Software Development
Software development is our signature engineering service. During the past five years, we have developed the software for nearly every component of a typical set-top box. In addition, we have developed the software that has been integrated into other digital video products, including headends, reference designs, etc.
STB Specialists
Because we have developed some of the same set-top box software components many times, we now have software engineers on our staff who are specialists in many standard, digital broadcast technologies, chipset manufacturers, and applications. We are also experts in both managing and engineering the integration and testing of set-top software contributed by third parties.
Solekai engineers have worked on some of the most common and complicated types of software engineering problems—including driver development, video pipeline optimization, conditional access code integration, and middleware design. They are world class in their field.
Drivers
Software drivers—especially for video and audio—provided with reference designs are generally buggy and require customization and optimization before they can be used in a commercial set-top box. Problematically, this customization and optimization often has to be done using poor documentation and not-ready-for-prime-time hardware. Both chip makers and device manufacturers have learned that we leverage our connections with semiconductor companies and our experience working with all of the most popular digital video chips to quickly and efficiently develop, integrate, test, optimize, and deliver all of the software drivers they need for their set-top box designs.
Hardware Abstraction Layer
The satellite and cable industries are moving toward the use of hardware abstraction layers to get at the underlying chip from the middleware and upper layer software. Consequently, we have significant expertise in developing the this chip interface and porting legacy set-top box software to these APIs.
Video Pipelines
Developing a video pipeline is one of the most challenging aspects of an STB’s software design. We are proficient in tuning the presentation time stamp processing software to produce synchronized audio and video, and developing and optimizing video pipeline algorithms.
Conditional Access
Conditional Access (CA) code, which is generally developed and provided by third parties, must be integrated with the rest of the software in an STB. As is the case with software drivers, the successful integration of a third-party CA solution into an STB largely depends upon who and what you know. Through past projects, we have developed working relationships with all of the well-known CA solution providers (NDS, NagraVision, irDeto) and we are intimately familiar with the integration protocols required by these providers