In today's fast-paced tech industry, quality assurance teams face new challenges: faster release cycles, a wide variety of viewing conditions, and the increasing complexity of devices and platforms that are all expected to run perfectly.

How can QA teams speed up video testing workflows to avoid becoming the bottleneck in the product development process? Innovative new technology, like Witbe’s virtual NOC, shows a better path forward.

QA testing challenges

How can QA Engineers keep up with aggressive product cycles, A-B testing, field deployments, and localized restrictions? It has never been harder for QA teams to catch regressions before they're pushed to production.

If they want to deliver new releases faster with a shorter time-to-market, QA engineers must adapt their workflows and explore innovative ways to test video services beyond traditional lab testing.

QA testing across OTT devices

Video service providers must ensure their video services perform seamlessly by testing across a diverse device farm—a fleet of real devices distributed across different locations and networks, including some of the most widely used platforms:

• Smart TVs: Samsung Tizen OS, LG webOS, Android TV (Sony, TCL, Hisense), Roku TV, Fire TV OS
• Set-Top Boxes: Apple TV 4K (tvOS), Roku Ultra, Nvidia Shield TV (Android TV), Fire TV Cube
• Mobile Phones & Tablets: iPhone 15 (iOS), Samsung Galaxy S23 (Android), iPad Pro M2 (iPadOS), Google Pixel 8 (Android)
• Gaming Consoles: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Nintendo Switch
• Streaming Devices: Chromecast with Google TV, Amazon Fire Stick 4K, Roku Streaming Stick+

It’s simply not realistic to have every device physically available for every engineer. Especially in fully remote setups, it's impractical to ship multiple Smart TVs or devices to every team member.

With Witbe’s Virtual NOC, teams can remotely access and test any device, anywhere, ensuring thorough QA while maintaining fast releases cycles.

Introducing Witbe’s virtual NOC: QA testing remotely in the field

Witbe's new technology allows QA teams to test locally in the field on any Smart TV, STB, mobile phones, and streaming devices in actual customer conditions. Witbe’s virtual NOC, the Remote Eye Controller (REC), empowers QA teams to accelerate video time-to-market by testing across the lab and field remotely.

With the REC, service providers can test and monitor their video services on real devices and networks anywhere in the world. By measuring the true Quality of Experience that viewers receive on real devices, the REC significantly expands QA testing workflows with field testing capabilities.

What are the key benefits of a virtual NOC for QA teams?

With Witbe's virtual NOC, QA teams can:

• Monitor thousands of lab tests that run continuously in real time, and get live alerts for regressions
• Run lab tests manually on field devices to quickly confirm a regression or troubleshoot a problem that's only happening in real customer conditions
• Take control of any test device to manually verify quickly a feature or bug fix
• Record video evidence of manual and automated tests to share an error with engineering teams
• Share device access with engineering teams to empower them to verify a fix to production by themselves

How can teams resolve issues faster with a virtual NOC?

When an issue strikes, it can be technically complicated and time-consuming for QA teams to resolve it. An engineer has to come onboard the resolution project, see and acknowledge the issue, find a way to replicate it, and test until they find a solution. With Witbe’s virtual NOC, team members can simply share a URL link to the malfunctioning device. With the link, an engineer can directly access the device, see a recording of the issue, and replicate and test it with ease.

This expedited resolution process is the same for engineers outside of your company. Virtual NOC links can be shared across different entities of a company and with third-parties to help resolve issues on specific platforms. For instance, a Set-Top Box operator like Cox could give access to engineers from third-party video app providers like Hulu or Apple to resolve any issues with their app directly on Cox’s platform. With this technology, Witbe’s virtual NOC greatly improves communication, collaboration, and issue resolution.

Unlock real device testing for QA teams today

It’s time to join the blended QA-field-testing movement for faster, higher-quality releases!
Contact us today to discover how Witbe's virtual NOC can level up your QA process.