Canadian Cable Operators Grapple with Digital Video Signal Problems

TORONTO -- Despite a growing number of network monitoring tools at their disposal, Canadian cable operators admit they're still fumbling for ways to gauge and fix the plethora of digital signal problems that are bedeviling their best customers.

In hope of finding better solutions, senior engineering executives from three top Canadian operators are starting to air their “dirty laundry” about digital video quality. Holding an unusually candid discussion at the SCTE Canadian Summit here last week, they conceded that they frequently don’t have a good grip on the video and audio difficulties experienced by their subscribers. Even though many network monitoring tools are available, they griped that the tools don’t necessarily tell them what they need to know about the “crappy pictures” their customers are too frequently seeing.

Take Michel Lapointe, a senior analyst in Videotron’s digital video technologies development group. Lapointe said the network analysis tools in the market are not capable of measuring many digital signal quality problems automatically. He cited such issues as audio phase reversal, audio channel misplacement, total audio distortion, inconsistent audio levels, video field reversal, and what he called “annoying macro-blocking."

"As of now, the test equipment I end up having to use is the customer call,” Lapointe said, noting that few customers actually call when they run into a video problem: “That’s not good.” He joked that he “could kiss” those few customers who do call about problems because that’s frequently the only way he finds out there’s something wrong: “I welcome these calls."

Rogers Communications faces similar issues, said Mark Shinozaki, its director of network quality assurance. The “major challenge,” he said, is that “it’s difficult to link the customer experience with network metrics.” As a result, he said, Rogers has “embraced customer-based metrics,” including reductions in the number of customer calls and technician truck rolls. In addition, Canada’s largest cable operator has stepped up its use of customer surveys for digital video problems.

"Our belief is that by focusing on our customer experience in our day-to-day activities, it would have a significant impact in terms of return on investment,” Shinozaki said. “However you get the information to understand the key problems that your customers are having -- whether it’s call volumes, anecdotal information, someone who can replicate the problem, whatever -- focusing on network-related initiatives to try to resolve some of these key issues that are affecting your customers has tremendous value.”

Dave Higgins, vice president of quality assurance for Comcast Media Center, agreed it can be very tough to measure the customer’s quality of experience. He also said once a video signal becomes impaired, “it’s extremely difficult to repair downstream,” leading to problems in customers’ homes nearly every time. Comcast Media Center has tried to respond, he said, with its “Golden Eye” program, which asks select viewers to look for and rate six different types of signal problems, including macro-blocking and loudness.

Stephen Shaw, a digital cable engineer for Cogeco Cable, said digital signal errors abound on the cable network. But he fingered the source of the digital video as the biggest offender, noting that content providers account for more than half of the problems. “One hundred percent of services have at least two error-seconds each month,” he said. “All services have issues some of the time."

Even though the current network monitoring tools may have their limitations, Shaw still urged his colleagues to adopt network-wide monitoring platforms as soon as possible. He said Cogeco has gathered much data about its digital signal quality problems since instituting its own suite of monitoring techniques two years ago, enabling it to home in on its biggest problems.

"If you're not using a monitoring platform presently, then go out and get one because you have no idea what’s happening,” Shaw said. “You need to monitor this stuff. You've just got to do it.” He said such a platform probably “pays for itself in the first two months."