People Meter System; Automated People Meter System for Digital Television Service (Digital Video Broadcasting via Satellite)

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A new era in Television Broadcasting dawned with the introduction of Digital Television Broadcasting

. Whether via Satellite, Cable or by Terrestrial Transmission, Digital Television Broadcasting is a revolution in Television transmission technology. In contrast to traditional analog Television broadcasting technology, digital Television broadcasting technology became more popular since it is capable of transmitting more Television programs in a given Radio Frequency spectrum with a lower transmission power providing a better picture and sound quality.

Although Digital Television broadcasting became an evolutional Television transmission technology in Sri Lanka, having over 93000 receiver units by year 2009, it didn't have any methodology to monitor the channel viewing behavior of the viewers, which provides important information to both Digital Television broadcasters and Advertising agencies. Media Rating Agencies in Sri Lanka were only interested in monitoring analog Television viewing behavior since they do not have any reliable technology for monitoring Television viewing behavior of Digital Television subscribers. This project was carried out for developing a People Meter System, which provides more accurate and reliable information on Television viewing behavior of Digital Television subscribers. As a result, Digital Television Service Provider will be able to demand or create market values for their channels in a time belt basis and the advertising firms will be able to get the optimum competitive advantage using the people meter systems' data.

This article highlights an implementation of a People Meter System; an industrial product development project aimed to develop a functional prototype of a Television Audience Measurement Unit (TAMU) which collects television audience behavior automatically at each Television service subscriber premises and uploads to a central server which will handle a master database where all the received television audience measurement data are stored and processed. Uploading process is achieved through an existing General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), and a web interface is developed for accessing data in a remote manner.

The TAMU is connected to the debug port (RS 232) of the Set Top Box (STB) and it processes viewing channel information and timing information using the debug signals received via the debug port. Channel viewing users' details input by users during the viewing time are received by the TAMU via the IR signals generated by the remote controller of STB. Then the TAMU sends the collected and processed information in order to update the central database via GPRS. The central database can be accessed through the web interface.
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The implementation of the TAMU involved considerable design work based on Reduced Instruction Set Computing processors which were programmed using C and registry level languages. Significant coding was required for the passing of necessary AT commands onto GPRS module. A server technology, database and web development tools were used in order to provide the master data processing and access.
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The completed People Meter System provides a web interface which facilitates access into the system where the users have to go through a user identification process. The web interface presents processed data in a user friendly and understandable manner, such as graphical representation.

The resulting product of the project is unique in that it envisions bridging the broadcasting and advertising industries with the media research/rating service, and it is geared towards devising new possibilities for demand the channels, programs or particular time belts.

People Meter System; Automated People Meter System for Digital Television Service (Digital Video Broadcasting via Satellite)

By: Damitha Kumanayaka

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