Mobile App for Virgin Media
Virgin Media are shaping the Connected Home. With high speed broadband, high definition TV and integrated applications for mobile, it’s all starting to come together.
Pushbutton was asked to design and prototype a companion app for Virgin’s new VPlayer system (a next generation EPG, and prototype that Pushbutton built earlier!), to be delivered to the mobile platform via Flash Lite.
The mock-up shows how you would be able to take your TV with you, wherever you go. Live TV, PVR recordings from your set top box, and remote record functionality would all be available on the bus, in the pub or at the football. Don’t like watching your team being beaten? Now you can catch up on The Apprentice instead.
Live and prerecorded TV
The prototype app provides a branded portal through which you can access any of Virgin’s content, wherever you are. A searchable, mobile focussed EPG lets you find exactly what you want, and stream it directly to your phone. Not only that, but you can also browse your PVR content and watch snippets of what you’ve recorded, to whet your appetite for when you get home.
Remote Record
Thanks to the app’s Remote Record features, you would never have to miss a programme again. Search EPG listings and select a programme to record, and your set top box will be automatically updated with your choices. Couple this with the ability to watch live TV on your phone, and the prototype shows how in the future you could enjoy the best of both worlds: watch it now on the small screen, or later on the big screen at home.
Third Party Extensibility
In order to allow for future expansion of the app, and also potential sponsorship and revenue streams, we provided an area for third party widgets to be added as necessary. This might be an opportunity for third parties, essentially creating a second tier platform by which Virgin Media would be able to give other brands a presence on a user’s mobile.
Flash Lite
To get the prototype off the ground as quickly as possible, we chose a custom build of Flash Lite to develop with. This means that the prototype can be run either on a phone, or on a Mac/PC, to make demoing it as easy as possible. Several classes from the Pushbutton AS3 Library were re-written for Flash Lite AS2, to ensure the build could benefit from the experiences we had learned from other projects.
