FourthWall Takes Proactive Aim At Truck Rolls, Service Calls

FourthWall Media has introduced Precision Diagnostics, a tool for cable operators that’s designed to reduce customer service calls and truck rolls by monitoring physical plant and detecting problems in advance of service disruptions.

To make the tool go, the company's MassiveData division is expanding the return path data collected from millions of set-top boxes to include deep diagnostics that report on the health of devices and the cable network itself.

“The market for cable system diagnostic data and reporting for set-top boxes is underserved as many operators have either limited access to diagnostic data or the tools to analyze it,” Charlie Barnes, FourthWall’s SVP, product strategy and management, FourthWall Media, said. “The cost of an on-site truck roll for a cable customer is considerable, as is every customer support call,” he added, noting that the platform can flag problems before customer disruptions and give MSOs an opportunity to take remedial action.

The Precision Diagnostics product provides key set-top box and plant information in areas such as model information, frequency and signal levels, DVR health, VOD service information, and crash and reset status.

Precision Diagnostics is slated for release in January 2015.