RPM

User Manual

Revision 5.0
1. INTRODUCTION ...............................................................................................................................................5
CLIENT PC REQUIREMENTS .................................................................................................................................5
2. SYSTEM OVERVIEW .......................................................................................................................................6
3. LOGGING IN .....................................................................................................................................................7
4. DOWNLOADING VOLICON MEDIA PLAYER.................................................................................................8
5. MONITORING PAGE ........................................................................................................................................8
ENCODER INPUT LIST ...........................................................................................................................................9
CHANNEL DISPLAY AREA .....................................................................................................................................9
The Control Bar ............................................................................................................................................9
DVD type controls.................................................................................................................................................... 9
Mark In/Out .............................................................................................................................................................. 9
Volume .................................................................................................................................................................. 10
Full-screen ............................................................................................................................................................. 10
Live ........................................................................................................................................................................ 10
Channel Bar ................................................................................................................................................10
Seek Bar ................................................................................................................................................................ 10
Popup Menu .......................................................................................................................................................... 10
CC display ............................................................................................................................................................. 10
Sync to me............................................................................................................................................................. 10
Input Scanner Name / Channel Name ................................................................................................................... 11
Date/Time Selector ................................................................................................................................................ 11
Last position .......................................................................................................................................................... 11
STATUS LINE - DIALED CHANNEL, AL, SS, BS AND PX ........................................................................................11
Channel Used by STB ........................................................................................................................................... 11
Dialed Digits .......................................................................................................................................................... 11
BS - Black Screen Amount .................................................................................................................................... 11
SS - Static Screen ................................................................................................................................................. 11
PX - Pixilation ........................................................................................................................................................ 11
AL - Audio Level .................................................................................................................................................... 11
Loudness meter ..........................................................................................................................................12
Show XDS ..................................................................................................................................................12
Captions and Subtitles ................................................................................................................................12
Audio tracks ................................................................................................................................................12
LEFT MENU ADDITIONAL ITEMS ..........................................................................................................................12
Remote Control...........................................................................................................................................12
Power On/Off ..............................................................................................................................................12
Manual Channel Selection Go to ................................................................................................................13
Channel Up/Down.......................................................................................................................................13
Last .............................................................................................................................................................13
Info ..............................................................................................................................................................13
Logo, Channel selection and Faulty channel table.....................................................................................13
Logo ...................................................................................................................................................................... 13
Program guide ....................................................................................................................................................... 13
Select a channel .................................................................................................................................................... 13
Legend .................................................................................................................................................................. 14
Faulty Channels At-A-Glance ................................................................................................................................ 14
6. FAULT CLIPS .................................................................................................................................................14
FAULT A/V CLIPS - STATISTICS ...........................................................................................................................14
Encoder and QAM Statistics .......................................................................................................................15
Fault Clip table parameters ........................................................................................................................15
View Clip .....................................................................................................................................................16

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 Export Clips ................................................................................................................................................16
Task List ................................................................................................................................................................ 16
Search Clips ...............................................................................................................................................16
Delete Clips ................................................................................................................................................17
Bookmark list ..............................................................................................................................................17
Edit Clips .....................................................................................................................................................17
Mail Clips ....................................................................................................................................................17
Sort Clips ............................................................................................................................................................... 17
7. OTHER APPLICATIONS ................................................................................................................................18
SCRIPTING A MACRO .........................................................................................................................................18
SCRIPTING ENTRY - DIAGNOSTIC MODE .............................................................................................................18
Diagnostic mode from the Front End client PC ..........................................................................................18
MACRO SCRIPT IN CHANNEL LINEUP ..................................................................................................................18
8. LOGGING OUT ...............................................................................................................................................20
9. APPENDIX ......................................................................................................................................................20
REVISION CHANGE HISTORY ..............................................................................................................................20

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1. Introduction
The Volicon Observer™ Remote Program Management (RPM) is a powerful tool for automated
monitoring and quality assurance of video and audio with many different applications for broadcast
and cable networks.
The Observer RPM is a server or a group of servers, usually co-located in remote or unmanned
video distribution points. Each server is capable of monitoring several video inputs simultaneously.
Each input might have several hundred cable, satellite or IP channels.

In the classical scenario, the RPM’s applications are twofold:

• Automated monitoring and diagnosis of channels

• Manual viewing/diagnostics via remote tuning through web interface

Once configured, the RPM constantly records video inputs and monitors channels for various
failures. It is done by scanning, issuing channel change commands to each Set Top Box (STB),
thereby allowing the RPM to monitor all of the available channels on a rotating basis.

Accessing the RPM is possible via a standard TCP/IP connection, and over the internet as the
interface is entirely web-based, subject to bandwidth requirements and network latency.
The goal here is to start you using the RPM system quickly from your desktop. This manual is
designed for the end user. Configuration and administration of is covered in the RPM Administrator
Manual.

Client PC requirements
To access the Observer from a client machine you will need:

 Microsoft™ Windows XP™ or Vista with the latest service packs installed
 Internet Explorer 6 min, 7 recommended
 512 MB RAM, 2.0 Ghz CPU
 Sound card
 NVIDIA, ATI video adapter or equivalent to optimize video performance
 Network connection to the Observer, 10 Mbps min. Effective bandwidth 1.2 -1.5 times the
sum of viewed stream's bandwidth. For example, two 512kbps encoder streams should
have 1.2-1.5 mbps of network bandwidth.

Verify that the client machine meets these requirements before proceeding.
As a general rule, a more powerful client machine will display more numerous concurrent video
streams and operate smoother.
Note however that the Observer servers’ capture and monitoring effectiveness is independent of
the client machine.

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2. System Overview
The Observer system consists of one or more servers, usually co-located in a remote or un-
manned video distribution center. Each server is capable of monitoring several video inputs
simultaneously, typically connected to four or eight video sources through its encoders. One of the
servers is a web server which interfaces the RPM system to client machines.
 Encoder and storage / streamers are closely coupled
 Web-server needs to be configured with encoder host names / IP addresses to manage
streaming media for multiple encoders , static addresses are recommended
 Users need to login into the Web-server to be provided with the streaming media

Once configured, the system constantly records the video inputs and monitors for various kinds of
failures.

The Observer RPM is based on Volicon’s Observer technology, with additional functionality and
features designed to facilitate remote monitoring of many channels on a single video input. The
RPM can “drive” a set-top box in order to scan multiple channels controlling and monitoring each,
allowing for precise alerting and failure notifications when a given broadcast is malfunctioning.
The RPM system interfaces with set top boxes through encoder channels and IR transmitters
receiving media data while controlling the scanning of STB channels through IR transmitters.

Each Observer RPM machine comes complete with a rack-mount kit designed for 4-post 19-inch
racks, with a minimum/maximum depth of 28”/33”. Please follow the rack-mount installation
instructions which arrived with your Observer RPM.

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3. Logging In

Start an Internet Explorer and enter the address of the Observer Web server.

The first time you access the

Observer from a client machine,
you will be presented with a
warning strip towards the top of
the screen just below the Address
bar, to install the Volicon media
layer, an ActiveX control. This
control is necessary for the
operation of the client.

User can specify the exact page the system will present to him right
after login such as the Home page, Clips, Search, Preferences or
Maintenance Settings page.

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 4. Downloading Volicon Media Player
New versions of software will usually require new
Volicon Media player to be installed on a client PC
machine. This process is done automatically. You
have to login with administrator privileges for
successful Player installation. Click “Install” when
asked to install this software, and then proceed to log
in.

If warning appears, check your security settings or contact your IT department for assistance.

5. Monitoring Page
The monitoring page is the main interface to the Observer RPM. On this page, you can view the
various inputs, control the manual channels, and create clips for later review. Access it with
“Home” in the Left menu:

Manual
Switch

Input list

Left menu

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Encoder Input list
RPM encoder-scanner inputs are listed in the left menu on the home page as shown above.
Enable encoder-scanners with the associated checkboxes. To enable their audio and make the
display active for control by the control bar below, select a small “speaker” symbol to the right of a
scanner’s name.

To change a scanner to a Manual mode click a round icon with an arm, a Manual switches to the
left of the speaker icon causing a red X to highlight encoder’s new mode. Clicking the Manual
switch icon again brings the encoder to its original mode such as Fast or One-step scanner.

Channel Display Area

The viewing area displays the selected video streams as show in the figure above.

The Control Bar

This DVD type bar controls the active video display.

DVD type controls
1. Rewind
2. Reverse play
3. Slow reverse
4. Step back
5. Pause
6. Step forward
7. Slow play
8. Play
9. Fast forward
The control buttons are listed from left to right. The Slow play and slow reverse work at ½ the
normal speed. Multiple clicks on rewind and fast-forward will accelerate these operations.
Mark In/Out
The mark in / mark out button allows you to manually define clips of interest while
viewing the video. After displaying the proper video channel, navigate to the desired
start time and click the mark-in button. The button graphic will change automatically to
mark-out. Then navigate to the desired clip end time and click the mark-out button. A
dialog will appear allowing you to specify additional information including the selection of clip
export ASF format.

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Volume
You can mute/un-mute and adjust the volume of audio by using the
mute and volume adjustment icons.

Full-screen
In addition to the standard display, there are three full-screen modes, icons
from left to right:

▪ Single full-screen: Displays the currently active input in full-screen mode. This mode can
also be selected from the Popup menu shown below and by double
clicking any the displayed channels.
▪ Split full-screen: Displays all viewed inputs tiled across the entire screen.
▪ Picture-in-picture: In addition to full-screen mode, also display the other viewed inputs
as small previews at the top-right of the screen.
-

To exit of full screen modes, either double click the display or use an escape key.

Live Clicking on the live button will connect all video displays to their live video feeds.

Channel Bar Displayed beneath each monitor video input. It is composed of several elements:

Seek Bar

The seek bar allows for quick review of the video history. By default the seek-bar length
represents one hour of video duration; the parameter is configurable in the preferences page.
Also, any time along the length of the seek-bar will be displayed by a tooltip of a hovering cursor.
Popup Menu
The first menu icon on the Channel Bar.
Also right clicking a channel display brings up
a Popup menu as shown here
CC display
The CC button enables the Closed
Captioning text. This function can also be
accessed through the Popup menu, see
Captions and Subtitles below.
Sync to me
The Sync to me button synchronizes the
displayed videos to the active window. This is
useful to see what happened during the same
time on different video sources. The Sync to me can also be selected from the Pop menu below.

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Input Scanner Name / Channel Name

Scanner or channel name are displayed on the right side of the channel bar. It corresponds to the
scanner name and color displayed in the list of inputs at the top-left such as Fast scan 1…to allow
easy identification. When scanner is in manual mode, channel name and number are displayed
here.

Date/Time Selector corresponds to the video playback time. Changing the time
selector allows access to any point in the history of the video stream.

Last position When returning to a channel, selecting the Last position in the Popup menu will
bring you back to the position at the time of leaving this channel.

Status Line - Dialed Channel, AL, SS, BS and PX

Channel Used by STB

Digits received and channel selected by the Set Top
Box (STB)

Dialed Digits
Digits transmitted from RPM to the STB

BS - Black Screen Amount

Percentage of black in the display

SS - Static Screen
Percentage of static scenery in the display

PX - Pixilation
Pixilation indicator is a number from 0 to 200 indicating the level of Macro Blocking

AL - Audio Level
Audio level of the received signal at this time

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Loudness meter
When selected from the Popup menu the
Loudness meter appears at the right bottom of
the displayed video and its color is green. The
meter height fluctuates indicating the loudness of
the input channel.

Show XDS
The Extended Data Services (XDS) used by TV
networks carries various information items such
as Time of day, Program information and Station
identification. When enabled, XDS information
present in the media will be displayed on top of the video.

Captions and Subtitles

Selecting Caption and Subtitles from the Popup menu present you
with additional items:
 Off -- Disable Caption and Subtitles
 Languages one subtitles
 Language two subtitles …

Besides the ability to enable subtitles, you can also select one or
more languages if available in the media and if configured.

Audio tracks
Selecting Audio Tracks from the Popup menu present you with additional items such as different
language streams if available for the particular media; and stereo or mono audio configurations.
Each encoder channel has two audio inputs that can be configured as one stereo or two mono
channels using the Audio Profile Manager, see the Observer Admin Guide
for more details.

Left Menu Additional Items

Remote Control
The Remote control area allows you to manipulate video channels directly if
the encoder-scanners are in manual mode. To use it ensure that the scanner
you wish to control is active and in live mode, (indicated by its speaker’s
green color.) See Input List in Monitoring page above.

Power On/Off
Clicking the power button will send a power on/off command to the STB

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Manual Channel Selection Go to
To tune to a specific channel, type the channel number or a script in the box
and click <Go to> or hit the return key. The script in this example places a
Scientific Atlanta STB in a diagnostic mode where

Channel Up/Down

Clicking the up/down arrows will move to the next/previous channel in the lineup, analogous
to how a real remote control functions.

Last The Last button serves to return you to the previous channel you were tuned to. If you were
tuned to channel 20, and then tuned to channel 10, clicking Last would return you to channel
20.

Info Clicking the Info button will ask the set top box to display the Electronic Programming Guide
(EPG), the information screen. To switch back to normal broadcast view, click Info once
again.

Logo, Channel selection and Faulty channel table

Logo
If your administrator has configured the RPM with a corporate logo, it would be
displayed here.

Program guide
For convenience and easy access, below the logo is a link to the Program
guide.

Select a channel
Below the Program guide link is a dropdown selection box expanding to a list of
channel names and numbers.
When a manual scanner is active, any one of its channel can be dialed by
selecting it from this list.

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Legend The fault types are color coded as depicted in the Legend representing the following
failures

Unknown Status: The channel status is yet unknown.

Low Audio: The channel has exhibited low audio
Static screen: A static, unchanging picture
Static Screen, Low audio: Both a static picture and low audio
Black Screen: A black picture
Black Screen, Low Audio: A black picture and low audio
No Video: No video, loss of sync
No Video, low audio: Both low audio and loss of video

Faulty Channels At-A-Glance

The Fault Channels table below the legend lists the most frequent failures encountered by the fast
scanners and one step scanners. The faults are listed with network channel numbers, names and
fault types.

6. Fault clips
Fault clips and Statistics capture fault conditions in the video audio streasm and store these for
extended periods of time.
To search for a particular clip In “Name or Description” box enter the text to be searched and
optionally select the filtering fields such as “Time range” and types such as Video, Bookmark then
start the <Search>.

Fault A/V clips - Statistics

In addition to Fault Clips list, the Observer RPM produces Fault A/V clips tables detailing the logged
faults with ability to sort on the displayed fields; and displays QAM and other statistics.
Selected with Clips > Statistics; it’s tailored for RPM use. Additional pages are accessed below.

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The Fault A/V clips table lists failures associated with the scanned channels and can be sorted by
several parameters including channel and time. These statistics are crucial during cable network
troubleshooting and system tuning. When sorting by channels, then each channel will also be sorted
by time.
Columns can be listed by ascending, descending or custom sort order in OCC; “6. Notification”

Encoder and QAM Statistics

Encoder statistics table list faults aggregated by encoders and QAM statistics table by custom
channel groups to indicate the overall health of encoders and QAM channel groups.

Fault Clip table parameters

The faults are displayed one per row. Each fault is associated with the following information:
ID A unique, numeric fault ID
Encoder Source encoder-scanner which signaled the failure
Channel # Such as a cable TV channel number dialed through the STB
Defect Type of fault
Audio Audio amplitude measured at the time of failure
QAM Name used to group channels together due to some channel commonality
Detected The date and time at which the failure was detected

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View Clip
Click on one of the clips in the Fault Clips or
Bookmark lists

Export Clips

After selecting several clips from one of the lists

then press the <Export> button. For a single clip,
select an Export icon. To save Closed Captions,
use the “Export CC” icon.

You will be prompted for file name, type and

directory path. After changing any of the
parameters, proceed with the <Save> button.

Press <Export> to complete the transfer. “Exporting selected clip” bar indicates the progress of the
file transfer.

Task List

You can select any video clip and play it or select several clips to export them directly or through a
task list to your PC. A task list is a list of clips that can be used later as an input to a separate
program called ExportView for transfer to your PC.

Search Clips

You can search created clips from one of the clip lists based on clip “Name or description” see Fault
clips figure above. After entering text of interest, the optional filtering fields for “Time range” and
alert types can help you narrow down the search. Selecting the “Created” in the Time range combo
box allows you to enter <From> and <To> for period of interest.
Press the <Search> button when ready to start the search.

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Delete Clips
Select the clips you want to delete and click the <Delete selected> button, see Fault clips figure in
figure above. Use the “X” icon to the right of the clip to delete single clips. For multiple clips click
select the clips to be deleted then use the <Delete selected>.button.

Bookmark list
Section of recorded video can be Bookmarked and later accessed directly. When you play back
video, one of the icons on the bottom right is Mark in / Mark out. Press the Mark in at the beginning
of the video portion, then at the end mark it again (mark out) - creating a bookmarked clip.

Select Clip > Bookmarks from the left menu to access bookmark list shown below.

Edit Clips

Edit a video clip with “Edit”

icon and then modify its
description, group or alert
type. After editing, save the
clip with the <Save/Update>
button.

Mail Clips

<Mail> allows you e-mail URL address of the created clip to the receiving party, not the clip itself. In
order to see the clip, the receiving user is required to have an account on the Observer with
appropriate privileges. These can be modified by
an administrator.

Sort Clips
Video clips can be sorted in ascending or
descending order on most columns such as:
 ID
 Encoder name
 Channel number
 Description / Details
 Creation / Modification time

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7. Other Applications
Scripting a Macro
See Script Macro section in the RPM Admin Guide to configure a macro either in a channel lineup
using a spreadsheet or using the built in Channel Collection Editor (ChCE).

Since the Channel Number field is used for a macro label, dial the actual channel numbers to a STB
using the macro script.

Basic commands are Power, OK, Info, Last, Next, Prev and all the digits defined in the IR Code
basic training. The Extra tab in the IR Trainer is used to configure additional remote control buttons
used in the script macro command or in the Remote Control window. Extra buttons are for example
UP, Down and Menu. See the RPM Admin Guide for details.

Scripting Entry - Diagnostic Mode

The following example illustrates adding buttons pause with 10 sec delay and a Page Up button
used for entering the Diagnostic mode of Scientific Atlanta STB.

Using the IR Trainer, select the Extra tab to program a pause button activated for 10 sec - calling it a
"diag" button, consult the RPM Admin guide.

Also train Page Up, “PgUp” button, Page Down, “PgDn” and Cursor buttons “Up” “Dn” “Rt” “Lt” to
control switching between the diagnostic screens and select fields within the screens.

Diagnostic mode from the Front End client PC

These commands can also be used directly from the Web Client
accessing any of the STBs in the network. Placing a scanner in Manual
mode and select its display or speaker as active(indicated by its
speaker icon). Then in the Remote Control “Go To” window type

diag,PgUp <Enter>

Macro Script in Channel Lineup

Populate the script field in the lineup spreadsheet or in the Channel Collection Editor (ChCE) of the
Observer Control Center (OCC) see the RPM Admin guide

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 Script = diag,PgUp

The label is in the Channel Number field = 1001 in this example

<number [recurr [alert [send [no- [audio [skip

> <name > [QAM] ence] cycle] alerts] video] threshold] [script] time]
1001 diag QAM 1 2 TRUE TRUE 150 diag,PgUp
Movie … 7,0,1,,,,PgDn,Rt,,Dn,
1002 PPV QAM 1 2 TRUE TRUE 150 ,OK

Line 1002 is an example of another script macro illustrating:

• Dialing channel number 701 which in a macro is dialed from the script
• Showing key sequences needed during this PPV / movie channel ,,,,PgDn,Rt,,Dn,,OK such
as page down, right cursor, down cursor, OK/Select
• The commas are used to add delays needed - each comma adds about .5 sec of delay

The script in Channel Collection editor looks as follows:

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8. Logging Out
To finish using the Observer RPM, click the Logout button on the left menu.

9. Appendix
Revision Change History
112408 Moved admin related FE Setup such as Encoder Channel setup, User management,
Programs, Ratings from here to RPM Admin Guide
Added Pixelation parameter to status line

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