ION baseline app

ION provides a baseline application on mobile, set top box and web devices – a full feature matrix is available here. It’s optimised for Pay TV with features to ensure that consumers engage with the service and remain engaged.

Key Features of Baseline Experience

Playback

The playback screen allows the user to control how they watch their content. Users can:

• Restart the item
• View the media card relating to the item
• Enable subtitles/closed captions and select the language
• Select the audio channel
• Favourite an item or channel
• Start a recording
• View the guide

EPG

The guide screen shows a traditional guide format to allow users to discover content in a familiar way. OpenTV Video Platform also provides the ability to create dynamic channels to promote recommended VOD content.

Live

The Live screen allows users to quickly find live content that they’re interested in, with the currently playing items grouped into genres specified by the operator.

Timeline

The timeline feature is the simplest UI made for TV – a linear navigation to past, present and (possible) future viewing. The currently playing item is shown in the middle of the screen. Users navigate left to see their recently watched items – a mixture of live, on-demand, and episodic content. Users navigate right to see recommendations specific to them, again a mixture of live, on-demand, and episodic content.   

Discover

Discover is our modern browsing offering, allowing users to find content via beautiful imagery and data-driven menus. A combination of recommendations and operator-promoted content provides a gallery of items tailored to the user.

Search

The Search feature helps users to find content in the operator’s library.  OpenTV Video Platform’s integration with Google Assistant and work with Nuance also enables users to search the library by using voice commands.

Android TV Operator Tier

The OpenTV Video Platform ION baseline application can be installed as the launcher application on an Android TV device. The baseline application conforms to the Android TV certification specification for notifications and the integration of the Google Play Store. This gives control of HDMI1 to the baseline application, so that third-party applications are installed and launched from within the baseline application.

Media card

The media card displays detailed information about the selected content item. This includes:

• Title
• Pricing information
• Trailer or preview
• Detailed description
• Related content recommendations
• Cast and crew information
• Episodes from the same series

This information is derived from the CRM and metadata provider.

Internationalisation

OpenTV Video Platform has been developed with internationalisation as a core concept. It supports multiple date and time formats, both right-to-left and left-to-right scripts, and Unicode to allow for diverse character sets.  

Settings

The baseline application includes settings to manage parental ratings, application localisation, and default audio and subtitle/closed captions selections. When the application is installed as operator tier on an Android TV device, it also integrates the standard Android menu structure into the application.  

Analytics

OpenTV Video Platform integrates with Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics to track each user’s interaction with the application and the content. This provides the ability to monitor how the application is being used and how content is being consumed.

Baseline application – supported devices