In-demand Regional
OTT Platform
In-demand Regional OTT Platform
A leading Indian media and entertainment company launched an Over-the-top (OTT) media service for Android, iOS, and web platforms to target the Indian audience. They faced a vendor lock-in situation and were not able to access the codebase, payment, billing credentials, and others. Secondly, as the traffic grew, the app was unable to scale efficiently, resulting in poor performance.
Fortunately, we were handed over the project with a great responsibility to make things right for the client and get it approved on the Play Store and other platforms. Initially, we dealt with a few major issues including technical and project handover from the previous vendor.
We worked on significant parts of the project, such as hosting, app migrations, CDN services, fixing payment gateway issues, and mobile verification, among others.
A top Indian entertainment company introduced an OTT service for Android, iOS, and the web but faced issues with vendor restrictions and scalability. When we took over the project, we tackled several challenges, focusing on technical handovers, hosting, app migration, and payment systems.
Technology Stack
Implementation
We migrated the apps to a more stable hosting with better CDN services and improved the app’s performance and stability with the following integrations.
- 1 CDN
- 2 Hosting
- 3 Database Optimization
- 4 Unique Video Extension
CDN belonged to the last vendor company, which declined to provide access even to all the video content. So we found another cheaper CDN provider. Also, most of the videos were large files consuming memory on the server, which increases CDN charges significantly.
We migrated the app from a costly AWS CDN to “Rahtech” CDN - one of the most secure and high-performing CDN providers available.
We got extra space from 80TB to 100TB per month at a competitive price, which improved the app’s performance as well as help save the client's budget.
We used the command line tool to transport data to the new CDN that worked for all platforms.
- CDN- Migrated from an expensive AWS CDN to a "Rahtech" CDN. We have achieved an increase from 80TB to 100TB per month, improving performance and cost-efficiency.
We used E2E to host the application codebase and database.
Used E2E DBaaS service for database optimization.
- Hosting & Database- Used E2E for app and database hosting. We have optimized the previously inefficient database, achieving a loading time reduction from 20s to 4s and enhancing performance five-fold.
The database structure was not proficient, and indexing was missing, making the queries run slower. We identified the loopholes that were impacting the app’s performance.
With the one-month usage of the AWS RDS service, we identified slow queries through logs. We implemented indexing wherever necessary, making the app faster 5 times.
It reduced memory consumption, improved performance, reduced database load, and the CPU load optimized by 2-3 percent with the same traffic. It made the app work faster at the admin level, and the page loading time got reduced from 20 seconds to 4 seconds.
On top of that, we leveraged E2E's DBaaS (Database as a Service) to improve the performance of the database after moving application hosting from AWS to E2E Networks.
- Unique Video Extension- Developed a unique video extension to enhance security and transported 200+ episodes in .M3U8 format.
Video extensions such as mp4 consume more memory and are vulnerable to illicit uses which was another factor that we had to create secure and unique extensions for the videos.
We created a unique extension for videos so that no one can download them without legit access to the app.
We created a transporter with custom coding and transported more than 200 episodes of each series in .M3U8 format.
Created transcoding shell script to create different quality videos (360p, 480p, 720p, 1080p).
Challenges
Our team had several challenges as we were handed over the project from another vendor. One of the major hurdles was to get access to the code as the previous vendor was not supportive, and the codebase was not handed over to us properly. Secondly, as the project was a popular OTT platform with large traffic, scalability, secure payments, and reduced development costs were also to be achieved.
- 01. Vendor lock-in
As the client was stuck in a vendor lock-in situation and was facing legal issues against the previous vendor, we got very little to no support from them during the project handover. We were not even provided with the basic project information such as codebase, source code, database details, and data to be transferred in the proper way. We had to find alternatives and do workarounds to make the project work, make it efficient, and provide our client with complete control of the project. - 02. Failed Payment Gateways
The payment gateway was a huge challenge for our team. There was some paperwork deficiency from the client’s end thus payments were declined at the payment gateway’s end. As the app was live, every failed transaction was a loss in client revenue. So, we had to fix it at any cost. We tried leading payment gateways such as CCAvenue, and Stripe, but it didn't work. Later, Pay91 (our in-house payment gateway) worked successfully and payments started. But after one and a half months, even Pay91 started facing security issues. Out of 100, 5-6 transactions were failing at the payment gateway and we were not receiving the payment confirmation at the app. - 03. Copyright Issues
The Android app got suspended due to some plagiarized content and the Google play store didn't specify which part of the content was plagiarized. - 04. AWS Account
Due to an identity issue with the client's name in AWS records, the account got locked and there was no way to recover it.
Solutions
We faced numerous challenges since the project was handed to us. We made sure to provide better and cost-effective solutions to the client while making the app scalable on all platforms (iOS, Android, and Web apps).
- 01. Complete Control over the Project
We struggled a lot to get the source code, and vendor integration details, like SMS services, database access, and payment gateways. We did our research and even without minimal access to the core data, we successfully hosted the app on three platforms (iOS, Android, and web). - 02. Fixed Codebase
We got several code files including flutter source code and we had to figure out which code works for which platform as they did not specify clearly. We had to run code on different platforms and check it manually. Finally, we figured out the code and optimized it efficiently. - 03. Fixed Database Access
The earlier provider did not cooperate with the database details and access was restricted for us and even for the client. We somehow managed to get access to the database then moved it to a new database account, optimized it, indexed the queries, and made it faster. - 04. SMS Account Transfer
We helped the client in transferring the SMS service from the earlier provider as they were charging them far more than expected. There was no proper contract shared among both parties. To bring more clarity we had to integrate a new SMS service provider (Nimbus) with a better and cheaper plan. We successfully integrated a stable OTP verification system to ensure the user’s unique account.
-
Gained access to source code
Gained access to source code and vendor details, app hosting across iOS, Android, and the web. Secured access to the database, optimized it, and integrated an affordable SMS service provider.
-
Integrated Omniware
Integrated Omniware payment gateway covering UPI, net banking, and card options.
-
Eliminated plagiarized
Eliminated plagiarized content and relaunched the app under a new name.
-
AWS to E2E
Transitioned from AWS to E2E Network cloud hosting for reliability.
Results
So far after integrating new payment gateway providers and fixing several glitches in the app, we have helped the client in improving their overall performance within 3 months of onboarding them.
Get PDF99%
Payment Success Rate
4 Seconds
Reduced App Loading Time to 4 seconds
2-3%
CPU Load Optimized by 2-3% with high traffic
30%
Project Cost Reduced by 30%
Results
99%
Payment Success Rate
4 Seconds
Reduced App Loading Time to 4 seconds
2-3%
CPU Load Optimized by 2-3% with high traffic
30%
Project Cost Reduced by 30%
Let’s have a conversation today!
India
SDF L-1, NSEZ,
Sector 81, Block L, Phase-2,
Noida, Uttar Pradesh-201305
USA
OnGraph Technologies,
120 Bethpage Rd, Suite 304,
Hicksville, NY 11801, USA
Canada
7-1039 CEDARGLEN GATE,
Mississauga, Ontario,
Canada L5C 3A7
UK
89 Banstead Road South,
Sutton, Surrey, SM2 5LH
United Kingdom
Malaysia
G-3A, Amaya Maluri, Jalan
Jejaka 2, Taman Maluri,
KL–55100, Malaysia
Singapore
10 Anson Road,#26-04
International Plaza,
Singapore (079903)
