Sky Deutschland has selected Dublin tech firm S3 Group’s digital TV technology to boost the quality of experience of TV viewers. S3’s StormTest technology enables operators and programmers to accelerate the end-to-end delivery of multi-screen TV by automating the test of set top boxes for performance.
The technology will be delivered in collaboration with Dutch communications technology company Teleplan NV.
In Germany and Austria, Sky serves 41m households with more than 70 TV channels, 61 HD channels and a 3D channel.
Configurations of StormTest Development Centre and StormTest Decision Line will be rolled out by S3 and Teleplan to enable Sky Deutschland to test new services and products across a range of set top boxes.
Finding needles in the haystack
Research conducted by S3 Group has shown that StormTest Development Center can yield efficiencies of up to 80pc compared to manual testing and StormTest Decision Line helps catch 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.
“Since our relaunch in 2009, we have grown dramatically based on our strategy to deliver exciting content and innovations supported by outstanding customer service,” said Dr Sebastian Hauptmann, vice-president of supply chain at Sky Deutschland.
“To ensure our customers can rely on the Sky Consumer Premises Equipment (CPE), we have developed a cutting-edge solution that provides us with an end-to-end approach ensuring the outstanding quality of our digital TV platform,” Hauptmann added.
The deal with Sky Deutschland comes just months after S3 won a contract to automate the test of close to 5m set top boxes among Sky Italia’s subscriber base.
Satellite multi-screen image via Shutterstock
