The creation of television content often begins with a new folder on a computer. Some might call it a blank canvas. The fun of television is that producers can fill the blank canvas with whatever they want, so long as it complies with laws, regulations and industry standards. The technical rules are in place to ensure content is optimum and compatible for all viewers within countries, and that broadcast signals don’t interfere with each other.

The DTV state-of-the-art is a fast moving target. T&M technology is at the leading edge of its trajectory. At the 2016 NAB Show, Test & Measurement equipment manufacturers will introduce and demonstrate the newest instruments and software designed to scientifically evaluate the latest audio and video signals, including 4K, 8K, UHD, HDR, ATSC 3.0, SDI and IP.

Axon will demonstrate its popular Cerebrum control and monitoring system. Cerebrum is suited for complex production environments, simplifying multi device monitoring and control onto one easy-to-use interface. Axon will unveil new feature enhancements including automatic tie-line management across multiple routers for format conversion and multi-site operations and various new third party interface options including support for protocols from SAM, Imagine Communications, ClearCom, Trilogy and Grass Valley.

Bridge Technologies will reveal a new version of its Remote Data Wall, and demonstrate new technology for exploring monitoring data in a live NLE-style interface. New virtualized probes will be on display. The company will also show the latest Gold TS Protection technology that makes monitoring for digital services much quicker to set up, and fault-tracking much faster, more accurate and secure.

DekTec will demonstrate SdEye, a feature-rich, real-time SDI waveform monitoring software with a complete set of tools for real-time and offline analysis of SDI signals. Paired with the DTU-351 for HD-SDI input to USB-3 devices, the software turns a notebook or laptop into a portable waveform analyzer.The DekTec SdEye supports 3G, HD and SD SDI. It provides 608/708 closed caption analysis, shows all streams found in HANC and VANC, and displays YCbCr/RGB waveforms and vectorscope. It also provides SDI structure and audio peak meter and a SDI stream monitoring output featuring CRC and EDH error detection. Data can be logged to a CSV file.

Monroe Electronics’ Digital Alert Systems (DAS), will display a major software upgrade to the DASDEC platforms for advanced Emergency Alert Systems (EAS) and Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) messaging compliance. The new software, version 3.0, will help ensure compliance with new FCC rules that become mandatory in July. Version 3.0 supports the Triveni Digital SkyScraper.

Digital Nirvana will debut a new media management platform called CARTS (Capture, Analyze, Replay Transport Stream). The new platform records and monitors the transport stream and provides alerts on non-compliance as well as the capability to cut segments and export sections of the transport stream for more detailed analysis. It allows multiple users throughout the Digital Nirvana environment to collaborate from any place at any time with a web based interface.

Flanders Scientific will into BoxIO, an advanced color management device designed for both color critical post production environments and demanding on set color management applications. BoxIO simultaneously supports 3D and 1D LUTs, with real-time LUT update capability for use with on set grading applications. It has Ethernet, USB, and WiFi connectivity and provides 12-bit support across all inputs and outputs and has clean loop throughs. It interfaces with leading calibration software solutions for simple and accurate 3D LUT-based display alignment.

GatesAir in partnership with Burk Technology, will showcase the next level of IP connectivity for remote control and monitoring of transmitters and RF systems. The Gates and Burk integration simplifies installation and eliminates complex copper wiring and relay connections. It can control the transmitter, monitor signals and log performance data using Burk’s SNMP Plus, an option for Burk’s ARC Plus Touch IP remote control and monitoring system.

Leader Instruments will demonstrate its new LV 5480 multi-format waveform monitor. Its standard feature set includes waveform, vector and picture monitoring, an ancillary data viewer, data dump and four-channel timing display. An SDI status display looks for cyclic-redundancy-check, TRS, ancillary data and embedded-audio errors.

Linear Acoustic will show the latest updates for its MT2000 Multichannel Bitstream Analyzer. This portable diagnostic tool identifies input signal type, including sample rate, video format and frame rate, as well as error detection at the bitstream and AES3 layers. It supports two-channel and multichannel PCM, plus Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus and Dolby E decoding, monitoring, and analysis.

PHABRIX will introduce and demonstrate its new Qx platform targeted at UHDTV1/4K and UHDTV2/8K test and measurement. The Qx offers a unique solution for both physical layer analysis and signal compliance. Qx technology offers unique T&M tools for manufacturers creating products supporting IP interfaces and SDI up to 12Gbps. The PHABRIX Rx rackmount has become popular for quality control in OB and broadcast engineering bays. New software for the Rx, V9.04, will be introduced at the show. It offers new enhanced closed caption monitoring and line detect tools.

Qligent will debut a series of new visualization tools for its flagship Vision cloud monitoring platform at the 2016 NAB Show. The company uses flexible pie charts on the Vision dashboard to help broadcasters intelligently track bitrate fluctuations for multiple programs; and monitor usage across IP, RF, fiber and other transport layers.

Last fall, the group formerly known as Quantel and Snell was officially reorganized and rebranded as Snell Advanced Media (SAM). Test & Measurement technology on display in the SAM exhibit will be the unique monitoring capabilities of SAM’s Media Biometrics, now included in products across SAM's portfolio. Its automated monitoring verifies the quality of media, and it also verifies it’s the correct media. SAM will also be demonstrating a number high-dynamic-range products in development.

Tektronix will demonstrate its Prism media analysis platform. Prism provides flexible solutions to enable a smooth transition from a SDI-based to an IP-based infrastructure. As a software-defined platform, Prism can accommodate a wide range of applications. Prism is 3RU, half-rack, rackmountable or portable, powered by AC and DC.SDI formats include HD-SDI, 3G-SDI (Level A & Level B), IP Formats SMPTE ST 2022-6, SMPTE ST 2059-2 (PTP) and IEEE 1588 (PTP).

Vidcheck will announce and demonstrate Version 7 of Vidchecker. Also making their world-first appearance are new automated correction options for Vidchecker. Vidchecker provides a highly efficient server-based alternative to checking conformance by eye and hand. It can also automatically and intelligently correct video and audio levels.

Video Clarity will demo ClearView 8.4, the latest update to its ClearView line of video quality analyzers. In version 8.4, ClearView 4K and 8K systems provide new color-space-capable pictures as prescribed by ITU-R BT.2020 as well as support for high dynamic range (HDR).

Volicon, recently purchased by Verizon, will show several new products and application enhancements. The Share application for Volicon’s Observer Media Intelligence Platform has speed and As-Run Log enhancements. Upgrades to Multiviewer make it faster and easier to operate. The multiple capabilities of the Observer OTT compliance logging and monitoring solution will also be demonstrated.

Wohler will feature a display of new options for monitoring audio and video over IP, professional 4K video monitors, and new monitoring platforms iAM-MIX and iAM-AUDIO.

In the NAB Show tradition, this year's 2016 NAB Show promises to be more interesting and educational than last year's NAB Show. Be there if you can.