Medianet, the largest independent cable television provider in Maldives, has chosen SmartLabs to offer a multi-screen, multi-network IPTV streaming solution. The offering has gone live to Medianet’s existing subscribers and has the capacity to support a much higher number of users when tourism returns to its peak and the population of the Maldives can swell to 1.5 million.
During the first half of 2021, Medianet launched its new mobile service, Multi-Screen, and its STB-less solution MSTV SmartLabs. Medianet has enabled free mobile hotspots around Malé and Hulhumalé where customers can connect and watch Multi-Screen rather than being hampered by mobile data costs.
SmartLabs used Medianet’s existing hardware and migrated its previous offering to Android OSP for set-top boxes, saving Medianet both time and money. Medianet is using the full suite of SmartLabs solutions including SmartMedia for its interactive features and the SmartCare analytics engine, which helps operators and content providers understand audience behaviour and changes in viewing habits, enabling them to reduce customer churn and offer a better customer experience.
As part of the solution, SmartLabs was tasked with including specific features such as bespoke messaging, where it adapted its existing messaging platform to enable a call to prayer feature to pop up on the screen five times a day. Medianet wanted a lower cost, practical and pragmatic way to control the illegal use and sharing of its content. SmartLabs has introduced a watermarking messaging solution that comes from the SmartTUBE headend so that messaging appears on all devices. The service provider is also using SmartLabs Mosaic Channel feature, which lets users view multiple channels on a single screen. Medianet knew its customers liked this feature and wanted to bring this customisation across from the cable to the IP world.
Gary Hamer, SmartLabs’ SVP sales and business development, said: “After an initial meeting, all of the solution requirements, technical development, R&D, installation and technical support has been done remotely because of the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns. We have offered a customised, cost-effective solution and Medianet is delighted. We are thrilled Medianet chose SmartLabs as part of its growth strategy and are looking forward to working with it on new developments in the future.”
Ahmed Shafeeu, CEO, Medianet, said: “SmartLabs has supported us through the migration of our platform with a step-by-step approach, keeping us ahead of any challenges which has made the whole process smoother for our business and seamless for our subscribers.”
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