Creating an Interactive Dual-Screen Web Application for the Broadcasting Industry

The need

A British TV channel partnered with our customer to build a new type of Social TV application. The customer turned to Altoros to develop a scalable application that combines live video broadcasting with action replays, real-time statistics, voting tools, instant comments from watchers and experts, and other interactive features.

The challenges

Under the project, the team at Altoros had to address the following issues:

• The team had to redesign the architecture from scratch and make the application as scalable as possible to fit the changing requirements.
• The solution had to be utilized by over 1,000,000 users simultaneously, so it needed to have a robust user interface and a fail-proof TCP connection with the server. The solution had to be scalable and flexible enough to be used for different types of TV shows.
• Companies needed to launch the dual-screen web platform in a very short period of time to support the World Cup and to enable fans to join a real-time chat while watching the game.

The solution

According to the requirements from the customer, the team made the solution to support both Flash and JavaScript, enabling the functionality with both technologies. The team developed the solution within the strict deadlines, so that the customer could launch it right before the World Cup.

The system’s core can be reused to build different types of dual-screen technology applications. Every component of the solution can be utilized independently from the others. This allows replicating the modules in future solutions, which shortens time-to-market and lowers development costs.

The outcome

So far, the platform was used to host different types of TV shows—including sports, entertainment, etc.

The solution is now able to support multiple series and provides for situations where two programs can be broadcast simultaneously. The system can also be integrated with social media platforms, such as Twitter and Facebook. In addition, content generated during the broadcast, such as clips and quizzes, can now be embedded into the website of the show to provide a permanent record of the real-time experience.