NAB TAG’s updates at NAB focussed on utilising data to maximise its value, end-to-end HDR workflows, new partner integrations and further support for QoE measurements.
TAG Video Systems showed a number of new systems and processes at NAB 2024. The updates focus on utilising data to maximise its value, end-to-end HDR workflow capabilities, new partner integrations and further support for QoE measurements. These TAG platform upgrades can help users simplify day-to-day tasks and focus on business growth and operational strategy.
TAG Conductor Control Interface
TAG Conductor is a new touch panel control interface, hosted on TAG’s Media Control System [MCS]. The application is HTML and API-based for use through a touch screen or tablet device, and can roam with the operator. Users can rapidly switch sources or mosaic layouts, achieving the rapid response necessary for system control in a live media control room or network operation centre environment. Instead of taking time to search menus, operators can access pre-defined, customisable configurations and functionality with just a tap on the mosaic, removing complexity. Access to the console is managed and secured by role and permissions.
Automatic Subtitle Language Detection
TAG Language Detection is another new development. It identifies the subtitles’ language and then calculates and analyses their quality and accuracy based on language-specific dictionaries. The process introduces a level of automation that avoids the manual work traditionally associated with language identification, lowers the risk of human error, and saves operators time to focus on more strategic tasks.
By transforming caption quality checks into a data-driven operation, TAG Language Detection means the operators’ monitoring capabilities become proactive instead of reactive. Real-time alerts ensure that potential quality issues are swiftly addressed, while its data visualisation functions allow monitoring at scale and identify trends over time. The intention is that, by adhering to relevant compliance regulations, organisations can protect their legal standing and reputation.
Live Data Utilization Demos
TAG demonstrated, in real time, how an organisation can build and customise dashboards with existing open tools like Kibana, Grafana and Kafka to address a range of levels-of-detail. The team showed how users can push their data to draw further insight from TAG’s Realtime Media Platform, which is comprised of TAG’s monitoring management and configuration layer, and its multichannel and visualisation tool for workflows.
End-to-End HDR Workflow
TAG’s end-to-end HDR workflow capabilities were demonstrated at the Show with both HDR up-conversion and down-conversion, which help facilitate combined SDR and HDR workflows. This extra functionality supports deep real-time HDR end-to-end metadata monitoring, resulting in more options for achieving very high HDR quality.
New TAG Technology Partners
TAG demonstrated integrations with two new technology partners, Amagi and Skyline Dataminer. The Amagi partnership has been established for more accurate monitoring through TAG’s all-software, cloud native system. The integration implements TAG’s monitoring by exception capabilities and takes advantage of its APIs to efficiently monitor and control a substantial number of channels, increasing the reliability of Amagi’s FAST and broadcast streams. Monitoring by exception aims to quickly trace a particular performance issue to its root cause, gaining the time to locate and address that issue before it impacts users.
Support for TAG’s platform has also been integrated into Skyline’s Dataminer media management platform. In this case the integration simplifies deployment and configuration of large-scale TAG installations, increasing end-to-end visibility, automation and user control. Operators now have access to simultaneous insight into the status of their infrastructure from Dataminer, along with insight into the health of their content and live streams from TAG.
Identifying threshold events
SSIM for QoE at Scale
Based on TAG’s Content Matching system, the company now supports straightforward, perception based QoE measures like Structural Similarity Index Measure (SSIM). TAG users will be able to numerically compare the video quality before and after the encoder or between any two points in the workflow, and evaluate even very complex video with high-noise levels, based on the SSIM smart algorithm.
The SSIM model considers image degradation as perceived change in structural information of digital images and videos. To predict perceived quality, it bases its measurement on an initial uncompressed or undistorted image as reference.
TAG Content Matching was introduced one year ago at NAB 2023, to make sure content is delivered in real time to its intended destination without errors or discrepancies. It identifies potential issues and confirms signal integrity by creating a unique fingerprint used to match video stream across the entire media distribution path – regardless of resolution, bitrate or framerate – and notifies users when the first content inconsistency occurs. tagvs.com
