Setup box streaming app for ChromeDM

ChromeDM or Chrome Data Analytics and Media is a well-known name in the media analytics industry in India. They are the only company that provides analytics about viewing and much more in the world of television distribution to advertisers and others.

When one of our business development executives was making a routine follow-up contact when they asked if we could assist them with some issues they were having with one of their Android apps that were running on a custom device. Terasol went to the client’s headquarters to investigate the problem.

The idea was to design a streaming tracker application to operate on a custom Android device and retrieve live feed from a television set-top box before sending it to a streaming server. A week later, they requested us to take over the project, launching a long-term partnership with Terasol.

To help our client with tracking media analytics, Terasol developed an application to fetch data from the channel using a set-up box to help companies track the advertisements displayed to users.

Some other requirements by our client with this android application were :

To capture images at specific time intervals to track the advertisements.
Allow the users to play streaming videos on mobile devices and websites.
A feature to enable and disable on-demand streaming.
Send remote control code to TV set up box.

We know the idea and the expectations of our client. But at some point, this project became a little back-breaking.

So first and one of the most difficult tasks was converting the streaming from the set-top box through a video card converter into streaming format.
Next was allowing streaming to continue for at least 4 hours. This was to help their media business keep proper track of advertisements.
Due to continuous streaming, the hardware is used to overload or heat up. It was important to prevent the memory and cache concerns to avoid device obstruction and overloading.
Our team also has to find a way to allow data to be sent in a minimum format in order to work on lower bandwidth.
And the most important challenge was to capture screenshots and stream at the same time.

This project is totally based on extensive testing. The entire setup was planned and executed on Terasol's premises. The dedicated team for this project was inclusive of a Project Manager, a Senior Android Developer and a QA.

The first method was to enable seamless streaming services and to send streaming data, including video and audio, to a streaming server.

The next stage was to make the Android box reliable and run for a longer period of time. This entails implementing various out-of-the-box approaches by our team in order for the box cache to be emptied on a timely basis, as well as allowing the OS to process information with the fewest resources.

Another approach taken by our team was allowing a cool-down period for the box using a quick re-start. This processes the lineup sequence in which a series of photographs are posted to an FTP site.

It is a project that, like image recognition, cannot be completed in its entirety. However, by combining different approaches, resolutions, and techniques, we were able to create an ideal application.

The application was distributed across over 1000+ boxes, some in extremely remote areas. The ChromeDM team was quite pleased with the finished outcome, which they had been working on for over a year and had achieved in just four months.

Dedication and out-of-box thinking were crucial in this project. When you run out of options, you must use what you have to go beyond your destination. For instance, there are just a few libraries available for streaming out of the box. This resulted in the development of unique libraries as well as the optimization of existing ones.

"Sometimes you got to run before you can walk," as our dear Tony Stark once stated. This was not our first experience with custom devices but it was surely not one we experienced before.