Promwad offers videoconferencing and 'watch party' solution for TV

Promwad designed software for video conferencing and “watch parties” via STB and Smart TV

VILNIUS, Lithuania — Promwad, a European electronics design house, has developed a video conferencing solution for set-top boxes and Smart TV. The new platform allows TV subscribers to organize joint viewing of movies and sports programs, launch stream-sharing with influencers, make video calls to friends or colleagues from a set-top box. This feature is integrated into the main content of TV operators and works without Zoom, Skype, and other similar services.

The TV platform is based on the VideoCamera SDK, which integrates into the user interface of an STB and supports hardware acceleration from major chip vendors such as Broadcom, Amlogic, HiSilicon, Realtek, and Allwinner. The software part of the solution is based on open source components: Video4Linux, Gstreamer, OpenGL.

Currently, video conferencing and stream-sharing services have only a small share in the market segment of applications for set-top boxes. There are only a few similar solutions, such as Skype for TV, TrueConf, and Google Meet for Android TV.

“During the second COVID-19 wave, we observe the growth of the OTT market, competition for an audience is becoming tougher, and a large segment of mass sports fans is switching to online viewing. In this environment, the new interactive video viewing services will help TV operators attract additional audiences and compete with online services,” says Ivan Kuten, co-owner, and CTO at Promwad.

Now, the software platform for video conferencing and stream-sharing is available for Android and RDK-based set-top boxes. The Promwad engineering team plans to add support for Windows and macOS.