Release notes for OpenTV Video Platform

Release summary 

This release includes many new features, including automatic device class assignment, device and session limits based on device class, support for Didomi consent management, management of blackout rules in OpCon, A/B testing in Rails Builder, other Rails enhancements including Rails search, favourite channels, channel recommendations, and entitlement badging, automatic device rotation, push messaging abilities in OpCon, various location-related enhancements, and more.

Auto assign device class to devices; device and session limits based on device class

This feature provides the capability to automatically assign a class to a device, based on entities provided at device creation time. This is to then enable more granular management of such classes of devices, such as being able to restrict the number of active devices based on their class. OPF provides support for limiting the number of devices that can be added to an account, and the number of concurrent streams that are allowed.

The purpose of this feature is to extend such support so that groupings of devices can have bespoke limits, specifically for the following categories of devices, such as:

• Big screen (TVs, STBs, TV Key Devices, etc.)

• Trusted open devices

• Untrusted open devices

• Fully-managed devices

See Device Management.

User Recordings solution for recordings of an event that is deleted due to switching models

This feature ensures that the existing event recording functionality is not impacted when a customer switches from the technical-based model to the editorial-based model.

Support toggle of session management based on device group

This feature enables Secure Session Manager (SSM) use to be disabled for a specific set of devices (e.g., managed STBs).

The feature support the ability, via removal of the sessionControl block in the contentAuthZ token, to:

• Toggle SSM usage for a specific set of devices

• Toggle SSM usage for a set of accounts (via selection of the relevant streaming profile)

Add identifier info to products

This feature adds subscription product IDs together with the product names in the OpCon live channels / subscription screen.

This simplifies product management for customers that use IDs to reference their products.

Better management of certain fields in OpCon

This feature allows management of the node PrivateMetadata and RecommendationQuery fields in OpCon instead of having to manipulate JSON directly.

TiVO metadata ingest with country-specific ratings definition

This feature add the ability to split the ratings data in TiVO-supplied EPG metadata by country for customers that require this ability.

In-home detection

This feature ensures that a device (STB or Smart TV) can only be used at the subscriber’s home address by associating the MAC address of the FTTH device with the subscriber’s account.

In/out home and device type

This feature is supported on Android TV STB and Smart TVs only for the FTTH user type:

• In-home is determined by the MAC address provided by the client

• Comparison with HomeIP defined on the account 

• Enforcement flags on both the account profile and device profile 

Granular control of session management

This feature is to provide the capability to limit concurrent sessions not just at the account level, but with more granularity for specific classifications of devices. OPF provides support for limiting the number of concurrent sessions that can be streamed from an account. The purpose of this feature is to extend such support so that groupings of devices can have bespoke limits, specifically for the following categories of devices:

• Big screen (TVs, STBs, TV Key devices, etc.)

• Trusted open devices – e.g., WV level 1

• Untrusted open devices – e.g., WV level 3

• Fully managed devices

See Setting device session limits for a device profile.

Support for Didomi consent management platform

This feature includes consent collection, storage, and applying consent details to activity collection and to recommendations. It includes:

• Unique ID generation per account that can be shared with Didomi backend

• URL Builder options 

• UAV payload information

See Consent management.

Geo-targeting on/off-net filtering

This feature provides the ability to filter by account profile to allow both country and OTT/FTTH filtering and on/off-net filtering. 

Dynamic CDN selection

This feature provides a file containing a matrix of CDN locations that can be accessed by a client application. The client can request this file and use it to build the URL locally, as follows:

1. Get the playout URL as per the normal flow.

2. Swap the first section of the URL for the correct CDN value obtained from the file.

3. Pass the new playout URL to the player.

Country blocking

This feature provides an additional option to geo-blocking to allow the operator to specify that the comparison is to be made using the location details on the account rather than the details returned by Digital Element. This is for geo-blocking only and is only applied at sign-on, not playout / content auth. 

Content blackout headend

This feature allows the operator to define blackout rules in OpCon that are based on connection type (e.g., Wi-Fi, Ethernet, or mobile), user type (e.g., FTTH or OTT), and device type (e.g., mobile, Smart TV, or Android TV).

New metadata fields allow the operator to flag which events are to be blacked out and the rule that applies to each one.

The client application is responsible for requesting a list of blackout events from MDS using a new endpoint and for blacking out the events so they cannot be viewed.

The operator can manage the blackout rules via OpCon or API. Separate rules can be defined for live, start-over, and catch-up.

Geo filtering – inherit geo-filtering properties from channel to programmes / CU contents

This feature improves geo-filtering by making STCU and LTCU content inherit the geo-filtering data from the channel in the same way that programmes (events) already do.

Messaging headend integration – Smart TVs with Tizen and WebOS

This feature introduces support in OpenTV Video Platform for AWS IOT Core for Client messaging. This is being provided as some devices, particularly SmartTVs based on Tizen and WebOS, cannot use the existing Firebase integration for message delivery. The use of AWS IOT Core provides a mechanism for such devices while leaving existing Firebase supported devices as-is.

See Messages.

Automatic device rotation

Automatic device rotation provides the operator with an ability to allow accounts to self provision a new device by automatically removing an existing one, if the maximum limit has been reached. Rules can be utilised to target specific devices or categories of devices. 

For example an operator may allow an account to add a new iPhone by removing one that already exists, support unlimited TVs, and also restrict rotation of tablet devices.

See Device Management.

A/B testing productisation

This feature allows operators to compare the performance of different versions of a RAILS page in a live environment with real users. Gaining valuable insight into your audience preferences and behaviours enables you to make decisions based on real data.

See Segment targeting.

Rails search

This feature enables support for search templates within Rails Builder, removing the need for hard coded behaviour in client apps. This enhancement will also act as the foundation for future search engine integrations (such as the XRM personalized search).

See Creating a search template.

End-to-end Google Ad Manager integration

This feature adds end-to-end Google Ad Manager support, including:

• Ingesting time offsets. The parameters are applied to all live variants (live, start-over, STCU, and LTCU).

• The ability to turn ads on or off in OpCon.

• The ability to adjust parameters in OpCon.

• Consent filtering in DWH and UAV to not store the consent bitmask.

Badging entitlements in Rails / Content Builder responses

Client requests for Rails content now include an option to view the entitlement state of content items in relation to the client account caller in Content Builder responses. This allows content items presented to a client to be displayed to the user with an indication of whether the content is entitled for playout or not.

Rails entitlement badging for type-related cases (live, VOD)

This is an extension of the above entitlement Badging feature to specify new Rails cases that take advantage of badging. It ensures that the new type-related Rails cases return content items and their entitlement badging status for a client according to the rail type specified.

Profile age rating filter override

This feature adds the option to override/ignore the age rating filter on MDS queries. The MDS /btv/services endpoint supports a new all_ages parameter in the request.

If it is set to true, the response object is not filtered based on the profile age rating.

Rails favourite channels

Rails Builder now supports:

• The ability to define a rail section to include favourite channels 

• The favourites can be either: 

  • Channel

  • Content 

• The response object contains channel and current live event data 

• There is a new flag that indicate to the client for each rail section whether the event image or the channel logo should be displayed.

Channel recommendations

This feature adds support for channel recommendations from Ncanto in Rails and Recommendations Facade.

OpCon push messaging UI

A new section in OpCon controls the building and distribution of messages to subscriber devices. OPF DMM will be used as the reference for topic/queue availability.

This gives operator the following capabilities:

• A dedicated UI section in OpCon that provides a publication centre for general messaging

• This new centre references DMM in order to discover and target messages on-demand towards:

  • Current topics defined in the deployment

  • Current individual devices registered for messaging

  • All current devices registered to a particular account

  • New topics defined by the operator

• Messages sent are traceable via DWH reporting / TV Analytics.

• Messages sent can be of a number of forms, including:

  • Plain text

  • HTML with images

  • HTML with deeplinks to application content

Product filter

Some operators offer different products to customers based on the customer account profile (country). 

This feature:

• Adds a on the product to indicate which profile it is targeted at

• Allows the value of the field to be managed in OpCon

Compatibility matrix

OPF	Q3 : 24.38.STD0
DWH (24 Q3)
SSP (24 Q3)

List of new issues

The following issues are newly opened in this OPF3_24.38STD0 release.

List of known issues

The following issues are still open (not resolved) in this OPF3_24.38STD0 release.

List of resolved issues

The following are the critical and high severity issues resolved as part of the OPF3 (24.38 STD0) release.

Deprecated APIs