06 January 2016

Sky Q set-top boxes will support several new features including the ability to watch on up to five screens simultaneously.

Sky is using Cisco’s video software system to power Sky Q, its next-generation wireless home entertainment system.

Due to be launched later this year, Sky Q promises several unique benefits to its 21 million customers across the UK, Ireland, Germany, Austria and Italy.

They will be able to watch programmes on up to five screens simultaneously while recording four other channels; pause on one screen and continue viewing on another; and watch shows from the set-top box (whether live, recorded or on-demand) anywhere around the home.

The service also introduces a first for Sky subscribers, enabling them to take their recordings with them to watch on a tablet.

Andrew Olson, Sky’s director of new products, says: “Sky Q will reinvent how our customers watch TV, allowing them to access their favourite shows across multiple screens, in and out of the home.”

The broadcaster is using Cisco’s VideoGuard Everywhere security system to support all its Sky Q services, including broadcast, streaming and downloading of video to a range of screens.

In addition, the vendor is providing a suite of headend components to orchestrate delivery of the service, along with dedicated middleware for set-top boxes. 

This latest development from Cisco is part of its effort to transform how video is created, delivered and consumed through cloud-powered, networked video entertainment solutions for both traditional as well as over-the-top (OTT) service providers.

The company says its Infinite cloud software video entertainment solutions are currently provided as a service to more than 70 content and service providers worldwide. 

Last September, Cisco unveiled two new Infinite products. These included Infinite Home, a multiscreen video solution for two-way telcos and cable service providers, and Infinite Video, an OTT video solution. 

At CES currently taking place in Las Vegas, the firm has just launched Infinite Broadcast, a multiscreen video solution for one-way and hybrid satellite and cable service providers. 

D-Smart, the Turkish TV provider of both satellite digital broadcasting and internet services, is working closely with Cisco to transform its D-Smart Blu multiscreen service with Infinite Broadcast.

“We needed a cloud solution that could support our needs to quickly expand the variety of services for our customers across multiple screens,” says D-Smart CTO Erdogan Simsek. 

“We also needed a new user guide that could simply blend multiple sources of content. Cisco offered us a flexible cloud software solution to easily merge the worlds of online video and live broadcast TV.”