# Non-stop streaming, non-stop entertainment Ensure your entertainment and media business delivers top-notch service to users with OpManager ![Entertainment and Media network monitoring software - ManageEngine OpManager](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/images/opm-entertainment-01.svg) The era of streaming and content consumption is fully underway. With new technologies getting introduced and previously untapped markets of the world also joining in on the global viewership, the entertainment and media industry is growing at an unprecedented pace. With the growing volume of communication in the media and entertainment industry, new challenges are popping up. The network infrastructure of modern media companies should be equipped to handle the rapid growth in content dissemination. ## Why does your entertainment and media IT team need a network monitoring application? Network monitoring can help an entertainment and media business in many ways: ![Entertainment and Media network monitoring tool - ManageEngine OpManager](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/images/opm-government-vertical-02.svg) - **Augment digital and network transformation initiatives:** Reduce migration downtime and identify changes as and when they happen within the organization. - **Keep up with advanced technology and trends in the industry:** [Network monitoring solutions](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/?v-retail) help you define the need and importance of the latest technologies, and stay abreast with the trends in a competitive landscape. - **Adapt to the new demands of the industry:** Monitor and ensure ample bandwidth for the ever-growing volume of communication. Deliver high-quality content to viewers. - **Reduce network downtimes:** Modern news and media companies increasingly deliver internet-based content apart from conventional TV-based programs, so minimizing downtime is critical. - **Secure the IT environment:** Working in the media industry involves accessing a plethora of data and websites from different corners of the internet. This comes with security risks. ## The primary objective of IT teams in monitoring a media network The primary objective of any media and entertainment business is to deliver high-quality content to a large viewership, instantly. An IT team working for such an organization has to ensure network availability, manage bandwidth usage thresholds, reduce network delay, and reduce network congestion. While the availability and speed of the network is important for delivering the best user experience for viewers, other network objectives are equally important. [Monitoring the compliance and security](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/help/security-best-practices.html?v-entmt) of the network secures the short-term and long-term health of the network, ensuring no disruptions take place. A media business' reputation hangs on how fast it responds to a click or request from a user and how fast it can put out content ahead of its competitors. Any instances of downtime can hurt the brand's reputation since word will spread quickly on social media and users will switch to other media platforms. The priorities of an IT team can be segmented into two: - Ensure a flawless and agile network infrastructure that is adept at handling a dynamic entertainment and media landscape. - Protect the user data, usage data, credentials, and content database from external threats. ## Critical metrics media IT teams must focus on ### Latency [Latency](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/tech-topics/troubleshooting-network-latency.html?v-entmt) is network delay as a performance metric. It measures the time it takes for data transmission from one destination to another within the network. A higher latency translates into more lag in application performance, resulting in a poor user experience. ### Bandwidth utilization Every network has a ceiling in terms of bandwidth usage. Optimal network performance is achieved when, even at the maximum bandwidth usage, the network doesn't cross the critical threshold limit. ### Network health A network's health is measured by [monitoring the health of every network component](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/network-health-monitor.html?v-entmt). Making sure the network hardware is functioning optimally amidst problems like power fluctuations and increased hardware temperature makes sure your network performance isn't negatively impacted. ### Packet loss This metric signifies the number of data packets that were dropped and never reached their destination while being sent from one point in a network to another. ## Challenges media businesses face while monitoring their IT ### Ensuring network availability For entertainment and media organizations, downtime means a lot of things lost in an instant. For example, if downtime happens during peak hours, it is a lost business opportunity. The ripple effects are damaged reputation and poor word of mouth. Everything together snowballs into loss that can't be measured solely in monetary terms. ### Consolidating a distributed network An organization's network is composed of different sites, subnets, and locations. Lack of a centralized hub can be debilitating from a [network visibility](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/network-visualization.html?v-entmt), management, and monitoring standpoint. ### Security and privacy Modern networks are boundless and complex. Identifying and preventing unauthorized external traffic to the internal network alone isn't enough. Data security breaches in any media and entertainment organization can put huge sets of user data at risk. The IT team should have a tool that brings together observation, monitoring, and management, making sure that they work together. ### Network capacity planning to preempt surges in traffic and demand In an industry like entertainment and media, the traffic can spike during different times of the year, week, or even a particular time in the day. Efficient [network management](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/network-management.html?v-entmt) is all about network planning well in advance so fluctuations can be handled and unnecessary costs are reduced. ## Here's why your IT team needs OpManager OpManager is a powerful [network monitoring tool](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/network-monitoring-tools.html?v-entmt) that facilitates monitoring of devices for availability, traffic, performance, and other parameters. With proactive monitoring of network performance, issues can be identified and prevented from disrupting your network. As mentioned earlier, when it comes to the media and entertainment industry, networks have to be equipped for fast and precise data transmission and bandwidth usage while also ensuring network availability, stability, and security. Some key highlights on what OpManager can do: - The network needs to be constantly monitored to guarantee non-stop network uptime and network availability. OpManager pings network devices by sending data packets and waits for a response. If in two consecutive pings there is no response, OpManager will consider that device unavailable. - Monitor all kinds of devices that comprise the network of your media business, including routers, switches, firewalls, load balancers, wireless LAN controllers, servers, printers, storage devices, smart devices, and the virtual environment. The metrics you can monitor start from the most basic, like memory and utilization, to well beyond, including advanced performance metrics that measure the most minute detail in network performance. - Get started with monitoring right away: OpManager comes prebuilt with over 11,000 [device templates](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/device-discovery/?v-entmt) with multi-vendor support, allowing you to add devices in bulk to the network. - Manage your distributed networks by ensuring all the critical applications are available. OpManager performs end-to-end [WAN monitoring](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/configure-wan-monitoring.html?v-entmt) and helps in meeting SLAs. - OpManager is your 24/7 watchdog of the network—it proactively monitors the entire IT network environment all day long, and the [network uptime monitor](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/network-uptime-monitoring.html?v-entmt) recognizes when a device is down and notifies you. OpManager also offers total visibility via a common dashboard, enabling you to quickly troubleshoot issues before they're aggravated. - OpManager can be used as a network latency testing tool. Call quality is a priority in a media business, and OpManager facilitates monitoring key quality metrics like jitter, latency, packet loss transmission, and mean opinion score. - OpManager presents a detailed view of server health and performance across your IT environment. Its virtual and physical [server health monitoring](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/server-health-monitor.html?v-entmt) is sharp, detecting any issue with critical server components well in advance. This ensures full operability and manageability of all server components. - Observe your network at a macro and micro level using OpManager's network visualizations, including Layer 2 maps, network maps, and category-based device maps. Network visualizations help you get an at-a-glance understanding of the network. - Data crunching, analysis, review, and decision-making is made easier with the Reports tab in OpManager, which comes with more than [100 built-in reports](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/network-performance-reporting.html?v-entmt) that are also customizable. ## Related Products - [Network Monitoring](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring/?relPrd) - [Bandwidth Monitoring & Traffic Analysis](https://www.manageengine.com/products/netflow/?relPrd) - [Network Configuration Management](https://www.manageengine.com/network-configuration-manager/?relPrd) - [Switch Port & IP Address Management](https://www.manageengine.com/products/oputils/?relPrd) - [Firewall Management](https://www.manageengine.com/products/firewall/?relPrd) - [Network Monitoring Software for MSPs](https://www.manageengine.com/network-monitoring-msp/?relPrd) - [IT Operations Management](https://www.manageengine.com/it-operations-management/) - [Application Performance Monitoring](https://www.manageengine.com/products/applications_manager/?relPrd)