Zodiac is to work with MediaKind to run the MediaFirst TV user experience on any set-top box via a simple software update.
The objective is to bring the MediaFirst UX to a variety of devices, enabling them to deliver graphics-rich content discovery and available catch-up TV, advanced search, voice search, etc.
The agreement was announced at IBC 2018 on Thursday and follows last week’s announcement of a new MediaFirst Client for Mediaroom that enables immersive viewing experiences on legacy set-top boxes.
MediaKind and Zodiac share a common shareholder in One Equity Partners.
“We already build a client for Mediaroom set-top boxes, but we don’t want to do that for all the other set-tops, that’s what Zodiac do,” Gowton Achaibar, COO and Head of R&D, MediaKind told an IBC press briefing.
Operators will be able to deploy browser-based applications and OTT services deep into the legacy set-top footprint.
Visitors to the RAI will be able to see the solution running on a number of boxes including Humax hybrid HD-DVR set-tops with a Broadcom 7250 chipset (6,000 MIPS) and 2 GB memory running MediaFirst in Zodiac’s HTML5 browser legacy vintage 2010 Samsung HD set-tops with a Broadcom 7405 chipset (1,100 MIPS) and 256 MB memory running MediaFirst in Zodiac’s Zebra “lightweight” browser, and deep legacy vintage 2003.
