Mirifice Ltd, the developer of MiriMON, the system for real-time monitoring of live Digital TV networks, deliver their new automated set top box testing product - MiriATE - to Top Up TV
29 April 2008 - Top Up TV demonstrates an ongoing commitment to bringing high quality solutions to market by investing in the MiriATE testing solution from Mirifice Ltd.
Top Up TV Anytime, an innovative on-demand TV service delivered to consumers via terrestrial TV broadcast, provides the choice of premium content and time-shifted viewing without the need to connect to a satellite or cable service.
The Top Up TV Anytime service is only available to consumers that purchase a dedicated set top box (STB): the recent sales of which have been exceptional, showing the widespread appeal of the product. Maintaining the quality and reliability of these STBs is critical.
Geoff Aitken, Business Development Manager at Mirifice, says, “We have worked with Top Up TV over the last two years on a number of projects. Their team is committed to delivering quality products and services. MiriATE will dramatically reduce manual testing, assuring STB quality while reducing time-to-market and costs. No other testing product can offer this level of automation.”
Simon Dore, Chief Technical Officer at Top Up TV, said “ Top Up TV is delighted to be working so closely with Mirifice. The professionalism of the company and its 'can-do' approach are an ideal fit for us as we strive to deliver high-quality and innovative products to our customers. MiriATE is also a great acquisition for Top Up; it's a brilliant system provided by a company with which we have a natural fit. This will transform our STB development and platform testing processes allowing us to maintain high standards within streamlined timescales.”
MiriATE provides Top Up TV the ability to drive large numbers of STBs through configured test suites, improving equipment reliability and drastically reducing the number of man-hours normally required for wide-scale testing. The features of motion detection, colour detection and region comparison will give Top Up TV a unique competitive advantage.
Geoff Aitken adds “MiriATE can be used as a development tool for STB manufacturers and fault diagnosis, but it is also incredibly useful for operators as an acceptance test system or a regression test system. The features of MiriATE mean that the time to market and the total cost of testing for the supplier is largely reduced. “
For additional information on Mirifice, please contact info@mirifice.com:
Mirifice Ltd are headquartered in Bath, UK. Formed in 2004 they provide key software development, project management and consultancy staff to the broadcast industry. The company product range includes the award-winning MiriMON system for real-time monitoring of live Digital TV network deployments. Customers include BSkyB, Virgin Media, Top-Up TV, Comstar Direct, Pace MicroTechnology, Tandberg and Thomson.
MiriATE is the world‘s first truly automated test environment for STBs and can halve the cost of testing. By controlling the behaviour, inputs and environment of the STB, and at the same time measuring the box outputs, MiriATE provides automated testing which enables quick fault analysis.
MiriATE can be used in a number of environments - from the network operator to the STB manufacturer. As well as being ideally suited to acceptance and regression testing it is also an invaluable development tool. As manufacturers no longer own the entire hardware and software stack, assigning faults to the correct component vendors is a real challenge in a modern device integration project. MiriATE provides reliable, quantitative evidence to allow correct fault assignment in such cases.
The standard deployment of MiriATE is a 16 STB solution, and due to the system‘s scalability, this increases in increments of 16 to very large systems of 384 boxes or more.
Mirifice Ltd.
4 Abbey Street,
Bath
BA1 1NN
Tel: +44 1225 460126
www.mirifice.com
Top Up TV is an entertainment company dedicated to increasing choice for Freeview customers by giving people real value and real choice when it comes to pay-TV.
Established in 2004, Top Up TV provide a choice to TV viewers who want a bit more than the usual Freeview channels and an alternative to the large cable and satellite companies.
An alternative that provides quality programming, but does not tie customers down to long contracts and complicated packages.
www.topuptv.com
Press enquiries: press@topuptv.com
General enquiries: enquiries@topuptv.com
