incremona.com

One of a kind, complete IPTV course for I & R, CO technicians

Builds the essential core understanding of installation & troubleshooting IPTV over a telecom provider’s ADSL2+, fiber & distribution networks

Also teaches a triple play perspective on voice, data and IPTV’s relationship to home networking, Ethernet, IP fundamentals and ADSL2+

Also ideal as a preparation or follow up to any vendor training

Combines the essential components of many separate classes into one complete class

Superior results - minimized costs & time investments

Course Outline

This program offers special discounts and free customization to State Telecommunications Associations and their participating member companies. Call us for details!

Students leave this class with a crystal clear, comprehensive understanding of IPTV technologies and applications with an emphasis on the knowledge and procedures required for professional installation & effective troubleshooting.
As an added value, this course also provides the essential knowledge of home networking/Ethernet and data/IP fundamentals which apply to all of the Triple Play technologies. Installation and troubleshooting procedures as they apply to voice and data are also taught. Students learn how bit errors and telco network issues affect video, voice and data differently and how to quickly isolate problems.

In addition, students return to their workplace with a clear perspective on how IPTV technologies specifically relate to & operate over their particular ADSL 2+/fiber circuits and internal distribution networks.

The classroom learning environment is maximized by live IPTV demonstrations, a sophisticated array of in-classroom equipment and illustrative video examples. These will be used at appropriate points throughout the course to explain and demonstrate technology and applicational details. Detailed IPTV workbook diagrams are invaluable reference tools both during & after the class!

Dates/Pricing

Who should attend?

Any IPTV professional interested in gaining a crystal clear understanding of installation & troubleshooting IPTV technologies and applications over telecommunications circuits and distribution networks

• Installation and Repair, Help Desk
• Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 3
• Engineers, Tech Support
• Network Operations Center, Data Technicians

Course Details

• Video and Television Fundamentals:
• Traditional analog broadcast TV concepts (black & white, color)
• Video broadcast through air, coax/RF HFC cable plant and 6MHz carrier frequencies
• Standard definition TV, HDTV, Aspect ratios 4:3, 4:3 LB, 16:9, Interlace vs. progressive scanning, TV resolution through the set top box, etc.
• Digitizing audio and video
• Digital television through coax, satellite and IPTV
• When do I need a set top box in RF television
• MPEG compression - MPEG-2, MPEG-4
• DVD’s vs. digital television
• Tiling/Macro blocking/Pixelating - how and why does it happen - how to professionally communicate this issue to the customer
• MPEG compression basics as they relate to scene changes and variations within and between frames
• How and why do high action sports channels require a higher bit rate than some of the other channels
• Macroblocks - how does a single bit error affect MPEG communications
• Why doesn’t a bit error just throw off a single pixel on the TV screen
• Variable versus constant bit rate MPEG coding
• The head end multicast source device that clamps/transrates the variable bit rate MPEG to a constant bit rate (e.g. speeds such as 3.2 Meg, 3.5 Meg, 3.7 Meg, 4.0 Meg, etc.)
• Bit per second rates at the head end as this relates to quality/resolution
• What are the ramifications to the TV signal resolution and potential for tiling at the various possible rates, etc.
• How to troubleshoot tiling/macro blocking
• ADSL line error rates – corrected errors versus uncorrected errors – how does this relate to tiling
• Fiber optic circuit error rates, troubleshooting
• TV interface connectors and set top box, connection scenarios (composite, component, RF/coax, S-Video, HDMI, etc.)
• Home theater, VCR, TIVO connections behind the set top box

• IPTV Fundamentals and Technology Components:
• Technology components of IP Television, features and applications
• The set top box, menu guides and functionalities
• Interfacing to the IPTV customer at their home: accessing the guides, menus for parental controls, hiding channels, setting up favorites,  menus
• Video On Demand (VOD) and Subscription Video On Demand (SVOD)
• Middleware functionalities & their resulting appearances to the customer
• Web Access from the TV and Walled Garden
• Caller ID on the TV, pause live television, personal video recording, digital music, Pay Per View
• EAS-Emergency Alert Systems, video encryption
• The differences between PPV and VOD as it relates to streams through the telecommunications network
• How are the TV and music channel streams passed through the DSLAM network
• How does channel changing occur in IPTV - why does it take longer when compared to analog/RF TV - where are the TV channel streams emanating from - is there a local component to this
• What is involved within the distribution network which eventually brings the stream into that remote DSLAM//RT and that requesting subscriber
• What are the multicast addresses used for in IPTV
• Multicast enabled routers and IPTV
• VOD’s use of unicast addressing - how does this effect the telecommunication network
• What does the middleware do - what is enabled by a CSR that effects the services/features available to the customer
• What customer account configurations are maintained even when the set top box is powered down and/or physically swapped with another box
• When are customer account changes via the remote control/set top box menus actually communicated to the middleware server
• Is the resolution during VOD the same or different when compared to playing a DVD locally in my DVD player - if not, why
• Offering HDTV over coax as compared to ADSL2+ or fiber

• TCPIP essentials for all telecom employees:
• IP addressing – What is static versus dynamic
• DHCP (Dynamic Configuration Control Protocol) as it relates to the average customer application over a telecommunications provider circuit to the ISP
• What are all those TCPIP parameters the customer and the telco technician at the customer site see on their pc screen
• Core essentials of TCPIP & IP fundamentals for all Triple Play technologies
• What sequence of events occurs when the customer clicks on their browser - from/to the PC, through the various telecommunications provider network components, through the Internet Service Provider, the Internet and the web site
• What happens when email messages are sent and received - what are some of the basic configurations that affect customer operation through the telecommunications provider to/from the ISP (Internet Service Provider)
• Performance versus line speed - what is the difference
• Performance issues as they relate to data to and from the Internet
• A complete understanding of all of the myriad of performance issues
• Essential and practical knowledge on how to use the DOS or Command prompt to perform basic troubleshooting in any environment? These are essentials of home networking competency - for example, pinging (what does the time= field mean on a ping message - how, when and why to do a tracert command - how does a technician use these tools to professionally communicate some of the performance issues that customers sometimes bring up
• What should an I&R telco technician say when a customer brings up ping times on a circuit

• Home Networking Essentials:
• PC interfacing basics
• Ethernet essentials – Cat 5 wiring, RJ45 connectors, straight through and cross over Ethernet cables
• Half duplex/full duplex at it applies to Ethernet networking - 10/100, auto sensing, what can go wrong - gigE
• What is a hub versus a switch - use in home networking
• Wireless networking fundamentals and configurations, view wireless networks, connecting and disconnecting
• Ethernet over power
• Ethernet over coax
• ADSL scenario – using a bridge or a router - What’s the difference to the customer
• Fiber Optic scenario – Fiber optic gateways, VOIP at the ONT
• How do bit errors within the home affect data and video/IPTV
• What about errors over the ADSL line - Corrected versus uncorrected errors
• How can the I&R technician test set top box connectivity within the home
• How can the I&R technician test connectivity to the router within the home
• How can the I&R technician test connectivity to the headend
• How can the I&R technician test connectivity to the ISP gateway
• What if anything is between the ISP gateway and the local router
• How can customer PC misconfigurations make it appear there is a circuit/line problem when there is not
• How are ATM VPI/VCI’s used in the typical telco network - how are they specifically used in legacy G.DMT ADSL networks
• How are they used in ADSL2+ and IPTV networks
• Locking in data or video to particular physical connectors at the ADSL modem
• Using the command or Dos prompts to troubleshoot in-home networking and telecommunications circuit connectivity
• What is an ARP cache and how does it relate to home networking
• What is a NAT router - why do so many telecom providers recommend or provide these to the customer
• What is a firewall - firewall basics as they relate to an average/typical customer configurations and operations

• IPTV fundamentals at the customer television and set top box:
• Accessing the channel guides, where do they come from
• What is locally stored within the set top box
• What screens will the customer be able to “bring up/access” without circuit connectivity
• What sequence of events occurs when a set top box is powered up
• Which systems are communicated to - What can go wrong - What would the symptoms be - What problems can exist within the home that would affect these various events
• What problems can exist outside the home, within the telecommunications provider network that would affect these various events - What would the symptoms be?
• Using the guides, setting up favorites, auto tunings, reminders, scheduling recordings, parental controls and user accounts, accessing web sites from the TV, etc.
• Single stream versus multiple stream set top boxes
• Understanding the various physical connectors at the set top box as well as the specific configurations as they relate to the attached television and home theater connections.
• Internet access - Web browsing from and through a STB
• Internet access - Walled garden access from and through a STB
• STB interaction with the encryption device.
• The STB’s role in conditional access.
• Pause Live TV, PVR, etc. issues at the STB
• Audio issues such as SPDIF digital out, alternate languages from the incoming MPEG elementary streams, other languages for the GUI
• STB Ethernet issues as they relate to the in-home networks and to the ADSL modem or fiber optic gateway (half duplex vs. full duplex, auto sensing, etc.)
• Video specifics - NTSC, RF, composite, component (Pb, Pr, Y), S-video, wide screen, aspect ratios (4:3, 16:9), SDTV, HDTV, etc.
• Setting matching configurations on the TV
• How might a mistake cause black and white only?
• Middleware packaging enforcement at the STB, menu guides, updates
• Channel line-ups at the Set top Box
• A complete analysis of the sequence of events during STB power up, channel line-up assignments, menu guide downloads, VOD and PPV transactions, changing channels, EAS alerts, renting PPV and VOD movies, TV walled garden/web access, caller ID on the TV and customer access of the menu guides using their remote.
• What happens when the Ethernet cord of a functioning set top box is disconnected then reconnected
• Customer interactions with the STB – What is local to the STB? What requires connectivity to the other systems, etc.
• Set Top Box registrations, assignments, unassignments, limitation and controls of set top boxes as they relate to customer accounts

• Triple Play operation over ADSL2+:
• Legacy ADSL/G.DMT, ADSL S=1/2
• ADSL 2+ (how does it differ from the other/older versions of ADSL)
• The electrical properties of twisted pair circuits as they relate to ADSL in general
• Components of an ADSL circuit
• Applications over ADSL2+ (POTS, data and video/IPTV)
• ADSL modems supporting data and video - major configurations
• Line speed issues as they relate to MPEG rates, and therefore, number of set top boxes and tiling possibilities
• DSLAM fundamentals and configurations as they relate to and affect the ADSL circuit - video enabled DSLAM
• Bit error monitoring and issues at the DSLAM
• What are the specific requirements for IPTV/video
• How do the following affect what the telco technician sees at installation - DSLAM profiles, Fast vs. Interleave bit rates, Minimum/maximum rates, interleaving delay and check bytes, SNR margins, target noise margin
• Corrected errors vs. uncorrected errors - how does this affect data vs. IPTV
• ADSL DMT - an analog technology passing digital information
• Why do ADSL modems prefer to achieve their data rates using less bits per tone over more frequencies as opposed to more bits per tone over fewer frequencies
• ATM, VPI/VCI values - How are they used in IPTV
• ATM based internal network delivery systems vs. Ethernet
• ADSL 2+ measurements as well as how they affect both data and video
• Max rate - how is it calculated and what does it indicate about the wire in each direction (interpretation of readings)
• Fast rate and Interleave rate, what do they define, delays and forward error correction variations (interpretation of readings)
• Capacity percentages and rates (interpretation of readings)
• Bits per tone, bins - what it means about the integrity of the wire pair
• Attenuation, power, etc. (interpretation of readings)
• What does the noise margin reading indicate - how does this relate to the target noise margin setting in the DSLAM
• Bridge taps and their reflective effects on an ADSL modem
• How does the location and length of the bridge tap affect ADSL
• Wire length, resistance and capacitance - how do they affect ADSL
• Which frequencies are affected first
• Can wire problems affect one direction and not the other
• ADSL Test Set Measurements and Tests - analyzing and interpreting all ADSL 2+ readings (example: max rate, fast, interleave, power, capacity, noise margin, attenuation, etc.) as well as the bit per tone readings of various ADSL2+ lines with different lengths and electrical properties
• A final summary of installation and troubleshooting of voice, data and video/IPTV over and through ADSL2+

• Triple play operation over Fiber:
• What are the system components involved
• The fiber optic residential gateway
• VOIP operation from the ONT
• Passive versus active operation
• Fiber testing
• Bit error monitoring and issues at the RT/DSLAM
• Basics of voice, data and video/IPTV operation over and through fiber