Patent ID: 7380265

Claim:
A system for monitoring direct broadcast satellite signals comprising: a source of program guide data and program content including audio and video signals encoded in accordance with a DSS transport protocol; a network database storing conditional access data and program guide data; a satellite based network for direct broadcast of said content, program guide data and conditional access data in broadcast signals over a plurality of channels; a receiver subsystem at a test site, said receiver subsystem including, a receiver for receiving said broadcast signals; a plurality of audio/video integrated receiver decoders (IRDs) coupled to the receiver to receive audio and video signals associated with respective channels, decode the signals using audio and video drivers and, if the audio or video drivers fail due to the absence of the audio or video signal, output error messages regarding the loss of audio and/or video signals on the respective channels; a conditional access IRD coupled to the receiver to extract conditional access data; and a program guide IRD coupled to the receiver to extract program guide data; and a network test system computer configured to communicate with said IRDs, analyze the error messages, program guide data and conditional access data and output alarm data upon detection of anomalies in the analyzed data.