Allente Selects 3SS to Launch B2B Hospitality TV Service

3 Screen Solutions (3SS), a provider of software solutions for set-top boxes (STB) and multiscreen entertainment, announced that major Nordic region pay-TV provider Allente has chosen 3SS and award-winning 3READY Product Framework to power its new B2B entertainment offering for the hospitality industry.

Allente assigned 3SS to develop a dedicated new app, based on Android TV OS, to launch the service aimed at elevating the ‘hotel TV’ experience. In the first integration for the new service, 3SS created the app to support viewing on TV sets from Philips Professional Display Solutions which are specifically designed for hotels. Thanks to its expertise in agile development methodologies, and its abiding customer focus, 3SS delivered this project in under six months.

Jon Espen Nergård, Allente CTO, said: “3SS has proven yet again to be the ideal partner, and 3READY the right product platform, to drive our business forward. We strongly believe in the 3READY Entertainment Ecosystem and its benefits in terms of time-to-market and continuous innovation.”

Bringing the 3READY-powered UX from the home to the hotel guest room

Allente wants to give guests staying at hotels in the Nordic region the same UX quality and feeling as they enjoy in their homes.

Says Roger von Zernichow, B2B Director at Allente: “The quality of in-room entertainment is important when staying in a hotel, both when travelling alone and with others. We have therefore developed a service that gives the guest an equally good TV experience as at home, while significantly reducing operational complexity for hotels.”

The new service gives hotel managers greater flexibility in channel choice, and provides the guest the opportunity to browse content in a way far superior than seen in traditional hotel in-room entertainment systems. The guest can pause and rewind TV shows, watch catchup TV, and more. Hotel-specific information, such as details on facilities and check-out procedures, as well as access to third-party sites that may interest the guest, are also integrated in the 3SS-designed and engineered UI.

“We really value our relationship with 3SS, and we are eager to press ahead with developing this emerging opportunity to bring next-level video entertainment to more people and in more environments,” Jon Espen Nergård added.

Given the context of hotels, particular challenges had to be overcome when developing the app. There was the need to thoroughly erase any personal data and reset the in-room TV system after each guest checks out, and the need to accommodate frequently changing UI language selections. 3SS developed practical and functional app features that ensure the transition from guest to guest has maximized convenience and security for users.

Comments von Zernichow: “We have a lot of exciting service enhancements underway. Additionally, as we roll out this service to the hotel industry, we are also looking at how we can embrace more organizational and institutional categories, and which are first in line.” For Allente, the hospitality sector is only the first step in the phased development and expansion of the service. Next to benefit from are hospitals and nursing care homes, the company envisages. Additional apps will be developed to support further device platforms.

This project is yet another expansion of the partnership between Allente and 3SS. The OnePlace satellite and OTT service which Canal Digital AS launched in February 2018 was delivered by 3SS. Later, in October 2020, Allente – formed by the May 2020 merger of Viasat Consumer and Canal Digital – extended the Android TV deployment to the new aggregated customer base, now totalling over 1 million subscribing homes in Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland.

“We are tremendously proud that Allente continues to trust our team and our technology to help enable next-generation TV entertainment,” commented Kai-Christian Borchers, Managing Director of 3SS.

“It is highly gratifying that 3READY will soon deliver superior video experiences to people in new contexts away from the living room sofa at home, and we congratulate Allente for this exciting new initiative,” he added.

Embracing SAFe again accelerates innovation and delivery for Allente

Throughout this project, Allente once again benefitted from 3SS’ expertise in modern principles of agile development, including “SAFe” (Scaled Agile Framework). SAFe is the practical experience-based software development framework which features regular workshops, concurrent work streams and regular project update sessions. With SAFe, all the stakeholders in a project, both in-house and partners, stay abreast of the status of objectives, their interdependencies, and they know where they are in the progress of a granular roadmap of deliverables. SAFe enables accelerated, streamlined innovation, better productivity, effective planning and superior products.

The 3READY Product Framework is 3SS’ flagship front end and UI/UX optimization solution that helps operators launch Android TV, Multiscreen and voice experiences faster, to co-create and innovate on open architecture, future-proof technology and design system. 3READY is now powering advanced TV experiences in over 10 million homes worldwide.