Advanced Television

Oregan launches SparQ

May 21, 2018

Oregan Networks, a supplier of digital TV software and services for over 20 years, unveils SparQ: the latest version of its advanced STB client middleware solution which captures the trend towards open source distributed development and cloud-based content delivery platforms. Leaning on its unique expertise and experience in optimising middleware code for the most challenging and resource-limited STB platforms in the field, Oregan is able to provide a platform that resolves the disparity between current security and performance requirements of modern-day TV services and the hardware capabilities of STBs that were deployed up to a decade ago, thus lifting the limits on subscribers’ access to premium content and apps on legacy devices.

Mark Perry, CEO of Oregan Networks commented, ‘The philosophy behind SparQ transcends many layers of operational and economic benefits, providing the features that MSOs identify as key requirements during consultations with Oregan. SparQ is a new breed of middleware that is fluid in the way it is developed, evolved and interfaced with other components within the end-to-end ecosystem. It is open and standards-based, whilst also being designed for optimal security and robustness. The SparQ code base has been substantially refined and extended from previous versions of Oregan’s middleware, to enable operators to effectively assimilate unmanaged network content using the latest delivery standards, whilst continuing to leverage managed networks where they exist, hence differentiating in terms of quality of service, experience and convenience’.

Committed to the Global Android TV Ecosystem

The SparQ solution heralds Oregan’s commitment to the Android TV roadmap with a telco-grade solution that is customisable, secure and yields itself to regular feature upgrades as required by the Android ecosystem. The solution is offered in conjunction with integration and maintenance services, as well as Oregan’s complementary technology modules enabling delivery of DVB and ISDB-T broadcast programming, Multicast, PVR, Conditional Access, device management and analytics with dynamic QoS management.

As an established technology supplier and systems integrator in the Pay TV market, Oregan has a sustainable competitive advantage in the traditional, large-scale telco-grade context. The company’s skill set and value contribution to a project extends beyond the provision of a software stack, which is offered as a set of best-of-breed enabling technology components. Instead, Oregan provides a complete range of software and hardware product development skills and processes, combined with a solid experience of end-to-end system integration and device security expertise required for development of a high end commercial content distribution product.

Cloud-based Media and Device Analytics

SparQ™ delivers detailed near real-time device data gathering capabilities capturing all significant user, media and network events and states, as they occur. The data is subsequently passed to either a cloud-based or on-premises data aggregator where it may be accessed and analysed to gain multiple insights:

  • Device status and usage reports;
  • Errors condition information and rich data for efficient resolution;
  • Hardware resource usage reports;
  • Media Event Reports, including start, stop, trickmodes, buffering, channel change times, and Adaptive Bit Rate performance.
  • User behaviour monitoring providing insights into how users discover and watch linear TV, Cloud PVR and on demand programming.

Extending the Roadmap of Legacy Hardware with the Latest Content Delivery Features

Oregan’s middleware makes it feasible to introduce new Over the Top content services and applications on customer’s devices that were deployed as part of the first wave of IPTV and hybrid broadcast deployments. Whilst the richness and performance of the User Experience is enhanced by Oregan’s latest UX technologies to maximise the capabilities of the underlying silicon, the scope for upgrading the media delivery features can be broad and ambitious, bringing legacy devices in line with the latest cloud-centric models, as well as enabling improved video streaming standards for both linear and on-demand content consumption.

Categories: Articles, Middleware, Press Releases, STB