A1 Bulgaria Unveils 3SS-engineered Android TV App

3 Screen Solutions (3SS), a provider of software solutions for set-top boxes (STB) and multiscreen entertainment, has announced that A1 Bulgaria has just gone live with a new app which enables viewing of next-generation Xplore TV on Android TV sets.

Part of the A1 Telekom Austria Group (A1 Group), a leading provider of digital services and communications solutions in Central and Eastern Europe, A1 Bulgaria is now providing enriched OTT viewing experiences, enabled by 3SS, for owners of Android smart TVs.

This service launch kicks off Phase Two of a multi-country multi-brand deployment of regionalized smart TV apps for A1 Telekom Austria Group. It follows completion of Phase One, in which 3SS delivered regionalized Xplore TV apps for Samsung Tizen and LG webOS connected TVs.

Bulgarian Samsung and LG TV set owners were the first to get the new Xplore TV apps, announced in November 2021. Subsequent Tizen and webOS app deployments were carried out for Croatia, Slovenia, the Republic of North Macedonia, and Austria.

A1 Telekom Austria Group awarded the Phase One five-territory project to 3SS following a competitive RFP whose goal was to select the ideal technology partner to help deliver superior smart TV OTT viewing experiences to subscribers.

“Our collaboration with 3SS allowed us to bring the first two of our Phase One Xplore TV apps for the Bulgarian market to life in about eight months and now another four countries are live with Xplore TV apps for LG and Samsung TVs, exceptionally fast for such a multifaceted project. The brand new Android TV app for Bulgaria took only four months to develop. This is a truly powerful demonstration of what can be accomplished through partnership, and an agile way of working,” said Metodi Mladenov, Team Leader, ICT Projects and Software Development Services for A1 Group Team, A1 Bulgaria. “Working with 3SS has been fantastic, with great teamwork and efficiency; we really value how collaborative and communicative everyone at 3SS has been.”

“Enabling high-quality, harmonious user experiences across countries and languages is a complex endeavor, and we’re delighted that, powered by the 3Ready platform, it all happened in such a timeframe; we’re excited to now be embarking on Phase Two apps for our subscribers who own Android TV sets,” Mladenov added.

Now, across the five-country subscriber base, owners of Samsung and LG connected TVs enjoy advanced, customized user experiences engineered by 3SS. Bulgarians with Android TV sets and other compatible smart devices have now joined them.

All these Xplore TV apps, across all A1 Group territories, are powered by 3SS’ award-winning 3Ready Product Framework and include today’s most popular features including Live TV, catchup, TV Guide, mini EPG, timeshift, live startover and cross-device continue-watching, all within an intuitive, easy-to-use UI. A1 Group and 3SS have collaborated closely on this major project, co-defining and co-creating the apps to deliver superior UX as well as live TV streaming quality to maximize subscriber engagement.

3SS delivered Phase One extremely rapidly, with apps being available to subscribers in all five territories in under eight months from contract signature. App development and delivery for all these countries used a single codebase. This approach has proven highly efficient, enabling faster per-market customizations, including adaptations needed to accommodate multiple languages and both Cyrillic and Latin alphabets.

Efficient multi-country brand and UX management with 3Ready Control Center

A1 Group has also chosen to deploy award-winning 3Ready Control Center, 3SS’ powerful UX management and optimization platform. With 3Ready Control Center, companies like A1 Group can carry out real-time management over presentation of content, features and branding of all service apps from one unified location. Super-aggregators gain a distinct competitive advantage by being able to curate content across all sources, including third-party providers, and delivering a highly personalized experience. A1 Group can leverage these benefits across all territory operations, realizing a high degree of operational efficiency.

Editors from each country can make their own UI/UX adaptations, and all its apps automatically retrieve and apply them without code changes. A consistent, stable and scalable user experience platform is the result, enabling faster time to market, with dramatic savings in time and effort.

Benefits of SAFe

A1 Group has also benefited from 3SS’ expertise and certification in modern agile development methodologies, including SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework).

SAFe makes delivery a more iterative process than seen in traditional development, and involves frequent communication, cross-party planning and common risk management. With SAFe, all those involved in a project benefit from a clear understanding of their responsibilities and their inter-dependencies. The results are a highly motivated and productive team, more efficient development and superior products.

“We congratulate A1 Group on this ongoing ambitious, multi-territory, multi-language project,” said Kai-Christian Borchers, Managing Director of 3SS.

“With its decision to give Xplore TV subscribers an advanced 3Ready-enabled experience, tailored to support multiple languages, countries and even alphabets, A1 Group is demonstrating its commitment to delighting its subscribers,” he added. “We’re thrilled that A1 Group continues to trust 3SS as a partner, and our flexible 3Ready product platform, and we are excited to progress Phase Two deployments to support advanced entertainment enjoyment on Android TVs.”