June 3, 2009

SoftAtHome Updates on Progress

SoftAtHome, a company created by Orange to help service providers deliver convergent applications for the Digital Home made a series of announcements to update on its progress.

SoftAtHome announced a partnership with Anevia, a leading supplier of IPTV and Video on Demand (VoD) solutions. Under the partnership the two companies have integrated SoftAtHome Operating Platform running on Set Top Boxes (STB) with Anevia’s Video on Demand (VoD) back-end servers to provide telecommunication companies and service providers with the key components to deploy new video services.

SoftAtHome Operating Platform is a software platform that contains all the features and APIs necessary to create applications for the Digital Home. Operators can combine services such as voice, video, user interface, security, network access, connectivity or management, and deploy them across different devices in the home including STBs and Home Gateways (HGW). Anevia’ s solution is a complete network software infrastructure for delivery of VoD and IPTV services. It includes solutions ranging from head ends to video servers and asset management. The combined solution enables operators and 3rd party developers to create dynamic applications that combine video content coming from the network with interactive applications running on their STB. Applications include VoD, Network PVR, Time Shifting and Catch Up TV which deliver a new and more interactive TV experience. Service providers can also benefit from the openness and portability of the SoftAtHome Operating Platform while leveraging their investment in Anevia’s VoD servers.

SoftAtHome also announced that leading 3rd party application developers are investing resources on the SoftAtHome Operating Platform (SOP) to bring innovation to operators and service providers. Among them, httv, Optiva Media, Punchcut, Accedo Broadband, V4x, WizTiVi, Zappware, and Viziware are using the free SoftAtHome Software Development Kit (SDK) to build convergent and innovative applications for the Digital Home.

SoftAtHome is fostering a new business model where 3rd party application developers play a key role by bringing innovation to the Digital Home market. Once developed on the SoftAtHome Operating Platform, applications are then offered to telecom operators and service providers so that they can be deployed to deliver a richer end user experience. The SoftAtHome SDK is at the cornerstone of the strategy and is already being used by major 3rd party developers to create rich and high quality applications.

httv, a leading services and solutions provider for interactive digital TV on cable, satellite, IPTV and MobileTV platforms with over 80 iTV services launched internationally is leveraging their many years of experience in developing user interfaces for digital TV to build applications such as Programming Guide, Video On Demand or PVR. “Our experience in building a complete set of IPTV applications with the SoftAtHome SDK has been very positive. The very high quality technical support we received enabled us to quickly deliver application samples with innovative user interface“, says Laurent Etienne, httv CTO.

Optiva Media, a Spanish company fully focused on Digital TV and Media projects delivers Digital TV consulting and solutions engineering services to customers across Europe, is evaluating applications to optimize the use of DLNA to share content inside the home. “The SoftAtHome Operating Platform combines some unique features to make sharing of the content in the home a reality. We are investing in the SoftAtHome platform to bring innovative solutions on the market”, adds Cristina Garcés, Managing Partner at Optiva Media.

Punchcut, a user interface design company focused on convergent experiences for handheld and television devices, has created a high definition connected TV interface using the SoftAtHome Operating Platform. The San Francisco based company brought its UI expertise to design a television experience that extends across devices and demonstrates a new spatial navigation paradigm for TV that embeds social connectedness into the viewing experience. "We're excited about the SoftAtHome Operating Platform", says Ken Olewiler, Managing Director at Punchcut. "The flexibility and openness enable us to create consistent experiences across devices and customize them quickly. SoftAtHome's mission to develop an open platform for integration across devices aligns with our vision of designing consistent user experiences across the digital ecosystem: mobile, desktop and TV."

Accedo Broadband, a Swedish company, provides the largest available multi-platform portfolio of IPTV content and applications with more than 150 applications ranging from Games and Karaoke to Web 2.0 and Video Art services. “We’re very happy with the support and knowledge of the SoftAtHome team. The SDK is easy to work with and provides a good environment for creating attractive applications”, says Michael Lantz CEO of Accedo Broadband. “We have initially ported a range of our Funspot IPTV game portfolio to the SoftAtHome environment and look forward to work closely with SoftAtHome in the future.”

V4x, an innovative software developer, which enables content producers, telecom operators and services providers, to create, manage and deliver compelling, synchronized contextual interactivity for video on mobiles and PCs, is using the SoftAtHome Operating Platform to deliver equivalent services on TV. “SoftAtHome is providing an open and standard based development platform. This enables to seamlessly and quickly port our existing Mobile and PC based applications on TV to deliver on the 3 screens promise” says Nicolas Marchand, co-founder and CEO of V4x.

WizTiVi, an innovative IPTV start-up, has developed a highly innovative solution for interactive TV applications that simplifies the creation of interactive TV channels from Web 2.0 services such as Dailymotion. WizTivi is integrating the solution with the SoftAtHome Operating Platform to provide operators with access to different Web 2.0 content providers through TV. “We are pleased to find a truly open platform with a free SDK that enables us to easily reach operators across the world. TV is the new frontier for content providers and SoftAtHome platform its new playing field”, says Jean-Noel Gadreau, CTO of WizTiVi.

Zappware, the Belgium-based one-stop solution provider for iDTV on multiple TV-platforms for many operators across the world, uses the SoftAtHome Operating Platform to develop applications for Hybrid IP STBs.“We can leverage our expertise in quickly developing applications for multiple TV platforms including cable, satellite and IP. Using the SoftAtHome SDK we can extend our application beyond TV to cover all the different aspects of the Digital Home”, says Patrick Vos, CEO at Zappware.

Visiware, a leading publisher of games and iTV applications for pay-TV, has developed the zapping banner and EPG, and ported games for the SoftAtHome operating platform. « This strong platform allows our User Interface Department to create new, state-of-the-art television experiences for consumers. We are looking forward to work with operators who want to differentiate by offering such experiences » says Pascal-Hippolyte Besson, SVP Technology and Development of Visiware.

The SoftAtHome Operating Platform is a key development platform that contains all the features and APIs necessary to create convergent applications for the Digital Home. Operators can combine services such as voice, video, user interface, security, network access, connectivity or management and deploy them across different devices in the home including Home Gateways (HGW), Set Top Boxes (STB), NAS and PCs. Using standard programming languages and development tools, those services are accessible through the SoftAtHome API, made available to the developer community through the SoftAtHome SDK.

The SDK offers extensive documentation of the features available on SOP as well as code samples and development tools to help developers quickly and easily build their applications. The SDK is available in 3 different flavors: SDK for applications on Set Top Box (STB), based on JavaScript/HTML or ActionScript/Flash technologies; SDK for applications on Home Gateway (HGW) and finally, a PC version of the SDK (Windows or Linux) based on C.
 

The latest version of the SDK is available through dev_zone (devzone.softathome.com), the central portal for the SoftAtHome community of 3rd party application developers. dev_zone is open to both service providers and integrators’ internal development teams and 3rd party application developers who may already have experience with other mobile or phone development platforms. Registered users can freely download the SDK, the necessary hardware for testing, the documentation or get technical support from SoftAtHome engineers and share tips with other members of the community. They can also use dev_zone’s application catalogue, to publish their applications and increase visibility to service providers looking for leading-edge applications that will help them propose innovative services delivering high value for their customers and generating new revenue streams.

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