Sencore VB7880 User Manual

VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor

User’s Manual

Form 8124B

Software version 5.2

VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor User’s Manual version 5.2

c

2016

 Sencore

3200 W. Sencore Drive - Sioux Falls, SD, 57107

Phone: [phone] - www.sencore.com

Copyright

c

 2016 Sencore, Inc. All rights reserved.

3200 Sencore Drive, Sioux Falls, SD USA

www.sencore.com

This publication contains confidential, proprietary, and trade secret information. No part of this document
may be copied, photocopied, reproduced, translated, or reduced to any machine-readable or electronic
format without prior written permission from Sencore. Information in this document is subject to change
without 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 United
States and other countries. All other products or services mentioned in this document are identified by
the trademarks, service marks, or product names as designated by the companies who market those
products. Inquiries should be made directly to those companies. This document may also have links to
third-party web pages that are beyond the control of Sencore. The presence of such links does not imply
that Sencore endorses or recommends the content on those pages. Sencore acknowledges the use of
third-party open source software and licenses in some Sencore products. This freely available source
code can be obtained by contacting Sencore Inc.

About Sencore

Sencore is an engineering leader in the development of high-quality signal transmission solutions for the
broadcast, cable, satellite, IPTV, and telecommunications markets. The company’s world-class portfolio
includes video delivery products, system monitoring and analysis solutions, and test and measurement
equipment, 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 delivery
of high-quality video from the source to the home. More information about Sencore is available at the
company’s website, www.sencore.com.

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

2 VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor User’s Manual version 5.2

Contents

Contents 3

1 INTRODUCTION 6

1.1 About the VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

1.2 How to Use This Manual . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

2 INSTALLATION AND INITIAL SETUP 8

2.1 System Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

2.2 First-time Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

2.3 Deploying in a Virtualized Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

2.4 Verifying Correct Initial Setup and Software Activation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

2.5 Initial Setup Troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

2.6 Upgrading From a Previous Version . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

2.6.1 Upgrading by Re-Installing the System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

2.6.2 Upgrading From Version 5.0.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

2.6.3 Upgrading From Version 5.1.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

2.7 Upgrading To a Maintenance Release . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

2.8 Accessing the User Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

3 QUICK SETUP GUIDE 16

3.1 Basic Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

3.2 Input Signal Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

3.3 Monitoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

3.4 Adjusting Alarm Thresholds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

3.5 License . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

4 REMOTE VIDEO WALL 18

4.1 Introduction to the Remote Video Wall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

4.2 Accessing the Remote Video Wall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

4.3 Remote Video Wall Widgets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

4.3.1 Alarm View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

4.3.2 Clock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

4.3.3 Constellation Diagram (requires VBC integration) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

4.3.4 DataMiner Alarms (requires DataMiner integration) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

4.3.5 DataMiner View (requires DataMiner integration) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor User’s Manual version 5.2 3

4.3.6 Graphics View (requires VBC integration) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

4.3.7 Image Viewer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

4.3.8 Loudness Graph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

4.3.9 Media Window (requires VBC integration) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

4.3.10 RF Graphs (requires VBC integration) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

4.3.11 Stream View (requires VBC integration) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

4.3.12 Weather (requires Internet access) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

5 THE VB7880 GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE 22

5.1 Main . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

5.1.1 Main — Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

5.1.2 Main — Thumb overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

5.2 Alarms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

5.2.1 Alarms — All alarms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

5.2.2 Alarms — Alarm setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

5.3 OTT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

5.3.1 OTT — Thumbnails (OTT — Active Testing, option) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

5.3.2 OTT — Details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

5.3.2.1 OTT — Details — Profiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

5.3.2.2 OTT — Details — Manifest (Option) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

5.3.2.3 OTT — Details — Alarms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

5.3.2.4 OTT — Details — Thumbnails . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

5.3.2.5 OTT — Details — Alignment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

5.3.3 OTT — Channels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

5.3.4 OTT — Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

5.3.5 OTT — Thresholds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

5.4 Multicasts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

5.4.1 Multicasts — Thumbnails . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

5.4.2 Multicasts — Join . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

5.4.3 Multicasts — Streams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

5.4.4 Multicasts — Ethernet thresh. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

5.4.5 Multicasts — Service thresh. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

5.5 Captions (Option) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

5.5.1 Captions — Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

5.5.2 Captions — Caption service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

5.5.2.1 Captions — Caption service — Captions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

5.5.2.2 Captions — Caption service — Alarms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

5.5.3 Captions — Thresholds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

5.6 RVW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

5.6.1 RVW — Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

5.6.2 RVW — Mosaic A–D . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

5.7 Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

5.7.1 Setup — Params . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

5.7.2 Setup — Colors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

5.7.3 Setup — Ethernet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

4 VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor User’s Manual version 5.2

5.7.4 Setup — VBC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

5.7.5 Setup — Login . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

5.7.6 Setup — VBC thresh. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

5.7.7 Setup — Scheduling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

5.7.8 Setup — Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

5.8 Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

5.8.1 Data — Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

5.8.2 Data — Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

5.8.3 Data — Eii . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

5.9 About . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

5.9.1 About — Release info . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

5.9.2 About — License . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

5.9.3 About — Technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

5.9.4 About — Credits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

A Appendix: Network configuration 88

B Appendix: OTT Profile Health 89

B.1 OTT Profile Health Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

B.2 OTT Profile Health Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

Build ID 9345e02e7e51ebaf5e2a0f6e8e545ba6d22f1e1f
Last modified 2016-02-03

VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor User’s Manual version 5.2 5

1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 About the VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor

The VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor performs real-time loudness monitoring as well as objective
video and audio monitoring of MPEG-2, H.264/MPEG-4 and H.265/HEVC streams and offers a unique
web browser based Remote Video Wall capability providing full visual status from anywhere. The VB7880
Advanced Content Extractor enables operators to inspect massive amounts of content services beyond
human eyeball capability with dependable alarming on objective parameters having QoE impact.

In addition to providing automated Objective QoE of large amounts of services, the VB7880 offers
thumbnail 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 ideal for visual
at-a-glance monitoring in the NOC, VOC, head-end or remotely via any standard web browser.

The VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor is typically inserted before scrambling insertion in the head-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 in the head-end, and
for the first time cost-effective monitoring of scrambling is available.

6 VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor User’s Manual version 5.2

Further applications are in middleware scenarios for generating channel mosaics or for extracting channel
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 ingress
into the network. The VB7880 can also detect freeze-frame errors and audio silence. Alarming can be
masked during predefined time periods. The VB7880 enables at-a-glance monitoring remotely via 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 any
server that meets the minimum requirements specified in chapter 2.

1.2 How to Use This Manual

This User’s Manual is valid for software version 5.2 of the VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor.

Throughout this manual the term stream is often used rather than unicast or multicast. One stream may
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 a server.

Chapter 3 QUICK SETUP GUIDE contains a quick setup guide; a step-by-step description of how to
setup the VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor once the initial setup has been performed.

Chapter 4 REMOTE VIDEO WALL describes 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: Network configuration gives a brief introduction to the server OS network configuration.

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

Note that current version of the User’s Manual can be obtained from Sencore ProCare support by
emailing [e-mail].

VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor User’s Manual version 5.2 7

2 INSTALLATION AND INITIAL SETUP

2.1 System Requirements

The minimum hardware requirements are:

• Dual 6 core Intel E-Series 2.0 GHz CPU

• 32 Gbyte 1600 MHz DDR RAM

• 1 Tbyte HDD

• Dual 10/100/1000T Ethernet Network Interface card with support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7

2.2 First-time Installation

Make sure that the server hardware matches the requirements listed above and then follow the procedure
outlined below.

1. Obtain the latest installation kickstart image from Sencore.

2. Insert the installation medium into the server:

•

For CD/DVD-based installations, burn the downloaded ISO image to a CD/DVD and insert
into the server.

•

For USB-based installation, transfer the downloaded image to a USB mass storage device
using a tool such as dd (Mac, Unix, Linux) or USBWriter1(Windows).

•

For installation in a virtualized environment, attach the downloaded ISO image to a virtual
DVD-ROM unit.
It is recommended that you disable any ‘Easy install’ or similarly worded option, and do not
select the operating system type when you initially create the new virtual machine instance
in your virtualization environment. These options may override the installation instructions
included in the provided installation image, causing an incomplete installation.

1

http://sourceforge.net/projects/usbwriter/

8 VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor User’s Manual version 5.2

3.

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

4.

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

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

• IMPORTANT:

In the ‘Installation Destination’, the default partitioning will create a large

/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 the size of (or remove)
the /home partition, instead giving that space to the / partition.

•

We recommend that you configure network settings (IP address, gateway, DNS) within the
installer. Post-installation network configuration can be performed using the

nmtui

utility,

please refer to A Appendix: Network configuration for details.

•

The default installation does not provide any graphical user interface environment. This can
be installed later if desired, please refer to the Red Hat Enterprise Linux2or CentOS Linux
documentation for more details.

5.

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

6.

Enter the selected IP address in your web browser to access the Software Activation page. If your
host is using dynamic addressing, you can log in to the account created during installation and
issue the command ip addr to display the address assigned to the system.
Continue to chapter 2.4 for details on how to enable the VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor
system.

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

3

2.3 Deploying in a Virtualized Environment

It is also possible to deploy the software in a virtualized environment. Pre-built images for VMware
(vSphere/Workstation/Player) are provided in
images contains a system already installed according to the steps described 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 documentation of
your virtualization environment for more details on how to do this.

2

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

3

http://wiki.centos.org/Manuals/ReleaseNotes/CentOS7

VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor User’s Manual version 5.2 9

OVA

(Open Virtualization Format Archive) format. These

If installed in a VMware vSphere environment, the machine should report back its network configuration
to the host environment. Please allow some time for it to do so, and then continue with the Software
Activation procedure as described in the next chapter.

If you need to log in to the console of the pre-built images, the default password for the

When installing the software in the virtualized environment yourself, please follow the steps from chap­ter 2.2. It is recommended that you disable any ‘Easy install’ or similarly worded option, and do not select
the operating system type when you initially create the new virtual machine instance in your virtualization
environment. These options may override the installation instructions included in the provided installation
image, causing an incomplete installation.

root

user is

elvis

2.4 Verifying Correct Initial Setup and Software Activation

Once the software has been installed and restarted all further configuration takes place through HTTP.

1. Launch a web browser application on the management system.
Any web browser with support for JavaScript can be used to access the Software Activation
interface, one of the following are recommended:

• Edge

• Internet Explorer 11.0 or higher

• Firefox 2.0 or higher

.

• Chrome

• 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 web
browser is unable to reach the web server, check the server’s network settings in the operating
system.

3.

The Software Activation view should be displayed inside the browser. Software Activation is
password-protected, the user name is admin and the default password is elvis.
This password can be changed under the More options heading4.
The page displayed should look similar to the following screen shot.

4

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

/opt/btech/ssg/bin/reset_web_password

10 VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor User’s Manual version 5.2

4.

If you already have an XML file with license keys for your system, click on the
heading and upload this file under the
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, please
click the link labelled
representative as an e-mail attachment.

6.

The VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor is not enabled by default on the newly installed server.
To enable it, use the link labelled
giving you the details of the installed software, such as the installed version and the hardware key.
If you have a license key that you want to enable and have not yet done so, enter the key in the
field labelled Apply license key and click the Add license button.

7.

Click the button labeled
Advanced Content Extractor should now be activated, and you will be presented with a link to the
user interface. The next time you access the server using a web browser, you should be taken to
the automatically to the enabled software.

export hardware keys as XML

Activate software

Import license keys

Not activated

next to its name. This will take you to a page

and wait for it to finish. If successful, the VB7880

option. If have the license key written

and send the downloaded file to your sales

More options

VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor User’s Manual version 5.2 11

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

To return to the Software Activation view to make changes, open the
Advanced Content Extractor user interface and click the link labelled Manage installed software.

About — License

tab in the VB7880

2.5 Initial Setup Troubleshooting

If you are having trouble bringing up the Software Activation interface, or the VB7880 Advanced Content
Extractor web based management interface, verify the following:

•

Verify that the client machine and the VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor are configured on the
same subnet and that they have different addresses.

• 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 Advanced Content
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.

Please refer to A Appendix: Network configuration for more information on server network configuration.

2.6 Upgrading From a Previous Version

You can either re-install the system as mentioned below, or by using one of the provided upgrade images.

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

12 VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor User’s Manual version 5.2

2.6.1 Upgrading by Re-Installing the System

If you want to re-install the system from scratch, please follow these steps:

1.

Backup the system configuration (
the system as root and copy the file
running a version prior to 5.2, the file is located at
location (off the system).

2.

Export the current license (
nance 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 copying any
files matching the wildcard
the system).

4.

If you have uploaded custom images for the Remote Video Wall, make sure you have copies of
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
re-enter it using the activation page) and activate the software.

About — License — Export current license and software mainte-

/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-*

Data — Configuration — Full configuration

/opt/btech/extractor/etc/btech.xmlcfg1e

/opt/btech/etc/btech.xmlcfg1e

to a safe location (off

More options

). Log in to

(if you are

) to a safe

); or

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

2.6.2 Upgrading From Version 5.0.0

VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor version 5.2 will be able to upgrade VB7880 version 5.1 only. Other
versions of VB7880 will need to first be upgraded to VB7880 version 5.1.

VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor User’s Manual version 5.2 13

2.6.3 Upgrading From Version 5.1.0

This release needs some additional software packages to be installed, and must be upgraded using
the upgrade image labeled
necessary. Please refer to chapter 5.8.2 for details on how to install the upgrade image.

The upgrade will also install the Software Activation interface (please see chapter 2.4 for more information),
with the VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor already activated. Open the
the user interface and click the link labeled
Activation, for instance to replace the default password.

upgrade from 5.1.0

Manage installed software

. The upgrade image will install these packages as

About — License

to make changes to Software

tab in

2.7 Upgrading To a Maintenance Release

Please refer to chapter 5.8.2 for details on how to upgrade to maintenance releases. You need to use the
upgrade image labelled upgrade from 5.2.0 when installing a maintenance release.

2.8 Accessing the User Interface

Once the software has been installed and activated all further configuration takes place through HTTP.

The following web browsers are supported for the management interface:

• Internet Explorer 11.0 or higher

• Edge

• Firefox 2.0 or higher

• Chrome

• Safari

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

The default management view should look similar to the following screen shot. If you have problems
accessing the user interface, refer to chapter 2.5 for troubleshooting.

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VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor User’s Manual version 5.2 15

3 QUICK SETUP GUIDE

This quick setup guide is intended to provide a step-by-step explanation of how to setup the VB7880
once 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 Setup

1. Set appropriate parameters in the Setup — Params view.

2.

If access control is required, define a password in the
to read the instructions in the associated section of this manual.

3.2 Input Signal Definitions

Multicasts

Setup — Login

view. Note that it is important

1.

Define multicasts, either by defining multicasts from scratch (
importing a multicast list exported from another VB7880 or probe. Note that the sequence of the
multicast definitions will be reflected in monitoring, so order the multicasts correctly if required.

2. Join multicasts in the Multicasts — Join view.

OTT

1. Define OTT channels (OTT — Channels).

Multicasts — Streams

) or by

3.3 Monitoring

When 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 if the appropriate license is installed).

16 VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor User’s Manual version 5.2

3.4 Adjusting Alarm Thresholds

When the VB7880 channels and streams have been defined using default thresholds, the result can
be a number of more or less permanent alarms, some of which may not be relevant under the current
circumstances. In order for the user to get rid of unwanted alarms, the extractor provides alarm 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 the copy, or by
creating a new threshold template from scratch. The Ethernet thresholds are defined in the

— Ethernet thresh.

view. In addition to the miscellaneous thresholds, that affect only the streams with which they are
associated, the Alarm — Alarm setup view allows the user to enable and disable alarms on an overall
basis. It is also possible to define the alarm severity levels for different alarms in this view.

OTT

When a OTT channel is defined the default OTT threshold template is assigned to it. To change threshold
values create one or more new templates in the
channels in the OTT — Channels — Edit view.

View. These thresholds are associated with streams in the

OTT — Thresholds

view and assign them to OTT

Multicasts — Streams

Multicasts

3.5 License

When 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 hardware key, which can be
found under About — License, or from the Software Activation interface, as described in chapter 2.4.

VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor User’s Manual version 5.2 17

4 REMOTE VIDEO WALL

This chapter gives a quick introduction on how to use the Remote Video Wall feature of the VB7880
Advanced Content Extractor.

4.1 Introduction to the Remote Video Wall

The VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor gives the opportunity to monitor the content of up to 64
multicast services or live OTT channel profiles spread across four web browser windows. The VB7880
also provides measurements of the audio loudness level according to the ITU-R BS.1770-2 standard.
The measurement used is the EBU R128 momentary (400 ms) value. You can display this data by
selecting LUFS/LKFS in the Remote Video Wall configuration. The raw measurements can be gathered
through the External integration interface (Eii). The specification of the Eii can be obtained from Sencore.

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

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

When VBC integration is available, any streams for which the VideoBRIDGE Controller has active alarms
will be shown with a colored border in the RVW. All other streams are displayed with a green border. This
makes it possible to discover stream alarms with just a quick glance. The VBC MicroTimeline is displayed
under all multicast and OTT streams for which the VideoBRIDGE Controller has data. In addition, for
OTT channels, a 24h OTT alarm graph will be displayed, using data 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 generated
alarms, but no MicroTimeline or OTT alarm graph will be displayed.

4.2 Accessing the Remote Video Wall

The Remote Video Walls can be reached by entering

m=1,m=2,m=3

described in chapter 5.6.2. The RVWs can also be reached through the management GUI in the section

RVW — Mosaic A–D

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.

and

m=4

selects Mosaic A, B, C and D, respectively, configured under the RVW tab, as

by following the blue link in the upper left corner. In the example below it has been

<IP address>/rvw/?m=1

in a browser’s URL field.

4.3 Remote Video Wall Widgets

In addition to thumbnails, each Remote Video Wall slot can display a web widget. This chapter describes
the Remote Video Wall widgets that are shipped with the VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor.

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

VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor User’s Manual version 5.2 19

4.3.1 Alarm View

This widget makes it possible to display a list of active alarms, either from the VideoBRIDGE Controller
or the VB7880 itself. The alarm source is can be configured for each widget instance. If VBC 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 clock faces are
available, and they can be configured to display either local time (for the system running the 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 probes
connected to the VideoBRIDGE Controller. In the configuration you can select any RF interface on
probes 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 server and 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 the configuration
you can select any of the diagrams configured on the DataMiner server that are visible to 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. In the
configuration you can select any of the network diagrams configured in the VBC Graphics View Setup.

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4.3.7 Image Viewer

This widget is a static image viewer, which can be used to easily include external information. In the
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 the
VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor. Real-time audio analysis needs to be enabled for the stream for
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 the probes
connected to the VideoBRIDGE Controller. In the configuration you can select any multicast stream on
probes available in the VideoBRIDGE Controller.

NOTE: When displaying the media window widget for probes running 5.1.0-5 or earlier, or 5.0.2-4 or
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 configured 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 the Remote
Video Wall. The list of streams can be filtered on name and/or current severity level (as defined by the
VideoBRIDGE Controller). The Stream View widget is designed to be one RVW tile wide 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.

VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor User’s Manual version 5.2 21

5 THE VB7880 GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE

The VB7880 web interface is reached by pointing a web browser to the IP address of the VB7880 as
shown in the screen shot above. Note that different web browsers behave differently with respect to
memory leaking, and if the VB7880 GUI should be available at all times the browser should be selected

22 VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor User’s Manual version 5.2

carefully. Memory leak manifests itself as the browser responding more and more slowly, and this is
corrected by closing down the application and restarting.

Web browsers supported are:

• Internet Explorer 9.0 and higher (IE 11 should be run in compatibility mode)

• Firefox 2.0 and higher

• Safari

• Chrome

The interface is easy and intuitive to use. Navigate by clicking on the tabs just below the 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 the
displayed or hidden by clicking the Toggle link, which is displayed as an arrow head.

The web interface has been designed to be resizeable in both vertical and horizontal directions with a
minimum screen resolution of 1024×768 pixels.

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

alarm list

. The alarm list can be

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

VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor User’s Manual version 5.2 23

5.1 Main

5.1.1 Main — Summary

The intention of this page, together with the
to immediately see if there is anything seriously wrong with one or more input streams.

The following parameters are shown:

(Bulb):

Updated: The time since the last time synchronization update.

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

Time: The current local time.

Clear all:

Last cleared:

The NTP/timesync bulb indicates whether the Extractor clock is locked to an
external time reference signal. Green indicates that the Extractor is locked
to an external reference whereas gray indicates that the Extractor runs in
unlocked mode or the status is unknown.

Click the
VB7880measurement and alarm history is cleared. Note that it is not
possible to undo this operation.

The time the
indicated the counters have not been cleared since VB7880startup/reboot
time.

alarm list

NTP/timesync

Counters and alarms

Clear all

Clear all counters

, is to provide enough information for the operator

button to reset all counters, graphs and alarms. All

button was last clicked. If no time is

Extractor

24 VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor User’s Manual version 5.2

Name:

Location:

Access:

Load average: The system load of the server.

Free mem: The available free memory.

Free swap: The available free swap memory.

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

Joined multicasts: The number of joined multicast streams.

OTT channels: The number of enabled OTT channels.

The Extractor name as defined by the operator in the
view.

The Extractor location as defined by the operator in the
view.

The access rights of the current user. Access rights are either full access or
read only access.

Resources

Traffic

Setup — Params

Setup — Params

Available network interfaces

Interface: The id of the selected network interface.

Enabled: Is the selected interface enabled and running.

Type: What type of IP address is set for the selected interface.

Address: The IP address of the selected network interface.

Netmask: The subnet mask of the selected network interface.

5.1.2 Main — Thumb overview

The

Thumb overview

used.

view displays a mosaic of all decoded thumbnails. By default the

Normal

mode is

VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor User’s Manual version 5.2 25

If the

Small

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 info button.

The

Thumbs Details

more information about the details displayed in the
multicast streams, and chapter 5.3.2 for OTT channels. Clicking the Close button will close the view.

Status bulbs indicates the current content-check status for the streams. The available status bulbs are
Audio silence, scrambling, freeze-frame and color-freeze, and profile alignment (OTT only). A gray bulb
means that the test has not been enabled for the stream. A green bulb indicates that no error has been
detected. A yellow bulb indicates that the extractor is detecting a potential error and a red bulb indicates
that the configured error threshold has been reached.

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.

button is clicked the

pop-up view is accessed by clicking a thumb in the

Thumb overview

view will display service names and thumbs only,

Thumbs Details

Thumb overview

pop-up see chapter 5.4.1 for

view. For

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5.2 Alarms

The VB7880 Advanced Content Extractor alarm handling is configured by the user at global level, stream
level or service level. The alarm setup view allows global alarm configuration whereas settings defined
for each multicast and service (in the
simplified diagram of the VB7880 alarm handling is shown below.

The Alarms view gives the user the possibility of viewing alarms according to type or as one complete list.

Multicasts — Streams

views) will also affect VB7880 alarming. A

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