Smart TV are coming to dominate the television market since they are an interactive way of consuming content, this accompanied by an increase in the use of smart TV applications. To provide high-quality and highly usable Smart TV apps, it’s essential to apply certain rules and QA best practices, because the process of ensuring quality for TV apps is different from the process for other formats. Also, developers need to model techniques to analyse these apps and assess their comprehensiveness, completeness, and quality.
A key feature of Smart TVs is the ability to run apps providing access to platforms such as YouTube or HBO. Some apps are pre-installed and others can be added by consumers much in the same way as apps are added to mobile phones. With so many Smart TV platforms, operating systems and apps, each of which tend to be updated on a regular basis, testing functionality and interoperability can be a challenge and it is something essential.
Moreover, quality assurance is verifying the functions of an app on the TV but also validating the UI/UX with the design guidelines of the different device manufacturers. Each of the device manufacturers have their own design guidelines requirements, that include both functional and design elements. For example, button actions, navigation, font size and specific feature requirements.
Much like the design and development phases while creating apps on Smart TVs, whilst testing, one needs to consider the many facets, nuances and performance of each device. This gets more complex as the hardware and software varies between each manufacturer. And within that, they change from year to year, model to model and series to series. These variations have huge impacts on the performance of applications, where the same app will behave differently, regardless of your tech-stack.
Testing on Smart TVs differs quite a lot from testing on smaller handheld devices. Firstly, the fact that TVs and screens are so much bigger, makes it difficult to find enough room to squeeze one in within your work space. It is a logistical nightmare to move and shuffle TVs around. Additionally, you’ve got to worry about mixing up remote controls or the remote controls interfering with each other, so you’ll need to practise some “social distancing” between TVs.
To solve all these problems there is the Smart TV Labs, testing lounges where Quality Assurance Engineers can be “isolated” to test multiple TVs simultaneously in peace. Thanks to a Smart TV Lab it is possible to test all your Smart TV apps, on any OS, including Android/Google TV, Samsung Tizen, Hisense TV, etc. Furthermore, in a TV Lab is possible also replicate the end-user’s journey and test exactly what they will experience.
The overwhelming variety of Smart TV devices, operative systems, and today’s environments turns testing into a time-consuming task. However, Optiva Media will get your testing done.
From QAltiva, we make extensive Smart TV Testing on a large footprint of models in our Smart TV Lab that include:
In addition to this, our way to provide you with peace of mind is thanks to:
If you are interested in learning more about our technology, you can read about clients that have already tested us.
You can also speak with us directly sending us an email:
Edificio Europa II
Calle Musgo nº2, Madrid
+34 912 977 271
sales@optivamedia.com
Optiva Media is part of EPAM Systems Inc., a leading global provider of digital platform engineering and software development services.
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