Video SDK: continuous time-to-market wins for Logosys, India
Founded in 2005 and based in Hyderabad, India, Logosys provides playout solutions to hundreds of TV channels in various regions of the country. We had a conversation with Ashwin Kumar, founder and lead developer of the company.
I used to do a lot of hardware sales and was speaking to these television channels which wanted some kind of solutions to automate their workflow, and that was when we started developing our payout.
Can you tell us about your product?
It is a playout solution used by cable television channels in India. We have specifically designed our product considering the requirements of Indian low-cost television channels – such as automatic injections of advertisements, rescheduling of the content and overlays. The key aspect is that our customers want everything to run on one machine, they want an all-in-one solution.
What is the most definitive feature of your product?
The user Interface. We have designed our user interface keeping our users in mind, we have done a lot of research into how the cable operators’ employees use the product. We have invested a lot into it, and we keep optimizing it to make it very user-friendly for the end user, who is actually operating the software.
Are there any other products in the pipeline?
We are planning to create an editing solution with an overlay engine and an exporting workflow for direct upload to YouTube and other social platforms. A lot of companies are now operating only on a digital platform, they don't want to operate in a standard television environment, they want to run everything in the cloud. For rendering and exporting of the video we are going to use your SDK.
How is the Video SDK used?
You know, there's the old saying that you don't have to reinvent the wheel. So it's all the hard coding which requires a lot of work. You have already built that library, so it doesn't make sense rebuilding all those things. For us, it is easy to go to market, and it saves a lot of time by not developing those core libraries.
Did you consider any alternatives before you started using the SDK?
No, we considered it long back. But once we started using your SDK, I guess we haven't ever thought of anybody else.
What was the learning curve with the SDK?
I think the documentation was not as good at the time when we started. But now I guess you have enough documentation for a developer to start writing code.
What have you achieved with the SDK?
It's a good product to go to market. It has saved a lot of time for us. Once we started using your product, I guess, within six months we were ready to go to market with the product, and we started onboarding customers. That was the advantage you gave us. If we were to build our own product, it would have taken several years. And the expertise you have benefits us a lot. We don't have to do a lot of research about all those new technologies coming in. You guys are building it, and we can just update the libraries and go directly to market and deliver new features to customers.
It’s fair to say that the SDK allowed us to build our business.
What do you like most about the SDK?
I like the CG. It has a lot of XML customization, which we can use. I'm sure there are a lot of improvements you can do but what you have now is far better than anything else. It's very easy to use, very intuitive.
I also feel your support team is very good. They mostly resolve all the queries we have. Sometimes it takes time, but at the end of the day we get the answer for what we are looking for.
How would you explain our product to a friend?
If he is looking to build some kind of video solution, I will explain to him that with your SDK he can directly go to market.
What are your plans for the future?
It's been 12 years now since we started the company. We have acquired a very good name in the Indian market, and a lot of television channels now know the kinds of services we provide. Your product was very useful in achieving this goal. Now, we are planning to scale and go international. We are exploring other areas, looking forward to building something new. We want to be a one stop solution for anybody who's looking to start a television channel.