ANT GALIO suite

The ANT Galio Suite is a rich, easy to use, non-proprietary platform solution for digital media delivery. It comprises the ANT Galio Browser, an advanced, standards-based web browser engine optimised for user interfaces and portal services, and the ANT Galio Client middleware, a set of highly focused extensions for manipulating digital media.

It is built on the richness and flexibility of standards such as HTML, CSS and JavaScript. The familiarity of these standards provides immediate advantages for both operators and content developers, including the ability to quickly change/personalise/adapt the User Interface. This in turn, enables more opportunities to build brand awareness and potential revenue opportunities via targeted sponsorship and advertising.

The combination of CSS and JavaScript makes it a simple matter to vary not only the visual presentation of a service, but also the features available within the applications offered. Combining this with key subscription information from the customer management and billing database, enables the development of one overall product offering and at the same time have variants of the product automatically enabled or disabled in the field.

Non-proprietary approach

The ANT Galio Suite focuses on simplicity of application design. This is achieved by positioning the Application Programme Interface (API) between application code (JavaScript) and native code (C). ANT has developed an open API which is called the RMAI (Rich Media Access Interface) in consultation with industry partners.

Delivering Compelling Services

The ANT Galio Suite makes it easy to create a wealth of rich compelling services for your customers. With the emergence of quad-play services we have ensured that you have the solid foundation required to grow your service.

The ability to support ‘server push events’ means that true quad-play integration becomes really easy. Consider caller ID for example, in addition to displaying the phone number over the television the ANT Galio Suite, enables you to pause the video stream when the caller ID is notified, and to then restart the playback when the phone call has finished, including automatically rewinding 10 seconds to provide a simple reminder for the viewer.

Quad-play integration can also be used to schedule a PVR (Personal Video Recorder) recording while on the move from a mobile phone. This can automatically be entered into the list of pending recordings on the PVR at home. Ring-tone browsing, preview and purchase via the TV set also illustrate how additional revenue opportunities can be generated. These examples show how the mobile can enhance TV use and the TV can enhance mobile use, thus further reinforcing the value of quad-play integration.

Visual Effects

Through the use of cascading style sheets (CSS, an industry standard), the UI designer is able to specify not just the actual image graphics used, but many aspects of the layout and navigation of the screen. Re-skinning and personalisation can also be used to maintain the freshness of the UI and the service. By updating the visuals for each TV season or for national holidays or other major events the service will never become stale.

Incorporating the concept of skins within the overall development workflow can bring substantial cost and simplicity benefits when considering device variants, so SD (4:3) and HD (16:9) variants of a user interface are simply treated as different skins on the same underlying application.