WHY DOES A MISER PAY TWICE?

Contrary to many experts’ opinion, the IPTV/OTT set-top box market exhibits positive growth dynamics every year. This attracts more and more new manufacturers, many of which prefer to reach their customers at the expense of low prices. The price factor certainly seems tempting at the procurement stage, but are there pitfalls? Should operators consider why certain products are cheaper than others? Won’t they have to pay twice in the end? Let’s try to understand whether you benefit by buying cheap products. We have highlighted the aspects we recommend you consider when selecting a set-top box for your business. You decide!

Here are a few words about choosing. When buying a set-top box for your business, don’t rely on the technical specifications only. Ok, performance or random access memory ARE important! But we are going to talk about factors which are often ignored in adverts, though playing a significant role when integrating the device into your system or launching a new project. We’ll be very happy if this information turns out to be the formula for your future success.

The Top 8 Aspects of Choosing a Set-Top Box

1. Quality Standards

As a rule, customers don’t differentiate between the quality of service and the quality of a device. When their set-top box breaks down and they can’t watch, the only one they will blame is you. The more failed set-top boxes end up in your customers’ hands, the busier your tech support team will be, increasing the negative feedback on your company which will reach your prospective customers. When you buy products with a high ratio of defects, you not only pay twice, you also damage your reputation.

2. After-Sales Service

After-sales service has become an integral part of a high-quality service. If sellers don’t provide a warranty for their products, this may indicate that these sellers doubt the quality.

By agreeing to buy a product without a warranty you are playing a losing game. In this case, saving on the purchase will most likely cause unpredictable loss and surely cast imputations on the reputation of your service. Also to be considered is the fact that the availability of an after-sales service from the manufacturer does not always resolve the problem. Especially when the nearest service center is located somewhere in China and delivery is at your expense.

Did you know that…?

More than half of all set-top boxes ending up at Infomir Service Center are returned to the customer right after a re-flash or replacement of accessories – batteries in the remote control, for example, or a twisted HDMI cable. Set-top boxes undergo a troubleshooting procedure, following which changes in production technology are introduced. This is one of the key ways to improve the quality of every subsequent model.

3. Tech Support 

Problems do not, by any means, just amount to failures. A lot of questions arise in the course of setting up and starting to use a set-top box. There is always the option of looking for answers on the Internet; good – if they are out there. However, it is more likely you will spend a lot of time searching for the necessary information. On the other hand, if your partner is a manufacturer with a good tech support team, such problems simply won’t arise. Think big! It’s not only your money you need to save but also your resources and time. Otherwise, you end up suffering losses in the long run.

Did you know that…?

We have a dedicated document portal, where tech support specialists regularly post answers to frequently asked questions. This is how we help our customers without needing to contact the tech support team directly, whereby regular request analysis is one of the key channels for future product improvements.

4. High-Quality Localization

This is not about localizing a set-top box into dozens of languages. What is important is a thorough localization of default settings into English. This is critical where a set-top box needs to be reset to defaults. In this case, the last thing you want is hieroglyphics (unless that is your native language, of course, or you are a polyglot): you should give preference to a fully localized product. Alternatively, you may have a good Chinese-speaking technical expert in-house, yet we want to help you find a more rational, cost-saving option: the latter is not really one of them.

5. Availability of Own Software

When organizing an IPTV/OTT business, focus on how to select appropriate middleware. There is a myth, still current, that if you want to save you simply buy a batch of inexpensive set-top boxes and code the software for their integration all by yourself. Please consider that when opting for such an extraneous method the company will have to hire professional developers and then pay for an ever-lasting process of product creation and testing. Nor is it necessarily the case that everything will work properly from the get-go. You might have to modify and improve the product many times over time to cure multiple bugs. No one can say when the problems will end. Are you ready to save on your peace of mind?

6. Software and Set-Top Box Synchronization

If we consider how cost-consuming the top 8 factors discussed in this article are, software development and its synchronization with set-top boxes would head the list.
Who do you think will get better results – operator A, who bought inexpensive equipment and tried to develop their own middleware, or operator B, who bought a complete, ready-made solution from the manufacturer?