ANT Galio Platform

Enhance the TV Experience

ANT Galio Platform is the TV middleware engine from TV specialist company ANT that removes the barriers between different media sources in today’s increasingly complex and connected TV world. Building on the capabilities of the ANT Galio Browser, the ANT Galio Platform is available in several editions, designed for easy integration for specific product types:

• ANT Galio HbbTV Platform, for HbbTV products

• ANT Galio UK Free-To-Air Platform, for DTG compliance

• ANT Galio Pay TV Platform, for pay TV services and for deployments not covered by other platforms

Comprehensive features for today's needs

• Available in pre-configured versions for HbbTV, UK DTG and Pay TV deployments

• Ensures consistency of behaviour, function and presentation of TV applications across all supported hardware and software platforms

• Designed to seamlessly support content download, sharing and distribution services; multi-room capability, home networking, and application download

• Essential infrastructure in native code ensures responsive and memory-efficient operation of multimedia services, such as sorting or searching of data within an electronic program guide (EPG)

• Allows developers to focus on producing dynamic, visually exciting multimedia services not the infrastructure to support them

• Supports the ANT Galio Core Applications, a set of TV applications inherently capable of encompassing all available media and metadata sources

Re-use investment in products and applications

The ANT Galio Platform is designed to offer maximum flexibility for device manufacturers while avoiding the need to modify applications and services in order to support different technologies. By providing a set of JavaScript APIs that are agnostic to the details of the media delivery system, media and metadata formats and other detailed characteristics of the TV network, the ANT Galio Platform enables applications to be re-used without modification across a wide range of product deployments. For instance, the same set of applications can be deployed on terrestrial, cable, pure IPTV and hybrid networks, in markets using different broadcast standards and in different products within those markets.

This reduces risk and time to market, while enabling the re-use of existing investments and enabling an evolutionary strategy for the growth of a product range.

FEATURES & FUNCTIONALITY

The ANT Galio Platform enables TV applications to deliver advanced multimedia experiences across multiple devices in a consistent way. While supporting application development using familiar Web technologies, it is specifically designed for the demands of embedded systems and enables rapid service deployment through pre-integrated support for core TV functionality such as channel list management, CA/DRM and parental control management, EPG data management, PVR scheduling and conflict management, and integration with VOD catalogue servers from major vendors.

Open Platform APIs

The ANT Galio Platform offers support for all of today’s open standards for TV applications, including HbbTV, OIPF and HTML5. It also provides support for ANT’s advanced JavaScript APIs for TV and media control.

These APIs all provide a link between the high level elements of the user interface and the portable, optimised native code of the ANT Galio Platform to deliver TV experiences tailored to particular deployment characteristics. Building on a common set of underlying functionality within the platform, manufacturers can re-use integration work to provide a wide range of products for different markets.

Platform Control & Management

The ANT Galio Platform provides control and management capabilities for traditional broadcast TV, IPTV, video on demand (VOD) and PVR functions, enabling TV applications to be deployed on a range of platforms, regardless of the delivery system, hardware platform, or media and metadata formats. This enables the application developer to focus on the user experience rather than the technology involved, with high-level JavaScript APIs tailored to concepts that are familiar in a TV or home entertainment system. All applications and services are developed using familiar Web technologies to implement the user interface and application functionality.

Porting Environment

A well-defined and comprehensive set of porting APIs support a modular approach to systems integration that reduces risk, time to market and product development cost. This modular approach also enables device manufacturers to easily add capabilities and functionality to their products without requiring changes in the ANT Galio Platform. This offers a practical and cost-effective solution for rapidly porting and optimising the ANT Galio Platform across multiple platforms and environments.

Optional Modules

In order to support enhanced requirements, a number of optional modules are available for the ANT Galio Platform.

• PVR scheduling engine supporting enhanced series recording and conflict management

• Extended EPG database, capable of merging EPG data from multiple broadcast and online sources and integration of catch-up TV services into the main EPG

• Application download and management, from online secure servers or over-the-air

• OTT catch up services, and managed web based content, or applications portals with support for secure billing services

Pre-integrated Solutions

In conjunction with its partners, ANT can offer pre-integrated solutions for a range of markets, including the UK Freeview market. This includes pre-integrated support for MHEG-5, DSM-CC broadcast filesystems and media playback for both DVB services and other streamed media.

For more information on ANT Galio Platform, email info@antplc.com