Mariner xVu Launches WaveGuide, a Simple Wi-Fi Workflow Solution for Field Technicians

Mariner xVu™, the global leader in Software Defined Monitoring™ (SDM) for IP video, today announced the release of its latest groundbreaking product application, WaveGuide. Available on Google Marketplace, the app is integrated with Mariner’s award-winning xVu software platform directly out of the box.

WaveGuide provides a simple, intuitive workflow, allowing any field technician to quickly install and — more importantly — certify that a new Wi-Fi install will provide the best, premium service for customers. Prior to WaveGuide, a marketplace gap existed and unreliable in-home streaming led to repeat service calls and customer care complaints, making it challenging for operators to address the rise in Wi-Fi usage and compete to offer the fastest and most reliable service.

“As the IP video market evolves, content is increasingly being viewed on multiple platforms, for more hours. Today’s homes have a growing number of devices connecting and streaming over Wi-Fi,” said Shaun MacDonald, senior vice president, business development and marketing at Mariner. “In-home streaming is dependent on Wi-Fi, and WaveGuide enables first-time-right installations and better service tracking downstream.”

WaveGuide allows a field technician to perform four workflow functions within one single app: location testing and troubleshooting, optimal access point placement, home certification, and reporting and customer sign-off.

The business benefits of WaveGuide go beyond improvements in customer satisfaction. By enabling a proper and more complete service installation and a faster more reliable workflow process, WaveGuide makes Wi-Fi commissioning efficient and cost-effective.

“WaveGuide gives technicians confidence that they are providing superior quality of service to the customer,” said Steve Copeland, vice president, product management, Mariner xVu. “Rather than relying on their own personal devices or smartphones to ‘test’ a Wi-Fi installation, WaveGuide provides assurance related to Wi-Fi service, AP placement, signal coverage, channel selection, and overall installation quality at the time of the install.”

The solution is shipping today and includes the following unique features and benefits:

  • Optimize access point placement – WaveGuide checks for interference, congestion, and signal strength coverage around the home, finding the best location for the AP placement.
  • Guided workflow – A guided drill-down approach leaves little to no interpretation of the results by the service technicians. An intuitive user interface makes the process easy.
  • Self-healing – Service providers can continuously monitor the configuration and performance metrics of the in-home Wi-Fi.
  • Dynamic-optimization – Intelligent algorithms analyze the current configuration against ever changing environmental factors and interferences to recommend optimal configuration.
  • Shared certification records – Certification process and data collected is pushed to a central repository where it can be accessed by field technicians, care, and operations groups.
  • Back-end integration – Integration with Mariner xVu provides service operators with a simple and scalable interface for automated data collection and correlated reporting with other devices.

About Mariner xVu™
Mariner xVu™ is the world leader in Software Defined Monitoring for managed and unmanaged IP video, streaming and broadband/Wi-Fi networks. We have over 30 million devices under management, building real-time views of video performance, both inside and outside the home. Our multi-award winning software helps operators centrally manage the complexity required to deliver new entertainment and broadband Internet services with real-time visibility into the subscriber experience — anywhere. With an increasingly diverse and broad service domain, the benefits to service providers include operational savings and customer satisfaction through insightful correlation, triangulation, inference, and automation across networks, content, and the home. Mariner xVu™ enables service providers to offer a reliable, high-quality viewing experience; rapidly isolate video network issues; and cost-effectively reduce truck rolls and call volume to ensure a superior TV and broadband service. More information is available at www.marinerxvu.com.