By Rahul Mehra, Chief Technology Officer, Consult Red

The opportunity for telco and Pay TV providers to diversify their retail offer has arrived but those with RDK and Linux middleware-based video devices risk getting left behind.

The provision of apps to users outside of Google’s own Android TV ecosystem remains challenging. Native apps are costly to develop and maintain while control over user experience and customer data is often ceded outside of the operator’s domain.

A new advanced application delivery platform changes this at a stroke. AndApps™ from Consult Red unlocks access to the vast library of Android applications directly on suitable RDK and Linux middleware-based devices. The solution empowers telco and Pay TV providers to manage the app’s full lifecycle from onboarding to deploying and managing subscriber availability – efficiently, effectively and securely.

With AndApps, operators can deliver any number of available and maintained Android apps alongside native RDK and Linux applications for a unified user experience.

What’s more, it keeps you firmly in control of your service delivery and your customer experience.

All the upsides

AndApps means you can engage and excite subscribers with the widest range of applications such as access to cloud gaming, local catch-up content, ‘must-have’ SVOD services and social media applications – all delivered within your existing user experience and on your deployed CPE devices. You can leverage many market-available applications to cut time to market and save on associated development costs while reducing reliance on developers to port or update applications for your platform.

AndApps greatly simplifies app onboarding. Rather than having to execute big software releases on an annual or bi-annual basis, you can control App lifecycles — nimbly deploying, updating or uninstalling apps and runtime updates on in-field devices using downloadable application container technology.

Because it is built on several open source projects, AndApps enables flexible development and future scalability. It leverages AOSP (Android Open Source Project), which is maintained by Google, community-contributed, field-proven and receives monthly security patches and regular bug fixes. Because you’ll be running applications on AOSP, you can also benefit from new app releases and features as soon as they are available, typically without re-porting or additional development.

Most importantly, you’ll maintain complete control of your customer experience and subscriber data. You decide which apps you make available, and on which devices, with the future option of monetisation via advertising and in-app purchases.

AndApps components

There are three components to the AndApps solution providing operators the flexibility to tailor deployment:

AndApps Runtime is the component of the platform that is deployed on the set-top box or connected TV device. It adds a containerised AOSP image, integrates drivers optimised for hardware profile, and adds components to enable seamless operations with your UI and application lifecycle management.

AndApps Cloud delivers the operator-centric management of the platform and enabled devices, including application and runtime lifecycle management. It is used for the delivery of AOSP security and version updates, and to deliver apps to the devices in the field.

AndApps Warehouse is a global application repository managed and populated by application vendors and Consult Red. These applications are made available for operator distribution via AndApps Cloud.

AndApps Services

AndApps is designed and delivered by Consult Red alongside comprehensive supporting services that include consultancy, device and end-to-end system integrations, development and any required customisation and optimisations. Once deployed, in-life services including app onboarding, maintenance, runtime updates, and QA, will ensure ongoing security and stable operation.

Why Consult Red?

AndApps has been developed by Consult Red, a trusted partner to some of the largest global media operators including Liberty Global, Comcast, Sky and DIRECTV. We have 20 years of middleware experience, over 10 years of RDK development experience and 5 years of experience in field-proven application containerisation for video CPE devices.

Come and see us at IBC 2023 or the RDK Global Summit to explore how you can take advantage of this next-generation consumer-facing opportunity. Reach out here.

First, Swisscom provides its notable sports content, plus films and documentaries to its rival Pay TV provider, Sunrise (the Liberty Global subsidiary), but not as linear broadcast channels. The content is made available via the blue TV app that has been onboarded on Sunrise set-top boxes. The evolution of the user experience is most obvious for football fans (seeking Super League, UEFA Champions League, Serie A, LaLiga, Premier League, Ligue1, etc. via blue TV). Where once a typical European sports rights licensing deal would have involved linear channels being made available via another Pay TV provider, the sports package on blue TV is accessed only via the onboarded app – and that includes live matches.

blue TV means that, in effect, Swisscom has become a direct-to-consumer app on the Sunrise set-top boxes, since Swisscom creates a customer relationship with the viewers. It also means that more premium sports TV viewing will be via unicast streaming. Schmidt pointed to greater UX control as a key advantage of the new blue TV app approach to distribution partnerships, contrasting the lack of control over licensed linear channels to the way that blue TV transports the brand and the Swisscom-defined UX.

Swisscom has created a common HTML5 browser-based app that can be used across operator set-top boxes (i.e., Sunrise) and on Smart TVs. This app also means that blue TV is available on Samsung television models dating from 2018 and on LG televisions back to 2017. Single app development was a key goal for Swisscom. “Like every major operator, we have to watch where we invest our resource and creating individualised apps for each platform is a development effort we did not want to bear,” Schmidt noted.

The second notable device and distribution innovation at Swisscom is the recent introduction of Apple TV devices as a second set-top box option shipped by Swisscom for on-network Swisscom customers (in a Swisscom home). These now sit alongside the ‘original’ Swisscom-developed STB platform that harnesses Android Open Source Project. This also turns Swisscom Pay TV into an app experience and delivers content as unicast ABR, rather than the classic multicast IPTV delivery into the classic Swisscom-developed STBs.

“Swisscom is an Apple-fan country with a very high iPhone penetration,” Schmidt says, pointing to why Apple was chosen as a new device partner. “Most of the [user] experience is identical [on the Apple TV devices to what you get with the Swisscom-developed STB].”

Swisscom already made its television service available as an app on retail Apple TV devices. But Apple also runs the Apple TV Distribution Program that enables Pay TV operators to become a specially integrated app experience on the Apple TV set-top devices – a similar approach to Android TV Operator Tier.

The new Apple STB app was built for the tvOS environment (so is different to the HTML5 app above). Swisscom appears as a very prominent app on the home screen and if you press the EPG button, the grid that appears is served through the Swisscom app. “You are more deeply integrated in this partnership [than when providing an app on a retail connected TV device] and that is why we consider this an equal set-top box, alongside ours,” Schmidt told the Connected TV World Summit conference two weeks ago.

All content, including the approx. 15 UHD linear channels from Swisscom, are served as unicast ABR streams through the Apple TV set-tops – which becomes the first unicast STB deployed by Swisscom. Asked about the trajectory towards all-ABR television, Schmidt pointed out that everyone knows the world is moving to all ‘OTT’ whether in the near or far future.

“There is a lot of innovation in this direction, so we will be driven in this direction. Companies will need core networks that are ready for unicast [as the default TV delivery].”

Addressing the challenges associated with the expansion of the Swisscom addressable market via the blue TV retail apps (on Smart TVs and connected devices owned by the consumer, and not supplied by Swisscom, including in non-Swisscom homes), Schmidt pointed to the need to support legacy devices with weak CPUs and ensure strong new partnerships so changes on the CTV device (like a browser update) do not kill your app. “You must also work on the operations advice for customers that call you, if anything needs to be fixed.”

He also highlighted a UX challenge thrown up by the often-streamlined remote controls on retail CTV devices (and indeed, on the Apple TV set-top boxes). “You are no longer in charge of the remote control and how many buttons you have, so a lot of attention has been paid to how we maintain a superior user experience with less navigation commands.”