AMSTERDAM: It sure amazed many a TV cynic at Rai Amsterdam’s IBC last week, at a time when many a soothsayer is foretelling the death of traditional TV. Senza from solution provider Synamedia is being described as a “new approach to TV that transforms the economics of reaching viewers.” "
The company says it drastically lowers costs and eliminates the traditional technology barriers to bring more engaging viewing experiences to TV screens in the home as well as out-of-home in bars, hotels, stadiums, and more. With this cloud-based platform, Senza’s customers across all industries can avoid ecosystem taxes as well as achieve a reduction of up to 90 per cent in onboarding costs.
According to Synamedia, broadcasters and streamers have been constrained by the cost, effort and limitations of supporting the proliferation of user devices and massive fragmentation for decades now. Instead, Senza moves the entire user experience from devices – such as connected TVs and streaming sticks – into the cloud and offers an HTML5 interface to quickly launch free, low-cost or premium services. This results in a personalised, immersive user experience with advanced graphics and AI-generated synthetic video by “writing once and running everywhere,” a concept foreign to TV developers but commonplace for those developing for the internet.
With more than 25 patents filed, Senza is being talked about as a revolution that will reshape today’s TV ecosystem by tapping into the common framework of the internet, removing the need to download apps or replace outdated in-home devices and eliminating traditional cost barriers, such as ad revenue shares, to reach mass audiences. Using a cloud connector of similar size to an earbuds case, Senza turns any TV screen into a high-performance, smarter TV and unleashes unlimited creative and business opportunities across entertainment, digital signage, hospitality, IoT and retail industries.
By building the managed platform around a cloud connector that uses low-cost silicon, Synamedia has achieved a base component cost device price of around $6 that goes even lower with volume, and an ability to free license the hardware design and device software to third party OEMs in 2025.
Synamedia has also implemented Google Widevine L1 security. Working closely with Google Cloud, Senza has achieved this breakthrough by not only uncoupling the rendering of the user experience from the device and moving it to the cloud, but also eliminating the sluggish and frustrating user experiences by using low latency video protocols that are optimized for graphics applications.
Further, Senza’s AI features will enable an explosion of creativity in advertising and synthetic media, and it will empower brands to reach consumers directly with a customized experience through the cloud connector.
Senza enables broadband providers and ISPs to differentiate their consumer offerings by adding a video service with minimal up-front investment.
One of the early adopters, SuperCloud International, a pioneer in streaming and television in the US, will use Senza to deliver its consumer in-home streaming service, UMaxx.TV which offers over 350 live TV channels via a military-grade, proprietary 5G network. UMaxx opted to add Senza to its hardware offering because of its reliability and cost advantage.
Comments industry analyst Ben Keen: “For many years a debate has raged about whether the set-top box has a future. Now Synamedia has redrawn the terms of that debate by radically rethinking the role of the in-home device using a cloud-first design that promises to fundamentally change the economics of TV delivery. A strong culture of innovation has always been at the heart of Synamedia -- along with its legacy predecessor entities -- and it is great to see that tradition continue with the unveiling of Senza.”
Addes Synamedia CEO Paul Segre: “Senza flips the accepted economics of TV on its head with its Internet-based framework. It eliminates the need for specialist developers supporting a technologically limited and fragmented ecosystem and enables us to think of a TV screen as an Internet greenfield. As CEOs look to build new paths to revenue, this is their dream come true.”
Developer, reseller and partner programs will extend Synamedia’s reach and applications.
For Indian cable TV, satellite operators and ISPs, Senza can definitely make sense because of the low price entry point. All that is needed is many more apps and services adopt it.
