In the cable television commercial insertion environment, if an advertisement doesn't run, the cable system or commercial insertion company loses money. Several electronic devices are used to deliver commercials over a cable television system and failure or intermittent operation of any of these will produce lost revenues.

Typically, troubleshooting involves swapping equipment around to try to find the problem. This can be a time consuming process often resulting in lost commercials, both on the network where the original problem occurred and on the network from which the equipment was "borrowed" for troubleshooting. If equipment isn't available to swap, if the problems are intermittent, or if the technician needs to drive back to his office to obtain equipment, additional time and revenues will be lost.

Fox Electronics has introduced three new portable, low cost test instruments to reduce lost revenues, minimize troubleshooting time, enable the technician to quickly find faulty equipment, and eliminate the need to swap components. In addition, these instruments can be used in the studio to edit and verify control tones on commercial insertion tapes or to set audio and video levels in the cable headend.

TS-201 DTMF Test Set
The TS-201 analyzes the DTMF output of a cue demodulator or videotape with pre-recorded DTMF tones and displays both the tone sequence and highest audio level received. The display latches until reset, so the technician does not need to listen for the network to send tones or worry about missing the tone transmission while performing tests.

The TS-201 includes a serial output port to interface with a printer or a modem and computer and record the tone sequence, highest audio level, and the time received. This information can be printed continuously or up to 100 events can be time stamped and stored for later retrieval.

The features of the TS-201 include the following:
• Hand-held injected molded case.
• High impedance inputs and outputs for use while the commercial insertion system is on-line.
• Displays the DTMF tone sequence and highest audio level received.
• Sequences of up to eight DTMF tones can be received.
• Interfaces with a printer or modem and computer to provide DTMF sequence, level, and time.
• Stores up to 100 events in internal memory.
• Can be used to monitor and verify DTMF recorded on videotape in the production studio.
• AC adaptor and low battery indicator included

TS-202 DTMF Generator
The TS-202 generates a DTMF output to test the commercial inserter input or encode videotapes. Unlike other tone generators, the TS-202 generates a timed tone burst identical to those used by the networks and enables you to set the output level of the tones, allowing you to test the full cue input range of the commercial inserter.

In addition to timed bursts, you can also generate tones as you push individual keys on the keypad. The TS-202 also stores up to ten tone sequences for later retrieval and transmission.

The features of the TS-202 include the following:
• Hand-held injected molded case.
• 600 ohm balanced output.
• Can be used to encode tones onto videotape in the production studio.
• The user selects the DTMF tones and output level on a keypad, then presses the transmit key.
• Generates tones at the standard 50 msec interval or as you push keys on the keypad.
• Sequences of up to eight DTMF tones can be decoded.
• The last tone sequence and level remains in memory until new parameters are entered.
• Stores ten tone sequences for later retrieval from memory.
• GPI interface to transmit tone sequence stored in memory position one
• AC adaptor and low battery indicator included.

TS-211 Audio/Video/Composite Baseband Level Meter
The TS-211 verifies the proper audio, video, and RF output levels of the satellite receiver or descrambler used in the commercial insertion system. In addition, the audio and video levels of the VCR, inserter, editing tapes, cable headend equipment, or other components can be monitored and adjusted using the TS-211.

The features of the TS-211 include:
• Hand-held injected molded case.
• Measures audio level in RMS and relative peak from -20 to +18 dBm.
• Measures video and composite baseband output levels from 0 to 1.5 volts, peak-to-peak.
• 600 ohm balanced audio input.
• 75 ohm baseband/video input.
• AC adaptor and low battery indicator included.