OSLO, NORWAY — Bridge Technologies has launched PocketProbe, an iPhone app that enables mobile, objective analysis of real network performance of streaming media.
Available from Apple’s App Store, PocketProbe complements the existing capabilities of digital media monitoring systems built from Bridge Technologies hardware probes, and the monitoring software environment. Already providing comprehensive end-to-end monitoring and analysis, with a range of fixed and portable probes, the system is now pocket-size.
PocketProbe contains the same OTT engine found in the company’s VB1, VB2 and 10G VB3 series digital media monitoring probes, enabling confidence validation and analysis of http variable bit-rate streams.
PocketProbe is available as a free application that can validate five HLS streams in round-robin mode, provide analysis and manifest consistency alarms, playback media in the various profile bit-rates and graphically display the actual chunk download patterns and bit-rates. The full version can validate HDS and SmoothStream manifest files and store twenty-five streams with all profiles.
Once the stream url is input, the PocketProbe finds all related profiles and validates the consistency. It also displays the profile’s programmed and actual bps, validates chunk size against download time, sounds alarms on manifest syntax and oversizing, sequence age disparity and non-updates of sequence for live streams and includes graphic display of real chunk behavior.
The PocketProbe can be used by service engineers and operational staff to test real world behaviors post-cloud with various operators. Accurate status of bit-rates used and profile changes are displayed in real time. Together with hardware probes used pre-cloud, the post-cloud location enables correlative understanding of CDN and provider abilities.
