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5th Kind Makes an Apple TV Statement
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Apple TV owners have access to more entertainment and lifestyle apps then they know what to do with. But one media and entertainment services company is hoping to use the normally consumer-facing platform for something new.
Digital workflow backbone company 5th Kind has launched its app on Apple TV, offering an industry-only asset on a platform that’s almost exclusively used for entertainment.
“As far as we’re aware, we’re the first company who is focused on this market to release a free secure streaming app for the device. Historically they have been custom builds on various hardware set top boxes and can be quite expensive,” said 5th Kind founder and CEO Steve Cronan.
“I think the days of expensive third-party set top and screener devices are over and to a larger degree cable channels. Just as Apple shifted a huge area of the software market with the introduction of the app store to the phones and tablets, they will do the same to the way we consume software and content on our televisions.”
The 5th Kind Apple TV app allows clients to access secure, high-def quality viewing of their content worldwide, with little buffering. The app offers instant, individual watermarked files, across all file formats, with support for the review of 300 image, 50 video and a dozen document formats. The Apple TV app also has swipe and voice control capabilities, to help make asset search more simple.
Cronan said the security aspect of the app was perhaps the most crucial part of 5th Kind’s development process. If studio partners are going to be using Apple TV to view dailies, they have to assured that they can do so without worrying about a breach.
“On-the-fly watermarking across all file types on the device is native with no delay to streaming and no additional backend processing costs,” Cronan said of the security features for the app. “Secure streaming protocols such as HLS are also essential as well as logging all action for access tracking.
“The app has also been through stringent internal source code review and is currently being reviewed by ISE [Independent Security Evaluators].”
