Video Clarity RTM-1RU User manual

Real-Time Monitor (RTM)
System Guide
Copyright © 2009-2018 Video Clarity, Inc.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
1REAL TIME MONITORING (RTM) SYSTEM 4
2HARDWARE QUICK SETUP GUIDE 5
3SOFTWARE QUICK SETUP GUIDE 7
4TYPICAL APPLICATIONS 10
4.1 LONG DURATION TESTING............................................................................................................10
4.2 BROADCAST MONITORING ............................................................................................................10
4.2.1Reference Content Caused the Error....................................................................................10
4.2.2 Processing Content Caused the Error ..................................................................................11
5SETTING RTM PARAMETERS 12
5.1 RTM STATUS ..............................................................................................................................12
5.2 RTM CONTROLS..........................................................................................................................12
5.3 RTM ALIGNMENT.........................................................................................................................13
5.4 RTM VIDEO QUALITY...................................................................................................................13
5.5 RTM AUDIO QUALITY...................................................................................................................14
6SETTING NORMAL CONFIGURATION PARAMETERS 15
6.1 INPUTS PANE...............................................................................................................................15
6.1 IP/COMPRESSED CONFIGURATION PANE.......................................................................................16
6.1.1 Settings..................................................................................................................................16
6.2 LEGACY IP/COMPRESSED CONFIGURATION PANE..........................................................................17
6.3 ALIGNMENT PANE ........................................................................................................................19
6.4 DYNAMIC REALIGNMENT PANE......................................................................................................21
6.5 VIDEO METRIC PANE....................................................................................................................23
6.6 AUDIO METRIC PANE....................................................................................................................25
6.7 VANC METRIC PANE ...................................................................................................................26
6.8 SEQUENCE CREATION PANE.........................................................................................................27
6.9 LOGS AND ALERTS PANE..............................................................................................................29
7LOG FILES 30
7.1 AUDIOALIGN.LOG.........................................................................................................................30
7.2 AUDIOAVG.LOG............................................................................................................................30
7.3 RTMLOG.LOG..............................................................................................................................31
7.4 SESSION.LOG...............................................................................................................................31
7.5 PSNRAVG.LOG/DMOSAVD.LOG......................................................................................................31
7.6 PSNR/.DMOS AND .AUDIO FILES.....................................................................................................32
8RTM LOG GRAPHER 33
8.1 THE APPLICATION........................................................................................................................33
8.2 INTERACTION WITH THE GUI.........................................................................................................33
9COMMAND-LINE INTERFACE 34
9.1 RTMSERVER.EXE........................................................................................................................34
9.2 RTM.EXE......................................................................................................................................34
9.3 COMMANDS DETAILED..................................................................................................................35
Preview...............................................................................................................................................35
RestoreConfig.....................................................................................................................................35
SaveConfig.........................................................................................................................................36
Stop ....................................................................................................................................................36
NewFolder ..........................................................................................................................................36
VideoMetric.........................................................................................................................................36

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VideoLogAveraging(AudioLogAveraging)..........................................................................................36
MetricWindow.....................................................................................................................................37
BorderValue........................................................................................................................................37
AudioMetric.........................................................................................................................................37
ConfigLipSync ....................................................................................................................................37
ConfigLKFS........................................................................................................................................37
ConfigSpatialRange............................................................................................................................37
ConfigFullAlignment ...........................................................................................................................38
ConfigDynamicAlign...........................................................................................................................38
GetAlignmentFailCode .......................................................................................................................38
SetInput ..............................................................................................................................................38
ConfigScaling .....................................................................................................................................38
ConfigInputIP......................................................................................................................................39
ConfigInputFile ...................................................................................................................................39
ConfigStreamScaling..........................................................................................................................39
ApplyStreamChanges ........................................................................................................................39
SequenceConfig.................................................................................................................................39
ConfigLogFile .....................................................................................................................................40
GetRTMErrorCode .............................................................................................................................40
ConfigVANC.......................................................................................................................................40
ConfigRateConvert.............................................................................................................................40
ConfigStreamModule..........................................................................................................................40

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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 any combination of
- SDI input
- IP input
- File input
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
Models: RTM-S1081
RTM-S1082
Figure 2: RTM-1RU Front Controls
Figure 3: RTM-3G Back Panel
Models: RTM-S3082 (discontinued model)
RTM-S3083 (discontinued model)
Figure 4: RTM 3G Portable Back Panel (supplied with SMB to BNC, mini HDMI and also supplied
with analog breakout cables for playback)
Model: RTM-S2043
This unit has its HDSDI connector labels 1,2,3,4.
Inputs are connections 1 and 2. Outputs are connections 3 and 4.

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Figure 5: RTM HD 2U Portable Back Panel (supplied with 5 SMB to BNC conversion cables)
Model: RTM-S2042
Figure 6: RTM 4K Back Panel (Supplied with two sets of Quad SMB to BNC conversion cables for
inputs 1 and 2 and mini HDMI cables for error recording playback from either or both outputs)
Models: RTM-S8084 (10 TB storage model) or RTM-8084-5 (5 TB storage model)
RTM 4K Important Notes:
4K monitoring and measurement test operation is for 3840x2160p resolution input via Quad HDSDI on
Input 1 to be compared to same frame rate and resolution on Quad HDSDI Input 2. Frame rates of
3840X2160p video supported on both inputs are 60, 59.94, 50, 30, 29.97, 25, 24, or 23.98Hz. Other
modes of operation such as IP stream decoding or file-based operation at the 4K resolution and frame
rates are not supported.
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)
- Connect signals for Input 1 and 2 via IP GNIC (applied up to HD or lower resolutions only) can
selected for MPEG stream decoding on Input tab in Configuration menu with same NIC or
separate NIC interfaces.
- 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 4: 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
- To 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 5: Graphs for audio metering, video and audio score running continuously

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Figure 6: 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 7: 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.