Viaccess-Orca has acquired a little-known mobile TV app developer called BigHill from Finland. Viaccess-Orca has more than enough software in its armory for developing mobile apps, so this looks like Viaccess-Orca’s parent company Orange pulling the strings from upstairs.
Perhaps Orange is ready for a change, and didn’t believe Viaccess-Orca was capable of accommodating that change on its own two feet, so has been guided in the way of BigHill to give the French operator, and Viaccess-Orca’s other customers, a fresh suite of software for the mobile TV scene.
Our coverage of the French-Israeli software outfit has stalled since IBC in September 2016, prior to which it made numerous announcements and Faultline Online Reporter praised the company’s developments in the virtual reality (VR) space – the standout buzzword of the year where Viaccess-Orca had become an unlikely leader.
BigHill has been supplying Orange with mobile TV apps for iOS and Android devices since 2009, but it remains unclear if BigHill has dabbled in the development of VR apps (the company doesn’t appear to have its own website) or if VR applications could be an entirely new product area for the company – molded by Viaccess-Orca’s expertise in the field.
Orange has a number of OTT video packages across its European footprint in France, Spain and Poland, and could be a considered one of Europe’s pioneers in mobile video. As early as 2001 the operator (then France Telecom) was delivering over 60 live TV channels across its 3G network using 3GPP streaming protocols, based on RTP (real-time transport protocol) instead of ABR (adaptive bit rate) packaging.
Orange has historically been more conservative in its stronghold of France, instead using its other territories to experiment in OTT video. If the operator continues this trend, then BigHill’s assets could feature in updated versions of the apps for Orange Play in Poland, or Orange TV Everywhere in Spain. However, we understand that Orange currently uses Norway’s Norigin Media to deliver multiscreen hybrid TV apps in both these regions.
Having said this, the promotion of BigHill by Orange, from small supplier to subsidiary, may in fact signify bad news for Norigin Media – the contract it signed with Orange in 2013 could be coming to an end.
Viaccess-Orca includes the NexStreaming NexPlayer SDK in its Connected Sentinel Player in Android and iOS mobile apps. It says this is all about adding rich analytics and to support cross-device advertising.
Branching out from its humble beginnings in content delivery and protection, Viaccess-Orca’s VR waves have included developing a “multi-view” VR app in partnership with French video compression company Harmonic, which debuted at IBC 2016. The app is available on Samsung Gear VR headsets and provides a simulated 360-degree VR experience by delivering synchronized videos of space-related UHD content from multiple perspectives.
The demo we saw was good, but was not a viewing experience you could put up with every night – more in the teething process at the time.
Viaccess-Orca then took this a step further with its own VR analytics package in development, and one thing this can do is report on the pattern of eye movement on a particular video. If you know where people’s eyes tend to be, then you can pre-encode accordingly, or squeeze in an extra I-Frame for where their eyes are heading to next.
Faultline Online Reporter reached out to Viaccess-Orca in the hope of shining some light on the mystery surrounding BigHill, but we expect Orange would like to keep it that way.
“This acquisition reinforces our mobile-centric solutions portfolio, allowing content service providers to deliver the best possible video experience on all screens, speed up time to market for new offerings, increase operational readiness, and manage the user experience with consistency across all devices,” said Paul Molinier, CEO of Viaccess-Orca. “We promise to continue driving high-quality, secure, and immersive mobile TV experiences.”
BigHill’s CEO Kari Karkkainen added: “mobile video usage is growing quickly, and content service providers that wish to maintain a competitive edge must provide their customers with best-in-class applications for viewing movies, sports, and TV shows on connected devices. Our apps offer the perfect combination: easy to manage for service providers and intuitive for end-users. By joining forces with Viaccess-Orca, we are excited to take mobile TV apps to the next level of innovation.” Karkkainen has been associated with a number of companies but was at Nokia back in 2005 where he managed the relationship with OS provider Symbian.
Orange added 348,000 fiber connections and 845,000 net mobile contracts in the third quarter last year, across its footprint in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. It also grew its IPTV and satellite TV customers to 8.2 million, up 56,000 from last quarter and 542,00 from this time last year. Revenues grew 0.8% to €10.3 billion ($11.27 billion) in Q3 2016.