August 17, 2017
As pay-TV ups its game to meet the need for personalized UIs on multiple devices – even within a single household -- operators increasingly are looking to the cloud to deliver better user experiences in less time than it would take to develop traditional interfaces for multiple devices. Leveraging the flexibility of cloud-based architectures, they can provide ultimate viewing experiences that include: UXs tailored to different people – such as children and adults -- within the same house; the ability to enhance genre viewing, such as sports; and the ability of individual household members to create their own UIs, within boundaries established by parental controls.
A good starting point
for any discussion of cloud UIs is a review of the three types of UI rendering
technologies:
· Command Transmission – A client sends only commands to the server to locate the graphic sources to render UI at the client side supporting 20 times larger concurrency comparing to other transmission type
·
Image Transmission – UI rendering is done by
the server and the full screen UI is transmitted to the client. An effective solution
for web apps that is launched rapidly to user side.
· Video Transmission – Transmits
the rendered UI as encoded with an A/V stream.
Ideally, operators
should deploy a system with a built-in hybrid architecture that supports the Command
and Image transmissions needed to meet their service requirements. Rich,
graphic-intensive UIs with sophisticated animation can be delivered by Command Transmission
and third-party web applications such as YouTube which can be delivered by
Image Transmission. Video Transmission ultimately will be integrated within the
hybrid architecture – at least within the technology roadmap of Alticast -- to provide
the enhancement and flexibility to support a wider scope of operators’
services.
Further, Cloud UIs can be integrated within end-to-end platforms – such as Alticast Ambient TV – to provide targeted services for ‘real’ personalized user experiences utilizing its Data Platform. The operators’ can manage multiple UI sets for targeting different user groups based on their profile information such as viewer type, preferred genres and other categories – all of which can be defined by operators.
The greatest benefit of Cloud UI is reduced time-to-market. Cloud-based architectures reduce time for testing and launch processes by 2-3 months, especially when operators use a comprehensive A/B user test, enabling them to incorporate feedback from viewers before full launch of a service, and to minimize the risks in launching new features or services. We’ll talk more about A/B testing in the near future.
While
the traditional guide served TV well, the time has come for new ways to enhance
navigation and discovery. Cloud-based
architectures such as Alticast Cloud UI are helping to pave the way for new
opportunities for pay-TV operators.
Posted by Jill OToole at 2:50 AM