AT970-1 Tektronix ATSC Single Stream Monitor System

AT970 has been specifically designed to meet the exacting requirements of DTV real-time monitoring in a transmission environment. Following the FCC's mandate for a rapid deployment of digital terrestrial and cable television, it is now necessary to ensure that digital broadcasts can be decoded by subscribers' set top boxes (IRDs) and that pictures are of optimum quality. AT970 helps to achieve this by continuously monitoring up to four transport streams in real time, verifying that they conform to the MPEG-2 and ATSC specifications.

In a modern broadcast environment, transport streams originate from a variety of sources, including contribution links and pre-encoded material. These sources need to be monitored in real time prior to the final multiplex and transmission.

AT970 is designed to meet your complete real-time monitoring requirement, forming part of a network control system solution. AT970 provides you with a cost effective, flexible and upgradable monitoring architecture.

Put simply, AT970 future proofs and protects your investment in network monitoring.


AT970 performs all of the essential ATSC and MPEG-2 measurements to ensure that the TS is present and compliant with the standards.

AT970 also monitors program bit rate against user defined limits, providing early indication of multiplexer malfunctions, or infringement of minimum bit rate limits for statistically multiplexed streams. AT970 dynamically represents individual PID bit rates and displays the information carried, be it video, audio, EMM or ECM.


For broadcasters requiring a fully integrated monitoring tool, AT970 is the solution, providing full remote control and monitoring via Ethernet using Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP). Multiple AT970 units can be linked to the global control network. The status of the broadcast chain can be checked by simply connecting to the monitoring network using a PC with a web browser.


For applications where networking and remote control is not required AT970 can be used stand-alone. Front panel LED indicators provide transport stream error status at a glance. The VGA-integrated color display supports an intuitive GUI, minimizing operator training. The display provides PSI/PSIP table information, multiplex occupancy views, detailed error information and alarm configuration to enable fast fault detection and isolation.


With AT970 each stream has its own dedicated error log providing a history of the status of each TS. The error log can be inspected remotely and saved for future reference. This assists fault tracking, allowing error statistics to be compiled, pinpointing common equipment failures and enabling remedial action to be taken.


AT970 provides both remote and local error alarms for each monitored TS. Remote alarms are provided by the remote control protocol with local alarm outputs provided as TTL and closed contact relay alarm outputs. All alarms are user-configurable, and can be used to trigger other equipment like the AD953-II MPEG Test System, which can record the TS or drive other equipment like audible alarms which can alert operatives to error conditions.


AT970 has been designed to integrate into a transmission environment and supports all of the following TS interfaces:
• SMPTE310M
• Parallel Interface (SPI)
• ASI
• L-Band, QPSK
• ECL Serial
• DHEI

A different interface can be used on each of the four monitors within one AT970.