Getting paid to watch TV!
Have you ever watched a UK Netflix film in a different country using a VPN? Well we have just spent the last couple of days watching films and getting paid to do it!
What on earth for ? I hear you ask.
Andisa is helping a London company design a network that can watch streaming services anywhere in the globe. Our client reports to film producers to make sure that their films are presented on the various platforms and in each country – if they don’t then mistakes lead to the producer not getting paid!
Quite a challenge
The challenge is that each streaming services give different listings in each country and also differ by device. So a Sony TV or PlayStation may show a different set of
films to say a Samsung smart TV. Each device manufacturer push their own streaming service and negotiate different commissions. Some may have more Marvel films and some have more Warner productions for instance.
Our job is to design a hosting centre full of TV’s, Gaming stations and streaming devices so that a database can check the thumbnails of films and report.
The client is growing at about 2 racks a month and needs our design to allow for several years growth, including bandwidth management, Wi-Fi links to some devices that cant connect with a cable and avoid interference with other hosting centre users! I don’t think we have ever designed short range into Wi-Fi before!
Fun
It’s a novel and fun project. Great for our team because they enjoy the work. Great for the client because we have managed to identify the main pain points and are designing a network to overcome the challenges.
It’s also the first time we have worked in a hosting centre where the racks are backlit. It turns out that certain TVs will only turn on if the backlight for the screen is connected. Otherwise it thinks its broken. To make them fit in the rack we have to remove the case and screen so the backlight is being used to light the racks like a Tokyo Racer!
Simple management
We are having to think less technically too! The client needs to easily configure any network point in the hosting centre to connect to an country. They don’t want to use network addresses and loads of spreadsheets and so we are using the Unifi system to name networks with proper names – USA, Australia etc and they can just click on an image of the port and select its country profile. The techy stuff is done invisibly in the background.
Have a look at our Unifi network page for full details Wireless Networks
