RICHARDSON, Texas—Aurora Networks has announced that Liberty Puerto Rico has expanded its hybrid fiber-coaxial (HFC) network architecture using solutions from Aurora.

More specifically, Liberty has deployed Aurora Networks’ RD2322 operating as Remote MACPHY (RMD) in the NC4000 optical node. The distributed access architecture technology will improve network performance and lower latency while streamlining network operations

For Liberty Puerto Rico’s fixed services subscribers, this network enhancement is designed to improve connectivity experience with an infrastructure built for multi-gigabit speeds and a future-ready path toward 10G services to residential and SOHO consumers.

By bringing key network functions closer to homes and businesses, Liberty delivers lower latency, enhanced gaming performance, seamless high-quality streaming, and greater consistency during peak usage periods.

Aurora also reported that the upgrade enables Liberty Puerto Rico to operate its network more efficiently by minimizing infrastructure footprint and reducing energy consumption across operational sites. These gains support the development of a more sustainable and resilient network, reinforcing Liberty’s commitment to delivering reliable, high-quality broadband services to customers while helping meet the evolving connectivity needs of communities across Puerto Rico.

“This network enhancement underscores our commitment to delivering an enhanced broadband experience for customers across Puerto Rico, supported by capabilities that will enable speeds of up to 10 Gbps,” stated Chuck Page, vice president of technical operations, Liberty Puerto Rico. “By boosting capacity and responsiveness, we are delivering more reliable performance today while paving the way for next-generation, higher-speed services.”

“The deployment of our Remote MACPHY solution, building upon Aurora Networks’ existing technology within Liberty Puerto Rico’s network, exemplifies our commitment to helping service providers drive meaningful value for both operators and their subscribers,” added Guy Sucharczuk, senior vice president and president of Aurora Networks. “We are proud to support Liberty Puerto Rico as it enhances capacity, improves operational efficiency, and strengthens service reliability across its footprint. This expansion reinforces the importance of Remote MACPHY in enabling operators to modernize HFC networks, optimize costs, and deliver high-performance broadband services to meet increasing demand.”

LAS VEGAS—Tektronix will showcase its entire suite of High Dynamic Range (HDR) tools, including its suite of media production, monitoring and analysis solutions, such as PRISM, Aurora and Sentry at the 2019 NAB Show in Las Vegas.

"Broadcasters seeking to address the HDR opportunity have been working with Tektronix to improve the HDR process and optimize HDR workflows,” said Charlie Dunn, general manager of Tektronix's Video Business. “In working together, we’re able to support them in delivering a better customer experience, mitigating churn and protecting their brand perception.”

Tektronix has developed a dynamic set of tools to enable producers to deliver HDR content with confidence to their customers, the company said.

The company’s PRISM media monitoring and analysis now offers comprehensive HDR measurement and displays to provide users with visibility into content dynamics and reduce how long it takes to isolate and remedy a fault. PRISM presents complex information via easy-to-understand graphical displays familiar to broadcast operations teams, technicians and engineers.

Supporting HDR and Wide Color Gamut (WCG) workflows, PRISM reduces the complexity associated with content creation for multiple HDR/WCG formats, especially for content created following Report ITU-R B.2408-1. PRISM with HDR support is built on software that is easy to upgrade in the field to enable the solution to evolve as IP and HDR standards evolve, according to the company.

Tektronix also has added HDR capabilities to its Aurora scalable, file-based QC system. Aurora displays HDR metadata in a QC report and can produce graphs to show measured Content Light Level and Frame-Average Light Level values. If these levels exceed the file’s metadata, Aurora flags the error in the QC report, the company said.

Sentry, Tektronix’s video quality monitoring solution for live streams from cable, broadcast and OTT providers, has been enhanced with HDR status monitoring to confirm HDR services are being delivered correctly, the company said. The monitor also detects incorrectly set or mistakenly modified HDR data and alerts operators. The product offers automation and tools for proactive prevention of issues.

More information is available on the Tektronix website.

See Tektronix at NAB booth SU5006. To register for the NAB Show, visit www.nabshow.com.

BEAVERTON, ORE.—Tektronix’s Aurora automated file-based quality control (QC) system has received a new set of features to boost its test and monitoring capabilities. Among the enhancements to the system are a Perceptual Video Quality measurement tool, support on the Amazon Web Services cloud, and support for AS-10 PAD Delivery Specification.

Aurora 6.1

The new PVQ technology that has been incorporated into the Aurora system comes from Tektronix’s Sentry family of video network monitors. Aurora can now analyze video content using a proprietary algorithm for detecting video compression artifacts that affect viewers’ experience. It also uses a format akin to a Mean Opinion Score for graphically plotting video quality.

With the Aurora system now being supported on the Amazon cloud, the system can offer scalable automated analysis of file-based video content ingested from different sources, encoded at different bitrates and formats, and using different compression standards for SD/HD, VOD or IPTV delivery. Aurora on Amazon cloud performs checks quality compliance, playability of audio and video at ingest, after encoding, after transcoding and before playout. Files are processed of AWS S3 storage and optimizes EC2 compute instance resources usage on the AWS Cloud.

Now offering support for AS-10 PAD, Aurora can test content delivered to French broadcasters for compliance. With AS-10 PAD support, as well as UK-DPP, Tektronix provides post-production professionals a way to test content the ensure delivery specifications of regions are met.

Tektronix will showcase the upgrades to its Aurora system during IBC 2016 in Amsterdam at stand 10.D41.