MediaKind’s TV Everywhere companion for Mediaroom

Mediaroom, the world’s number one IPTV platform by market share, is well known for its robust performance, quality, and stability. Mediaroom excels at large-scale global IPTV operations, offering a proven platform for content delivery over the operator-managed networks, delivering TV services to operator set-top boxes (STB).

Mediaroom was initially designed with a focus on TV consumption within the household. However, today, consumers expect a “TV Everywhere” user experience where they can consume TV services beyond their household, using any device (Smart TVs, streaming devices, mobile devices, or gaming consoles), from any network (high-speed Internet, Wi-Fi or cellular), at any location (at home or out of home).

To address that need, MediaKind provides the TV Everywhere companion for Mediaroom.

In this post, we’ll discuss:

Consumers’ expectations regarding TV Everywhere user experience, and the features and use cases enabled by MediaKind’s TV Everywhere companion for Mediaroom.

How MediaKind solves the need for a TV Everywhere user experience to complete the IPTV Service

The advantages of MediaKind’s TV Everywhere companion for Mediaroom and why it is the best solution for Mediaroom operators to extend Mediaroom user experience to other devices, in a smooth and cost-effective way, following a future-proof approach that ensures best user experience and customer retention.

TV Everywhere user experience

Today, consumers expect a “TV Everywhere” user experience where they can consume TV services beyond their household, using any device.

On Service Providers where a companion client was introduced to complement the STB, a significant number of subscribers are regularly and actively using the companion client on smartphones and tablets (between 4% and 17% of the users, depending on the customer demographics). The main motivations to access the TV services from smartphones and tablets are the convenience of a touchscreen when browsing and discovering content, and the ability to access the service from any location (at home, or out of home) and from any network (high-speed internet, Wi-Fi or cellular).

Usage of streaming devices connected to the TV, such as Fire TV, Apple TV, Roku, gaming consoles or Smart TVs, is also increasing in demand. The main motivations for using streaming devices are the ability to select and own the streaming devices where the installed applications can be personalized (without depending on a STB supplied by the service provider), and the ability to use those devices beyond the main residence (e.g. on a secondary residence or vacation home) over any Internet Service Provider.

Mediakind’s TV Everywhere companion for Mediaroom includes a client application for smartphones, tablets, and streaming devices that allows users to consume TV services in a way that complements and extends the traditional TV service, as follows:

Extend your TV services beyond the STB

Consumers can use their personal smartphone or tablet to browse, search and discover contents using the touchscreen user interface of their personal devices, where scrolling and navigation is much more convenient than using a remote control.

Consumers can then play the content within their personal device or cast the video playback to any big screen supporting Chromecast or Airplay. Consumers can also use the TV Everywhere client as a TV remote to control their Mediaroom STB (when connected to the same Wi-Fi network).

The TV Everywhere client application can also be installed on streaming devices such as Amazon Fire TV, Roku, Apple TV or Smart TVs, extending the number of TV screens within the household without having to install a new STB.

Enjoy the TV service anywhere

Consumers can browse and watch VOD and live TV (or a subset of the live channels, depending on content rights and costs considerations) anywhere, from any Wi-Fi or mobile data network, using their smartphones or tablets.

Consumers can remotely manage their recordings. Have you ever forgotten to schedule a recording for a sports event taking place while you are out? Now you can schedule the recording as soon as you remember even if you are not at home, so that you don’t miss it! Playback of recordings on the TV Everywhere application is optional (requires cloud DVR).

Consumers can continue watching content across devices (e.g. start watching a movie on your TV, continue watching on your smartphone), or mark a content as favorite so that you can easily find it later on any device.

How it works

MediaKind’s TV Everywhere companion for Mediaroom is an optional add-on to Mediaroom, to extend the TV service beyond the Mediaroom STBs, allowing consumers to enjoy the TV service anywhere, based on a fully managed and pre-integrated solution with minimal impact to existing operator processes and systems. The solution relies on existing Mediaroom BSS/OSS integrations, and does not require any new operator BSS/OSS work.

The solution consists of the following components:

The TV Everywhere client application for smartphones, tablets, Fire TV devices, and more.

The ABR processing and delivery infrastructure for delivery of VOD and live contents (where allowed by content rights). MediaKind solution is modular, and can provide all the components or integrate with existing third party components.

The TV Everywhere backend, deployed in Azure and powered by MediaFirst TV Platform technology, is pre-integrated with Mediaroom server to ensure a consistent user experience across devices.

The BSS/OSS Pusher module installed within Mediaroom Server (does not require new hardware), used for synchronization with the TV Everywhere backend.

Optionally, the remote pairing application installed within Mediaroom Application Services, enabling to use the TV Everywhere client as a software remote to control the Mediaroom STB.

In addition to enabling the user experience described above, the solution includes following functionality from an operator point of view:

Dynamic Ad Insertion

Blackouts

Dependencies from the operator are minimal, and the interfaces to the operator systems are limited to the following:

Acquisition of live channels: Channels can be pushed from the operator datacenter (pre ingest into Mediaroom A-Server) to the live transcoders in the cloud via Secure Reliable Transport (SRT). This can be achieved by installing contribution appliances within the datacenter supporting SRT as output, such as MediaKind’s CE1 or RX1. The communication between the datacenter and the cloud can be over the internet (SRT protocol provides AES 128/256-bit encryption, and protects against packet loss), or over an Azure ExpressRoute private connection for higher reliability and lower latency. Alternatively, in case the operator already has live transcoders on premises, instead of transcoding the live channels in the cloud it is possible to integrate the existing transcoders with MediaKind’s packager in the cloud.

Acquisition of VOD contents and their metadata: The same VOD video files and metadata XML files that are currently ingested into the Mediaroom VOD backend need to be ingested into the TVE solution in the cloud.

Ingest of EPG and rich metadata: The same GLF files used for EPG metadata ingest into Mediaroom also need to be ingested into the TVE solution in the cloud. In addition to the GLF files, rich metadata (such as posters, cast and crew images, etc) needs to be ingested from the metadata provider.

VAST/VMAP interface for advertising: Optionally, in case dynamic ad insertion is a requirement, MediaKind solution can integrate with Ad Decision Servers (ADS) via standard VAST/VMAP interface.

Ingest of blackout schedule: In case some programs need to be blocked for playback (blackout) depending on the geographical location of the subscribers, the blackout schedule needs to be ingested. MediaKind solution supports standard SCTE-224 format for ingest of blackout schedules.

Advantages of MediaKind’s TV Everywhere companion for Mediaroom

MediaKind companion solution for Mediaroom has the following benefits:

Customer retention: By extending the TV services beyond the Mediaroom STB, allowing customers to enjoy TV service on any device, from anywhere, the consumer satisfaction will be increased, improving customer retention.

User experience: MediaKind solution ensures a consistent user experience across all devices, since subscribers, packages, subscriptions, bookmarks and favorites are automatically synchronized between Mediaroom servers and the TV Everywhere backend.

Fully managed: MediaKind companion solution for Mediaroom is offered as fully managed and pre-integrated solution with minimal impact to the existing operator processes. There is no need for the operator to coordinate multiple vendors, MediaKind takes care of the entire end-to-end solution.

Modular: MediaKind solution is modular. We can offer a fully managed end-to-end solution deployed in the cloud, or integrate with existing components in the cloud or on premises.

Smooth launch: No need to invest on BSS/OSS updates, the solution relies on the existing Mediaroom BSS/OSS integrations. No need for CAPEX investment on new infrastructure, since the solution is designed to run in the cloud. No need for complex migration projects, since the solution relies on pre-integrated interfaces between Mediaroom server and MediaKind’s TV Everywhere backend. Millions of Mediaroom subscribers have been migrated to the MediaKind companion solution for Mediaroom.

Future-proof and smooth transition to next generation TV services: MediaKind solution allows to add new devices into the TV service, while continue using the existing Mediaroom STBs, allowing for a smooth transition from pure IPTV service delivered over the managed network to an ABR-based TV service, with no disruption to the consumer, ensuring customer retention during the evolution of the TV platform.

Monetization: TV Everywhere is based on video delivery using ABR protocols, which allows for Server-Side Ad Insertion (SSAI).

Summary and conclusion

MediaKind’s TV Everywhere companion for Mediaroom offers several benefits. It extends TV services beyond the Mediaroom set-top box (STB), allowing customers to enjoy TV content on any device from anywhere, thereby improving customer satisfaction and retention. Additionally, it is fully managed and pre-integrated, minimizing impact on existing operator processes. The modular design allows deployment in the cloud or integration with existing components. With no need for complex migration projects, millions of Mediaroom subscribers have successfully transitioned to this solution. Furthermore, it facilitates a smooth transition to next-generation TV services while supporting monetization through Server-Side Ad Insertion (SSAI) in TV Everywhere.

To know more and explore how MediaKind can help you enhance your TV service with MediaKind’s TV Everywhere companion for Mediaroom, contact us.