Simple Content Access on Set-Top Box
Incumbent service providers face aggressive competition from TV, OTT and other streaming services that are eagerly battling to show their content to the consumer. For a competitive service provider, the traditional grid-based menus and long scrolling lists of content are now a thing of the past. Comcast has recognized and made considerable advances in further refining their experience of their subscribers when accessing live content and video on demand. Their recent migration to the cloud-based X1 platform delivering Xfinity services has enabled a more agile approach to deliver better services. With this approach, Comcast is not only maintaining its number of subscribers but is also providing them an improved experience of video on demand (VOD) content consumption.
Switching inputs, changing remote controls, and keeping it all straight was a threat to the continuity of subscription from consumers. The complexities of a home ecosystem include the increasing friction resulting from context switching within various content sources. Comcast was able to address these complexities and provided new and improved personalized services in shorter refresh cycles that are capable of adapting to a more complex home environment. This reduces initial install costs through a combination of self-install kits and shorter professional install times to achieve a pleasant out of the box experience.
Click here to read about One Touch View
Reduces initial install costs.
Instead of fumbling with remote codes and instructions, just un-box a new remote and start discovering great content right away.
QuickSet Cloud’s ability to discover, identify and automate the control of multiple devices has certainly brought the X1 platform, a step closer to achieve an automated experience for consumers in reaching their desired content. Vice President of product development and consumer devices at Comcast quoted “What excites us about this feature is that it brings our customers closer to the experiences they love. Instead of fumbling with remote codes and instructions, they can just unbox a new remote and start discovering great content right away.”
Through a scalable cloud-to-cloud integration model, the Xfinity X1 platform has been able to quickly and efficiently roll-out QuickSet Cloud-enabled features nationwide. The X1 platform automatically discovers televisions and audio devices that are connected to a set-top box and retrieves a complete set of control capabilities for these devices. This dynamic and real-time configuration capability is available throughout the lifecycle of the product and automatically reconfigures to address any changes in the consumer entertainment system, such as a purchase of new equipment, or rewiring of the audio/visual (AV) system. As an example, a simple implementation for volume control based on a single protocol such as HDMI-CEC caters to less than 8% of households in North America. Powered by QuickSet, Comcast is compatible with over 98% percent of the install base in same market
This dynamic and real-time configuration capability is available throughout the life-cycle of the product.
Voice assistants and hubs
Voice control has proven to be transformative in content discovery and consumption habits, while opening new avenues for offering value added services such as home security in addition to video subscription. Rise of far field voice assistants is now opening a new frontier.
Case study: 650 Hours Saved in Just One Week!
Interesting snippet from QuickSet Data Insights, covering the first week of a major cable provider in Europe going live with a next-generation entertainment platform powered by QuickSet Cloud. Jaw-dropping results even by our standards!
One Touch View With Sling AirTV Player
Streaming content providers which are also known as Over the Top (OTT) providers, struggle as the secondary content source in the home. These providers are particularly vulnerable to context switching and the resulting friction which prevents the consumers/subscribers from easily getting to their content.
Sling TV launched the AirTV at CES 2017 to fantastic reviews. It is a 4K Android TV streaming device that leverages QuickSet Cloud and uses a Bluetooth Low-Energy (BLE) advanced voice remote to access content.
Leveraging Quickset, the AirTV player set up is completely automated which allows the consumers to unpack the device, plug it into their TV and audio devices and start using it. To address the problem of context switching and quickly reaching the desired content, this QuickSet implementation includes a feature called One Touch View (OTV)
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This is a great box to buy for someone who is not technically inclined. This box makes using Sling TV, OTA, and Netflix easy.
With the One Touch View(OTV) implementation, consumers can reach the desired content source with a single keypress. This is a multi-protocol implementation QuickSet Cloud uses the fingerprints for the discovered devices to identify the characteristics based on the device knowledge graph. It selects the optimal combination of commands across multiple protocols and instantly takes the users to their desired content, regardless of the current state of their devices. A single protocol implementation with only coverage according to specifications such as HDMI-CEC will limit an essential feature such as One Touch View to less than twenty-eight percent of households in North America, underlining the necessity for a multi-protocol approach for achieving mainstream viability and 3X compatibility for such features.