Sacramento’s KVIE Becomes First PBS Affiliatee to Adopt Digital Nirvana’s MonitorIQ™ System for Monitoring and Logging

Author:Pipeline Communications

KVIE Selects MonitorIQ Essentials with Nielsen NAVE Watermark Decoding for Multi-Channel ATSC Broadcast Monitoring and Quality Control

Newark, CA, October 29, 2012 – KVIE, the PBS affiliate serving the Sacramento-Stockton-Modesto market, has chosen the Digital Nirvana MonitorIQ Broadcast Monitoring System (BMS) to perform quality control monitoring of its ATSC signals. KVIE is the first PBS affiliate to adopt Digital Nirvana’s MonitorIQ for broadcast monitoring.

The station placed its order for MonitorIQ Essentials in early June 2012. The system will be used to monitor the ATSC “off-air” signals of KVIE’s three DTV channels: KVIE 6.1 HDTV, KVIE2 6.2, and KVIE 6.3 VME – a Spanish language service. MonitorIQ is a monitoring, logging, compliance, and content republishing system for TV networks and stations. It combines the functionality of content recording (HD and SD in full resolution), content searching, retrieve and repurposing, Web publishing, signal monitoring, air-check logging, archiving, ad verification and tracking, and competitive analysis in a scalable networked appliance.

MonitorIQ is available in four packages—Starter, Essentials, Plus and Premier—making it affordable and suitable for virtually every broadcast customer. MonitorIQ Essentials, the package KVIE ordered, includes basic Starter features, such as core logging functionality, plus FCC compliance monitoring and loudness monitoring. “Our goal is to ensure that we are broadcasting high-quality signals that comply with the intent and spirit of The CALM Act and other federal and FCC mandates,” said Greg Johnson, director of engineering for KVIE. Johnson added that the loudness mandate does not directly apply to KVIE because it’s a public television station.

“The MonitorIQ system will also help us monitor closed captioning, signal interruptions, PSIP, and the overall technical integrity of our ATSC signals,” Johnson added. “With the ability to store 90-days worth of off-air HD/SD recordings, we can go back and check the signals we aired to verify compliance or take corrective action when issues are detected.” KVIE also ordered an optional feature for decoding and logging the Nielsen NAVE Watermark ID to verify its presence within their DTV signals. Watermark NAVE decoding is a standard feature in the MonitorIQ Plus version. MonitorIQ Essentials includes all the functionality necessary for broadcasters to ensure regulatory compliance. Newly introduced features include support for IP as an input source, and loudness monitoring is now bundled in as a standard feature within the package. The MonitorIQ Essentials system accepts DVB-T/C/S2, ASI, ASI/IP, HD/SD-SDI, ATSC/QAM and NTSC/QAM, and NTSC/PAL formats.

It records audio, video, VANC metadata and captioning in both high- and low-definition. As with the Starter package, searching is based upon keywords, titles, subtitles, descriptions, textual metadata, closed-caption text and imported logs, with filtering by time, date and channel. Recordings can also be edited, clipped, stored and sent via email or FTP. “We’re extremely pleased that KVIE has expressed confidence in our MonitorIQ broadcast monitoring system for its off-air multi-channel ATSC signal monitoring,” said Ned Chini, vice president of sales and marketing for Digital Nirvana.

“We look forward to building a strong, mutually rewarding relationship with KVIE and supporting their goals of ensuring the delivery of high-quality broadcast signals to the communities they serve.” Based in Sacramento, KVIE reaches 1.4 million households in its 28-county coverage area via broadcast as well as cable and satellite service providers. In addition to carrying PBS network programming, KVIE also produces several of its own original series including “Viewfinder,” which focuses on issues of interest to Northern California; Studio Sacramento, a public affairs program; and “America’s Heartland, about agriculture in America.

About Digital Nirvana

Since 1996, Digital Nirvana has been empowering customers with innovative knowledge management technologies. By combining media and digital technology expertise, Digital Nirvana makes it possible for organizations to streamline operations and gain competitive advantage with advanced product and service offerings. The industry-leading MonitorIQ Broadcast Monitoring System from Digital Nirvana is a full-featured monitoring platform incorporating the most advanced capabilities available in an affordable, networked appliance. Digital Nirvana is headquartered in Newark, California and has operations in multiple locations globally. Further information is available at www.digital-nirvana.com. Download this release as a PDF. For more information, contact: Robin Hoffman Pipeline Communications 277 Valley Way Montclair, NJ 07042 73-746-6970 robinhoffman@pipecomm.com www.pipecomm.com Ned Chini Digital Nirvana 39899 Balentine Drive, Suite 200 Newark, CA 94560 510-226-9000 x707 nedchini@digital-nirvana.com www.digital-nirvana.com. Editor’s Note: High-resolution product photography is available upon request.