New OTT GUI from 9×9 – OTTCON 2011
March 1, 2011 – San Jose, CA – At the Over The Top conference, 9×9 Corporation (www.9×9.tv) showed their new reduced control interface for viewing OTT content. The interface is targeted towards, mobile and game console viewing of web content where full keyboards and mouse access to do the selection of channels is not very convenient.
9×9 OTT GUI
As the company name indicates, the GUI is a 9×9 grid. The icons can be setup on any systems and track, via login, to all platforms for consistency of experience. Each of the icons is a link to a YouTube channel that is setup through a simple select and pan button controls. The standard use model is to use a computer and select the baseline channels to populate the viewing matrix. From that point, when you go to a non-keyboard device, you can simply select the channels to watch via a pointer, or multi-tap with a mobile device, and get the available programming. The current episodes that are available on the channel are arranged in a right/left scrolling frame on the bottom of the screen, so there is no keyboard required to select individual episodes.
The programming guide will support dedicated channels, non-youtube-content, in the future. They are currently negotiating with content providers to have their channel data and content available in the “prime” fixed locations on the grid.
The programing guide works well for selection on Win PC’s, and Macs through their browser interface. The product was tested on an iPodtouch, iPad as mobile platforms and on the Wii as a console. The results were quick and easy browsing and commonality of experience on all devices. As a solution to the no keyboard problem on these devices it works well. The cloud based solution should continue to gather traction as the additional content channels are added.
