SoftAtHome will exhibit its range of home operating platforms at IBC but will be emphasising in particular how its recently launched Cast dongle can help pay TV operators meet the growing threat from pure play OTT services. The Paris based company will argue that HDMI dongles in general are spearheading a revolution in content consumption, by promoting consumers’ mobile devices as major sources of video.
This model has already gained traction from some of the big Internet players, most notably Google with Chromecast launched in the U.S. in July 2013, but SoftAtHome contends that these were only first steps towards the full hybrid Cast dongle like its own. The difference is that unlike these earlier offerings, SoftAtHome’s Cast dongle combines broadcast content accessed, say, over traditional IPTV infrastructures with OTT content, all cast to the main TV over the home Wi-Fi network. Its success therefore rests, just like OTT-only dongles, on Wi-Fi being able to deliver HD at sufficient quality and reliability.
The one common thread connecting all Cast dongles, including SoftAtHome’s own, is that they all keep the traditional big screen TV centre stage. Indeed SoftAtHome will argue that not just professional content but also the user’s own photos and other personal media content will increasingly be cast to the TV over Wi-Fi to exploit the increasing quality of the big screen as 4K capable models come along.
SoftAtHome also argues that the cast dongle will be the nail in the coffin for Smart TVs with in-built Internet connectivity, since it will offer a much more flexible and cost effective upgrade path than say the Smart TV Evolution Kit offered by Samsung for its latest models.
