RTL

RTL chooses AOE as development partner for the new RTL+ app on MagentaTV

With its new RTL+ app, the leading German entertainment provider will create a unique offering for its customers, enabling streaming of TV programs, music, and podcasts through a single application.

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Outcomes

Enhanced performance

through continuous optimization on limited hardware

Efficiency improvement

through new roles and optimal information transfer

Optimized customer experience

through continuous product testing

RTL+ is the streaming platform from RTL, formerly known as TVNOW, now expanded with new features. What sets it apart is that it's no longer just a service for TV programs; it's a multi-purpose solution giving customers access to not only TV content but also music (through Deezer) and podcasts. This unique market offering positions the private broadcaster to create significant opportunities for customer retention and acquisition. Due to their extensive experience in complex and agile development projects, RTL chose AOE as one of their development partners.

Challenge

Numerous devices, multiple apps, various teams

Each type of device required a new RTL+ app capable of unifying future services. This posed both technological and organizational challenges. Dependencies and communication needs had to be constantly optimized.

Performance, performance, performance

AOE, in collaboration with RTL+, is responsible for the development of the new RTL+ App for MagentaTV. Key to this responsibility is a performance-focused approach to ensure a good user experience, despite the hardware limitations of the MagentaTV set-top box.

Solution

Agile methods & smart peer-level communication

The team addressed the complexity of communication with an agile approach using the SAFe framework. High autonomy and speed were achieved by assigning responsibility for an app, a specific function, or a service to individual teams. To maintain this approach in the face of increasing complexity, without significantly impacting the flow of information or the speed of implementation, a "Team Ambassador" was designated for each team as a central interface.

The initial team from AOE was divided into focus groups for different services of the app, allowing for efficient distribution and utilization of knowledge within the team. Shortly thereafter, this initial AOE team was integrated into an interdisciplinary development team at RTL Deutschland. Communication channels were continuously optimized, for example, by establishing direct contact between the developers from the AOE team and developers from Deutsche Telekom or Deezer.

Technological expertise

Leveraging their React development skills, the joint team developed a web-based app for the MagentaTV set-top box. This app integrates various sources from different RTL+ backends and other services. It is designed to meet all the requirements needed to integrate additional features in the future.

Web Technology Optimized for Performance and Resource Requirements

To ensure an optimal user experience despite limited hardware, the team continuously utilized the full toolkit of resource optimization. Since the app was developed with React, unnecessary re-renders were consistently minimized. By optimizing render cycles, CPU usage was reduced, making the app feel faster for users. Load times were repeatedly tested and improved with batching and pagination, as well as by adjusting image sizes. In collaboration, improvements were made, such as optimizing Deezer audio streaming, which now takes about 1 second for the initial start instead of 20 seconds. Several memory leaks were identified and fixed, allowing the app to run more smoothly and continuously. The optimization of build artifacts (tree shaking, bundling, hosting via CDN) and the build pipeline (caching dependencies for parallel pipelines) also led to reduced cloud costs for the client.

Transfer of experience & learnings

As part of the RTL+ development team at RTL Deutschland, the members from AOE played a significant role due to their experience in both complex software development projects and agile working methods. Their meticulous approach, proactive thinking, and collaboration at an equal level were crucial. They also supported the production of RTL+ with input and feedback on the project and its short-term strategy.

Management Summary

With its new RTL+ app, the leading German entertainment provider will create a unique offering for its customers, enabling streaming of TV programs, music, and podcasts through a single application. The project's implementation involves many internal and external developers, as well as numerous partners and service providers, necessitating a response to high communication complexity with appropriate methods and reflections. A significant challenge lies in the continuous performance and resource optimization of the developed applications, due to the use of hardware with limited resources. Thanks to their experience in agile methods and performance-optimized development, developers from AOE are entrusted with developing the app as part of an interdisciplinary team of RTL Deutschland developers for the MagentaTV set-top box. The result is a user-friendly and performance-optimized multi-purpose app for highly limited hardware, capable of easily integrating future services.

Business benefits

Performance-optimized multi-purpose app (TV, music, podcasts) for limited hardware

Fast time-to-market due to agile practices and autonomous development teams

Customer-centricity through optimized user experience