OTT Media Devices

HSC Multimedia/OTT Device Expertise

Multimedia devices have played an important role in making OTT a success story and a viable commercial service. HSC has expertise and experience in working on multimedia devices, right from applications to OTT middleware to lower-level software like device drivers.

HSC’s experience, which spans across mobile devices, smart TVs, set-top boxes, home gateways, gaming devices etc., is described in the illustration:

OTT Applications

Application engineering and UI Layer is the most dynamic part of the OTT client because of ongoing advancements and changes in underlying platforms and operating systems.

HSC has rich experience in

• Developing apps for various platforms like iOS, Android, Windows, Linux
• Web browser(HTML5) based implementations
• Second Screen
• Social Integration.
• Implementing EPG
• Interactions with middleware (Content Management System and User Management System)
• OTA SW Upgrade

Two Application models are prevalent here:

• Model 1: UI is developed in HTML5/JavaScript and uses services provided by OTT core. The OTT core exposes services and functions through a JS (JavaScript) integration layer. This is possible using plug-in frameworks like Firebreath.HSC has developed HTML/5-based applications for PC, Mac, and Windows-based platforms like Xbox.

• Model 2: OTT Core is implemented in JS, and rendering is done using native HTML5 video constructs.

OTT Core

Adaptive streaming algorithms, streaming protocols (HTTP, HLS, HDS, RTSP), DRM, Concurrency Management, State Machines and Metadata Handling for On-Demand and Live-streams form core part of an OTT client.

HSC has extensive experience in these areas, including experience in some advanced features like integration with 3rd party analytics engines (like Nielsen) and Dynamic Ad Insertion.

Rendering and Platform Abstraction

Video rendering is another area which is mostly platform dependent and needs efficient integration with platform-specific rendering mechanisms and APIs.

HSC has good experience in integrating third-party HLS players, custom rendering APIs and frame-based rendering frameworks like OpenGL, GDI+ and Gstreamer. Efficient integration with platform rendering mechanism is important to maintain an accurate video clock and smooth viewing experience.

Operating System

HSC has good experience in writing low-level software in area of network protocols, file systems and Audio & Video streaming device drivers.

Reference Design Kit

HSC is an active member of the RDK consortium which defines reference architecture and stack for software on CPEs like set-top boxes, gateways, and converged devices. RDK also provides a pre-integrated software bundle that provides a common framework for accelerated solutions development of OTT applications.

HSC possesses rich experience in many open-source components which are part of RDK bundle and has worked towards developing PoC of OTT apps based on RDK.

The figure below illustrates HSC expertise and focus areas on RDK components: