Asia-Pacific Broadcasting (APB) BCA/CMMA2017 Products & Services | Page 7

ADB paves the path to online and mobile era BY WOJCIECH DOGANOWSKI In the age of the Internet, broadband networks have become a public commodity over which even video and TV services can be streamed, not necessarily needing a closed network to reach the consumer. Also, devices have gone through a transformation. Where before they were dedicated terminations for a closed network — such as mobile devices for mobile networks, or TV sets and set-top boxes (STBs) for a pay-TV network — today they are universal termination of Internet. Technology is not exclusive to the pay-TV operators anymore. In this situation, there is a place for new business models, for instance, a pure-play over-the- top (OTT) service like Netflix. This brings about the creation of virtual pay-TV operators, who successfully delivered video services directly to consumers over the top of unmanaged network. When TV networks enter the consumer market, the customer relationship management (CRM) is still mostly exclusive to the pay-TV operator, and this is where pay-TV operators still have an advantage over broadcasters and premium channels. Our role, here at ADB, is to support all pay-TV operators with the tools they need, including helping them to identify the winning strategies and the equipment required. Our peers are the people of business, marketing and CRM (sensu stricto), not just the technologists. From a traditional on-premises technology provider concentrating on custom projects, ADB has transformed to a service provider of agile solutions to accommodate to the new ways of the TV business. As the technology of video delivery is now becoming a commodity, the service needs to be built on a foundation, as it is still the core of pay-TV. However, a modern service requires more than just video delivery. It has to ADB’s graphyne2 platform is designed to deliver a cloud-optimised solution for next- generation pay-TV and OTT operators. include the following components — personal recommendations, advertising tools, intelligence and analytics, marketing communication, monetisation and payments, user experience (UX), and content management. Without these components, all TV players, regardless pay-TV operators or broadcast networks, will be left to fight the battle of filling technology gaps and driving every penny from video subscription and advertisements while overlooking the move to the Internet and consumer devices. ADB positions itself as the provider of solutions for extending the video offer with aggregation, recommendation and direct-to- consumer (D2C) marketing on all devices — a gateway to a plethora of D2C offerings. ADB’s answer to this challenge is graphyne2, the personal TV solution ready to help pay-TV operators quickly meet subscriber demands in a multi-screen connected world. Built on a stable platform, graphyne2 goes further by embracing the cloud, allowing rapid adoption of new consumer demands including personal recommendations and interactivity to enable new revenue drivers such as advertising insertion and targeted marketing. The graphyne2 UX app is fully customised and gives the ‘connected’ operator flexibility in managing the look and feel remotely through the App Configurator Tool. The design provides seamless UX between multiple devices. It runs on ADB’s software stack, Android, iOS, as well as various third-party solutions. The graphyne2 app, when integrated with graphyne2 STB UX, allows broadcast-centric pay- TV operators to migrate into the connected world and addresses the modern needs of the consumer. Additionally, the graphyne2 second- screen application is a companion for the TV experience, allowing the users to easily access real personal recommendations matching personal daily schedules. The ADB graphyne2 service delivery platform covers both the broadcast and IP/OTT metadata required to run the pay-TV service. In the case of broadcast network live DVB-S/C/T or IPTV, metadata are delivered in compliance with DVB standard, while in the case of IP/OTT, they are delivered online via application programming interfaces (APIs). The graphyne2 STB UX can run on most of the STBs existing in today’s networks. The ADB graphyne2 end-to-end suite is pre- integrated with the service delivery platform, which is shielding the internal APIs from external world. Third-party services are integrated at the headend side, which means that in most cases, there is no need to modify the device software while exchanging the headend components and services. Thanks to this flexible approach, ADB can add or upgrade the functionality with no need of expensive recertification. To find out more about graphyne2, visit booth 1H1-07 at CommunicAsia2017, or go to www.adbglobal.com. Wojciech Doganowski is VP of Personal Solutions Product Marketing, ADB. 5