First customers prove market for Synamedia’s groundbreaking STB alternative
Synamedia now has two publicly named customers to prove the market potential for its groundbreaking set-top box (STB) alternative, the Senza cloud connector — a $6 (bill of materials) streaming device that removes all application and user experience rendering to the cloud.
This thin-client device could broaden the market for pay-TV by enabling small broadband providers to offer a TV package for the first time. For a small subset of existing pay-TV providers — including broadband companies struggling to justify the cost of an STB — this may even provide a way to continue offering an owned-and-operated device rather than rely on becoming an operator app on smart TVs.
Tribal Ready is Senza’s second customer. The broadband service provider serves native Americans who live outside reservations in the US and has expanded its offer to include video, with a mix of community-driven content. The native-owned, public-benefit corporation represents a category of broadband provider where traditional STBs (and the applications development needed to maintain them) would be cost-prohibitive.
The first customer, announced in September 2024, was Florida-based SuperCloud International. The company provides further evidence for how small broadband providers can use Senza to support a video offer that is fully controlled on an owned-and-operated device.
SuperCloud runs a broadband and video service over 5G, serving customers at home or on the road, with its marketing focusing on the requirements for campers, boaters and RV users. SuperCloud’s 5G TV offer — branded Umaxx.TV — includes hundreds of streamed HD channels. SuperCloud provides an Android-based set-top box option today. Senza is part of the company’s next-generation offering.
This deployment exemplifies how a small service provider can use Senza as a complement to an operator app hosted on other connected devices or as an alternative to an existing STB.
A third Senza customer is confirmed but unnamed, currently in consumer trials in the Middle East.
Paul Segre, CEO of Synamedia, confirms that one of the target markets for Senza is tier-two or tier-three service providers offering broadband and looking to introduce video to create more “stickiness” for their offer. Another is established pay-TV providers that are looking to lower the cost of their video offer.
De-risking pay-TV in a cord-cutting era
In both cases, these operators may be serving cord-cutters who have turned their back on full-flavour pay-TV packages and want lower cost but also lower commitment. Segre (pictured, below) highlights the danger inherent in this: the possibility that they will churn from the TV offer and throw the STB in the cupboard.
Senza does not remove this possibility but dramatically dilutes the business risk. “This approach allows service providers to rethink their device strategy because of the very low device cost and the fact that service providers pay for usage, so only pay if the device is generating revenue for them,” he explains.
Segre is referring to the SaaS (software-as-a-service) model used for Senza, which is a service, not just a device, and includes essential cloud delivery functions.
The TV service user interface (such as page menus and guides, programme cover artwork and the applications (which are written in HTML5) are rendered in the Senza cloud platform. This removes some of the typical processing requirements from the receive device and partly explains the low cost of the Senza cloud connector.
Synamedia has demonstrated that, by using the powerful compute and graphics capability in the cloud, it can provide a fast and good-looking user experience in a thin-client device. According to Lena Wasikowski, head of content at Synamedia: “The magic happens in the cloud. You are getting the power of a gaming device at a fraction of the cost.”
Smart management of processing loads across cloud instances ensures the cloud can cope with a massive number of simultaneous users. Nick Thexton, executive vice-president, media cloud services, at Synamedia, has previously emphasised this guaranteed availability. “This will scale — that is the clever part,” he said when Senza launched last year.
The cloud-rendered user interface and applications are delivered from the Synamedia cloud, but the video streams that users choose to watch arrive separately from the content providers via their chosen content delivery networks. Senza manages the real-time integration of user experience and video, and the switching between the two.
To ensure fast reactions to user requests (via their remote control), Senza uses low-latency communications and video protocols that were developed for video conferencing. There is also a strong focus on Wi-Fi optimisation. Content security is provided using Google Widevine L1, which is considered rock-solid. This removes the need for a trusted execution environment in the device chipset — another way device costs have been reduced.
The use of HTML5 applications and cloud rendering has important benefits for content owners that want to onboard their apps to a Senza-based service offered by a service provider. Once they have developed an app for one service provider, it can also be used by any other provider taking Senza, subject to business agreements. Apps can also be updated instantly in the field.
Most of all, the use of HTML5 is viewed as a way to keep application development and lifecycle management costs very low.
Developer programme to encourage apps
Synamedia has a developer programme to support software engineers writing applications for Senza, including those looking at how wider broadband services like home automation can be integrated into a holistic user experience that includes video. One example is the way a doorbell camera could pop up as an alert while watching TV.
The first Senza developer hackathon will be hosted in California next month. “We’ll be challenging developers to create new user experiences that benefit this device ecosystem,” Wasikowski revealed recently.
Synamedia has been working with various streaming providers, including free ad-support TV (FAST) and transactional VOD services, to get their apps onboarded so these can become part of the apps selection that a service provider can offer. The company is confident that a major US studio FAST will be onboarded this year and Wasikowski says the ambition is to onboard the tier-one streaming services everyone expects to see.
The company also believes Senza opens the TV door to special-interest content owners. At Tribal Ready, the primary focus is on hyper-local and community-based TV spanning news, education and culture. This will be mixed with local channels. Tribal Ready is backed by the ability to run local ads.
Discussing the Tribal Ready deployment, Segre points to the way native American language channels can now offer their own app. “The use of HTML5 dramatically lowers the cost of supporting apps for special-interest content,” he declares.
Thexton adds: “Tribal Ready is delivering next-generation video services to its communities at a fraction of the cost of traditional TV. We are eliminating technology and financial barriers to TV services with Senza.”
It is clear that Synamedia sees an opportunity to broaden the connected TV market with Senza, thanks to new-to-TV service providers. There is early evidence it is right.
By the end of this year, the industry should have a better idea of how far this solution can bring mass-appeal streaming apps to this new class of owned-and-operated receive device.