TORONTO – When the Xbox 360 app for Rogers/Shaw’s shomi subscription video-on-demand service is launched next week, it will be thanks largely to Digiflare, a Toronto-based TV Everywhere app developer.
Digiflare has been working with the shomi project team for the last several months on the design and implementation of the shomi Xbox 360 application, expected to be officially launched on Dec. 2. Digiflare also contributed previously to the front-end design and implementation of the shomi.com website launched in early November and is working currently on a Chromecast app, which as of yet has no announced release date.
“From our standpoint, we’ve been engaged with the Rogers shomi team since mid-last year,” said Charles Yeung, Digiflare’s project manager for the shomi projects. “We worked very closely with the Rogers team. It’s been a long time coming for the shomi product launch, and all of us here are pretty happy to see it.”
Previously, this reporter told Cartt.ca readers about the back-end role played by Ottawa-based You.i Labs’s user interface engine, which wasn’t the entire technology story when it comes to the shomi service.
The original launch of the shomi website earlier this month coincided with the release of iOS and Android apps that let Rogers and Shaw mobile device users access the service. You.i Labs was responsible for implementing back-end support for the iOS and Android mobile platforms. However, the shomi.com website and the Xbox 360 and Chromecast apps have all been developed separately from the mobile apps, and do not use the You.i engine in the back-end, Yeung said.
“Integration-wise, the platforms that we built on, the schemologies that we chose, were all independent of You.i’s engine,” he said, adding that Digiflare did interact collaboratively with You.i Labs as part of the overall shomi project.
Digiflare’s marketing manager Arun Kirupa went on to explain more about the technology picture: “We worked heavily with integrating with Adobe and their suite of TV Everywhere solutions, when it came to the website, Xbox 360 and the forthcoming Chromecast app.”
Yeung went into a little more detail, saying Adobe’s Primetime TV Everywhere solution powers the shomi.com playback experience and also provides digital rights management. “Behind that as well, there are layers and layers of solution providers that source the content,” Yeung said, citing Paris-based Technicolor and Seattle-based ThePlatform as two further examples of technology partners.
When it launches next week, the Xbox 360 app for shomi will offer exclusive features that are native to the platform, such as support for voice commands and hand gestures via the system’s Kinect controller.
“There’s a voice input, so [users] can say, ‘Search shomi,’ and they’ll be able to input their favourite title in the application. Also they can wave their hand and connect via the Xbox that way,” Yeung said. “Both of these interfaces are very native and natural to the Xbox experience, and just further extend the shomi experience right into your living room.”
Digiflare itself was co-founded in 2007 by University of Ottawa graduates Mano Kulasingam and David George, and has focused almost exclusively on developing TV Everywhere applications for the last three years, Kirupa said. Digiflare’s clients include online video distributors, pay TV operators and TV networks, such as CBC, Starz, PBS and Univision. Last week Starz launched Encore Play and MoviePlex Play applications on the Xbox One platform.
Yeung said Digiflare has a long-standing relationship with Rogers, and also worked previously on the Rogers AnyPlace TV service offerings. It has also built TVE and OTT apps for Shaw and Bell Media, Yeung said.
