Build Systems that Drive Business
30–31 Oct 2018: Training
31 Oct–2 Nov 2018: Tutorials & Conference
London, UK

Architecting for TV

David Buckhurst (BBC), Ross Wilson (BBC)
15:40–16:20 Friday, 2 November 2018
Systems Engineering and Architecture
 Location: Blenheim Room - Palace Suite
Secondary topics:  Systems Architecture & Infrastructure
Average rating: **...
(2.50, 4 ratings)

Prerequisite knowledge

  • A basic understanding of modern web standards

What you'll learn

  • Explore the platform and multitenancy approaches the BBC took when evolving its systems
  • Understand how smart TV platforms work

Description

iPlayer on TV launched 10 years ago and has grown from small numbers to being the largest iPlayer platform. iPlayer’s success led to other BBC apps, and as smart TV capabilities have improved, so has the scope and ambition of the BBC’s interactive TV experiences.

TV application development comes with a wide variety of challenges. David Buckhurst and Ross Wilson explore the evolution of the BBC’s TV application architecture, from the early days courting different native technologies to the development of an open source library and standards-based platform that supports multiple BBC applications across thousands of TVs. Today the BBC supports multiple applications across thousands of different televisions, set-top boxes, and game consoles, but it has been a challenge getting there.

David and Ross explain how the BBC brought 14 different codebases and its complex, client-side applications together into a single runtime, consolidating the architecture and eventually moving to a hybrid application driven by server-side rendering while retaining the feel of a client-side application. They also detail how the BBC evolved its approach to testing, moving from six-month release gaps to multiple releases per day, challenging its thinking continually in an effort to move faster and innovate continually.

Photo of David Buckhurst

David Buckhurst

BBC

David Buckhurst is an engineering manager at the BBC, where he looks after the teams who develop interactive TV applications such as iPlayer and Red Button. David has a long history of working with complex device-based challenges. He’s been a vocal advocate of automated testing for years, having really seen the value of automation while developing emulator technology such as Apple’s Rosetta. Previously, he led the development of Hive CI, the BBC’s device testing cloud, and adopted an open development approach that made many of the BBC’s testing tools available open source.

Photo of Ross Wilson

Ross Wilson

BBC

Ross Wilson is a senior software engineer at the BBC building connected TV experiences for products like iPlayer, News, Sport, and Red Button. Ross has helped the BBC develop a powerful platform to deliver applications to thousands of varied devices, a technical transformation that supports millions of audience experiences each day. More recently, Ross has been leading the adoption of modern technologies and tooling to allow the teams to continue to offer a flexible, powerful solution to the organization.