of the network diagrams configured in the VBC Graphics ViewSetup.

4.3.7 Image Viewer

This widget is a static image viewer, which can be used to easily include external information. Inthe configuration, you can select the URL for an image to display and select the update interval.


4.3.8 Loudness Graph

This widget displays a loudness graph for an audio channel of a multicast stream monitored on theVB7880 Advanced Content Extractor. Real-time audio analysis needs to be enabled for the streamfor the data to be available. Up to two minutes of loudness data is displayed in the graph.

4.3.9 Media Window (requires VBC integration)

This widget lets you display a view of the Media Window for a specific stream from one of theprobes connected to the VideoBRIDGE Controller. In the configuration you can select any multicaststream on probes available in the VideoBRIDGE Controller.

NOTE: When displaying the media window widget for probes running 5.1.0-5 or earlier, or 5.0.2-4or earlier, the threshold colorization does not completely reflect what is seen on the probe.

4.3.10 RF Graphs (requires VBC integration)

This widget displays customizable RF graphs from the VideoBRIDGE Controller. It can be con-figured to show RF parameters for any stream that is applicable in the VideoBRIDGE Controller,with a selectable interval. The parameters that can be displayed are Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR),Modulation Error Ratio (MER) and Signal Level (SIG).

4.3.11 Stream View (requires VBC integration)

This widget makes it possible to display the VBC MicroTimeline for selected services inside theRemote Video Wall. The list of streams can be filtered on name and/or current severity level (asdefined by the VideoBRIDGE Controller). The Stream View widget is designed to be one RVW tilewide and 1–4 tiles tall.

4.3.12 Weather (requires Internet access)

This widget displays a weather forecast for a configurable location for the next 24 hours.


5 THE VB7880 GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE

The VB7880 web interface is reached by pointing a web browser to the IP address of the VB7880Advanced Content Extractor as shown in the screenshot above. The following web browsers arerecommended:

• Google Chrome

• Mozilla Firefox

• Microsoft Edge


• Apple Safari


Note that different web browsers behave differently with respect to memory leaking, and if theVB7880 GUI should be available at all times the browser should be selected carefully. A browsermemory leak manifests itself as the browser responding more and more slowly, and this is correctedby closing down the application and restarting.

The interface is easy and intuitive to use. Navigate by clicking on the tabs just below the VB7880Advanced Content Extractor logo. Some of the pages have their own tabs for accessing nested pages.The bottom frame of the interface is always the Alarms & events list, usually referred to as thealarm list. The alarm list can be displayed or hidden by clicking the Toggle link, which is displayedas an arrow head.

The web interface has been designed to be resizable in both vertical and horizontal directions with aminimum screen resolution of 1280×800 pixels.

Tool-tips are available for most buttons and labels. To access tool-tip information simply navigatethe mouse pointer towards a button or a label and leave it hovering for a second or two.

In this manual the term stream is generally used instead of the terms multicast and/or unicast. Astream may thus contain a single service or multiple services.


5.1 Main

5.1.1 Main — Summary

The intention of this page, together with the alarm list, is to provide enough information for theoperator to immediately see if there is anything seriously wrong with one or more input streams.

The following parameters are shown:

NTP/timesync(Bulb): The NTP/timesync bulb indicates whether the VB7880 clock is locked to an

external time reference signal. Green indicates that the VB7880 is locked to anexternal reference whereas grey indicates that the VB7880 runs in unlocked modeor the status is unknown.

Updated: The time since the last time synchronization update.

Freq offset: Indicates the measured frequency offset for the system clock.

Timezone: The time zone relative to UTC. Configured in the OS.

Time: The current local time.

We recommend using the standard operating system tools for configuring the system clock. Pleaserefer to the operating system instructions1 for further details on how to configure the date and time.

Counters and alarms

1https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/7/html/System_Administrators_Guide/chap-Configuring_the_Date_and_Time.html


https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/7/html/System_Administrators_Guide/chap-Configuring_the_Date_and_Time.html


Clear all: Click the Clear all button to reset all counters, graphs and alarms. All VB7880measurement and alarm history is cleared. Note that it is not possible to undothis operation.

Last cleared: The time the Clear all button was last clicked. If no time is indicated the countershave not been cleared since VB7880 startup/reboot time.

ExtractorName: The VB7880 name as defined by the operator in the Setup — Params view.

Location: The VB7880 location as defined by the operator in the Setup — Params view.

Access: The access rights of the current user. Access rights are either full access or read onlyaccess, and are defined by the operator in the Setup — Login view.

ResourcesLoad average: The system load of the server.

Free mem: The available free memory.

Free swap: The available free swap memory.

TrafficMonitored multicasts: The total bitrate of all monitored multicast streams.

Joined multicasts: The number of joined multicast streams.

Multicast services: The total number of services in the joined multicast streams.

At the very bottom of the Summary page, an overview of the Ethernet network interfaces on theVB7880 are displayed.

Network interfacesInterface: The ID of the selected network interface.

Link: Indicates whether the interface is connected.

Description: Provides a human-readable description of the interface, if available2.

IPv4 address: Lists the IPv4 address and netmask of the network interface, if set.IPv6 address: Lists the IPv6 address and netmask of the network interface, if set.

2A description can be set using the command ip link set interfacename alias "Description"


5.1.2 Main — CPU usage

The CPU usage view is meant for troubleshooting performance issues in case of excessively hightraffic load.

Three internal performance indicators (System, User and Idle) are displayed as percentage numbersand also graphed for the last minute. Issues can potentially arise if the System indicator becomeshigh (>80%).

The CPU usage view displays CPU usage of the VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor. To view theCPU usage averaged over the last 10 seconds click the Current button. To view the usage averagedover the last 60 seconds click the Last 60 seconds button. Clicking the Peak any 10 secs or Peakany 60 seconds button will display the historical maximum value for an averaging period of 10 sand 60 s respectively. To clear peak values click the Clear peaks button.

The VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor is designed to use up all available CPU resources toprovide an as high thumbnailing frame rate as possible, so it is normal for the graphs to show littleor no available idle time.


5.1.3 Main — Thumb overview

The Thumb overview view displays a mosaic of all decoded thumbnails. By default the Normalmode is used.

If the Small button is clicked the Thumb overview view will display service names and thumbsonly, allowing more thumbnails to be displayed in a view. To display the stream address and name(as defined in the Multicasts — Streams and OTT — Channels views) click the Stream infobutton.

The following information is displayed for each stream:

Thumb overviewService name: Shows the name defined for the TV service in the SI service descriptor.

If no SI is present in the stream the service id will be shown.

Service id: For TS services, the ID of the selected service within a transport stream.

Type: For non-TS services, the service type is displayed.


Audio status: A bulb indicating the audio alarm status. The audio silence and audiopeak threshold values is set as part of the stream threshold template asso-ciated with each multicast (refer to the Multicasts — Content thresh.and Multicasts — Streams — Edit views) or OTT channel (OTT —Thresholds). The different bulb colors are:Grey: audio silence and audio peak detection are disabled.Green: audio silence or audio peak detection are enabled, and audio iscurrently normal.Yellow: audio silence or audio peak detection are enabled, and we havedetected an abnormal audio situation, but the timeout value has not beenexceeded.Red: audio silence or audio peak detection are enabled, and we havedetected an abnormal audio situation and the timeout value has beenexceeded, thus resulting in an alarm.

Freeze-frame status: A bulb indicating the freeze-frame detection status for regular and colorfreeze. The freeze-frame error timeout values are set as part of the streamthreshold template associated with each multicast (refer to the Multicasts— Content thresh. and Multicasts — Streams — Edit views) or OTTchannel (OTT — Thresholds). The different bulb colors are:White: Unknown (typically due to the VB7880 being unable to decodevideo)Grey: freeze-frame detection is disabled.Green: freeze-frame detection is enabled, no freeze-frame is detected.Yellow: freeze-frame detection is enabled. Two consecutive equal frameshave been detected, but the freeze-frame error timeout value has not beenexceeded.Red: freeze-frame is enabled. Freeze-frame has been detected and thefreeze-frame error timeout value has been exceeded, thus resulting in analarm.

Scrambling status: A bulb indicating the scrambling check status. Scrambling check isdefined as part of the stream or service threshold template associated witheach multicast (refer to the Multicasts — Content thresh., Multicasts— Service thresh. and Multicasts — Streams — Edit views). Thedifferent bulb colors are:Grey: Scrambling check is disabled.Green: Scrambling check is enabled, and scrambling is in accordancewith the user-defined requirement.Red: Scrambling check is enabled, and scrambling is not in accordancewith the user-defined requirement; an alarm is active.


Alignment status: A bulb indicating the OTT alignment check status. OTT alignment checkis defined as part of the OTT threshold template associated with eachOTT channel (refer to the OTT — Thresholds view). The different bulbcolors are:Grey: Alignment check is disabled.Green: Alignment check is enabled, and the OTT profiles are currentlyaligned.Red: Alignment check is enabled, and the OTT profiles are currently notaligned; an alarm is active.

The Thumbs Details pop-up view is accessed by clicking a thumb in the Thumb overview view.For more information about the details displayed in the Thumbs Details pop-up see chapter 5.4 formulticast streams, and chapter 5.3.2 for OTT channels.

Clicking the Close button will close the view.

The Remote Video Wall features offers a better overview of content and alarm status for each stream.Please refer to chapter 4 for more information on the Remote Video Wall feature.


5.1.4 Main — Eii graphing

Eii is short for External Integration Interface and constitutes a set of XML files accessible throughthe VB7880 web server interface for machine access to measurement data.

Portions of the Eii interface are available in this view for simple trend graphing over arbitrary longtime by the web browser.

The screenshot shows the QoE MOS score of one IP stream being graphed by sampling the Eiiinterface every 2 seconds. The graph is stored in the client web browser for as long as the graphwindow remains open. The graph starts again with zero history if the window is closed and thenopened again.

Eii stream parameter

Using the Eii stream parameter plot, it is possible to plot QoE parameters from any of themonitored IP streams. Select the stream in the Stream to plot drop-down and the parameter in theParameter to plot dropdown.

Eii stream parameters


mos: MOS value, on the scale 1–5blocking: Picture blockiness, scaled 0–1, where 1 is the best (no blocking)

blurriness: Picture blurriness, scaled 0–1, where 1 is the best (no blurring)

noisiness: Picture noisiness, scaled 0–1, where 1 is the best (no noise)brightness: Picture brightness, scaled 0–1, where 0 is dark and 1 is bright

contrast: Picture contrast, scaled 0–1

Refresh (seconds) selects how often samples are read and plotted on the graph. Click Apply tostore the parameters and then click the Plot chart link to open the chart.

Eii OTT parameter

Using the Eii OTT parameter plot, it is possible to plot QoE and analysis parameters from any ofthe monitored OTT channel. Select the channel in the Service to plot drop-down and the parameterin the Parameter to plot dropdown.

Eii OTT parametersmos: MOS value, on the scale 1–5

blocking: Picture blockiness, scaled 0–1, where 1 is the best (no blocking)

blurriness: Picture blurriness, scaled 0–1, where 1 is the best (no blurring)

noisiness: Picture noisiness, scaled 0–1, where 1 is the best (no noise)brightness: Picture brightness, scaled 0–1, where 0 is dark and 1 is bright

contrast: Picture contrast, scaled 0–1Eii OTT parameters available with OTT Active Testing license

profileBps,actualBps: Plots both the profileBps and actualBps parameters

profileBps: Bitrate of this profile as listed in meta-data (bits per second)

actualBps: Bitrate of this profile calculated from downloaded chunk (bits per sec-ond)

chunkDur: Last chunk length (seconds)

firstByte: Time to first byte (milliseconds)

downloadDur: Time to download chunk (seconds)chunkSize: Size of downloaded chunk (bytes)

Refresh (seconds) selects how often samples are read and plotted on the graph. Click Apply tostore the parameters and then click the Plot chart link to open the chart.

Please refer to the separate Eii documentation for further details.


5.2 Alarms

OTT Option

OTT Channel

OTT Analysis

OTT Thresholds

Alarm Settingsand Scheduling

SNMP Alarms Alarm Lists

System Events

ETH Thresholds CAP Thresholds

ETH Multicast

ETH Measurements

Captions Option

Figure 5.1: Alarm handling in the VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor.

Figure 5.1 shows an overview of the alarm handling in the VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor.It is useful to obtain an understanding of the alarm processing of the VB7880 Advanced ContentExtractor – in particular how threshold settings and alarm setup will affect alarm handling.

The VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor continuously compares measurement data with userdefined thresholds in order to generate alarms. These alarms are further checked against the settingsdefined in the Alarms — Alarm setup view, and the resulting alarms are presented in the alarmlists. These alarms will also be sent as SNMP traps to support third party management systems.

The VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor distinguishes between events and alarms. The Systemssoftware module will always generate events. The Ethernet software module will by default generateevents for errors that are resolved within 1 second, otherwise it will generate alarms. This can beoverridden by checking the ‘Treat Ethernet events as alarms’ box in the Setup — Params view.The OTT and Captions modules generate alarms only.


5.2.1 Alarms — All Alarms

The Alarms view gives the user the possibility of viewing alarms according to type or as onecombined list. The individual alarm lists can hold the number alarms indicated below independentlyof each other, meaning that one may become full without affecting the other lists.

Alarm list capacityEthernet alarms (ETH) 4000 alarms

Over The Top Television (OTT) 100 alarmsClosed Caption Extraction (CAP) 100 alarms

System alarms (SYS) 100 alarms

If Auto-refresh list is selected, the alarm list will be continuously updated with new alarms. Activealarms are always located at the top of the list.

Clicking the View list offline button gives the user the opportunity to view the complete alarms andevents list. By clicking one of the blue information icons leftmost in the offline list, a detailed alarm


description can be viewed. The search field in the upper right corner of the view allows the userto type a text string and the alarm list is updated to display only streams and alarms matching thespecified text. To update the offline alarm list click the Auto-refresh list button and then go back tothe offline mode.

The alarm lists can be deleted by clicking the Flush alarms button. However it should be noted thatthis action will permanently clear the alarm lists — they cannot be restored.

The Export button enables export of the corresponding alarm list as an XML file. This file willopen in a new window.

5.2.2 Alarms — Alarm setup

The Alarm setup represents the final filtering stage for VB7880 alarms. The user selects whetheran alarm should be enabled or ignored, and associates an error severity level with each alarm, andassociates an error severity level with each alarm. When changes have been made to alarm settingsclick the Apply changes button for changes to take effect.


Figure 5.1 gives an overview of the total alarm handling of a VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor.The settings in the Alarm setup view are represented by the Alarm Settings box in this figure.

Note that the VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor alarm handling will also depend on the thresholdtemplate settings defined by the user in the Multicasts — Content thresh., Multicasts — Servicethresh., OTT — Thresholds and Captions — Thresholds views.

Also note that only enabled alarms are shown in the alarm lists and forwarded as SNMP traps.Enabling or disabling VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor alarms does however not affect thealarms presented by the VBC.

The following alarm severity levels may be selected:

OK: If enabled, the alarm will be present in the alarm list, color green

Warning: If enabled, the alarm will be present in the alarm list, color yellow

Error: If enabled, the alarm will be present in the alarm list, color orange

Major: If enabled, the alarm will be present in the alarm list, color red

Fatal: If enabled, the alarm will be present in the alarm list, color black

The following alarms and events are configured:

ETH (Ethernet) alarmsScrambling expected: The service should have been

scrambled but is sent in clearDefault: Enabled,severity ‘Major’

Scrambling not expected: The service should have beenclear but is scrambled

Default: Enabled,severity ‘Major’

Freeze-frame detected: The service has frozen frames Default: Enabled,severity ‘Major’

Color-freeze detected: The service has frozen in onecolor


Audio silence detected: The service has silent audiotracks


Audio too loud detected: The service has too loud audiotracks


Audio out of phase detected: The service has audio tracks thatare out of phase


MOS below threshold: The average MOS for the serviceis below the configured threshold


No data detected: The service has no data on videoPID



CC Errors detected: The service has an excessiveamount of CC errors


No signal detected: The stream has no signal Default: Enabled,severity ‘Major’

Wrong DAR: The stream has wrong DisplayAspect Ratio


Wrong PAR: The stream has wrong Pixel As-pect Ratio


Missing custom video PID: The stream has been configured‘Custom PIDs only’, but the ser-vice threshold does not defineany custom PIDs.


SYS (System) events[Critical system errors]: Critical system errors prevent-

ing the VB7880 Advanced Con-tent Extractor from operating cor-rectly

Default: Enabled,severity ‘Fatal’

[System errors]: Enable this to view all system er-rors


[System info]: Enable this to view system infor-mation messages

Default: Enabled,severity ‘OK’

OTT AlarmsThe number of profiles changed: The number of profiles flagged

in the manifest file changedDefault: Enabled,severity ‘Warning’

Profile stream type changed: The stream type of the profilechanged in the manifest

Default: Enabled,severity ‘Warning’

Minimum profiles The channel has less profiles thanspecified in the threshold

Default: Enabled,severity Warning

Wrong profile type The channel has profiles of a dif-ferent type than specified in thethreshold



Download bitrate low: The download duration time ex-ceeds the OTT bitrate threshold.The bitrate threshold is part ofthe OTT threshold template de-fined in the OTT — Thresholdsview. A threshold template is as-signed to a stream in the OTT —Channels view.

Default: Disabled,severity Warning

Download bitrate too low: The download duration time ex-ceeds the OTT chunk durationtime

Default: Enabled,severity Error

Manifest size: The manifest file size exceeds theOTT manifest size threshold


Actual bitrate: The actual measured bitrate doesnot match the profile bitrate spec-ified in the manifest file


Download timeout: The download time exceedstwice the chunk duration time

Default: Enabled,severity Major

Address resolve error: Unable to resolve address name Default: Enabled,severity ‘Error’

Connection failed: Connection failed Default: Enabled,severity ‘Error’

Send error: Could not send data to host Default: Enabled,severity ‘Error’

Receive error: Could not receive data from host Default: Enabled,severity ‘Major’

Empty reply: Response did not contain anydata in body


HTTP error: Invalid HTTP response Default: Enabled,severity ‘Major’

HTTP redirect error: HTTP 3xx redirection error Default: Enabled,severity ‘Major’

HTTP client error: HTTP 4xx client error Default: Enabled,severity ‘Major’

HTTP server error: HTTP 5xx server error Default: Enabled,severity ‘Major’

Static manifest: Manifest file unchanged forlonger than configured threshold

Default: Enabled,severity Major


Freeze-frame detected: The profile has frozen frames Default: Enabled,severity ‘Major’

Color-freeze detected: The profile has frozen in onecolor


Audio silence detected: The profile has a silent audiotrack


Audio too loud detected: The profile has too loud audiotracks


MOS below threshold: The average MOS for the profileis below the configured threshold


Mis-alignment detected: One or more profiles are out ofvisual alignment


Manifest parse error: Failed to parse manifest file. In-valid format


Unknown manifest: Cannot recognize manifest XMLformat

Default: Enabled,severity ‘Fatal’

CAP (Caption) AlarmsCaption service missing: The service has less caption ser-

vices than specified in the thresh-old


Bad quality: Some or all caption data was cor-rupt

Default: Enabled,severity ‘Error’

Unknown: Unknown error Default: Enabled,severity ‘Warning’


5.3 OTT

5.3.1 OTT — Thumbnails (OTT — Active Testing, option)

The OTT support enables monitoring of OTT channels. Up to 100 OTT channels can be monitoredin parallel, up to a total maximum of 100 channels (multicasts and OTT combined), depending onthe license.

The OTT Active Testing option enables additional monitoring for up to the licensed number of


OTT channels. The Active Testing licenses can be distributed over the monitored OTT channels asdesired.

The VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor will parse a channel’s manifest file, and for a live channelone of the latest chunks in each OTT profile’s chunk sequence will be analyzed. For a VoD channelthe OTT engine will analyze all chunks in the VoD file.

If manifest file parsing or chunk analysis reveals an error, an alarm will be raised. Note that somealarms depend on user defined threshold values. Alarms must also be enabled in the Alarm —Alarm setup view.

Thumbnail decoding is available for non-encrypted HLS, HDS, DASH and RTMP channels, as wellas AES128 and SAMPLE-AES encrypted HLS channels, and fixed key CENC encrypted DASH.

The following OTT information is displayed in the Thumbnails or Active testing view:

OTT channelsStatus bulb: A bulb indicates the current status of the channel, i.e. the most severe

profile status.

Thumb: If the selected channel is of type HLS, HDS, DASH or RTMP a thumb-nail of the content will be decoded and updated.

Channel: The channel name defined by the user and linked to a URL in the OTT— Channels view.

Progress: The progress bar shows which channel is currently being monitoredand how analysis is progressing.

Alarm history: (Only displayed if OTT Active Testing is enabled for this channel.)A bar graph showing alarm severity history. It can show the last 120minutes, 24 hours or four days. To switch between the graphs, press the“24h”, “2h” or “4d” button on the left under the channel list. Each barcolor represents the alarm severity level as configured under Alarms— Alarm setup.

Current profile status: (Only displayed if OTT Active Testing is enabled for this channel.)The channel health bar displays the current status for individual channelprofiles. Profiles are separated by vertical black lines.Colors indicate profile alarm status:

• Green: OK• Yellow: Warning• Orange: Error• Red: Major• Black: Fatal

Profiles: The number of profiles associated with a channel.


Encryption: Scrambling information is resolved from the profile manifest. If theprofile is scrambled the encryption field will read Yes. If the profile istransmitted in clear the encryption field will read No.

Profile info: Channel and profile information is resolved from the manifest files.At channel level the OTT format is displayed (Smoothstream, HLS,Adobe HDS, MPEG DASH or SHOUTcast). At profile level the profilebitrate is displayed.

5.3.2 OTT — Details

Click the blue information button on a channel to open the details window. This window providesdetailed information about the status and alarms on all the profiles for the selected channel. Thesame pop-up can be opened from the Main — Thumb Overview view, see chapter 5.1.3 for moreinformation.

5.3.2.1 OTT — Details — Profiles

The Profiles view in this pop-up consists of two tables detailed below:


The following information relevant for the overall OTT channel is shown in the first part of theDetails — Profiles pop-up window:

ChannelChannel: The channel name defined by the user and linked to a URL in the OTT —

Channels view. A bulb indicates the current status of the channel, i.e. the mostsevere profile status.

Progress: Channels will be analyzed sequentially, and the progress bar shows whichchannel is currently being monitored and how analysis is progressing.


Profile status: (Only displayed if OTT Active Testing is enabled for this channel.)The channel health bar displays the current status for individual channel profiles.Profiles are separated by vertical black lines.Colors indicate profile alarm status:


Stream type: Channel and profile information is resolved from the manifest files. At channellevel the OTT format is displayed (Smoothstream, HLS, Adobe HDS, MPEGDASH or SHOUTcast).

In the same view below the table for the overall channel a more detailed view per channel profile isshown with the following information in it:

ProfilesProfile: The name of the OTT profile as flagged in the manifest files.

Type: Live for live content or VoD for stored content. The distinction betweenthe two is done based on whether the profile sequence numbers update ornot.

Profile health: * A timeline graph display of a combined bitrate and alarm representationfor individual profiles. Refer to Appendix B for a description of thesegraphs. The timeline duration is either 2 or 24 hours, and the graphresolution is one minute for the 2 hour graph, and twelve minutes for the24 hour graph.

Profile bps: * The profile nominal bandwidth as flagged in the manifest files.


Actual bps: * The actual profile bitrate, i.e. the chunk size (megabits) divided by thechunk length (seconds). The actual profile bitrate should match the man-ifest bitrate specification within limits defined by the user in the OTTthresholds template associated with a channel. Otherwise an alarm will beraised.

Download bps: * The download bitrate, i.e. the chunk size (megabits) divided by the down-load time (seconds).

Chunk length: * The profile chunk length (seconds) specified in the manifest file.

Download time: * The actual profile chunk download time (seconds).

First byte: * The time (in seconds) before the first payload data byte was received.

Download size: * The actual profile chunk size (bytes).

Encrypt.: Yes or No depending on whether the content for that profile is encryptedor not.

HTTP header: * The current HTTP header of the last chunk downloaded for that profile.

Note: Items marked with * are only displayed if OTT Active Testing is enabled for the channel.


5.3.2.2 OTT — Details — Manifest (Option)

If Active Testing is enabled for the channel, the Manifest view shows health information on theoverall manifest file for the channel as well as for the manifest files for the individual profiles.

ChannelChannel: The channel name defined by the user and linked to a URL in the OTT —

Channels view. A bulb indicates the current status of the channel, i.e. the mostsevere profile status.

Progress: Channels will be analyzed sequentially, and the progress bar shows whichchannel is currently being monitored and how analysis is progressing.



Profile status: The channel health bar displays the current status for individual channel profiles.Profiles are separated by vertical black lines.Colors indicate profile alarm status:


Profile info: The type of stream is shown here. Apple HLS, Microsoft Smoothstream,Adobe HDS, MPEG DASH or SHOUTcast.

Manifest size: The size in bytes of the main/top manifest file for the overall channel.

Manifest file: Clickable URL for displaying the manifest file as text for the overall channel.

Manifest URL: A clickable link to the current main/top manifest file for the overall channel.

HTTP header: The current HTTP header of the main/top manifest file for the overall channel.

Just below the channel manifest information in the same window is the detailed manifest informationper profile. This view contains the following information:

ProfilesProfile: The name of the OTT profile as flagged in the manifest files.

Profile bps: The profile nominal bandwidth as flagged in the manifest files.

Type: Live for live content or VoD for stored content. The distinction between thetwo is done based on the contents of the manifest file.

Seq.age: The profile sequence shows how long it has been since the manifest wasupdated in whole seconds.

Manifest size: The size in bytes of the manifest file for a particular profile.

Manifest file: Clickable URL for displaying the manifest file as text for this particular profile.

Manifest URL: Clickable URL to the profile manifest file.

HTTP header: URL to HTTP header in text form for a particular profile manifest file.


5.3.2.3 OTT — Details — Alarms

The Details — Alarms view gives an at-a-glance overview of any active OTT alarms for the selectedchannel. An alarm log for the selected channel is also provided here.

In the right corner of the pop-up window is a free text search field used to narrow down the entriesin the alarm log.

The alarms are the same ones as explained for the Alarms — Alarm setup view, see chapter 5.2.2for more information.

When the OTT Active Testing option is available, but the currently displayed channel has ActiveTesting disabled, the alarms that are not applicable to the channel are shown as grey squares in thetop half of the dialog.


5.3.2.4 OTT — Details — Thumbnails

The Thumbnails tab will provide information about the current thumbnails in the channel.

The quality of the content in the selected profile can be viewed in the thumbnail section, and theuser may alter the selected profile in the drop down list.

The section on the right hand side provides specific decoder and chunk information.

By pressing the Apply button without selecting a profile from the drop-down list the thumbnail willbe switched to the default selection; Auto select. Auto select will select the profile with the highestbitrate and video data.

Click the Play profile audio button to play back the last decoded audio chunk for the selected profilein the browser.

Decoder informationSize: The video picture size of the selected profile

Aspect ratio: The video aspect ratio of the selected profile

Pixel aspect ratio: The video pixel aspect ratio of the selected profile

Codec: The video encoding format of the selected profile

Pixel format: The video sampling format of the selected profile


Frame rate: The video frame rate of the selected profile (Hz)

Blockiness: Detected picture blockiness, in percent. Displayed if QoE scoring isenabled.

Blurriness: Detected picture blurriness, in percent. Displayed if QoE scoring isenabled.

Noisiness: Detected picture noisiness, in percent. Displayed if QoE scoring isenabled.

Brightness: Detected picture brightness, in percent. Displayed if QoE scoring isenabled.

Contrast: Detected picture contrast, in percent. Displayed if QoE scoring isenabled.

MOS score: Calculated picture quality score, on a scale from 1.0 to 5.0, where 5.0is best. Displayed if QoE scoring is enabled.

MOS average window: If MOS average alarming has been enabled, the averaging window isdisplayed here

MOS running average: If MOS average alarming has been enabled, the current MOS runningaverage is displayed here

The QoE scores are only calculated for the profile with the highest bitrate. To measure the qualityloss between profiles, enable VMAF scoring and use the measurements displayed on the Alignmenttab.

Audio InformationCodec: The audio encoding format

Samplerate: The audio sample rate

Channels: The number of audio channels represented by the audio PID

Layout: The audio channel layout

Format: The binary format of the audio stream

Bitrate: The effective audio bitrateLoudness: The integrated loudness value for the currently decoded chunk

Peak level: The audio peak level for the currently decoded chunk

Chunk InformationEngine ID: The OTT engine monitoring the selected channel.

Channel ID: The ID of selected channel corresponding to the list of channels definedby the user.

Profile ID: The ID of the selected profile.


Bitrate: Bitrate rate of the a chunk.Streamtype: The type of the stream detected; live or video on demand.

Sequence Number: The sequence number of a chunk.

5.3.2.5 OTT — Details — Alignment

The Alignment tab gives the user a view of all the profiles for a selected channel with thumbnailsand corresponding data.

Profile Alignment InformationProfile: This is a generated ID that identifies the OTT profile. The first

profile listed is always the one with the highest signaled bitrate.


Chunk/Sequence Number: The chunk or sequence number for the current thumbnail. This iseither signaled in the stream, or generated by the VB7880.If the sequence numbers are highlighted in yellow, the thumbnailsare not generated from the same chunk for all profiles, and maytherefor appear to be out of synchronization. Please note thatVMAF scoring and alignment testing is only performed when theprofiles sequence numbers are in alignment.

Bitrate: The signaled bitrate for this profile (bits/s).

Size & FPS: Indicates the original video size (pixels) and the frame-rate (Hz).

VMAF score: If enabled in the OTT thresholds, a VMAF score is calculated foreach of the profiles, with the highest-bitrate profile used as thereference.

Audio: Indicates the audio channel layout.Click the Play button to play back the last decoded audio chunkfor the selected profile in the browser.

The current version of the VMAF algorithm and model (denoted as VMAF 0.3.1), released as partof the VMAF Development Kit open source software, uses the following elementary metrics fusedby Support Vector Machine (SVM) regression: Visual Information Fidelity (VIF), Detail LossMetric (DLM), Motion

VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor release 5.6 utilizes the VMAF 0.3.1 DLM metrics for its QoEscoring.


5.3.3 OTT — Channels

The OTT Channel Configuration list shows OTT channels configured by the user.

To add a channel to the list click the Add new channel button. This will open the Edit channelpop-up view, allowing the user to define channel parameters. A channel entry can be selectedby clicking the channel; the list entry will be highlighted. Several list entries can be selected byusing regular Ctrl + click functionality. Clicking the Duplicate selected button will open the Editchannel pop-up view with all channel parameters duplicated, except the channel name. ClickingDelete selected will delete the highlighted list entry. Clicking Edit selected will open the Editchannel pop-up view associated with the highlighted channel. Batch editing is supported; this isconvenient if a new threshold template should be assigned to a number of channels or if monitoringof several channels should be enabled or disabled. Select the channels and click the Edit selectedbutton. Parameters differing between channels will be indicated in the Edit selected pop-up viewby an asterisk wildcard symbol.

The search field in the upper right corner of the view allows the user to type a text string, and theOTT channel list is updated to display only channels matching the specified text.


GeneralEnabled: Check the ‘Enabled’ check box to start monitoring the OTT service.

Round time: Sets the minimum round time of this OTT channel, in seconds (default:15 seconds). If processing all the profiles of a single channel takes lesstime than this, it waits until this amount of seconds has passed since itstarted the round before starting to process through its channels again.The round time setting does not apply to channels for which real-timeaudio analysis have been enabled.Note: The round time may not be set to a value less than 2 seconds.

Threshold: The OTT threshold that should be assigned to the OTT channel. OTTthresholds that have been defined in the OTT — Thresholds view areavailable for selection from the drop-down menu.

Active Testing: Check this box to enable the ‘Active Testing’ parts of the selected Thresh-old settings for this channel. Only available if OTT Active Testing optionis enabled.

VBC thresholds: The alarm threshold template used to configure when alarms are gener-ated towards the VBC server. This setting is applies if Active Testing isenabled for this channel.

Name: A name should be assigned to each OTT channel. The name will be usedthroughout the VB7880’s user interface when referring to this channel.

Manifest URL: The URL of the OTT channel.


Player URL: In this field you can enter the URL to a web page which will openthe OTT channel in your browser. If entered, a ‘play’ button will bedisplayed in the OTT overview tab, which will open the selected URL ina new browser tab.

Smooth Streamingtarget chunk:

For Smooth Streaming, this specifies which chunk, counted from thebottom of the list, the VB7880 should download when doing activetesting on a live channel. For other formats, this option is ignored.

Availability mode: If this option is enabled, the engine will only check for chunk presencebut not download the entire file. This also disables thumbnail generation.

RTMP: Check this check box if the channel is an RTMP channel.RTMP live: Check this check box if the RTMP channel is a live service.

Monitor HLS profilemanifests only:

This option makes the OTT engine only download the master manifestonce. After the initial download, it will only re-download it if one of theprofiles gets an error or the connection reset timeout occurs.This option can be used if the server hosting the manifest is generatingan unique session for each download of the master manifest.

DRM


VCAS hostname: If this channel is encrypted using a Verimatrix VCAS 3.7 server, enteringthe IP address or hostname of the VCAS server’s encoder interface willallow descrambling of the encrypted chunks. See OTT descrambling withVerimatrix for more info.

Fixed key: The key that will be used to descramble the chunks for this channel. Usingthis field will override any key found during manifest parsing.For HLS, use a Base64 encoded string, like this:8MS4DlpKATr242Xafknb4w==For DASH, use a hex encoded string, like this:b42ca3172ee4e69bf51848a59db9cd13

Fixed IV: The IV to be used during descrambling of the HLS chunks. Using this fieldwill override any IV found or calculated during manifest parsing.Use a 0x-prefixed hex encoded string, like this:0x86125135375afe3f5f51d4df269caaad

Adv. manifestEnable adv. settings: Check this box to enable the advanced manifest settings. If unchecked,

all settings on this page are ignored.

Method: Determines which HTTP method to use when requesting the top-levelmanifest file. Supported methods are GET and POST.

Content-Type: When requesting the manifest using the HTTP POST, use this Content-Type for the submitted request body.

Additional headers: To provide additional custom request headers or overwrite the defaultheaders when requesting the top-level manifest file, create a text filecontaining the headers and upload them here.


Body: When requesting the manifest using the HTTP POST, upload the file tosubmit here.

The advanced manifest options can be used in instances where the master manifest file is not directlyavailable to download. If your channel needs several steps of authentication or other web servicecalls before supplying clients with an URL to the master manifest, you can make an “in-between”web service which the VB7880 sends all required info to do the authentication and/or channellookups through this interface, and which returns an JSON file with an “url” parameter containingthe URL to the master manifest file.

5.3.4 OTT — Settings

The Settings tab makes it possible to change global OTT monitoring parameters. Press Apply toconfirm changes made.

SettingsReset connection after: Configures the VB7880 OTT engines to reset the connections after

the specified number of minutes. This is useful for cases where theserver has a limit for how long a session can live. By resetting beforethat limit a new session is created and the problem is avoided.

5.3.5 OTT — Thresholds


The OTT Threshold presets list shows OTT threshold templates configured by the user.

To add a threshold template to the list click the Add new threshold button. This will open the Editthreshold pop-up view, allowing the user to define threshold parameters. A threshold template entrycan be selected by clicking the threshold template; the list entry will be highlighted. Several listentries can be selected by using regular Ctrl + click functionality. Clicking the Duplicate selectedbutton will open the Edit threshold pop-up view with all threshold template parameters duplicated,except the threshold template name. Clicking Delete selected will delete the highlighted list entry.Clicking Edit selected will open the Edit threshold pop-up view associated with the highlightedthreshold template. Batch editing is supported. Select the threshold templates and click the Editselected button. Parameters differing between templates will be indicated in the Edit selectedpop-up view by an asterisk wildcard symbol.

The search field in the upper right corner of the view allows the user to type a text string, and thethreshold list is updated to display only thresholds matching the specified text.

Content-check thresholdsName: The threshold template name defined by the user.

Profile alignment sensitivity: Picture matching in video streams is not an exact science,as noise can be introduced in many of the stages the streamgoes through. This setting makes it possible to define howmuch noise is allowed when performing profile alignmentdetection.When set to Disabled, profile alignment detection is dis-abled. When set to Trigger seldom, a large amount ofnoise is allowed when comparing the frames across pro-files for out-of-alignment conditions. Normal is the rec-ommended setting, whereas Trigger often allows onlya small amount of noise, which may result in too manyout-of-alignment alarms.

VMAF scoring: When enabled, the VB7880 will compare the differentprofiles and create a VMAF score relative to the profilewith the highest bitrate.

QoE scoring: Enables picture analysis and MOS scoring.


Freeze-frame detection sensitivity: This setting makes it possible to define how much noiseis allowed when performing freeze-frame detection.When set to Disabled, the freeze-frame detection is dis-abled. When set to Trigger seldom, only a small amountof noise is allowed when deciding whether the picturehas changed or not. This means that the pictures haveto be close to identical before the freeze-frame alarm israised. Normal is the recommended setting and should beused in most cases. Trigger often allows a high amountof noise. This means that it allows pictures to be quitedifferent while still classifying them as identical, whichmay result in too many freeze-frame alarms.

Freeze-frame error timeout: The time (in minutes) a freeze-frame error should persistbefore the VB7880 will raise an alarm.

Color-freeze detection sensitivity: This setting makes it possible to define how much noiseis allowed when performing color-freeze detection.When set to Disabled, the color-freeze detection is dis-abled. When set to Trigger seldom, only a small amountof noise is allowed when comparing to the list of solidcolors. Normal is the recommended setting, whereasTrigger often allows a high amount of noise, which mayresult in too many color-freeze alarms.

Color-freeze error timeout: The time (in seconds) a color-freeze error should persistbefore the VB7880 will raise an alarm.

Real-time audio analysis: Enables real-time loudness extraction for the channel. Theloudness data can be retrieved through the Eii.This setting is automatically enabled if any of the audiochecks below are enabled.

Audio silence detection threshold: Set the threshold for silence detection in decibel below0 LUFS/LKFS (max volume) Use negative values, 0 dis-ables alarm.If this threshold is enabled, real-time audio analysis isautomatically enabled for the channel.

Audio silence detection timeout: The number of seconds that audio has to be below thesilence detection threshold before the audio silence alarmis triggered.


Audio peak detection threshold: Set the threshold for audio too loud detection in decibelbelow 0 LUFS/LKFS (max volume) Use negative values,0 disables alarm.If this threshold is enabled, real-time audio analysis isautomatically enabled for the channel.

Audio peak detection timeout: The number of seconds that audio has to be above thepeak detection threshold before the audio too loud alarmis triggered.

QoE alarm threshold: Set the threshold for average MOS. If QoE scoring isenabled and this value is set to a a value above 1.0, analarm will be triggered if the MOS average drops belowthis value. Set to 1.0 to disable the alarm.

QoE alarm window: The time (in minutes) over which to calculate the MOSaverage for alarming purposes.

If the OTT Active Testing option is available, additional settings are available, which can be enabledon a channel-by-channel basis by checking the appropriate checkbox in the channel setup. Dependingon the purchased license, there might be an upper limit as to the number of channel the ActiveTesting thresholds can be applied to, this limit is described in the Edit Threshold dialog.

To disable a threshold alarm, set the threshold value to –1 or Any. This does not apply for ManifestXML size.

Active testing thresholdsProfile stream type: The stream type (Live or VoD). If any of the profiles have a different

type a wrong profile type alarm will be raised.

Download speed error: The maximum allowed difference between profile bitrate and down-load bitrate (%). If the difference exceeds the threshold value a bitrateerror alarm will be raised.

Download speed warn: The maximum allowed difference between profile bitrate and down-load bitrate (%). If the difference exceeds the threshold value a bitrateerror warning will be raised.

Actual bitrate min: The minimum allowed bitrate when measured actual bitrate is com-pared to profile bitrate (%). If the actual bitrate goes below the thresh-old an actual bitrate alarm will be raised.

Actual bitrate max: The maximum allowed bitrate when measured actual bitrate is com-pared to profile bitrate (%). If the actual bitrate exceeds the thresholdan actual bitrate alarm will be raised.

Sequence age: The maximum time a manifest can remain unchanged before a mani-fest age alarm is raised.


Manifest XML size: The maximum detected size of the manifest before a manifest sizealarm is raised.

Min. profiles: Minimum number of profiles in the selected channel before an alarmis raised.


5.4 Multicasts

5.4.1 Multicasts — Thumbnails

The Multicasts — Thumbnails view gives the user visual feedback of each stream’s status. Thestreams that the VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor extracts data from are presented in a list ofstreams, and a ‘bulb’ indicates the current alarm status of the associated stream. In addition, theRemote Video Wall features offers a better overview of content and alarm status for each stream.

Joined multicastsi©: Click the information icon to access the Service overview pop-up view

Bulb: Stream status is indicated by a bulb:Green: Stream status: OK.Yellow: The VB7880 is observing possible problems but the thresholds have not yetbeen exceeded.Red: Stream status: Alarm.Grey: Stream status: start-up/unknown.

Name: The stream name specified by the user in the Edit Multicast view

Address: The IP address used to connect to this multicast#Services: The number of services found in the multicasts

Thumbnails

The VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor is capable of extracting thumbs from up to 100 streams,up to a total maximum of 100 channels (multicasts and OTT combined), depending on the license.MPEG-2, H.264/MPEG-4, H.265/HEVC and JPEG 2000 video formats in standard definition, highdefinition or ultra-high definition are supported in MPEG-2 transport streams, as well as SMPTE2022-6 uncompressed video in RTP streams.


The thumbnail update rate will depend on how the streams are coded and if they are standarddefinition, high definition or ultra-high definition. It is possible to increase the update rate byopening the Thumb View pop-up, described below.

If the Extractor is unable to generate a thumbnail from the signal, it will present one of the followingicons:

Shown if no data is received for the stream or if no PSI is found. There should be amatch between presenting this icon and a No-signal alarm; however since the alarmand thumbnail mechanisms work independently of each other they have been givendifferent names (loss of signal and no signal).

Shown while the thumbnail engine is trying to decode a thumbnail picture and moreprecise status information has not yet been obtained. This icon is typically displayedafter extractor reboot or if new streams have recently been joined.

Shown if the service does not carry a video PID — which is the case for radioservices.

The stream contains no service, as signaled in PSI/SI.

The signal cannot be decoded due to excessive CC errors or RTP packet drops.

The VB7880 does not support thumbnail generation for this protocol mapping.

The signal is recognized as being MPEG-2 encoded but the thumbnail extractor isunable to correctly decode a thumbnail picture.

The signal is recognized as being MPEG-4/H.264 encoded but the thumbnail extractoris unable to correctly decode a thumbnail picture.

The signal is recognized as being MPEG-H/H.265 encoded but the thumbnail extrac-tor is unable to correctly decode a thumbnail picture.

The signal is recognized as being JPEG 2000 encoded but the thumbnail extractor isunable to correctly decode a thumbnail picture.

The signal is recognized as being an uncompressed (raw) video stream but thethumbnail extractor is unable to correctly decode a thumbnail picture.

This icon is shown if the VB7880 is unable to receive or analyze the PMT PID. Notethat if a stream is known not to carry PSI, the user may select to manually specify acustom video PID — refer to the Multicasts — Streams view.


The VB7880 can only generate a thumbnail picture if the video data is not scrambled.The Extractor will always try to generate a thumbnail picture and will only conclude

that it is scrambled if decode fails and the PID is signaled as being scrambled. If thestream is configured not to raise an alarm upon scrambling the icon will be coloredgreen.

As above. If the stream is configured to raise an alarm upon scrambling the icon willbe colored red.

Service Overview

The Service Overview pop-up is activated by clicking a stream line in the monitoring list.

The view lists detected MPEG-2 TS services (by analyzing the PSI/SI tables) or SMPTE 2022-6SDI over IP components, providing the following information for each service:

Service/Pid: For each service, the service-name or service-id is obtained from thePSI/SI tables. PIDs that do not belong to a service are denoted ‘OtherPIDs’. The service ID is presented in square brackets.

Service/Component: This replaces the “Service/Pid” column for SMPTE 2022-6 SDI over IPstreams, displaying the identified components.

Thumb: Click the i© icon to access the Thumb pop-up view, explained below

Type: The list entry service type or PID type

PCR: This field will be checked if the corresponding PID carries PCR


Scr: This field will be checked if the corresponding PID is scrambled

Directly beneath this list, the current parameters for the selected stream are displayed, as in theJoined multicasts list.

Thumb View

The Thumb View pop-up is accessed by clicking an information icon in the Service Overviewview. This view presents a large thumbnail, as well as video and audio metadata for the selectedstream, with an increased update rate compared to non-selected streams. Service audio level isindicated by one audio level bar per audio component. The same pop-up can be opened from theMain — Thumb Overview view, see chapter 5.1.3 for more information.

Clicking the Close button will close the Thumb View view.


The following metadata is displayed for multicasts:

Audio fieldsPID: The audio PID for which the associated parameters apply

Language: The audio language, as derived from PSI/SI

Average: The average audio level in LUFS/LKFS, measured over 0.4 seconds

Peak: The peak audio level in LUFS/LKFS, detected during 0.4 seconds

Audio level: An audio level bar displaying the average audio level as a green bar referenced tothe peak audio level, the peak level being indicated by a white line

Click the ‘Play’ button to play back the last few seconds of decoded audio for the selected PID inthe browser.

If GOP (group of pictures) extraction has been enabled in the associated Ethernet threshold, thelatest GOP sequence is displayed:

GOP fieldsOrder: The current GOP sequence is displayed.

GOP sequence: The GOP sequence consists of I, P and B frames (MPEG-2) or I, P, B, S, SI, SPand BI frames (H.264/MPEG-4). For extensive information about the differentframes please refer to the relevant compression coding specification.GOP extraction is only supported for the MPEG-2 and H.264/MPEG-4 codecs.

The following stream status information will be displayed (bulbs will be green for status OK, red toindicate an active alarm and grey if the associated check has been disabled):

Status descriptionAudio silence: A bulb indicates the audio silence status with reference to the defined require-

ment.Peak level: The measured peak level (LUFS/LKFS). This is checked againstthe audio silence threshold to determine if an audio silence alarm should beraised.Threshold: The audio silence detection threshold (LUFS/LKFS) as definedin the stream threshold template associated with the stream.


Audio too loud: A bulb indicates the audio too loud status with reference to the defined require-ment.Peak level: The measured peak level (LUFS/LKFS). This is checked againstthe audio peak threshold to determine if an audio too loud alarm should beraised.Threshold: The audio peak detection threshold (LUFS/LKFS) as defined inthe stream threshold template associated with the stream.

Scrambling: A bulb indicates the scrambling status with reference to the defined require-ment.Expect: ‘Clear’ or ‘Scrambled’Control bit indicates: ‘Clear’ or ‘Scrambled’PES status indicates: ‘Clear’ or ‘Scrambled’

Freeze-frame: A bulb indicating the freeze-frame detection status. The freeze-frame errortimeout value is set as part of the stream threshold group associated witheach multicast (refer to the Multicasts — Content thresh. and Multicasts —Streams — Edit views).Consecutive frozen frames: The number of consecutive equal frames thathave been detectedTime since OK: The time (in seconds) since freeze-frame status OK was lastdetected. When a freeze-frame condition occurs, this value indicates for howlong video has been frozen.

Color-freeze: A bulb indicating the color-freeze detection status. The freeze-frame errortimeout value is set as part of the stream threshold group associated witheach multicast (refer to the Multicasts — Content thresh. and Multicasts —Streams — Edit views).Consecutive frozen frames: The number of consecutive single color framesthat have been detectedTime since OK: The time (in seconds) since color-freeze status OK was lastdetected. When a color-freeze condition occurs, this value indicates for howlong video has been frozen.

The right-hand column will display the following detailed metadata:

MulticastName: The name of the multicast containing the selected service, as defined

by the user

Type: The type of the stream containing the selected service; multicast orunicast

Multicast address: The multicast address of the stream containing the selected service

Multicast port: The port number of the multicast containing the selected service


Transport stream ID: The ID of the selected stream as shown in the list of multicasts inthe Ethernet section; non-TS services display 1 here

Stream status: The status of the stream containing the selected service, as reportedby the decoding engine

Bitrate: The total stream bitrate of the multicast containing the selectedservice (bits/s)

Stream Threshold: The name of the stream threshold template assigned to the multicast

Service Threshold: The name of the service threshold template assigned to the multicast

Schedule: The name of the alarm masking schedule template assigned to themulticast

Custom Video PID mode: An indication of custom PID mode: ‘Normal’ or ‘Custom PIDsonly’.

ServiceService ID: The service ID of the selected service; non-TS services display

1 herePSI/SI Name: The name of the selected service, as derived from PSI/SI;

non-TS services display the multicast name here instead

Controlbit scramble state: The scramble state as indicated by the MPEG TS control bit

PES sync scramble state: The scramble state as detected from the PES sync state

Number of PIDs/Components: The number of PIDs or components associated with the se-lected service

Bitrate: The total bitrate of the selected service (bits/s)

Video PID/ComponentPID/Component: The video PID of the selected service for MPEG-TS services, or the

video component number for non-TS services

Has PCR: Yes if the selected stream contains PCR, No if notBitrate: The video PID bitrate of the selected service

PES sync: The latest PES sync state

PES length indicator: If signaled in the PES packet header, the PES packet length is displayed;for non-TS services “N/A” is displayed

Status: The status of the video PID as reported by the decoding engine

Video Information


Size: The video picture size of the selected service

Aspect ratio: The video aspect ratio of the selected service, or “N/A” if no information isavailable

Pixel aspect ratio: The video pixel aspect ratio of the selected service, or “N/A” if no informa-tion is available

Codec: The video encoding format of the selected service

Pixel format: The video sampling format of the selected service

Frame rate: The video frame rate of the selected service (Hz)Blockiness: Detected picture blockiness, in percent. Displayed if QoE scoring is en-

abled.Blurriness: Detected picture blurriness, in percent. Displayed if QoE scoring is enabled.

Noisiness: Detected picture noisiness, in percent. Displayed if QoE scoring is enabled.

Brightness: Detected picture brightness, in percent. Displayed if QoE scoring is enabled.

Contrast: Detected picture contrast, in percent. Displayed if QoE scoring is enabled.

MOS score: Calculated picture quality score, on a scale from 1.0 to 5.0, where 5.0 isbest. Displayed if QoE scoring is enabled.

Audio PID/ComponentPID/Component: The audio PID of the selected service for MPEG-TS services, or the audio

component number for non-TS servicesNote that there may be several audio PIDs or components associated with aservice

Type: The audio encoding standard

Has PCR: Yes if the selected Audio PID contains PCRLanguage: The language of the audio, as defined in the MPEG-TS Program Map Table

(PMT)Bitrate: The audio bitrate for this PID or component (bit/s)

Is scrambled: ‘Yes’ if the audio PID is scrambled.Peak level: The peak audio level in LUFS/LKFS, detected during a period of approxi-

mately 0.4 seconds

Average level: The average audio level in LUFS/LKFS, measured over a period of approxi-mately 0.4 seconds

Audio Information PID/ComponentCodec: The audio encoding format

Samplerate: The audio sample rate (Hz)


Channels: The number of audio channels represented by the audio PID or component

Layout: The audio channel layout

Format: The binary format of the audio stream

Bitrate: The effective audio bitrate (bit/s)

5.4.2 Multicasts — SAP

The SAP view displays streams announced using the Session Announcement Protocol, detected bythe VB7880.

As long as Enable SAP discovery is enabled in the Setup — Params view, the VB7880 willcontinuously try to detect streams. Click the View list offline button to view the stream list in offlinemode. Click the Refresh button to update the stream list in offline mode.

The source address makes it possible for the VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor to distinguishbetween multicasts with the same destination IP address and port, provided that Source specificmulticasts has been enabled in the Setup — Params view.

If the stream is currently joined by the VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor (i.e. the VB7880 iscurrently monitoring the stream), the Joined field is set to yes.

Detected streams can be added to the VB7880’s stream list by selecting streams and clicking theAdd selected to stream list. To add all detected streams the Add all to stream list button can bepressed.


5.4.3 Multicasts — Join

In order for the defined Ethernet multicasts to be monitored by the VB7880, they must be joined.The Multicasts — Join view and the Multicasts — Streams view allow the user to select whichmulticasts that are joined by the Extractor.

Streams defined in the Multicasts — Streams view will appear as available streams on the left handside of the arrows in this view. Select streams to be monitored by clicking them and moving them tothe right hand side of this view using the arrow. Changes should be confirmed by clicking the Applychanges button.

5.4.4 Multicasts — Streams


In this view the operator can define multicasts available to the VB7880 and associate a name witheach multicast address. This name will be used by the VB7880 when referring to the multicast. Ifno name has been defined the VB7880 will use the multicast address:port notation.

It is possible to add, delete or edit several entries simultaneously. Several entries are selected byusing the regular Ctrl + click or Shift + click functionality. When adding new entries the currentdialogue values will be used as the template with the values for Name and Address incremented foreach.

Note that both multicast and unicast addresses can be entered here.

The search field in the upper right corner of the view allows the user to type a text string, and themulticast list is updated to display only streams matching the specified text.

Clicking Add new or selecting one or more multicasts and clicking Edit selected will open theMulticast — Streams — Edit pop-up view. When multicasts have been defined, clicking Joinselected will join the selected multicasts and enable monitoring. The VB7880 will only extractthumbnails from and analyze joined multicasts. Clicking Join all will join all multicasts in the list(up to the licensed maximum number of channels). Unjoining one or more multicasts is done byselecting multicasts and clicking Unjoin selected or by clicking Unjoin all.

When the Edit button is clicked it is possible to define the following multicast parameters:

GeneralName: A name should be assigned to each unicast/multicast. The name will

be used throughout the VB7880 user interface when referring to thisstream. It may also be used by an external management system like theVideoBRIDGE Controller.

Address: The IP address of the unicast or multicast.Port: The port number of the unicast or multicast.


Content thresholds: The Content thresholds specify content alarming options. SelectableContent thresholds templates are defined in the Multicasts — Contentthresh. view.

Caption thresholds: The Caption threshold that should be assigned to the multicast. Captionthresholds that have been defined in the Captions — Thresholds vieware available for selection from the drop-down menu.

Service thresh.: The service threshold group that should be assigned to the multicast.Service threshold groups that have been defined in the Multicasts —Service thresh. view are available for selection from the drop-downmenu.

Schedule: The scheduling scheme that should be assigned to the multicast. Schedul-ing schemes that have been defined in the Setup — Scheduling vieware available for selection from the drop-down menu. Scheduling allowsalarm masking at predefined time periods.

Custom video PID: If a stream is known not to contain PSI needed in order to locate the videocomponent, the user can define a custom video PID to be decoded bythe Extractor. The PID definition is made as part of a service thresholdthat should be associated with the stream. If custom video PID is set to‘Normal’ the Extractor will determine the video PID(s) based on PSI/SIplus custom video PID definitions made in the service threshold template.If custom video PID is set to ‘Custom PIDs only’, PSI/SI will not beanalyzed.

Join stream: Check the ‘Join stream’ check box to join a multicast or unicast. Onlyjoined streams are analyzed. A stream may also be joined from theMulticasts — Join or Multicasts — Streams views, and the status ofthis check box will be updated accordingly.

Join interface: Select which interface to join the selected multicast.


SSMSSM source 1: If source specific multicasts (SSM) is enabled in the VB7880 and a zero source

address is specified for a multicast it will be joined using IGMP version 2 (i.e.without a source). This allows both source specific multicasts and non-sourcespecific multicasts to co-exist in the same network and be joined by the VB7880.

5.4.5 Multicasts — Content thresh.

Thresholds are used to determine when to actually raise an alarm upon detection of an error. TheContent thresholds are used for generating content alarms. The alarm level of each of these alarmsis set in the Alarms — Alarm setup view. Note that it is also possible to disable alarms in theAlarms — Alarm setup view.

The Multicasts — Content thresh. view makes it possible to define threshold values that operateat stream level. Thresholds are associated with each stream in the Multicasts — Streams — Editview. There are two different ways of creating user-defined thresholds. To create a new threshold


template from scratch the operator should click the Add new threshold button. A pop-up windowwill appear allowing the user to define alarm conditions. Another way of creating a user-definedthreshold template is by highlighting one of the threshold templates already defined and then clickthe Duplicate highlighted button.

Deleting a threshold template is done by highlighting the threshold template that should be removedand clicking Delete selected. It is possible to delete or edit several entries simultaneously. Severalentries are selected by using the regular Ctrl + click or Shift + click functionality. Click the Editbutton to edit one or more selected threshold templates. Note that the predefined ‘Default’ thresholdtemplate cannot be deleted or changed.

In the threshold presets list the ‘Refs’ column displays how many streams are associated with eachstream threshold template.

Content thresholds


Name: A text string that identifies the Content threshold

Extract all services: When enabled, all services in the multicast this thresholdis applied to will be extracted. For an MPTS, all servicesin the stream counts towards the active service limit de-fined by the license. If only one or a few services need tobe monitored, disable this setting, in which case servicesnot referenced by the Service threshold applied to thesame stream will be ignored. Please refer to chapter 5.4.6for details on Service thresholds.

Scrambling: Each stream can be configured to raise an alarm when thatstream’s scrambling status changes. The default behavioris to ignore whether a stream is scrambled or not. In orderto trigger an alarm if a clear service is received when it issupposed to be scrambled, select Error if not scrambledin the Scrambling pull-down menu. For a multicast eachindividual service will be checked for violation of thissetting – i.e. each service may trigger an alarm.As a general rule the value of the Scrambling pull-downshould be set to Ignore when individual service scram-bling alarm handling is defined.

Scrambling detection mode: When scrambling detection mode is set to ‘Both’, scram-bling of a stream is detected by checking the controlbit of the MPEG transport stream packets and checkingPES sync. If one or both checks indicate that the scram-bling requirement is not fulfilled, an alarm will be raised.When ‘Control bit’ or ‘PES sync’ is selected, scramblingdetection will rely on the selected parameter only.

Scrambling error seconds: The number of seconds a scrambling error should persistbefore an alarm is raised. The default setting is to waituntil the error has lasted for 40 seconds. This is usefulwhen scrambling alternates between scrambled and un-scrambled and you don’t want to raise an alarm everytime the stream is not scrambled but only when there is areal error.


Freeze-frame detection sensitivity: Picture matching in video streams is not an exact science,as noise can be introduced in many of the stages thestream goes through. This setting makes it possible to de-fine the amount of noise to be allowed when performingfreeze-frame detection.When set to Disabled, the freeze-frame detection is dis-abled. When set to Trigger seldom, only a small amountof noise is allowed when deciding whether the picture haschanged or not. This means that the pictures have to beclose to identical before the freeze-frame alarm is raised.Normal is the recommended setting and should be usedin most cases. Trigger often allows a high amount ofnoise. This means that it allows pictures to be quite dif-ferent while still classifying them as identical, which mayresult in too many freeze-frame alarms.

Freeze-frame error timeout: The time (in minutes) a freeze-frame error should persistbefore the Extractor will raise an alarm

Color-freeze detection sensitivity: This setting makes is possible to define the amount ofnoise to be allowed when performing color-freeze detec-tion.When set to Disabled, the color-freeze detection is dis-abled. When set to Trigger seldom, only a small amountof noise is allowed when comparing to the list of solidcolors. Normal is the recommended setting, whereasTrigger often allows a high amount of noise, which mayresult in too many color-freeze alarms.

Color-freeze error timeout: The time (in seconds) a color-freeze error should persistbefore the Extractor will raise an alarm.

Override valid-frame detection: When decoding thumbnails, the thumbnail extractor pro-cesses data until it has determined it has a valid frame.If this automatic detection fails, set the amount of videodata the thumbnail extractor should be forced to processbefore producing a thumbnail.For most streams this should be left at the default value.

Real-time audio analysis: Enables real-time loudness extraction for the stream. Theloudness data can be retrieved through the Eii.

Audio silence detection threshold: The value in LUFS/LKFS when to trigger the audio si-lence alarm. Setting this to a value of 0 disables audiosilence detection.


Audio silence detection timeout: The number of seconds that audio has to be below thesilence detection threshold before the audio silence alarmis triggered.

Audio peak detection threshold: The value in LUFS/LKFS when to trigger the audio tooloud alarm. Setting this to a value of 0 disables audiopeak detection.

Audio peak detection timeout: The number of seconds that audio has to be above thepeak detection threshold before the audio too loud alarmis triggered.

Audio phase detection threshold: For two channel audio (stereo or dual mono), this definesthe threshold for when to report out of phase audio. Avalue of –1 indicates audio that is completely out of phase,whereas a value of 1 indicates audio that is completely inphase. Setting this to a value of –1 disables audio phasedetection.

Audio phase detection timeout: The number of seconds that audio has to be above thephase detection threshold before the audio out of phasealarm is triggered.

GOP extraction: Enable extraction of GOP (group of pictures) structureof the input stream. The extracted GOP can be viewed inthe Thumb view pop-up.GOP extraction is only supported for the MPEG-2 andH.264/MPEG-4 codecs.

DAR alarm mode: The alarm threshold for Display Aspect Ratio can be setto Ignore, Same or Specific DAR.

• Ignore: No alarming for DAR.• Same: Alarm if the DAR changes.• Specified DAR: The DAR expected for the stream

must be specified in the text field below.

Expected display aspect ratio: The expected DAR must be given in the text field (i.e:16:9 or 4:3) if Specified DAR has been selected in thedrop-down menu above.

DAR alarm timeout: The minimum number of seconds during which an alarmremains active when the Expected display aspect ratio isnot correct.


PAR alarm mode: The alarm mode of the expected Pixel Aspect Ratio, canbe set to Ignore, same or Specific PAR.

• Ignore: No alarming for PAR.• Same: Alarm if the PAR changes.• Specified PAR: The PAR expected for the stream

must be specified in the text field below.

Expected pixel aspect ratio: The expected Pixel Aspect ratio must be given in the textfield (i.e: 1:1 or 2:1) if Specified PAR has been selectedin the drop-down menu above.

PAR alarm timeout: The minimum number of seconds during which an alarmremains active when the Expected pixel aspect ratio isnot correct.

QoE scoring: Enables picture analysis and MOS scoring.

QoE alarm threshold: Set the threshold for average MOS. If QoE scoring isenabled and this value is set to a a value above 1.0, analarm will be triggered if the MOS average drops belowthis value. Set to 1.0 to disable the alarm.

QoE alarm window: The time (in minutes) over which to calculate the MOSaverage for alarming purposes.

5.4.6 Multicasts — Service thresh.

Thresholds are used to determine when to actually raise an alarm upon detection of an error. TheMulticasts — Service thresh. view makes it possible to define detailed conditions for alarmtriggering on a per-service basis. This is particularly useful to specify individual alarm handling


rules for services in a multi-program transport stream (MPTS). Note that if there is a stream andservice threshold mismatch, the service threshold will apply. This may be the case if scrambling orscheduling requirements are set differently in the stream threshold template and service thresholdtemplate associated with a stream. There is one predefined service threshold template that cannotbe edited by the operator: Default. The Default service threshold template contains no servicedefinitions and will therefore not alter alarming for any service.

By associating scheduling templates to service threshold templates it is possible to disable alarmingat pre-selected time intervals. Scheduling templates are defined in the Setup — Scheduling viewand will be available from the schedule drop-down menu.

If the Extract all services setting is disabled in the Ethernet threshold that is applied to a stream,any services not referenced by a Service threshold (even if all service-specific settings are disabledor set to ‘Same as stream’) will be ignored by the VB7880.

In the ‘Service Thresholds’ table, the ‘Refs’ column shows how many streams are associated witheach threshold template. Thresholds are associated with each stream in the Multicasts — Streams— Edit view.

There are two different ways of creating user-defined thresholds. To create a new threshold templatefrom scratch the operator should click the Add new threshold group button. A pop-up windowwill appear allowing the user to assign a name and value to the new threshold and define the alarmconditions. Another way of creating a user-defined threshold template is by highlighting one of thetemplates already defined and then click the Duplicate selected button.

Deleting a service threshold template is done by highlighting the template that should be removedand clicking Delete selected. Note that if the deleted threshold template was assigned to a streambeing monitored, the new threshold template for that stream will default to the Default template.

Please refer to chapter 5.4.5 for the specific meaning of the settings.


Edit Service ThresholdName: A text string that identifies the service threshold group

Description: Text field that should contain a meaningful description of the threshold

Service Threshold ParametersID: The service ID for which the associated thresholds should apply.

For an SPTS the service ID will generally be 1; adding severallist entries with different service IDs allows different thresholdsto apply for different services within an MPTS.

Rename: It is possible to define the service name that should be usedfor alarm traps and for alarm reporting to the VideoBRIDGEController. This can be convenient to be able to track a servicethat changes name (as signaled in PSI/SI) in the signal chain,when services within an MPTS are unnamed (no service namesin the SDT) or when services should be recognized by the Video-BRIDGE Controller under a different name than indicated in theSDT.

Scrambling: This settings overrides the scrambling alarm setting from theContent threshold, unless set to Same as stream.

Scrambling detection mode: This settings overrides the Scrambling detection mode settingfrom the Content threshold, unless set to Same as stream.

Freeze-frame sensitivity: This settings overrides the Freeze-frame detection sensitivitysetting from the Content threshold, unless set to Same as stream.

Color-freeze sensitivity: This settings overrides the Color-freeze detection sensitivity set-ting from the Content threshold, unless set to Same as stream.

Custom video PID: If a stream is known not to contain correct PSI needed in order tolocate the video component, the user can define a custom videoPID to be decoded by the Extractor.Note that for MPTS streams the service IDs for each serviceshould be unique in the threshold template, even if the streamitself does not contain PSI.

Custom video mode: When a custom video PID has been defined for a service, theuser must specify the video encoding format: MPEG2, H264,HEVC or JPEG2000.

Audio checks: If set to Specific values, this setting overrides the Audio silencedetection threshold, the Audio peak detection threshold and theAudio phase detection threshold from the Content threshold. Ifset to Same as stream, the values specified here are ignored.


Silence Threshold: This setting overrides the Audio silence detection threshold fromthe Content threshold, unless Audio checks is set to Same asstream.

Peak Threshold: This setting overrides the Audio peak detection threshold fromthe Content threshold, unless Audio checks is set to Same asstream.

Phase Threshold: This setting overrides the Audio phase detection threshold fromthe Content threshold, unless Audio checks is set to Same asstream.

DAR Mode: This setting overrides the DAR alarm mode setting from theContent threshold, unless set to Same as stream.

Expected DAR: This setting overrides the Expected display aspect ratio settingfrom the Content threshold, unless DAR Mode is set to Same asstream.

PAR Mode: This setting overrides the PAR alarm mode setting from theContent threshold, unless set to Same as stream.

Expected PAR: This setting overrides the Expected pixel aspect ratio settingfrom the Content threshold, unless PAR Mode is set to Same asstream.

QoE checks: If set to Specific values, this setting overrides the QoE alarmthreshold and QoE alarm window settings from the Contentthreshold. If set to Same as stream, the values specified here areignored.

QoE threshold: This setting overrides the QoE alarm threshold from the Contentthreshold, unless QoE checks is set to Same as stream.

QoE window: This setting overrides the QoE alarm window from the Contentthreshold, unless QoE checks is set to Same as stream.

Schedule: The Schedule drop-down menu allows the user to associate ascheduling scheme to a service, in effect masking alarms dur-ing selected intervals. Scheduling templates are defined in theSetup — Scheduling view. The predefined scheduling tem-plates ‘Never’ and ‘Always’ will always be selectable, and thesewill result in service alarms never and always being masked,respectively.When Same as stream is selected, the requirement defined in thestream threshold will apply.Note that alarm masking only affects alarm lists and SNMP traps;other alarm indications in the GUI will remain visible.


5.5 Captions (Option)To enable closed caption extraction on a stream, a Captions threshold with Enabled ticked needsto be applied to the stream. See chapters 5.4.4 and 5.5.3 for more details.

5.5.1 Captions — Services

The Captions — Services view gives the user visual feedback of the closed caption status of eachservice. The services that the VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor extracts captions from arepresented in a list of services, and a ‘bulb’ indicates the current alarm status of the associated service.

Thumb: ThumbnailName: Service name

Alarm history: A bar graph showing alarm severity history for the last 24 hours. Each barcolor represents the alarm severity level as configured under Alarms —Alarm setup.

Parent MC stream: Name of the multicast stream this service is extracted from.#SCTE 20: Number of SCTE 20 caption services detected in this service.

#CEA 608: Number of non-SCTE 20, CEA 608 caption services detected in thisservice.

#CEA 708: Number of CEA 708 caption services detected in this service.

5.5.2 Captions — Caption service

Press the blue information button on a service to open the caption service window. This windowgives you access to view all closed caption services, and see the alarms for this service.


5.5.2.1 Captions — Caption service — Captions

The Captions view in this pop-up consists of a closed caption service format selector, and the list todisplay the select captions.

By default, only the closed caption text is shown in the list. If you would like to see all controlmessages as well, check the Show control messages checkbox at the bottom left.


5.5.2.2 Captions — Caption service — Alarms

The Alarms view gives an at-a-glance overview of any active or cleared alarm for the selectedservice.

In the right corner of the pop-up window is a free text search field used to narrow down the entriesin the alarm log.

The alarms are the same ones as explained for the Alarms Setup view, see chapter 5.2.2 for moreinformation.

5.5.3 Captions — Thresholds

Thresholds are used to determine when to actually raise an alarm upon detection of an error. TheCaptions — Thresholds view makes it possible to define threshold values that operate at stream


level. Thresholds are associated with each stream in the Multicasts — Streams — Edit view. Toadd a new threshold setting, click the Add new threshold button and assign a name and value tothe new threshold.

In the threshold presets list the ‘Refs’ column displays how many streams are associated with eachstream threshold template.

Another way of creating a user-defined thresholds is by highlighting one of the thresholds alreadydefined and then clicking the Duplicate highlighted button.

Deleting a threshold is done by highlighting the threshold that should be removed and clickingDelete selected. Note that the predefined ‘No Captions’ threshold template cannot be deleted orchanged.

Caption ThresholdsName: Unique name of these threshold settings

Enabled: Tick this to start closed caption extraction for streams using this threshold

Min. SCTE 20: Minimum number of SCTE 20 caption services expected in services

Min. CEA 608: Minimum number of non-SCTE 20 CEA 608 caption services expected inservices

Min. CEA 708: Minimum number of CEA 708 caption services expected in services


5.6 RVW

5.6.1 RVW — Setup

The RVW — Setup view configures parameters valid for all the Remote Video Walls. Please referto chapter 4 for more information on the Remote Video Wall feature.

Setup — BrandingName: The name of the selected RVW Mosaic is shown as a label at the top

of the RVW.Image: A small image/logo that will be visible in the top left corner of the RVW

Mosaic. The file must be selected from the corresponding drop-downmenu.

Setup — External system integration


VBC protocol: Select whether the RVW should use HTTP or HTTPS when fetchingdata from the VBC server.Please note that the RVW requires the VBC server to be available overeither HTTP or HTTPS for the integration functions to be available.

VBC host name: The host name or IP address of the VideoBRIDGE Controller usedfor integration with the RVW. Leave blank if you do not have a VBCserver.

DataMiner host name: The host name or IP address of the Skyline DataMiner used for inte-gration with the RVW. Leave blank if you do not have a DataMinerserver.

User name: The user name to use when establishing a session towards theDataMiner server.

Password: The password to use when establishing a session towards theDataMiner server. The user name and password is sent directly fromthe VB7880 to obtain a session key, the RVW widgets do not haveaccess to the password directly.

The Remote Video Wall allows logos or similar images to be uploaded and set on the each RVW. Acompany logo or image can be set as an reference to a selected RVW. To upload an image, use thefile selector under the Import image heading and press the Go! button. To delete an uploaded file,select it from the drop-down menu under Delete image heading and press the Delete button.

The DataMiner user name and password are stored in plain text on the VB7880 server and canbe seen by all logged-in users. If possible, have the VB7880 use a non-privileged account onthe DataMiner server.


5.6.2 RVW — Mosaic A–D

The RVW — Mosaic A–D views allows the operator to select which streams to be presented oneach RVW and in which frames. A Remote Video Wall can have up to 16 multicast services or OTTchannel profiles depending on the setup.

Follow the link formed by the name of the selected RVW to be re-directed to the URL that hosts theRemote Video Wall. To display a preview of the RVW inside the configuration UI, use the (preview)link. Please note that the preview might fail to display properly under some circumstances, and isonly meant as a preview, not a permanent display. Also note that these links are not available whenopened from inside the VBC interface.

Real-time audio analysis is automatically enabled for any multicasts or OTT channels that are set todisplay audio bars in the RVW.

RVW — Mosaic A–D


Mode: Select what should be displayed in this frame.• None: The frame will be empty, this is the default selection.• Multicast: When selected from the drop-down menu, a multicast service

can be selected in the Channel drop-down menu below. Make sure that thestream has been joined in the Multicast section.

• OTT: When selected, a live OTT profile can be selected in the Channeldrop-down menu below. Make sure that the channel has been enabled inthe OTT section.

• Widget: Embed a web-based widget in this frame. After selecting this type,the widget to embed can be selected from the ‘Widget’ drop-down menu.

• Iframe: Embed a web page in this frame. After selecting this type, theaddress of the page to embed can be entered in the ‘Address’ field.

Superframe: Select Superframe to increase the size of a stream thumbnail or widget. Whensuperframe has been selected, the other frames hidden by this frame will belocked from editing. A frame can be set up to be displayed in any size from 1x1to 4x4.

Name: A name to refer to the selected stream in the Remote Video Wall section. If leftempty, the slot will use the name of the service defined by the stream.

Channel: In Multicast mode, any service available within a stream may be selected fordisplay. In OTT mode, any profile available within a live OTT channel may beselected for display.

Audio: The audio PIDs in a stream to be monitored.Metering: The specific type of metering for the Audio PIDs. Select either RMS or

LUFS/LKFS metering. RMS metering will display one meter for each audiochannel in the stream, whereas LUFS/LKFS displays one compound meter forthe entire audio stream. Setting metering to None will disable audio bars for thisframe.Note: If the service is scrambled, the VB7880 will not attempt to monitor theaudio.

Widget: In Widget mode, any installed widget can be selected for display in this frame.Please refer to chapter 4.3 for descriptions of the available widgets.

Options: If the widget has any configuration options, click the Configure button to set upthe widget. In the configuration dialog, select Apply to apply the changes orClose to close the dialog without saving changes. Some widgets may also providea Reset button that restore the widget’s default setting.

Preview: Click the Display button to display a preview of the widget inside the configura-tion UI. Please note that not all widgets might display correctly in this mode.


5.7 Setup

5.7.1 Setup — Params

The Setup — Params view is used to configure basic parameters for the VB7880 Advanced ContentExtractor. This page is displayed by default when accessing the web interface, until the configurationhas been saved by clicking the Apply changes button.

VariousExtractor name: Each extractor can be assigned a user defined name. It is part of the

extractor’s MIB. The name is shown in the Main — Summary view,which is the extractor default page, as well as in the browser’s title line.The name is also used for identifying the system when verifying the licenseon-line, see F Appendix: On-line License Verification for more details.

Organization: The name of the organization (usually the company name) that is runningthe extractor. This name is only used for identifying the system whenverifying the license on-line.

Extractor contact: The extractor contact is part of the extractor’s MIB, and this parameteris relevant for SNMP use only. It is used to identify the contact personresponsible for this extractor.

Extractor location: The extractor location is part of the extractor’s MIB. It is used to identifythe physical location of the extractor. The extractor location is also shownin the Main — Summary view and in the browser’s title line.This name is also used for identifying the system when verifying thelicense on-line.

EBU mode: Selects the unit to use for loudness monitoring. In EBU mode, LUFS isused, otherwise LKFS is used.


Date format: The date format used in the user interface can be changed here. Datesexported through machine-readable interfaces are not affected by thissetting.

AlarmsFreeze log when full: When enabled the alarm list will freeze when full (an event

will show that it is full). When the list is full new alarms areignored until Clear alarms is pressed.This can sometimes be useful if a unit is placed unattended.

Treat Ethernet events as alarms: When enabled each event is treated as an alarm that is activefor ten seconds. This may be useful when reporting toexternal systems that do not support events but only activeor cleared alarms. This setting affects the local alarm listand SNMP traps.

Network settingsEnable SAP discovery: When enabled, the VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor

makes streams announced using the Session AnnouncementProtocol available through the Multicasts — SAP view.

Source specific multicasts: Required for extractor to support the IGMP v3 protocol.

Gap between joins (millisecs): When monitoring a lot of multicasts, sending join requestsfor all of them at the same time may overload the networkinfrastructure. This setting specifies the minimum time, inmilliseconds, between join requests.

Time zoneTime zone: By setting the time zone the VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor time can be

offset from the reference NTP time. Please note that this changes the global timezone on the system running the VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor.

SNMPCommunity string: The extractor SNMP community string can be changed.

Trap destination 1–3: SNMP traps will be sent to the specified destinations. Set to 0.0.0.0 todisable SNMP trap transmission.


5.7.2 Setup — Colors

The Setup — Colors view allows the user to define colors that should be recognized if a color-freezecondition should occur. A mono-colored freeze frame condition may in some cases indicate whatequipment is failing, resulting in the color-freeze.

A freeze color is defined by clicking the Add new color button and assigning an RGB value to aname. A maximum of four colors may be defined. An existing color may be modified by clickingthe associated Edit link.

Edit colorName: The color name. This name will be part of a color alarm description and the

associated SNMP trap.

Description: A description of the color or an error indication.

Color: The RGB color on the format #XX(Red)XX(Green)XX(Blue) where XX repre-sents a hexadecimal figure spanning 0-255 in decimal notation. If supported bythe browser, clicking the color should pop up a color selection dialog.


5.7.3 Setup — Ethernet

The Setup — Ethernet view defines the Ethernet setup parameters for the network interfaces onthe system hosting the VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor.

This page uses the same log-in credentials as the Software Activation interface. Please refer tochapter 2.5 for details on Software Activation.

The configuration is divided into different sections, click the appropriate icon to access the differentparts.

The web-based network configuration tool is based on WebMin. Further documentation is availablein the WebMin documentation3.

If you make changes here that causes you to lose web access to the server, please see C Appendix:Network configuration for how to configure the network using the command-line tools.

5.7.4 Setup — VBC

The VideoBRIDGE Controller can automatically detect the VB7880 Advanced Content Extractorand add it to the VBC equipment list, provided that the auto-detect functionality is enabled and theVBC server address is known to the VB7880. Note that the network must be transparent to trafficbetween the VBC server and VB7880 Advanced Content Extractors for auto-detection to work.

3https://doxfer.webmin.com/Webmin/Network_Configuration


https://doxfer.webmin.com/Webmin/Network_Configuration

The VBC server’s host name may be typed in the VBC server address field. The IP address associatedwith the DNS name will be displayed. If host name lookup fails, it is necessary to type the VBCserver’s IP address. Host name lookup is only performed if auto-detect is enabled.

When changes have been made in the Setup — VBC view, click the Apply button for changes totake effect.

5.7.5 Setup — Login

By default, there is no access control and all users have access to all features. Access control can beenabled for the VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor, restricting users to read-only access until theylog in.

Any user can enable access control, but only users who are logged in can disable it or change thepassword.

The Setup — Login view is used to configure read-only access for the user interface. When accesscontrol is activated a READ-ONLY access message is displayed under the alarm list for users thatare not logged in. It will be necessary to log-in each time a web browser application is launched andpointed at the VB7880.

When access control is activated, anyone with access to the VB7880 can access the user interface inread-only mode. Use system firewall to whitelist or blacklist certain addresses, please refer to theSecurity Guide4 for more details.

4https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_enterprise_linux/7/html/security_guide/sec-using_firewalls


https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_enterprise_linux/7/html/security_guide/sec-using_firewalls

https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_enterprise_linux/7/html/security_guide/sec-using_firewalls

Log-in is performed by providing the correct password. The default password is elvis. The operatormay define a new password that should be easy to remember.

Note that when logged in from the VBC, the VBC user’s access rights apply.

The password defined here controls access to the VB7880 user interface. To change thepassword for the Software Activation interface, please refer to chapter 2.5


5.7.6 Setup — VBC thresh.

This tab is only available if the OTT Active Testing option is enabled, and the settings here onlyapply to these tests.

The VBC error second thresholds are used by the VideoBRIDGE Controller to issue VBC specificalarms. The VBC will raise an alarm when the number of error seconds exceeds the error secondsthreshold. The VBC thresholds are only relevant when a VideoBRIDGE Controller is part of themonitoring system.

The reason for using error second thresholds is to avoid alarms that toggle on and off, which for alarge monitoring system might otherwise lead to an unintelligible user interface. The VBC thresholdswill allow masking of minor error incidences thus resulting in a control system GUI that presentspersistent alarms only.

The VBC error second thresholds are specified as the number of seconds affected by an errorsituation. These thresholds refer to a monitoring window of one hour, meaning that if the number oferror seconds summed over any one-hour period exceeds the associated error second threshold analarm will be raised by the VBC.

If a monitoring window different from one hour is selected by the VBC user, the threshold valueswill be automatically recalculated to proportional values.

In the ‘VBC threshold presets’ table the ‘Refs’ column shows how many streams are associated witheach VBC threshold template.

By clicking the Add new threshold button the user will enter a VBC thresholds edit view enablingdefinition of a new threshold template. It is possible to copy or delete an existing threshold templateby clicking the Duplicate selected or Delete selected button respectively. To edit a highlightedthreshold template, the Edit selected button should be clicked.

Multi-edit functionality allows editing several VBC thresholds simultaneously. Highlight the listentries that should be edited and click the Edit selected button.


VBC thresholdsName: The name of the VBC threshold template

OTT transport errors: Number of seconds with OTT transport related alarms

OTT HTTP errors: Number of seconds with OTT HTTP related alarmsOTT XML errors: Number of seconds with OTT XML related alarms

5.7.7 Setup — Scheduling

The Setup — Scheduling view enables definition of scheduling templates which are associatedwith multicasts or services using the stream properties or service threshold template system. Thisway it is possible to mask alarms during selected time intervals, e.g. due to maintenance.

In the Schedule list table the ‘Refs’ column shows how many references exist for each schedulingtemplate. References to scheduling templates may be found in stream properties and servicethreshold templates.

The search field in the upper right corner of the view allows the user to type a text string and theschedule list is updated to display only scheduling templates matching the specified text.

The predefined scheduling templates Never and Always result in alarms being masked never oralways, respectively. A new scheduling template is created by clicking the Add new schedulebutton. It is also possible to copy an existing scheduling template by highlighting a schedule templateand clicking the Duplicate selected button. The alarm masking intervals are defined for individualweek days or for all week days. Intervals are specified on the form hhmm–hhmm, for instancethe interval 1200–1400 means that alarm masking should start at noon and finish at 2 pm. Severalalarm masking intervals may be specified for each day using comma separation. To edit an existingscheduling template, highlight it and click the Edit selected button. To delete a template, highlightit and click the Delete selected button.


When a scheduling template has been modified, click the Apply changes button. Defined schedulingtemplates become available as selections in the Multicasts — Streams — Edit and Multicasts —Service thresh. — Edit views.

5.7.8 Setup — Routing

Routing setup

License activationproxy

When using on-line activation, the VB7880 Advanced Content Extractorneeds to be able to connect to the license activation server. If the VB7880Advanced Content Extractor is not connected directly to the Internet, youcan add the URL to a proxy server that it can use here. If not configured, theVB7880 Advanced Content Extractor will try to use the proxy installed onthe VBC host, as configured in the Setup — VBC view; see F Appendix:On-line License Verification for more details


5.7.9 Setup — Security

The Setup — Security view is a restricted section where only the administrator should haveaccess, making it possible to disable selected communication protocols to increase safety againstunauthorized access to the VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor.

This page uses the same log-in credentials as the Software Activation interface. Please refer tochapter 2.5 for details on Software Activation.

5.7.9.1 Setup — Security — Ports

To disable a protocol deselect it by removing the associated check-mark and click the Apply changesbutton. Available security parameters are:

Security parametersEnable SNMP: If SNMP is disabled, no MIB is available on port 161. However SNMP traps

are sent as usual on port 162.Defaults to on.

By default, all web communication to and from the host running the VB7880 Advanced ContentExtractor is using un-encrypted HTTP communication. Please refer to D Appendix: EnablingHTTPS for information on how to enable HTTPS.


5.8 Data5.8.1 Data — Configuration

Full and partial configuration of the VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor can be exported as XMLdocuments. This is achieved by clicking one of the links inside the Export XML frame. A newbrowser window pops up containing the selected XML document. The browser will allow thecontents of the page to be saved to file.

Restoring the VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor configuration, multicast stream list or OTTchannel list is just as simple. Just click the Browse button and select the file that contains theXML document. Then click the Go! button and the information in the XML document will beapplied. The configuration, stream list, thresholds and scheduling exports can all be imported byother VB7880s. Multicast stream lists, OTT channel lists and scheduling information can also beexported to and imported from Sencore VideoBRIDGE probes.

You can also import and export license and software maintenance keys in XML format from thispage.

It should be possible to import the configuration from a VB280. Go to the Data tab in the VB280and select Full configuration under Export XML. Due to the changes in the architecture betweenthe VB280 and the VB7880, some changes may not carry forward correctly.

To import documents that have been manually edited the CRC attribute at the very top of thedocument must be deleted (i.e. delete crc="..." from the file). This will bypass the checksumverification mechanism.

Please refer to the document Eii External Integration Interface for detailed information aboutXML import and export.


Under certain circumstances an unmodified configuration file may fail with a CRC error whenimported back. This problem can most often be fixed by opening the exported configuration file in atext editor and removing the crc attribute as mentioned above.

Note that the Extractor name and location are not part of the XML document. Hence exporting thefull configuration of one VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor and restoring it on another will makethe two VB7880 Advanced Content Extractors identical except for the network settings.

Clicking the Debug data export option will generate a document containing debug information thatmay be useful if VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor misbehavior is reported. This file should besent along with a description of the misbehavior.

5.8.2 Data — Software

The software section allows the VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor to be upgraded to a newersoftware version. Select the .tea file from the local PC and click Go! to copy the software to theVB7880. When the upload is complete, clicking the Update software button will begin the upgradeprocedure.

A more detailed description on the software update procedure can be found in H Appendix: SoftwareUpload


Upgrading to a new major release requires a valid software maintenance license, please refer toG Appendix: Software Maintenance for more details. If the current software maintenance licensedoes not cover the uploaded software version, the upgrade will be aborted and the current version iskept.

5.8.3 Data — Eii

The External integration interface (Eii) allows inclusion of Sencore VideoBRIDGE equipmentinto 3rd party NMS systems. In order to facilitate integration the Data — Eii view allows exportof XML files containing the data typically being requested by an NMS system via the regular Eiiinterface.

Please refer to the document Eii External Integration Interface for detailed information aboutEii.


5.9 About5.9.1 About — Release info

This view shows the software version, the software build date and the version of the underlyingoperating system for the VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor.

5.9.2 About — License

The License view displays the currently active license. The license includes the available VB7880Advanced Content Extractor options and software maintenance details. By clicking the blueinformation icon associated with each option it is possible to view option details.

The VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor supports two different licensing schemes, on-line licensesand classic licenses. When using a classic license, product and software maintenance license keys


are tied to the hardware key, which is the shorter of the two keys presented, in a non-transferrablemanner. The license is installed once, and can also be exported in XML format from this page.These keys can be imported using the Data — Configuration view, or from Software Activation.

When using an on-line license, the key is verified periodically towards a license server. The key istransferrable between systems running the same software, but only as long as on-line verificationis supported. The longer system identifier is used to identify the system. The Current licensefield will display information on when the license key was last verified. Click the Renew button toimmediately renew the license with the license server.

Click the Release button to remove the current license, making it available to another host.Please make sure you have the license key available before you do this, as you must enter itagain on the system you wish to transfer the license to. If you have lost the license key, contactyour dealer to retrieve it. Make sure you include all details from this page in your request.

Please refer to F Appendix: On-line License Verification for more information on how to use on-linelicenses. This appendix also describes how to renew the license when the VB7880 AdvancedContent Extractor cannot connect to the Internet.

Please refer to G Appendix: Software Maintenance for more details on software maintenancelicenses.

Click the Manage installed software link to access the Software Activation interface, see chapter 2.5for more information.

To disable the VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor, uncheck the Activate software checkbox andclick the Change button. You cannot do this if it has been set as the default software through theSoftware Activation interface (which is done by default the first time you activate the software), youwill need to change the default back to Software Activation before disabling VB7880 AdvancedContent Extractor. See chapter 2.11 for more details.

Demo license

Entering a demo license key pair will start a trial period during which the features defined in thedemo license are available. Once the trial period ends, the VB7880 will revert back to the previouslicense. The time remaining is indicated in the License details page.

To end a trial period manually, enter a valid permanent license key.


5.9.3 About — Technologies

The Technologies view lists some of the technologies available in the Sencore VideoBRIDGEproduct family.

5.9.4 About — Credits

This view shows information about the software included with the VB7880 Advanced ContentExtractor.


5.9.5 About — System

The System view displays a snapshot of the current status of the system, to ensure correct VB7880Advanced Content Extractor operation.

The Extractor services overview displays the VB7880 services that are required. All the VB7880services listed should have status Running.

Disk free displays free disk space to give the user some overview of disk resources available.

Server response time is determined upon entering the System view. When the Redo button isclicked, a new request is sent to the web server.

Clicking the Debug. . . link allows the user to generate a document containing debug informationthat may be useful if VB7880 misbehavior is reported. This file should be sent along with adescription of the misbehavior.

Clicking the System status (XML). . . link generates an XML document with a short description ofthe system status.


A Appendix: Monitoring Practices

This Appendix summarizes a few useful monitoring practices.

A.1 Dedicated interface for OTTAs a rule of thumb, you should never have OTT traffic on the same network as multicasts. Thismeans that you should either use one VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor for multicast and one forOTT, or you should use different and dedicated interfaces for each.

The interface used for OTT traffic is controlled using the operating system network configuration.

A.2 OTT descrambling with VerimatrixIf you are using a Verimatrix VCAS 3.7 server to encrypt your OTT stream, you can get the VB7880Advanced Content Extractor to descramble the chunks. It will uses the same API to descramblethe chunks, as the encoder or segmenter uses to encrypt the chunks. To achieve this, the VB7880Advanced Content Extractor need to be able to reach the VCAS server’s private encoder interface.

If the VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor needs to connect to the VCAS server and the originserver on different interfaces, you must configure the system routing table accordingly.

A.3 OTT Bandwidth requirementsThe recommended available bandwidth for full coverage OTT monitoring is equal to the sum of theprofile bitrates monitored plus an estimated overhead of 20 % for manifests and IP, TCP and HTTPheaders.

Note: The OTT engines will be using all available bandwidth on the interface in spikes whiledownloading the chunks, this is the main reason why it is not a good idea to mix multicasts on thesame interface, as it can cause packet drops which multicasts cannot handle.


B Appendix: OTT Profile Health

B.1 OTT Profile Health Bar

The profile health bar displayed at channel level shows an overview of current status for individualchannel profiles. Different colors indicate status:

• Green: OK

• Yellow: Warning

• Orange: Error

• Red: Major

• Black: Fatal

All enabled alarms may affect the profile health bar, and alarm severities can be assigned to eachalarm in the Alarms — Alarm setup view.

B.2 OTT Profile Health Timeline


The OTT profile health timeline shows information about channel bitrate and channel alarm statusfor the last two hours, with a time resolution of one minute. Green parts of the timeline indicateprofile download time versus chunk length. The graph is scaled so that 100% indicates a chunkdownload time identical to chunk length (in seconds), chunk length being signaled in the profilemanifest. Quick chunk download times therefore result in a ‘low’ green graph, as seen in the lefthand part of the graph above. When download times exceed the user defined profile bitrate warningand error thresholds the graph is colored yellow and orange respectively.

In addition to profile bitrate indication the graph displays profile status information related to non-bitrate alarms. Active profile alarms are represented in the graph as 100% bars, the color reflectingthe severity of the alarm. If several alarms are active within a one minute period the graph color willreflect the most severe alarm. Historical alarms can be examined in more detail by viewing the OTTalarm list.


C Appendix: Network configuration

C.1 Web-based configurationThe system ships with a web-based network configuration module. If you are unable to access thesystem using the web interface, you will need to use the system console. Please see section C.2 fordetails on how to use the command-line based configuration tool from the console.

To access the web-based configuration module, open the Setup — Ethernet view.

The web-based network configuration tool is based on WebMin. Further documentation is availablein the WebMin documentation1.

Another alternative is to install the Cockpit web-based interface, which can be used to configuremost aspects of the system, including the network settings. Packages for Cockpit are available in thebase CentOS/Red Hat Enterprise Linux distribution. For more information on how to install and useCockpit, please refer to Getting Started With Cockpit2.

C.2 Command-line based configurationChanges to network configuration, adding new interface devices and VLANs can be done with thenmtui tool. Simply type nmtui whilst logged into the server command shell as root3. Navigate thenmtui menus using the cursor (arrow) keys and Enter to select. More documentation on using nmtuican be found in the Networking Guide4.

1https://doxfer.webmin.com/Webmin/Network_Configuration2https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_enterprise_linux/7/html/getting_

started_with_cockpit/3If the nmtui tool is not available on your system, you can install it by issuing the command yum install

NetworkManager-tui4https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/7/html/Networking_

Guide/sec-Networking_Config_Using_nmtui.html


https://doxfer.webmin.com/Webmin/Network_Configuration

https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_enterprise_linux/7/html/getting_started_with_cockpit/

https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_enterprise_linux/7/html/getting_started_with_cockpit/

https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/7/html/Networking_Guide/sec-Networking_Config_Using_nmtui.html

https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/7/html/Networking_Guide/sec-Networking_Config_Using_nmtui.html

Editing Network interface configuration

To edit a connection first select Edit a connection from the nmtui menu:

Select the interface to be edited and then select Edit. . . from the menu.

Make the necessary changes to IPv4 and IPv6 configuration.


Selecting Automatically connect will ensure the interface is connected next time the system boots.

Sometimes it is desirable to select Never use this interface for default route, particularly ifadditional interfaces are only used for monitoring multicast traffic or when setting up a nativeinterface for adding VLANs.

After making changes select OK to return the previous menu. Generally, network configurationchanges will take effect the next time the interface is activated. This can be done by deactivatingand reactivating the interface from the Activate a connection menu in nmtui or with the commandline ifdown ifname followed by ifup ifname.

Adding new and VLAN interfaces

To add a new interface, in the nmtui main menu select Edit a connection followed by Add andselect the interface type from the menu. Typically this is Ethernet but may also be used to createVLAN interfaces. Advanced configurations such as Bond and Bridge may be selected if they arerequired.


To find the system assigned name for a newly added hardware device use the command line ifconfigor search in the output of the dmesg tool. It can be helpful to keep the nmtui Profile name for thedevice the same as the device name itself, for example:

To add a VLAN interface from nmtui main menu select Edit a connection followed by Add. Scrollto the bottom of the list and select VLAN:

Edit the settings for the VLAN interface. The Device field should contain the name of the physicalinterface to be used for this VLAN and the VLAN number, for example ens8.1040 means VLAN1040 on interface ens8. The parent and VLAN ID fields should correspond to the values in the namefield. In our example ens8 is the parent and 1040 is the VLAN. Other settings are the same as fornormal IPv4/6 interfaces.


After entering the configuration for the VLAN interface select OK to return the previous menu, thenselect Back and finally Activate a connection to activate the newly created VLAN interface.


D Appendix: Enabling HTTPSBy default, all web communication to and from the host running the VB7880 Advanced ContentExtractor is using un-encrypted HTTP communication. To enable HTTPS, the installed Apacheserver software needs to be configured appropriately.

The guide below is based on the guide from the CentOS Wiki1. To install packages, generate keysand update the Apache configuration, you will need to be root so you can either su to root or usesudo in front of the commands below.

If the system is available on a publicly visible host name, you can use EFF’s Certbot to deploy aLet’s Encrypt certificate. Please see the section Using Certbot with Let’s Encrypt below.

Installing packages requires an active Internet connection. If you are using Red Hat EnterpriseLinux, you will need an active subscription to install packages.

Getting the required softwareTo enable SSL on Apache, you will need to install the mod_ssl package, if not installed already. Toinstall the package, issue the following command:

yum install mod_ssl

Generating a certificateIf you have an internal certificate authority, use that to create a certificate. Otherwise follow thesteps below to generate a self-signed certificate. Please note that modern browsers display a warningmessage when connecting to a web server running a self-signed certificate. This message can usuallybe suppressed by installing the certificate in the browser.

First generate a private key, which we call ca.key:

openssl genrsa -out ca.key 2048

Second, create a certificate signing request (CSR) in ca.csr:

openssl req -new -key ca.key -out ca.csr

1https://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/Https


https://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/Https

Third, we self-sign the key:

openssl x509 -req -days 365 -in ca.csr -signkey ca.key -out ca.crt

We now have the necessary files, but we need to copy them to the correct locations in the file system:

cp ca.crt /etc/pki/tls/certscp ca.key /etc/pki/tls/private/ca.keycp ca.csr /etc/pki/tls/private/ca.csr

Configuring the web serverThe Apache SSL configuration file, /etc/httpd/conf.d/ssl.conf, needs to be updated to make use ofthe generated certificate. Open it using a text editor, for example:

vi +/SSLCertificateFile /etc/httpd/conf.d/ssl.conf

Change the paths to match where the Key file (ca.crt) and Certificate Key (ca.key) are stored. Ifyou’ve used the method above, the configuration should be:

SSLCertificateFile /etc/pki/tls/certs/ca.crtSSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/pki/tls/private/ca.key

We also need to forward the configuration from the HTTP host to the HTTPS host. This is done byadding the following line anywhere in the VirtualHost declaration in the ssl.conf file, you can forinstance add this next to the lines above:

RewriteOptions Inherit

Quit and save the file and then restart Apache by issuing the command


All being well you should now be able to connect to the system using HTTPS. If there was an error,the command output should give you some hints on where to look.


Disabling HTTP accessTo configure the server to redirect any access arriving over HTTP to the HTTPS server, the simplestway is to create the file /etc/httpd/conf.d/001-http-to-https.conf2:

cat <<'EOM' > /etc/httpd/conf.d/001-http-to-https.confRewriteEngine OnRewriteCond %{HTTPS} !=onRewriteRule ^/?(.*) https://%{SERVER_NAME}/$1 [R,L,NE]EOM

After creating the file, restart Apache by issuing the command


If this does not work, please consult the Apache documentation or the Apache Wiki3. It is alsopossible to completely disable the HTTP port, if it is not needed.

Using Certbot with Let’s EncryptIf the system is available on a publicly visible host name, you can use EFF’s Certbot to deploy aLet’s Encrypt certificate. Some preparations are needed before running Certbot.

To enable SSL on Apache, you will need to install the mod_ssl package, if not installed already. Toinstall the package, issue the following command:

yum install mod_ssl

Next, we need to configure Apache VirtualHost configurations for HTTP and HTTPS. The HTTPSone is configured in the Apache SSL configuration file, /etc/httpd/conf.d/ssl.conf, and needs to beupdated slightly:

Open it using a text editor, for example:

vi +/VirtualHost /etc/httpd/conf.d/ssl.conf

Add the following line after the <VirtualHost _default_:443> line:2https://wiki.apache.org/httpd/RewriteHTTPToHTTPS3https://wiki.apache.org/httpd/RedirectSSL


https://wiki.apache.org/httpd/RewriteHTTPToHTTPS

https://wiki.apache.org/httpd/RedirectSSL

RewriteOptions Inherit

Finally, we need to create a VirtualHost for the HTTP part, this one is kept simple and can be createdby issuing the following command:

cat <<'EOM' > /etc/httpd/conf.d/002-http-virtualhost.conf<VirtualHost _default_:80>RewriteOptions Inherit</VirtualHost>EOM

Now the configuration should be ready for adding the Let’s Encrypt certificate. Please follow theCertbot guide4 for information on how to do that.

4https://certbot.eff.org/lets-encrypt/centosrhel7-apache


https://certbot.eff.org/lets-encrypt/centosrhel7-apache

E Appendix: Enabling NTP time synchroniza-tion

It is strongly recommended that the server running the VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor besynchronized against an external NTP server.

If not set up correctly, alarms may be displayed with incorrect timestamps and out out alignmentwith other monitoring devices in the system.

NTP synchronization against public servers on the Internet is usually enabled automatically ifthey were detected during the operating system installation. It is possible to change the serversto use, for instance to set it to use a local NTP server, by changing the configuration in the file/etc/chrony.conf manually.

Setting the VBC IP address in the Setup — VBC view will automatically add it as a time synchro-nization source.

For more details on configuring the date and time settings, please refer to the System Administrator’sGuide, chapters Configuring the Date and Time1 and Using chrony2.

1https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/7/html/System_Administrators_Guide/chap-Configuring_the_Date_and_Time.html

2https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_enterprise_linux/7/html/system_administrators_guide/sect-using_chrony




https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_enterprise_linux/7/html/system_administrators_guide/sect-using_chrony

https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_enterprise_linux/7/html/system_administrators_guide/sect-using_chrony

F Appendix: On-line License Verification

F.1 IntroductionThe VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor uses licenses which are verified and updated periodicallyover the Internet, without the need for human intervention. The license is only tied to the VB7880when it is used and is periodically renewed. To transfer the software to a new host, the license cansimply be released from the software and applied to an instance running on a different server.

Please make sure you have the license key available before you release the license, as you mustenter it again on the system you wish to transfer the license to. The license key is not displayedin the VB7880 user interface.

If you have lost the license key, contact your dealer to retrieve it. Make sure you include alldetails from the About — License view in your request.

When the VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor sends the on-license verification over the Internet, itincludes some basic information to verify the VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor. This includes abasic hardware footprint, as well as parts of the SNMP identification data configured in the Setup —Params view.

F.2 RequirementsThe VB7880 needs to be able to contact the license server either directly or via a proxy server, asdescribed below. If proxy connectivity also is not available, an off-line verification procedure isavailable as well.

The VB7880 must also be configured with a correct date and time. Please refer to E Appendix:Enabling NTP time synchronization for more information on configuring time synchronization.

Direct access to verification server

To verify the license on-line directly, the VB7880 needs to be configured with a valid DNS serveraddress (see C Appendix: Network configuration) which is able to look up the host name license.microanalytics.org. The VB7880 needs to be able to contact the host this name resolves to usingHTTPS on port 443.


Using the VBC server as a proxy

When installing the VBC software to a server, an instance of the Tinyproxy1 software is automaticallyinstalled and configured to allow its connected blades to connect to (and only to) the licensingsystem as described in the previous section.

When the VB7880 has been configured with the address to the VBC server in the Setup — VBCview, the VB7880 will automatically attempt to use this proxy if a direct connection fails.

Using an arbitrary proxy server

The VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor can be configured to use an arbitrary proxy server toconnect to the licensing server. By adding the URL to a proxy server in the Setup — Routing view,the VB7880 will automatically attempt to use this proxy if a direct connection fails.

Off-line verification procedure

If the VB7880 network is completely disconnected from the Internet, it is still possible to verifythe license using the off-line verification procedure. When using this, the license will be tied to thesystem and will not be transferable to another server. Click the Renew license off-line button tostart the off-line verification procedure. This procedure has to be repeated yearly.

Follow the steps described in the dialog to renew or activate the license. To abort the procedure,click the License details button to return to the previous screen.

First, download the license request document from the VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor to thecomputer you are browsing from. Once the file has been downloaded, connect the computer to theInternet if not already connected, and open the link to the off-line license manager2.

1https://tinyproxy.github.io/2https://license.microanalytics.org/offline


https://tinyproxy.github.io/

https://license.microanalytics.org/offline

Select the .bin file that was downloaded in the first step, and optionally add a license key if thesystem you are activating did not already have a license attached. Once done, click the Requestlicense button and save the license document file to the computer.

If needed, re-connect to the VB7880 network, return to the Renew license off-line view, select the.pem file that was generated by the license manager and press Go!

The license should now be added to the system. If this is a new or different license, the software willrestart. Use the License details view to verify that the license was applied correctly.


G Appendix: Software Maintenance

Purchasing yearly software maintenance enables future feature protection and guarantees access tothe latest software for the VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor.

The software maintenance can be purchased for a two or four year period, typically initially purchasedtogether with the system itself, during which new major releases can be installed.

The current software maintenance period is displayed in the About — License view, see chapter5.9.2 for more details. For an overview of software maintenance periods for multiple units, pleaserefer to the Equipment view on the VideoBRIDGE Controller server.

Use the Data — Software view to update the VB7880 software, please refer to chapter 5.8.2.


H Appendix: Software UploadThe process of performing a software upload to the extractor involves the following steps:

1. Obtain the software image.

2. Export and save the extractor configuration.

3. Transfer the image to the extractor using the software upload functionality in the Data —Software view, the Software Activation interface or by using ssh, and save the new softwareimage on the system.

4. Wait while the software is being saved.

5. Verify the new image.

H.1 Obtain the software imageThe image will have a .tea extension and is distributed in a compressed ZIP archive together withthe readme file detailing changes for this patch release.

Please study the readme file to be aware of any important information related to your currentsoftware patch. Subsequent patch details may indicate that significant bugs were identified andresolved after your current version and indicate where special care is recommended.

You can find the current version number under About — Release.

When upgrading to a new major version, please also study the release notes and readme files for allversions between your currently installed major version and the one you are upgrading to, as theremight be important changes that you need to be aware of.

If you require any assistance understanding the release notes or readme files please contact your firstline support service.

If you would rather re-install the system from scratch instead of using the upgrade procedure, pleaserefer to chapter 2.

If you are upgrading from a previous version and receive an error message when trying to apply thelatest update, refer to chapter 2.7 for details.

H.2 Export and save the extractor configurationSoftware upgrade should not alter the extractor configuration, however for safety is is a good ideato export the extractor configuration (from the Data — Configuration view) and save it to a file.Please refer to chapter 5.8.1.


H.3 Transfer the image to the extractor and save

Using the software upload functionality in the Data view

From the Data — Software view select the software image file to be uploaded and click the Go!button. When the software has been successfully transferred to the extractor click the Updatesoftware button and confirm.

Progress bars are displayed to show the software update status.

Note that the extractor will restart when the new software has been installed, and the extractor’s userinterface will be unresponsive until restart has completed.


Using the software upload functionality in Software Activation

It is also possible to upload the software image using the Software Activation interface. AccessSoftware Activation and expand the More options heading. Under the heading Update software,select the software image file to be uploaded and click the Update button.

When the software has been transferred to the extractor, click the Update software button to initiatethe update.

If the software was already activated, you will be transferred to the progress bar displaying theupdate status as described above.

If the software was not activated, the upgrade will run in the background and you will be forwardedto the product page inside the Software Activation interface. Depending on how long the updatetakes, you may need to reload the product page again to verify that the software has been updated.

Using scp/sftp and ssh

Using a Secure Shell (ssh) client, such as PuTTY1, first transfer (scp/sftp) the software image to thesystem.

Next, log in to the system as the root user to get a command prompt. If you copied the file as theroot user, the file should be in the directory you just logged in to. If not, navigate to the directoryyou uploaded to using the cd command.

1https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/


https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/

Copy the downloaded file to the /var/opt/btech/extractor directory and issue the command/opt/btech/extractor/bin/vb288_upgrade to begin the upgrade procedure.

cd /path/to/downloadcp filename.tea /var/opt/btech/extractor/opt/btech/extractor/bin/vb288_upgrade

H.4 Wait while the software is being savedThis will take a few minutes. The extractor software will then restart automatically. The extractorshould state that the software image has been saved successfully.

When using the alternate method do not disconnect the ssh session before the software upgrade iscompleted.

H.5 Verify the new imageConnect a browser towards the extractor and verify the version and build time in the About —Release info view.

If you upgrade a product that has not been activated using the Software Activation interface, openthe product page in the Software Activation interface to verify the version number.

H.6 Software upload troubleshootingIf the upgrade is rejected, verify that the software version you are trying to upload is covered bysoftware maintenance. Refer to G Appendix: Software Maintenance for more details.

If the web interface does not appear to work correctly straight after upgrading the extractor it maybe because the web browser is using files that are cached. Files may be cached for up to one hour inthe web browser. To fix the issue, clear the cache manually:

Google Chrome: Settings — Advanced — Clear browsing data — Cached images and files

Mozilla Firefox: Options — Privacy & Security — Cached Web Content — Clear Now

Microsoft Edge: Settings — Clear browsing data — Choose what to clear — Cached data and files

Microsoft Internet Explorer: Tools — Internet options — General — Browsing history — Delete. . .— Temporary Internet files and website files


Note that the extractor configuration may be lost when downgrading to an older software version. Inthis case the saved configuration file may be useful.

A log file from the last upgrade process is included in the debug data, which can be downloadedfrom the Data — Configuration view. If you are unable to access the GUI after the upgrade, youcan inspect the log file manually by logging in to the system and opening the file /opt/btech/extractor/log/upgrade.log manually.


vb7880 advanced content extractor user's manual version 5

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