Boffin Coders is an OTT platform development company for publishers, clubs and course makers who want their own app rather than a channel on someone else's. We build the apps, accounts and catalogue, and leave encoding and delivery to a managed video provider. We have shipped Flutter apps on both stores and run speech to text on our own server. For DRM, TV apps and live events, this page sets out the architecture and who runs each part.
Projects from US$4,000. Developers US$20-38 an hour, or from US$3,500 a month.
10
Apps on Google Play
Built and shipped by us
8
On the App Store
Through Apple review, most also on Google Play
1
Speech pipeline running
Speech to text on our own server
2017
Shipping software since
Same owners and the same team throughout
Much of our client work is under NDA, so this section shows the public part, the work a streaming app is made of: apps through both store reviews, video handled on the device, and speech turned into text on our own server.
Eleven apps of our own, ten on Google Play and eight on the App Store, built and maintained by the same team that does our mobile app development for clients. Store review, privacy forms and releases after launch are routine for us.
An app that splits and trims video on the phone itself, with nothing uploaded. It is video handling we have shipped to both stores and run on real phones, and the Video Splitter project page links to both store listings.
An exam platform turns spoken answers into text on a server we control, which is the same job as writing a subtitle track. How speech to text keeps the recording off third-party servers is written up in full.
A managed video provider does the heavy lifting in your account, and we build the apps, the access rules and the catalogue around it. The quote says which lines the provider covers and which we build, and we walk you through the architecture on the call.
Building a video app is the easy half. What sinks a small streaming service is usually cost, the wrong kind of protection, or a TV platform nobody planned for. These four are worth deciding before the first line of code.
Every minute watched is paid for in bandwidth. A catalogue encoded once at the top quality and sent to every phone burns money without looking any better. Encoding ladders and a managed provider keep that bill predictable.
Studio-licensed films usually require DRM in the contract. Your own lectures or sermons usually need signed, expiring links and nothing heavier. Paying for the first when you need the second is common, and so is the reverse.
Phones and the web share most of their code. TV platforms do not. An app in Flutter or React Native carries to Android TV and Fire TV with remote-control work, while Apple TV and Roku each need their own route.
A live event means an ingest path, a latency target, and a spike of viewers in the first five minutes. It is a separate build from on-demand video, and it is the part most worth handing to a managed provider.
Four pieces, each marked with where we stand. IPTV app development and TV apps are built on each platform’s documented player and interface libraries. Phone apps and speech to text are work we already ship and run.
A catalogue, accounts, subscriptions and a player, built in Flutter or React Native by Flutter developers who ship to both stores already. Encoding, storage and delivery sit with a managed video provider such as Mux, AWS or Bitmovin, and we build the backend that ties your catalogue, payments and access rules to it. The web version is a web application on the same backend.
Built with
What it includes
Android TV and Fire TV run Android, so a Flutter or React Native app carries across with work on remote-control navigation and focus. Flutter has no official Apple TV target, so Apple TV means React Native through its tvOS fork, or native Swift. Roku, one of the most used TV platforms, runs its own language, BrightScript with the SceneGraph framework, so a Roku channel is its own codebase on the same backend and catalogue, and it goes through Roku’s own certification before launch.
Built with
What it includes
An IPTV app plays live channels an operator already provides, usually as HLS streams listed in a playlist, with a programme guide in XMLTV. We build the player, the channel list, the guide and the account check, for content you hold the rights to. It runs on well-documented player libraries, Media3 on Android and AVPlayer on Apple devices, and every stream is tested on the boxes your viewers use before launch. That is the IPTV software development we take on: the player, the guide and the account rules, on streams you hold the rights to, with IPTV development services priced from the published rates.
Built with
What it includes
Speech to text on a server you control writes a draft subtitle track for every title, and an editor corrects it before it is published. The same transcript makes the catalogue searchable by what was said, not only by the title. This part of a streaming product already runs in production for us, in another sector, on a server we control.
Built with
What it includes
The useful AI in a small streaming service is the kind that saves an editor typing. It runs on your server, and an editor approves what it writes.
Every title needs a subtitle track, and typing one by hand takes longer than the episode. Speech to text writes the draft, an editor corrects it, and only then is it published.
We run that pipeline today for an exam platform, on a server we control, so the recordings never go to a transcription company. For a catalogue it has a second use: the transcript makes every title searchable by what was said. We would not start a small service on a recommendation engine. Tags and viewing history do that job until the catalogue is large enough for one to earn its cost.
Speech to text on your own server writes the first subtitle track. An editor corrects it before it goes live.
The transcript is indexed, so a viewer can find the episode where a topic came up, not only the one with it in the title.
Chapters and a short summary drafted from the transcript, for an editor to accept or change.
For a catalogue of a few thousand titles, tags and viewing history do the job. A recommendation service is worth it later, and we would say when.
Welcome back. Tonight we open the second half of the season.
The rehearsal ran long, so we start with the scene we cut.
If you missed last week, it is in the catalogue under Episode 12.
We do not run video infrastructure. A managed provider encodes, protects and delivers it, in your account, and we build around it. This is how we would set up each part, and when the heavier option is worth paying for.
Widevine for Android and Chrome, FairPlay for Apple devices, set up through the video provider rather than run by us. For content you own, signed links that expire are usually enough, and cheaper.
A managed video provider already runs a CDN. One provider is enough to launch. A second CDN is worth its cost only once your own viewing figures show an outage costs more than the contract.
The player reports start-up time, rebuffering and errors to the provider's analytics, so you see what viewers see. We do not promise zero buffering. Nobody who runs video can.
WebVTT caption tracks in as many languages as you publish, drafted by speech to text and corrected by an editor. Captions help every viewer, not only the ones who need them, and they make the catalogue searchable.
Flutter is what our own store apps are built in. The players, video providers and DRM systems here each come with documented SDKs, and we build to them, test on real devices, and hand over the setup notes with the code and the accounts.
In USD. Hourly and monthly rates move with the stack and the seniority, from a junior on routine work to a senior on complex builds. Nothing is quoted outside them, and if the number does not work for you, you have saved yourself a meeting.
Apps for phones and the web, and TV where the platform allows, with the pipeline behind them. Take the build, or hire the engineers and keep it in-house.
US$20-38 an hour depending on the stack, or from US$3,500 a month for a dedicated developer. Shortlisted profiles within two working days, and whoever you pick starts within one to two weeks.
What we have built, what TV platforms need, whether you need DRM, and what it costs. Plain answers, including which parts a managed provider should run.
We have built and shipped Flutter apps on both stores, including Video Splitter, which processes video on the phone, and we run speech to text on our own server for an exam platform. For DRM, TV apps, server-side ad insertion and live events, a managed video provider does the heavy lifting in your account, and we build the apps, the access rules and the catalogue around it. Much of our client work is under NDA, so we walk you through that architecture on a call, and the quote says which lines the provider covers.
Not answered here?
Twenty minutes with the person who would build it. We tell you which parts we have shipped before, how we would build the rest, and which a managed provider should do instead of us.