ALi and iWedia team up for hybrid DVB-OTT devices

Chipset giant ALi Corporation and TV software specialist iWedia have teamed up to deliver a hybrid DVB broadcast and OTT TV set-top platform.

iWedia’s Teatro-3.0 software solution for Linux-based hybrid boxes will be ported on ALi’s M3527 and M3727 set-top chipsets.

The pair announced the agreement at CommunicAsia, where they are showcasing the integrated solution.

ALi’s M3527 chipset is an HD HEVC DVB-S2 system-on-a-chip with advanced security and supports RISC CPU, 2D vector graphic engine, DDR3, Ethernet, HDMI, USB and HD multi-format video decoder. Its advanced security engine has been certified by major CAS vendors. Whatever the chipset and the OS, the SDK exposes the same APIs – the ALi Unified Interface – which accelerates the porting of third-parties software solutions, according to the pair.

ALi’s M3727 DVB-C chipset was also selected as a chipset platform for this co-development project with iWedia. The M3727 provides a secure environment for the deployment of iWedia software component and turnkey solutions. Besides hardware architecture, the ALi Application Unified Interface plays a significant role for the interoperability with APIs from iWedia software solutions, which also accelerates the deployment and development process with Android and Linux RTOS, according to iWedia.

iWedia’s Teatro-3.0 is a software solution for Linux-based hybrid boxes featuring a customisable user interface/resident app developed using web technologies HTML5, CSS, DOM and JavaScript. The solution includes a web browser for embedded systems, a DVB stack and client software for HLS and DASH. Support to HbbTV 2 is proposed as an option.

Teatro-3.0 is pre-integrated with the main conditional access systems to secure broadcast content and with the main DRM systems to secure OTT content.

“With Teatro-3.0 Pay TV operators can deliver a mix of broadcast and OTT video services on the main screen using their own branded UI. The M3527 and M3727 SoC from ALi allow for a very optimized STB BOM and they thus efficiently target the first segment of the hybrid STB market – also known as connected zappers – for which massive deployments are foreseen e.g., in LATAM and APAC,” said Sunghoon Kim, VP sales at iWedia.

“Our M3527 and M3727 chipsets are ideally fitted for the hybrid STB markets as they support the smooth and secure delivery of broadcast and OTT content,” said Willis Chang, Vice President of ALi Corporation.

“With this integration with Teatro-3.0, we enable our customers, the STB ODM, to bring a better Time-To-Market to Pay TV operators. Moreover, they can leverage iWedia’s STB software integration services capabilities.”