At this year’s Cable Show in Boston, LG is showing cable operators examples of how they can harness the power of smart TV for a new level of interactivity between tablets and TVs, bringing live, linear programming directly to connected TVs in subscribers’ homes.
LG is engaging the cable industry to help MSOs capitalise on the capabilities of internet-connected TVs while enhancing subscribers’ user experiences.
Sam Chang, general manager of LG’s Innovation Development Group, based in San Jose, Calif., called Smart TV “the genie in the bottle for cable operators,” giving cable operators unprecedented flexibility to deliver a compelling user experience in a cost-effective manner.
“For instance, at the Cable Show, we’re showing a demonstration version of a Tier-1 cable operator’s HTML5 Smart TV app, developed with just a few weeks of effort. The app is impressive; it uses common Web technologies to deliver a new user interface, full EPG (electronic program guide), and secure streaming of live linear TV to the LG Smart TV, needing only a single authorized cable modem,” he said.
LG also is showing Cable Show attendees how its use of web-services facilitates cable- apps interactivity across connected consumer electronics devices. LG is opening up its Smart TV platform to interactions from MSO applications on Android and iOS-based tablets through a new “App 2 App SDK.” With this application-to-application software development kit, cable operators can quickly build interactive, multi-screen discovery and remote control experiences across a growing population of consumer-owned devices.
Chang said that, by taking advantage of this updated SDK, leading MSOs can enlist a large developer community to immediately connect existing mobile applications with cable services running on LG Smart TVs.
“We have shown how the use of Open Web technologies such as HTML5 and Web-based services can significantly accelerate deployment of an MSO app across multiple platforms,” Chang said. “Once deployed in the home, connected CE device interactivity gives cable operators something they have not historically had – the ability to quickly match the best mobile Web apps on the most popular devices with the latest and greatest interactive cable services running on Smart TVs, without additional MSO capital or operational spending.”
As a part of its commitment to deliver a comprehensive end-to-end Smart TV solution for pay TV operators, LG is working with the leading two-screen app developers to provide a variety of content discovery and remote control options for MSO subscribers. End-users can discover linear TV and video-on-demand content from their service provider and quickly launch the corresponding cable operator application on their LG Smart TV.
“LG is enthusiastic about bringing innovative solutions to our cable partners and help them quickly introduce intuitive products to their subscriber base,” Chang said. “The LG App 2 App SDK is an exciting next step for LG, as a leader in connected devices, to partner with service providers and offer new user experiences that were previously not possible.”
