System for monitoring direct broadcast wireless signals

A system for monitoring direct broadcast satellite signals comprising:

• a source of program content including audio and video signals encoded in accordance with a DSS transport protocol;
• a satellite based network for direct broadcast of said content over a plurality of channels;
• a plurality of audio/video integrated receiver decoders (IRDs) to receive audio and video signals associated with respective channels, decode the signals and output content data regarding the loss of audio and/or video signals on the respective channels;
• and
• a network test system computer configured to initialize an audio/video monitoring graphical user interface, access serial output ports to the audio/visual IRDs, send channel tuning commands to the audio/visual IRDs, send monitoring commands to the audio/visual IRDs, detect anomalies in the received content data, display alarm data for any detected anomalies to a user using the graphical user interface and record the anomalies in an error log.

A system for monitoring direct broadcast satellite signals comprising:

• a source of conditional access data;
• a satellite based network for direct broadcast of said conditional access data;
• a conditional access IRD to receive conditional access data;
• and
• a network test system computer configured to initialize a conditional access monitoring graphical user interface, access a serial output port to the conditional access IRD, send a request command to the conditional access IRD, detect anomalies in the extracted conditional access data, and display alarm data for any detected anomalies to a user using the graphical user interface.

A method for monitoring a broadcast signal comprising:

• receiving a broadcast signal with a receiver;
• extracting first data from said broadcast signal, wherein said first data comprises program guide data or conditional access data;
• providing said first data to a computer configured to detect anomalies in said first data;
• said computer detecting said anomalies by comparing said first data to expected data stored in a database;
• and
• said computer providing alarm data upon detection of said anomalies.