KVIE, the PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) affiliate serving the Sacramento-Stockton-Modesto market, has chosen the Digital Nirvana Monitor IQ Broadcast Monitoring System (BMS) to perform quality control monitoring of its ATSC signals.
This is the first PBS affiliate to adopt Digital Nirvana’s Monitor IQ for broadcast monitoring. The station placed its order for Monitor IQ Essentials in early June 2012. The system will be used to monitor the ATSC “off-air’ signals of KVIE’s three DTV channels: KVIE 6.1 HDTV, KVIE2 6.2, and KVIE 6.3 VME – a Spanish language service.
Monitor IQ is a monitoring, logging, compliance, and content republishing system for TV networks and stations. It combines the functionality of content recording (HD and SD in full resolution), content searching, retrieve and repurposing, Web publishing, signal monitoring, air-check logging, archiving, ad verification and tracking, and competitive analysis in a scalable networked appliance.
Monitor IQ is available in four packages—Starter, Essentials, Plus and Premier, while Monitor IQ Essentials, the package KVIE ordered, includes basic Starter features, such as core logging functionality, plus FCC compliance monitoring and loudness monitoring.
“Our goal is to ensure that we are broadcasting high-quality signals that comply with the intent and spirit of The CALM Act and other federal and FCC mandates,’ said Greg Johnson, director of engineering for KVIE. Johnson added that the loudness mandate does not directly apply to KVIE because it’s a public television station.
“The Monitor IQ system will also help us monitor closed captioning, signal interruptions, PSIP, and the overall technical integrity of our ATSC signals,’ Johnson added. “With the ability to store 90-days worth of off-air HD/SD recordings, we can go back and check the signals we aired to verify compliance or take corrective action when issues are detected.’
KVIE also ordered an optional feature for decoding and logging the Nielsen NAVE Watermark ID to verify its presence within their DTV signals. Watermark NAVE decoding is a standard feature in the Monitor IQ Plus version.
Based in Sacramento, KVIE reaches 1.4 million households in its 28-county coverage area via broadcast as well as cable and satellite service providers. In addition to carrying PBS network programming, KVIE also produces several of its own original series including Viewfinder, which focuses on issues of interest to Northern California; Studio Sacramento, a public affairs programme; and America’s Heartland, about agriculture in America.
