Slingboxes were initially released as an end consumer product that allowed users to watch their TVs’ content on their mobile or tablet devices. In a nutshell, these Slingbox are small boxes that allow the end-user to remotely use their STB at home and watch the channels they have from somewhere else. Before the streaming era, it was a great way to watch your live channels package remotely. But Network Operation Centers (NOC) teams of Cable and Telco operators soon saw this little box as a convenient way to take control over a device that they normally would not have easy or physical access to.

It takes out the middle man, makes it more time-efficient, and wastes fewer resources. You can keep checking your services and – for example – ensure that a new channel was provisioned correctly without having to send an operator or IT technician to a distant location every time.

This year, it’s become more and more critical for MSOs and Telco operators to have such a tool at their disposal. Undeniably, by being stuck at home, they cannot access every device and services they use in their labs, and it would also be impossible to provide all the various devices to each tester.

Because of this, we saw at Witbe an ever-increasing usage for MSOs and Telco operators of our Remote Eye Controller (REC); it’s kind of like a Slingbox but on steroids. We even had some customers temporarily stop their automated tests running to allow their engineers to perform their checks and still be efficient from home. With QA testers being stuck at home, they cannot get every single device (4K full resolution STBs/OTT devices, smart TVs...) they had in their lab. So they rely on the REC to continue their remote testing.

The perfect Slingbox replacement

The Witbe REC doesn’t just allow you to remotely take control of a device. It allows you to see, hear, and take control of ALL your real devices in the field on the same screen. Here is a side by side comparison:

Video services companies, including broadcasters, telcos, and cable operators, cannot afford to have their engineers staying at home without the ability to access their favorite devices. Whether it is for operations, engineering, and QA, in the end when you innovate on video services, it is critical to test and use it on real devices to see how it performs, so you can efficiently and routinely improve its functionality.

If you want to see it in action - whether for remote control or automated tests - you can watch this video or read this article.

Feel free to reach out if you have any comments or questions!