?? Where have we been in February?

Hey there, welcome to our February newsletter! This month has been quite eventful – from attending conferences to onboarding new clients. Besides, you will also see some new product updates here.

What's New?

?? THEOplayer in the news: the NFL hits a record-breaking season

We're all about working hard to ensure our customers and partners hit their success milestones. We’re hence very proud of the NFL team and all other partners involved for the record-breaking NFL season! ?? Up to another year of thrilling moments for football fans worldwide!

?? Official Release of the THEOplayer Flutter SDK

Remember last year when we kicked off the early access program for the THEOplayer Flutter SDK? After close collaboration with some great companies, we're excited to announce that the THEOplayer Flutter SDK is officially available on pub.dev! ?

It provides support for Android, Android TV & FireTV, iOS, and HTML5 (web, mobile web), and brings features such as multi-audio, and subtitles.

Curious to see how it works? Try it out in the demo app.

??? Clickthrough Ads for the THEOplayer Android SDK

To further support our clients' monetization strategy, we've extended the clickthrough ads functionality for AWS MediaTailor, which was already available for the HTML5/Tizen/webOS SDK, to the THEOplayer Android /FireTV SDK. This upgrade allows Android users to click on ads, opening a linked page in their browser for further interaction.

Additionally, media & entertainment companies will be able to reliably track the action through client-side ad beaconing for MediaTailor SSAI.?

?? Smooth Ads Transitions on Smart TVs

With the increase in AVOD and FAST services, doing smooth ad transitions is key, as it impacts the CPM and potentially viewer churn. Smart TVs, with their diverse brands and platforms, often pose challenges in this respect, as they can show “black screens” during ad transitions when the main content and ads differ in resolutions, codecs, encryption, or other aspects.

In order to ensure smooth ad transitions for smart TVs, we've already introduced a “seamless switching strategy” for DASH streams. We are excited to share that this functionality is now also available for HLS streams. Once the player is done buffering the current discontinuity/period, it immediately starts buffering the next discontinuity/period, making the actual switch seamless. This optimizes the viewer experience and ultimately boosts your CPM!

?? Full-Screen with THEOplayer React Native SDK

When watching videos on mobile, many of us like to switch to full-screen for a more engaging experience. However, presenting in full-screen with a React Native video player is not easy. Especially ensuring uninterrupted playback when switching between the regular view and full-screen mode is challenging.

After extensive work on managing UI layers and native view hierarchies, we've successfully overcome challenges. ?? Now, the THEOplayer React Native SDK supports full-screen mode, while maintaining playback continuity.

What's New?

?? Android Support for Amino Set-top Box

Last year, we announced our partnership with Amino in deliver ultra-low latency live video streaming with Amino H200 and THEOlive. Initially, we integrated THEOlive with web-based Amino H200 set-top boxes. This month, we've broadened our scope by extending THEOlive to Android-based Amino H200 as well. Moreover, DRM is fully supported on these Android platforms.

?? Where have we been in February? ??

In the past month, we've been to some pretty exciting conferences. For example, ICE London, the top trade fair for the gaming industry. Remember those faces from ICE London? ??

Following our time in London, we headed to the US for the Mile-High Video and SEGMENTS conferences, discussing the latest streaming trends and best practices. It was an excellent opportunity to reconnect with familiar faces and meet new ones along the way. ??

If you missed us this time, make sure to book a time with us in the upcoming events ?? We can't wait to meet with you in person!

Meet us at METexpo

Meet us at SportsPro New York

Meet us at NAB Show

Thanks for reading, we'll see you next time for more updates. ??

Happy streaming!

THEO Team