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.

There is no long-term future for the standard Pay TV operator ‘app among apps’ model as seen on Smart TVs today, however, as this cannot support Deutsche Telekom’s big vision for what an aggregator should look like in future. Bandeira made it clear that the role of super-aggregator, multi-app subscriptions manager and holistic content discovery agent requires an elevated status for the Pay TV television screen presence. DT needs to be the primary app, not just another app, on any television, he believes.

Bandeira was speaking at Connected TV World Summit in London, and you can read about his ‘future aggregator’ and ‘future of operator CPE’ vision in a separate story, here.

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Cyta encouraging operator-as-an-app usage by selling Smart TVs on two-year instalment plan