STMC – Another industry acronym, but this time one that actually makes sense. Watch this:
ST – Set Top: Where it sits in the home
M – Media: What it does – all types of media, moving, still and audible.
C – Center: The point at which everything comes together.
Set Top Media Center – clever, eh? Actually, probably not, but it certainly does what it says on the tin.
Now the industry marketing speak...The STMC from CompleteTV is a fully flexible and upgradeable hardware platform that enables all media to converge into a single entity. And, if you didn’t quite follow that...
Services
The STMC supports standard and high definition TV, can act as an internet radio, provides full internet communication support, is software upgradeable to support new services, can receive video streaming from all video servers, is able to receive digital terrestrial/cable/satellite broadcast services, can record content to a hard drive, a memory stick or an external USB drive, can be managed with unique server applications and (to use the mandatory marketing expression), much, much more.
In fact, the STMC is only limited by the power of your imagination. A bold claim – how can we possibly support it? Not difficult, CompleteTV provides a wide range of software options for the STMC – options which include middleware, decoders, quality of service monitoring tools, operating systems, software development kits, in fact everything you need to deliver YOUR internet TV service. Oh, and by the way, we also support all digital broadcast services on the same platform – digital terrestrial, cable and satellite.
Nobody really knows which IPTV service will be the “cash cow” – multicasting live streams, video on demand, progressive download, pre-booked downloads, advanced search service. Why roll the dice with a fixed function system? What happens if you get it wrong? 60% of the investment in an IPTV service is the equipment in the home. You really don’t want to get this wrong, do you? With the STMC you won’t.
If the service you start to offer is superseded by a more successful service don’t swap out the box – upgrade the software. REMOTELY! If you need to provide a download service and haven’t installed a hard drive in the units, don’t sweat – send the customer a USB hard drive and, hey presto, your service changes.
Flexibility
The STMC evolved from our decades of experience in the telecommunications and broadcast industries. What we don’t know about video decoding, service deployment and cost of ownership is not worth knowing.
Perhaps this is all starting to sound like a PC? Well, the STMC certainly offers the flexibility of a PC – but we are firmly planted in the cost profile of a set top box. The STMC isn’t the cheapest IPTV set top on the market, nor the most expensive. What it does offer is the ability to adapt and to be tailored exactly to your service. And, if your service changes, the STMC will change with it.
So, how do we describe the STMC? Hardware. Loads of it. In any required configuration.
The STMC range from CompleteTV represents a range of platforms from the high end STMC-MX to the economical STMC-IP. All run the same software from the CompleteTV Fusion range.
Your Way
And if you don’t like one of the standard STMC platforms – tell us. Just like Burger King you can have the STMC “Your Way”. CompleteTV offers a full hardware customisation service. Change your STMC to add or remove functions and fit into a different form factor – it’s one of the ways CompleteTV is unique. We believe in the power of your service brand, not ours. What makes us proud is having the STMC used at the heart of the widest range of IPTV services. We don’t need our name on the box to do that.
Compare and Contrast
So, if you are out shopping for IPTV set top boxes please look at the rest, whether they are designed in Asia, Europe or the US. Then, once you realise that the only thing that differentiates them is price, come and talk to us.
We can’t promise to match the price of the cheapest Asian developed fixed function set top box. And, if you can 100% guarantee that your IPTV service will never change – go buy that one.
However, if you have any doubts about the future direction of your IPTV service, or if your business plans include expansion into new service areas, then do yourself a favour – consider the STMC.
The STMC from CompleteTV – the world’s most advanced set top media solution for the internet generation.
