Video device platforms

The consumer experience on the set-top is an important part of the service provider’s brand. It needs to be distinct within their market based on consumer demands and competitive alternatives, with an agile approach to service creation and development to be more responsive to the market.

Our approach is to offer choices in the user interface by enabling a wide range of third-party software middleware—user experience products on our video devices. We also offer service providers the ability to develop their own UI using CommScope software and services. Our Professional Services team has industry-leading software engineers, solution architects, project managers, and test and validation experts to help customize your customer-premises equipment (CPE) portfolio to deliver a consistent, intuitive and optimized experience for your subscribers.

Simplifying deployment with software platforms

There is a growing industry trend in “software platforms” or “hardware abstraction layers,” which perform the common functions of set-tops while providing an API (Application Programming Interface) that enables the development of custom, branded user interfaces.

CommScope has over 20 years of experience in this set-top software approach with KreaTV and many other middleware software solutions. Today we offer set-top solutions that support:

Android TV
Android is an attractive option due to its common development environment for the set-top, tablet, automotive and smartphone. Android TV Operator Tier enables a service provider to offer a branded user experience along with the familiar Google services such as YouTube, Chromecast built-in and the Google Play app store. Alternatively, the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) allows operators to take greater control of the user experience but with no integrated Google services or application store. CommScope has developed Android TV Operator Tier and AOSP solutions for a number of years, with successful deployments at tier-1 service providers.

Press release: CommScope and TDS Telecom to deploy Android TV™ set-top

RDK
Pioneered by Comcast, RDK-V is an open-source software platform seen as an alternative to Android TV, with its own app store. CommScope is a worldwide leader in RDK development—contributing to the code-base and having delivered many successful customer deployments around the globe, with tens of millions of RDK set-tops. CommScope provides RDK-based set-tops for Comcast’s X1 platform, which is being syndicated for use to other service providers.

Our RDK Video Accelerator Program helps the RDK community rapidly develop, test and deliver innovative services.

Press release: CommScope offers RDK Lab Accelerator to support the rapid development of new video applications

KreaTV
A mature software platform for CommScope set-tops, KreaTV enables a wide choice of user interfaces (UIs) and Apps from third parties and is popular among service providers due to way it simplifies integration of services, eases migration to new hardware and reduces cost of ownership.

CommScope also works closely with third parties offering solutions for user experience software that integrates directly onto the hardware—providing a breadth of choice for the service provider.

Press release: Freesat selects ARRIS as partner to launch generation 3 set-top box  

Benefits of a hardware abstraction layer

• Faster time to market—it is quicker to develop a new UI or modify an existing one
• Hardware independence—as new hardware becomes available, the set-top vendor does the work of integrating the software platform, reducing development effort to transfer the user experience
• Greater choice—easier to multi-source products from vendors that support the same software platform
• Access to a larger pool of developer skills

Delivering a new user experience on legacy set-tops

A compelling, modern user interface helps gain new customers, but it’s important to offer a similar experience to your existing customers. The installed base of set-tops may not have the processing power and memory to render the graphics or run an HTML browser. The options are:

• Continue with the old platform and accept that current and new subscribers will have a different experience
• Replace the existing set-tops to support new UI—with the CapEx and logistics challenge that entails
• Take a virtualized set-top approach: Process the UI in the cloud

Virtualizing set-top functionality allows service providers to offer a consistent user experience on new and current set-tops without having to do a “rip and replace.” By rendering the UI in the cloud and delivering the resulting interface as an image in a video stream to the set-top, richer graphical and visual user experiences can be supported. A small-footprint “nano client” is installed in the set-top—relaying the remote control key presses back to servers in the data center. These are processed and the relevant UI is delivered as video in a format suitable for the set-top.

Using the ActiveVideo® CloudTV platform, service providers can simplify the migration from an existing middleware platform to another—avoiding the need to replace the set-top or undertake complex integration. It can support different levels of virtualized functionality, including the complete EPG, cloud-based VOD libraries, and OTT service applications.

OTT services and applications that cannot be supported by the legacy set-top hardware can now be supported. Run in the cloud, the new applications become available to any device with the nano client installed—reducing implementation and accreditation timescales.

As service providers know, it’s not just about the lowest cost hardware. Today, success requires the right combination of software and hardware to fit into a high-quality, reliable overall service delivery platform, combined with know-how and scale. It’s what makes us the global set-top leader.

We bring together hardware, software platform, UI, software enhancements, and services to deliver complete, deployable solutions that minimize risk and lower total cost of ownership (TCO). Our solutions are a valuable investment, with features like:

• Customized solutions or ready-to-go products for IP, OTT, cable, satellite and terrestrial video delivery
• Ability to scale with the flexibility, expertise, and breadth of capabilities to create ideal bespoke solutions
• End-to-end expertise in the service delivery platform (video processing, virtualization, access network, home Wi-Fi) to create the right solution for your architecture
• An enviable track record in delivering high-quality products to service providers, large and small, around the world
• A state-of-the-art supply chain, delivering product when and at the volumes you need
• System integration services and UX implementation services
• Content protection expertise, with a wide choice of DRM and conditional access products
• Agnosticity to any middleware or UI, providing the flexibility to create unique consumer experiences