We built this middleware from scratch to address the needs of Touch. For instance, they needed to calculate, monitor and manage the time spent by a user watching live feeds or VoDs over 3G and WiFi. Users are allowed a consumption quota. Once they exceed that quota, the stream is cut. The middleware is integrated […]
We built this middleware from scratch to address the needs of Touch. For instance, they needed to calculate, monitor and manage the time spent by a user watching live feeds or VoDs over 3G and WiFi. Users are allowed a consumption quota. Once they exceed that quota, the stream is cut. The middleware is integrated with the telco operators billing and provisioning system. It is also integrated with the streaming servers. The middleware also provides APIs to other systems like the portal and the apps, explains Hammoud.
The portal and apps interact with the middleware. The middleware identifies the users geo location and redirects the users to one of the streaming sites.
Team leader Mouawad explains that this project is unique on several levels.
Besides the integration we have achieved between several brands, we have developed the middleware, the portal mobiletv.touch.com.lb as well as the iOS and Android apps for this project in-house, he explains.
Perhaps one of the common challenges with most regional mobile content is the paucity of broadband.
To counter this, E2M recommended the adaptive bit rate approach to Touch.
We have used adaptive bit rate streaming. Everything was tested and settled before implementing at the customers site. We did not have any major problems although of course, fine tuning was required to ensure that everything worked well, explains Mouawad.
The client is now able to deliver TV content to mobile phones that users can access everywhere and at any time. They can watch the streams live or as VoD on their smartphones. They can also watch content on their legacy phones and PCs through 3G and WiFi.
E2M explains that this is a standalone project. The platform is tapeless, fully redundant, fault tolerant and has 99.9999% availability, according to Hammoud.
This is very flexible setup and can be expanded depending on the clients needs. The number of live channels can be expanded and the number of concurrent users can be expanded as well. This is a very flexible and modular solution, he adds.
E2M is already working on another project as we go to press to provide its clients with VAS and SMS services.
