Video Clarity RTM-1RU Parts list manual

Real-Time Monitor (RTM)
System Guide
Copyright © 2009-2013 Video Clarity, Inc.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
TABLE OF CONTENTS............................................................................................................................2
1REAL TIME MONITORING (RTM) SYSTEM 3
2HARDWARE QUICK SETUP GUIDE 4
3SOFTWARE QUICK SETUP GUIDE 5
4TYPICAL APPLICATIONS 8
4.1 LONG DURATION TESTING..............................................................................................................8
4.2 BROADCAST MONITORING ..............................................................................................................8
4.2.1 Reference Content Caused the Error......................................................................................8
4.2.2 Processing Content Caused the Error ....................................................................................9
5SETTING RTM PARAMETERS 10
5.1 RTM STATUS ..............................................................................................................................10
5.2 RTM CONTROLS..........................................................................................................................10
5.3 RTM ALIGNMENT.........................................................................................................................11
5.4 RTM VIDEO QUALITY...................................................................................................................11
5.5 RTM AUDIO QUALITY...................................................................................................................12
6SETTING NORMAL CONFIGURATION PARAMETERS 13
6.1 INPUTS PANE...............................................................................................................................13
6.2 ALIGNMENT PANE ........................................................................................................................13
6.3 DYNAMIC REALIGNMENT PANE......................................................................................................15
6.4 VIDEO METRIC PANE....................................................................................................................16
6.5 AUDIO METRIC PANE....................................................................................................................17
6.6 VANC METRIC PANE ...................................................................................................................18
6.7 SEQUENCE CREATION PANE.........................................................................................................19
6.8 LOGS AND ALERTS PANE..............................................................................................................20
7LOG FILES 22
7.1 RTMLOG.LOG..............................................................................................................................22
7.2 PSNRAVG.LOG .............................................................................................................................22
7.3 AUDIOALIGN.LOG.........................................................................................................................22
7.4 .PSNR AND .AUDIO FILES...............................................................................................................23
8COMMAND-LINE INTERFACE 25
8.1 RTMSERVER.EXE........................................................................................................................25
8.2 RTM.EXE......................................................................................................................................25
8.3 COMMANDS DETAILED..................................................................................................................26
8.3.1 Preview..................................................................................................................................26
8.3.2 RestoreConfig........................................................................................................................26
8.3.3 SaveConfig............................................................................................................................27
8.3.4 Stop .......................................................................................................................................27
9RTM FROM FILE 28
9.1 RTM FROM FILE ..........................................................................................................................28

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1 Real Time Monitoring (RTM) System
At the processing layer, problems arise when down-converting HD to SD, changing formats, and
compressing the signal into the available bandwidth. Also the separate processing of audio, video, and
data can lead to synchronization problems.
At the transmitting layer, broadcasters encounter their familiar RF problems with a new challenge -
coverage and interference problems caused by more channels at lower powers. Broadcasters rely on
telecommunication technology so latency, packet loss, and synchronization add additional concerns.
Errors in one layer can cause errors in the next. For example blockiness caused by compression looks
similar to packet loss/bit errors.
For this reason, the quality must be monitored at multiple points across the network including at the end
users device (set-top box, mobile).
RTM - a full reference broadcast quality monitor:
- Measures the audio and video quality
- Measures the audio and video delay (lip-sync)
- Measures the audio program loudness of both source (1) and test (2) input
- Measures the VANC data lines integrity
- Alarms and records the A/V sequences if any of the above have fallen below the degradation threshold
as set by the user
The degradation threshold is pre-configured by your engineering team and set to detect:
- Fine detail - blur, blockiness, and
- Gross impairment - loss of signal, picture freezes, lip-sync.
RTM can compare
- Reference SDI input to processed SDI input,
- Reference file to processed SDI input, and
- Reference file to processed file
Applications
- In-service broadcast monitoring
- Long duration QA testing for networks or devices
-Television Production Truck to Central Office lip-sync and quality pre-check
RTM includes reference test patterns, which can be exported as QuickTime, RAW, or AVI files or played
through SDI outputs. These can be stored in your Production Truck to check lip-sync and A/V quality or
can be used for QA testing.
Being a full-reference monitoring device, RTM is not influenced by the “artistic” quality of the source.
RTM continually aligns to measure lip-sync and it reports any frame loss.

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2 Hardware Quick Setup Guide
Figure 1: RTM-1RU Back Panel
Figure 2: RTM-1RU Front Controls
Figure 3: RTM-3G Back Panel
Figure 4: RTM-2RU Back Panel (supplied with 5 SMB to BNC conversion cables - 13cm (7”)
To operate RTM (regardless of model):
- Connect the included USB Keyboard and Mouse
- Connect a HDMI, DVI or VGA monitor to the system graphics output connector
- Connect signals to Input 1 and Input 2 (For file-based operation, this is not necessary)
- The Output connectors are an echo output of the input (except when using the separate RTM
Player application).
The hardware specifications of each system above is detailed in the RTM datasheets or on the Video
Clarity website here.

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3 Software Quick Setup Guide
Figure 5: RTM Running
After launching the RTM application if it not set for automatic start, then all you have to do is press the
Start button in the Control pane.
Pressing Start will include a full alignment, which independently aligns the audio and video streams. Upon
completion, the alignment pane is updated:
- The video offset is noted in frames
- The audio alignment with respect to the video offset is noted in samples, frames, and time
(milliseconds/ms)
- The video spatial alignment in pixels is noted.
For the example above, the audio offset is -17.7ms, which means that the audio is ahead of the video by
½ a frame.
The video, audio, and VANC are compared against a threshold/duration, and if they exceed the
designated limits:
- a recording is started of both incoming signals,
- a log entry is made,
- the status in the Status pane is updated,

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- an audio alert is generated,
- the status on the 1RU’s front panel is updated, and
- a log file (.psnr or .audio) is created which contains the difference values for the created
recordings. This log file can be dragged/dropped onto ClearView for easy setup and post-anlysis.
It is expected that the incoming signals will drift from each other over time. For example, the delay
between the signals may be 344 frames for a day, 343, for a day, and back to 344 the next. This is due
to several factors including:
- the sources not being genlocked
- the sources changing between national and local feeds
RTM is aware of this and compensates for it using dynamic re-alignment.
The remainder of the screen is devoted to showing the quality over time. The 2 videos are shown side-by-
side after alignment. This is a decimated image and does not necessarily show the entirety of the video
quality. The min/max amplitude of the audio is shown as a meter per channel up to 8 channels.
Several graphs are depicted:
- A Volume activity meter is provided for each audio channel per input
- An LKFS meter is provided reporting Loundness in real-time
oTo the right of this metering A/V offset is reported in samples (window), frames and ms
- Video graph is showing the PSNR score over time
- Audio graph is showing the frequency/amplitude of each channel score over time.
RTM reliably detects MPEG breakups, frozen video, lost audio, A/V offset (lip sync) and most typical
causes of impairments found in broadcasts today. The picture below shows each section of the graphical
reporting structure.
Figure 6: Graphs for audio metering, video and audio score running continuously

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Figure 7: Detected Impairment Example (top-bottom view from ClearView)
The log files are saved in the ClearView Video Analysis format, which means that they can be played
back using:
- The included RTM Player application, or
- Further analyzed using ClearView, which can generate detailed reports.

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4 Typical Applications
4.1 Long Duration Testing
What would happen if the video processing units did not produce an error for several hours or days?
Perhaps a particular set of input data sent at just the wrong time was needed to create the problem. This
type of problem is very difficult to replicate, but it will be the first problem that your customer’s find.
RTM can be used for nearly any extended duration quality monitoring applications. Plug in 2 SDI streams
or 1 stream and a file, and RTM will alarm when the quality exceeds the threshold. It will also save the
streams before and after the condition for inspection.
Regardless of the input, RTM continually monitors and records the A/V stream when the
- Audio or Video quality drops below a defined threshold,
- Lip-sync exceeds the delay thresholds, or
- Ancillary data (VANC) is missing.
Figure 8: Standard long duration test
4.2 Broadcast Monitoring
Once captured, many problems can be classified
- The video is black
- The audio is silent
- The video and/or audio is distorted
- The video and audio are out of sync with reference to each other
- The ancillary data (closed captioning, subtitles, etc.) is not intact or timed properly
Errors will occur. Simple errors are easily found and corrected, but some happen infrequently and/or in
the presence of special conditions.
The recorded stream is stored in the ClearView sequence folder format for further analysis and
classification.
In addition, RTM reports
- The average A/V quality,
- A/V delay/offset, and
- Any dropped frames and then dynamically realigns.
4.2.1 Reference Content Caused the Error
At times the reference content can have break-ups in it, and this can cause the processed content to
further break-up or completely freeze.

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4.2.2 Processing Content Caused the Error
By putting traffic on the network or by over-compressing the reference, the received (set-top box output)
may have breakups.
The only way to find these is to monitor every channel at the end-points and then diagnose problems
backwards in time until you find the problem.
Figure 9: Network using multiple RTMs

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5 Setting RTM Parameters
Upon startup, RTM will launch with the configuration from the last time that it was operating. The
parameters on this page, can be changed while, the system is running.
5.1 RTM Status
Figure 10: RTM Status Pane
Status Messages
This is the current status of each type of error. If the status is red,
then an error has occurred. The number of errors is noted.
NOTE: details are in the RTM log files.
Clear
This resets the status to 0 errors and turns everything green.
5.2 RTM Controls
Figure 11: RTM Controls
Preview
Pressing this button acquires the audio and video and shows the 2
images in the preview pane. It does not start the operation of
checking quality.
Start
Pressing this button performs the operations of preview and starts the
operation of checking quality.
Stop
Pressing this button stops the operations of RTM.
Profiles
Pressing this button allows you to load a configuration profile that you
have previously saved.
Config
Pressing this button brings up the configuration menu
Exit
Pressing this button exits RTM (closes the application).

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5.3 RTM Alignment
Figure 12: RTM Alignment
Re-Align All
This button does a full alignment of the video and audio.
Align Video
This button aligns the videos but does not align the audios
Align Audio
This button aligns the audios assuming that the current video
alignment is correct.
NOTE: if the video alignment is not correct, then the audio alignment
may fail.
Video Offset
This is the calculated video offset in frames after the alignment has
completed.
NOTE: alignment is automatic from start
NOTE 2: you can type in your own alignment
Audio Offset
This is the calculated audio offset in samples relative to the 2 video
streams being aligned.
NOTE: it is also show in video frames and milliseconds (ms)
NOTE2: you can type in your own alignment
Spatial X, Y
This is the calculated spatial offset because the 2 videos may have a
pixel shift up/down. If the offset is know, you can type in the numbers
here and turn off the automatic calculation to speed up the alignment
process.
5.4 RTM Video Quality
Figure 13: RTM Video Quality
Status
These are status message which display the current frame that is
being analyzed (relative to 0/start), the video quality score for Y, Cb,
and Cr, and the VANC score based on which lines are being
evaluated.
Threshold
The video quality is deemed to be poor if the falls below the threshold
stated here. The threshold can be different for Y, Cb, and Cr.
Duration
This value defines how many consecutive video quality failures are
needed to trigger a recording.

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NOTE: there are more parameters under the Configure Sequence
Creation Pane.
NOTE2: Dynamic re-alignment may notice that the video is not
aligned and reset the error counter after making a correction.
5.5 RTM Audio Quality
Figure 14: RTM Audio Quality
Status
These are status message which display the current audio quality
score for each active audio channel.
Threshold
The video quality is deemed to be poor if the falls below the threshold
stated here.
Duration
This value defines how many consecutive audio quality failures are
needed to trigger a recording.
NOTE: there are more parameters under the Configure Sequence
Creation Pane.

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6 Setting Normal Configuration Parameters
Pressing Config from the main RTM page, lets you setup the general configurable parameters. Each of
these will be discussed in this section.
6.1 Inputs Pane
Figure 15: Video Input Pane
Video Input
SDI Input is the hardware input
ClearView Sequence is the file input.
Note: You must use ClearView to convert the compressed or
uncompressed file into the appropriate format or you can record the
input.
6.2 Alignment Pane
Figure 16: Alignment
6.2.a Video Alignment
Enable Full Alignment
Checking this box will enable a full alignment when the Start button
(from the main RTM window), on startup, or when RTM realizes that it
cannot dynamically realign.
Spatial Align
This flag enables a spatial test between the two incoming signals.
Since compression algorithms often eliminate the border pixels
knowing that the TV will over-scan (e.g. MPEG generates a 704x480
image to fill a 720x486 video display), the decoding device needs to
orient the picture. Thus, a horizontal or vertical shift will take place.

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RTM needs to detect and compensate for this shift before the
monitoring begins.
NOTE: if you know the spatial offsets, you can uncheck this box and
simply type in the values on the main RTM page’s alignment pane.
Max X, Max Y
This is the maximum horizontal and vertical search range for spatial
alignment. The values are X –0..8 and Y –0..8.
Maximize Alignment Range
When RTM starts it must first determine the temporal and possible
spatial offsets between two signals. This is done by capturing a
number of frames from both inputs and then finding a best match
between the two and determining the temporal and spatial offsets. In
situations where delay is greater than 100 frames, this box should be
checked.
NOTE: requires Input 1 to be ahead of Input 2
Align Disk Files
This flag enables RTM to use the hard disk during full alignment to
store the sequences; instead of RAM. The advantage is that the
number of frames can be larger. The only downside is that it requires
some hard disk space.
Max Alignment Capture Frames
For the initial full alignment, RTM will record from both inputs for as
many frames as are defined in this field. During this time interval,
both inputs must have at least 2 temporally significant events.
NOTE: Time is saved by properly setting this value. If you know your
delay is < 3 seconds, 12 seconds would most often be sufficient for
Max Alignment Frames. A value of 0 uses the maximum available in
the 8 GB of onboard RAM.
Full alignment threshold
When using the video quality metric, this minimum value must be met
before stating successful alignment. The number is on a 0-100 scale
where anything over 15 or 20 is good.
Full alignment upon
If RTM sees too many errors over a period of time, it can be caused
by no longer being in alignment. This setting tells RTM how many
errors are too many in what period of time (seconds).
6.2.b Audio Alignment
Audio Alignment Intervals
Defines how often RTM will check for audio drift. This is also how
often the file AudioAlign.log is updated. AudioAlign.log records the
value of the audio offset for long-term monitoring.
NOTE: this is in seconds.
Preferred Audio Alignment
Channel
RTM will first try to use this audio channel for audio alignment. The
audio channel must be enabled and the audio on this channel must
have sufficient audio events required to perform a successful
alignment. If the preferred audio alignment channel does not contain
enough audio information, then RTM will circulate through all of the
enabled audio channels looking for sufficient audio information.
Audio Alignment Search Range
Seconds
When measuring the audio quality a number of secondsshould be
grouped together before processing.
Audio Alignment Threshold
When the audio alignment threshold is set to a non-zero value and all
enabled audio channels have an average value greater than or equal
to this threshold, then the periodic audio alignment is skipped. At
least one enabled audio channel must have an average value less
than this threshold for the periodic audio alignment to occur.
Preview
Align Previews
This flag enables Video alignment on the main RTM page

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6.3 Dynamic Realignment Pane
Figure 17: Dynamic Realignment Pane
Enable Dynamic Re-Alignment
Checking this box will enable a dynamic re-alignment if the video
quality drops for X number of consecutive video quality failures.
NOTE: this can happen if the source changes or if the inputs are not
genlocked. If you know this should not occur, then uncheck this box.
Dynamically Re-Align upon
This defines how many frames (or less) to check the alignment when
the video quality drops below the threshold.
NOTE: 2 is a fairly safe number. It will take care of genlock issues
and/or momentarily dropping frames.
Check for maximum alignment
When a dynamic re-alignment happens, this value determines how
many frames will be searched in each direction for the best new-
match for video offset.
Dynamic threshold
If the video quality scores drop below the running average, but they
have not hit the error threshold, it can indicate that a dynamic re-
alignment is needed. This setting tells RTM to check the dynamic re-
alignment if the video quality score drops below a percentage of
average over a period of time (frames)
Recovery within
After dynamic re-alignment, verify that the video quality has improved.
The first check is that it is within X percentage of the previous peak
score.
NOTE: a failure will trigger a full alignment if allowed.
Verify Percentage
After dynamic re-alignment, verify that the video quality has improved.
The second check is that it is within X percentage of the previous
average score.
NOTE: a failure will trigger a full alignment if allowed.
Upper Threshold
Dynamically realigns only when video metric scores are below this
value.
Max Realignments
If RTM sees too many dynamic re-alignments over a period of time, it
can indicate that a full alignment is needed. This setting tells RTM
how many re-alignments are too many in what period of time
(seconds).

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6.4 Video Metric Pane
Figure 18: Video Metric Pane
Video Components
Checking these boxes will enable/disable the measurement of the
various components.
NOTE: you must check at least 1 box or video quality will not be
measured.
PSNR Metric Window
This defines the area where the video quality will be measured.
NOTE: several advanced compression algorithms blur the image
around the edges assuming that the TVs over-scan.
Reset
Reset returns the Metric Window to the full size of the image
Border clip value
Instead of setting the PSNR Metric Window size using X, Y, W, and
H. You can state that there is an equal border around the edges of X
pixels
NOTE: X, Y, W, and H will be automatically set.
Spatial Offset
This is carried over from the RTM main alignment pane. You can set
it here as well.
Average Period
Defines how often the file psnrAvg.Log will be updated. This logfile
contains the Min, Max, Average, and Mean values for this many
seconds or frames of video.
Graph Minimum Value
Normally, the graph is shown on a 0 to 100 scale where 100 is perfect
quality. You can change this if you know that your normal values are
between 0 (minimum) and 40 (maximum) to make the graphs easier
to read.
NOTE: the real values will be measured and logged.
Graph Maximum Value
Normally, the graph is shown on a 0 to 100 scale where 100 is perfect
quality. You can change this if you know that your normal values are
between 0 (minimum) and 40 (maximum) to make the graphs easier
to read.
NOTE: the real values will be measured and logged.
Field Mode
This flag forces RTM to run in field mode instead of frame mode. It
will compensate for field roll.
NOTE: it will not compensate for field flip

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6.5 Audio Metric Pane
Figure 19: Audio Metric Pane
Audio Channels
Checking these boxes will enable audio quality measurements on any
of the inputs. The algorithm performs quality measurements assuming
mono for each channel (i.e. each channel is judged separately).
Frequency Analysis
To measure the audio quality this algorithm measures the
frequency/amplitude response of the two streams and then correlates
their differences. This flag enables this Metric
NOTE: this is normally used
Analysis Window Msec
When measuring the audio quality a number of seconds should be
grouped together before processing. This is the number of seconds.
NOTE: the number is in video frames and the audio samples are
calculated based on the frequency.
Silence Threshold
If RTM detects silence or very low audio, then it can force a score.
Perfect Score: if both streams have silence or very low audio
Poorest Score: if one stream has silence and the other does not
This is the level for audio to be detected as silence.
NOTE: setting this to 0 (zero) turns this analysis off.
Low Pass Frequency Threshold
When using Frequency/Amplitude to analyze the audio quality, some
low frequencies could be ignored. This value tells RTM to ignore
frequencies below this number
NOTE: setting this to 0 (zero) turns this analysis off.
Normalize
This flag enables the detection of normalizing amplitude differences
before performing audio PSNR
Enable Per-Input/Channel
Params
When enabled, normalization, silence threshold and low-pass
threshold are defined separately for each audio channel. Silence
threshold is also defined for each input. When disabled, then
normalization, silence threshold and low-pass threshold are global
across all audio channels and both inputs.
Audio PSNR
To measure the audio quality, one algorithm is similar to video PSNR.
It measures the quality by detecting differences in the audio streams.
This flag enables this Metric.

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NOTE: this is normally turned off.
Soften
This flag enables the detection of loudness/softness before
performing audio PSNR.
6.6 VANC Metric Pane
Figure 20: VANC Pane
Enable VANC
This flag enables VANC processing
VANC
Checking these boxes will enable VANC quality measurements on
any of the inputs. The algorithm performs quality measurements on
each line separately and will report which lines exceed the threshold.

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6.7 Sequence Creation Pane
Figure 21: Sequence Creation Pane
Record Library
This is the library where the recorded sequences are stored upon
error.
NOTE: One library must be located on the “G: array” and the other
must be on the “H: array”. To create new libraries, use the ClearView
Library Manager. RTM does not have the ability to create new
libraries.
Record Seq Prefix
This field defines the base name of all recordings. The text that is
automatically concatenated is the following:
YYYYMMDD_HH_MM_SS.
NOTE: that the entire sequence name cannot exceed 35 characters.
Audio Root
The Audio streams should be stored in a different directory than the
video. This is the audio location. The video root will be appended to
this audio root to form the exact name of the audio sequences.
Clear Recordings
This button clears the contents of the currently selected record library.
Be aware that it removes all recordings (sequences), even from prior
sessions.
Clear Logs
This button clears the log files, but it does not clear the recordings.
Minimum Capture Frames
This defines the number of frames that will be buffered. If any error is
triggered, then these frames will be recorded for further analysis.
Maximum Capture Frames
Since errors may occur near the end of the buffered number of
frames, RTM compensates by looking beyond the minimum captured
frames and may write a bigger file up to this limit.
Max allowable video threshold
failures
This value defines how many video quality failures are needed to
trigger a recording within the Minimum Capture Frames.
Max allowable consecutive video
failures
This value defines how many consecutive video quality failures are
needed to trigger a recording within the Minimum Capture Frames.
NOTE: if dynamic re-alignment is checked and an alignment problem
is detected, then errors will be reset.
NOTE 2: consecutive failures should be set lower than allowable
failures.

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Max allowable audio threshold
failures
This value defines how many video quality failures are needed to
trigger a recording within the Minimum Capture Frames.
Max allowable consecutive audio
failures
This value defines how many consecutive video quality failures are
needed to trigger a recording within the Minimum Capture Frames.
NOTE: consecutive failures should be set lower than allowable
failures.
Allowable Audio Offset Range
This should probably be set to the SMPTE specification based on
which points are measured. It is a variable because SMPTE defines
the range based on the measuring points.
Auto Delete
If the disk fills to near maximum, sequences will need to be deleted.
This flag enables deleting the oldest files or the newest files.
Save Screen Shot
When an error occurs, the video frame that triggered the error (even if
it is a VANC or Audio quality error) can be saved as a single image.
Delay Frames
This saves to save the screen shot X frames after the triggered event.
6.8 Logs and Alerts Pane
Figure 1: Logs and Alerts Pane
Log Files
All events are logged. These events include startup conditions,
alignment parameters, realignment, etc.
The log file is stored at the location specified here.
Use Subfolders
The log file can become very long as we append information about
start/stops from all operations into the same log file. Instead of this,
you may want a log file every time you start and stop and the log file
will be put into a subfolder with the time/date appended to it.
This flag enables writing multiple log files per stop/start; as opposed
to one big log file.
Audio Alignment Logging Interval
This defines the interval in seconds between each entry into the audio
alignment log. It must be greater than or equal to the audio alignment
interval.
Audio Warning Interval
When an error occurs, a log entry is written, the count is increased on
the main RTM page, if you are running the 1RU RTM, the front panel