Dublin firm S3 Group wins deal with Sky Italia and Teleplan to serve 4.9m homes

10 Sep 2012

Software and electronics player S3 Group has been selected by Sky Italia and after-market service player Teleplan to continue to deploy automated set-top box (STB) testing and screening across the pay TV platform’s network of more than 4.9m households.

The 4.9m households in Italy are served with more than 190 thematic and pay TV channels and Sky was the first Italian television service to broadcast in HD and live in 3D. It is also embracing the multiscreen future in terms of delivering Sky’s channels via tablet, PC, Mac and iPhone.

Dublin firm S3 Group’s StormTest Decision Line is used by Teleplan to detect if STBs need to be repaired at the beginning of the service chain.

The deal, announced this morning at IBC in Amsterdam, is the latest in a series of major projects that S3 Group has been working on in Italy. In March, we reported that S3 Group had been selected by Telbios, which provides technical services to Buongiorno CReg – Europe’s largest chronic disease service – to enable the launch of its services in the four health trust areas of Milano, Como, Bergamo and Milano-2.

Research conducted by S3 Group has shown that StormTest Decision Line can catch up to 8pc more faulty boxes than would be found by purely manual testing during device screening which results in massive operational cost savings and increased quality of outcome.

“We are thrilled that Sky Italia has extended their use of the StormTest platform into their STB screening process and we look forward to working closely with Teleplan to help deploy it successfully,” said John Maguire, director of Product Strategy, S3 Group.

“As well as the immediate efficiency benefits of automated device screening, we believe that by having a common test automation platform in use in engineering, where new devices are designed, and in the supply chain, where devices are tested prior to re-issue to the field, Sky Italia will be able to gather important data to feed into their quality improvement initiatives,” Maguire added.

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com