(click thumbnail)Jon HammarstromQ. What kind of products or services does your company offer for broadcasters?
A. Tektronix is the video test expert, providing the broadest and most comprehensive video test portfolio for existing analog and new digital video technologies. A new generation of Tektronix video test and monitoring tools has emerged to help video engineers and technicians resolve complex test, measurement and monitoring challenges. Tektronix solutions span the entire video environment from hardware development to content developers to delivery network operators. To enable the explosion of digital video, the content, delivery system and end equipment must all be interoperable and easy-to-use. Equally, the test needs are evolving for every point in the digital video environment.
Tektronix has products in the following categories:
- Signal analyzers, generators and monitors
- MPEG analyzers, generators and monitors
- Content verification
Q. What’s new that you will show at the NAB Show and what should broadcasters look for there?
A. Tektronix video test solutions are heavily focused on solving our customers’ quality and delivery challenges in the new digital world. As our customers work to maintain a competitive advantage in a very competitive environment they need solutions that help them succeed. Tools specifically designed to enable the transition to digital video will be highlighted at the NAB Show this year.
Tektronix has expanded the industry’s broadest portfolio of waveform monitors and rasterizers to include the 4000/5000 series. These new platforms provide basic SD and HD SDI monitoring capability for video levels, gamut compliance and digital audio level and phase monitoring. These products establish a new price performance benchmark in the market. They are the only monitors that utilize Tektronix patented and proprietary gamut displays designed to support OB van and ENG truck deployments. As our customers see an increase in field production requirements these tools enable a fast and efficient skill set transfer for anyone in their organization familiar with the Tektronix user interface.
This year Tektronix earned a technical Emmy award for our contribution to MPEG monitoring technology. Fittingly, we are demonstrating our latest extension of the award-winning MTM platform at the NAB Show - the MTM400A with the FlexVuPlus™ remote user interface. FlexVuPlus is a browser enabled, Windows-based user interface designed to empower a broader audience of nontechnical users and enhance productivity in a variety of complex workflows for traditional broadcasters, cable MSOs, satellite uplink and downlink facilities and telecommunications network operators.
New service deployments present a particular set of challenges for our VoIP customers. Enhanced tools set supporting VoIP and IPTV design, deployment and management will be a highlight at the NAB Show.
Tektronix will also demonstrate several tools designed to support emerging standards including enhanced analysis tools to aid in the transition from MPEG-2 to H.264 compression technology.
Q. How is your new product offering different from what’s available on the market?
A. Complexity is steadily advancing in an actively evolving digital video environment in the form of new technologies and more sophisticated workflows. None more evident than those inherent in hybrid facilities, not just analog/digital but RF/IP, multiformat compression environments and file based storage and distribution. Our customers need solutions that help them not only adopt new technologies and roll out new services but bridge the gap and help transition their business.
Tektronix solutions are designed to help reduce an engineer’s time to insight with powerful diagnostic capabilities and empower broader nontechnical audience with a variety of See and Solve™ features. These aspects enable our customers’ success technically and with improved operational efficiency.
Q. Where are you based, and how many employees do you have? Anything else we should know about your company?
A. Headquartered in Beaverton, Oregon, Tektronix has 4,500 employees in 19 countries worldwide. Tektronix’ Internet address is www.tektronix.com. The company received its 7th Technology & Engineering Emmy Award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) for “Real-time Transport Stream Monitoring for ATSC & DVB Conformance.” The award recognizes the contribution of Tektronix for MPEG-2 transport stream monitoring and analysis products. We are excited about this award and feel it further demonstrates our strong history of providing innovative technologies for the television and film industries.
