Telestream, a global leader in media workflow and measurement technologies, today announced Surveyor mABR, a new monitoring solution designed to give service providers deep visibility into Multicast Adaptive Bitrate (mABR) video delivery. Building on Telestream’s established expertise in monitoring both traditional multicast IPTV and adaptive bitrate streaming, Surveyor mABR helps operators confidently deploy and manage a new generation of video delivery services that combines the scale of multicast distribution with the flexibility of modern streaming.
Multicast ABR is emerging as a way for service providers with traditional IPTV infrastructures to combine the scale and efficiency of multicast distribution with the flexibility and feature velocity of modern streaming ecosystems. Traditional linear broadcast networks excel at scale, allowing high-volume programming to be distributed efficiently to millions of viewers. ABR streaming, meanwhile, has transformed how audiences consume content, enabling greater choice, device flexibility, personalization, and a rapidly evolving ecosystem of streaming experiences.
Multicast ABR brings those strengths together. Popular live channels and events can be distributed efficiently across a managed multicast network, unburdening the CDN from peak load situations, while the content itself remains in standard streaming formats to support connected TVs, mobile devices, streaming sticks, applications, and other consumer platforms.
“Multicast ABR brings together two worlds that service providers have traditionally monitored separately,” said Matthew Driscoll, Vice President of Product Management at Telestream. “Operators gain the efficiency and predictability of multicast distribution while maintaining the flexibility of an ABR service – but they still need to know exactly what is happening throughout that delivery path. Surveyor mABR brings the monitoring expertise we already have in both environments together so engineering teams can deploy these new services with confidence rather than creating a new operational blind spot.”
Bringing Visibility to a New Delivery Architecture
Multicast ABR is particularly compelling for live programming with high volume viewing, where traditional unicast streaming can create significant spikes in network traffic as every additional viewer generates another individual session. With multicast, the network can distribute a popular service once and make it available to many viewers, providing more predictable performance as audiences grow.
At the same time, using ABR as the media format enables operators to take advantage of the innovation happening across the broader streaming ecosystem, from connected-device support and multiscreen experiences to targeted advertising and other personalized services. The result is a path toward a more converged video strategy that combines predictable delivery at scale with the flexibility of modern streaming, all while reducing demands on bandwidth.
Along with these benefits comes new operational complexity. Service quality depends not only on the health of the multicast network, but on the integrity and timeliness of the ABR media objects being transported within it. Surveyor mABR is purpose-built to expose those performance details so operators can monitor content availability and delivery quality for corrective actions before they hit viewers’ screens.
Deep Inspection of Multicast ABR and MSYNC
Surveyor mABR supports environments using the MSYNC protocol, enabling HTTP Adaptive Streaming media to be transported across multicast networks. The solution automatically detects and parses MSYNC traffic while analyzing the HLS and DASH objects carried within the multicast stream.
This gives operators visibility beyond basic network availability. Surveyor mABR can determine whether expected media objects are present, complete, timely, and correctly mapped to the intended service, helping teams identify conditions that could ultimately appear to viewers as delayed playback, missing content, slow channel changes, or service interruption.
Surveyor mABR capabilities include:
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MSYNC and media awareness: Detects MSYNC traffic, joins control and data sessions, parses MSYNC headers and HLS/DASH objects, and reassembles media segments for analysis.
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Live catalog validation: Cross-checks expected services against observed content, including relationships among the live catalog, manifests, multicast mappings, and individual media variants.
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Service-level performance insight: Tracks indicators including outages, bandwidth, time to first frame, segment loss, late segments, freshness, and continuity.
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Detailed troubleshooting data: Maintains information about media objects, sequences, and coverage, to help operators determine when and where service degradation occurred.
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Intelligent alarming: Identifies multicast, ABR, and MSYNC-specific conditions including multicast join instability, manifest stalls, sequence discontinuities, late or missing media segments, and other service-impacting events.
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Operational integration: APIs make key metrics and alarms available to third-party monitoring and operations platforms.
By combining expertise already established in Surveyor TS for multicast IPTV monitoring and Surveyor ABR for streaming-service monitoring, Telestream gives operators a purpose-built way to maintain visibility as these traditionally separate delivery models converge.
Measurement and Observability for Evolving Media Infrastructure
Surveyor mABR is currently being validated in customer environments, with production availability planned for the end of Q3 2026.
The new solution extends Telestream’s broader investment in software-defined measurement and observability for evolving media infrastructure. Across production, contribution, managed IP networks, cloud environments, and content distribution, Telestream helps engineering and operations teams maintain visibility as technologies and architectures change, enabling them to adopt new delivery models without sacrificing their ability to identify faults, isolate root causes, and protect the viewer experience.
Meet with Telestream at IBC2026
Telestream will showcase Surveyor mABR along with its latest media workflow and measurement solutions at IBC2026 (stand 7.B21). To schedule a meeting, visit the Telestream website.
Members of the media are invited to meet with Telestream at IBC2026. To schedule a briefing, please contact Kristin Canders at kristin@grithaus.agency.
Download the Telestream Multicast ABR press kit here.
About Telestream
Telestream has been at the forefront of digital media innovation for nearly three decades, serving as the trusted partner behind some of the world’s most mission-critical media operations. Its industry-leading test and measurement and media workflow solutions streamline operations and scale efficiently across the entire media lifecycle—from capture and live production to automation, processing, quality control, content management, and distribution. Designed for on-premises, cloud, and hybrid environments, Telestream ensures high-quality media delivery to any audience, on any platform. The company is privately held and headquartered in Nevada City, California. Learn more at www.telestream.com/.