S3 Group Announces Expansion in North America and Enhancements to Automated Service Validation Functionality

DUBLIN, April 23, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- At its inaugural North American StormTest® User Group Conference, S3 Group, a global leader at enhancing the performance and service readiness of video platforms across connected devices, presented the latest functionality for its automated testing platform, StormTest Development Center. The company also today announced that it has expanded its North American operations with the opening of a new office in Philadelphia, to support new and existing business in the region.

"S3 Group is committed to enhancing the performance and service readiness of video platforms in development and production," said Philip Brennan, Vice President of TV Technology at S3 Group. "StormTest Development Center enables engineering teams to increase efficiency by replacing time-consuming manual tests with more accurate automated testing across connected devices. To address the growing demand for our products and services in North America, we are very pleased to have hosted our first North American StormTest User Group Conference, and opened a new North American office in Philadelphia to serve our clients' needs."

"Before any feature change is made to an existing TV service, or any new service is introduced, it's imperative that rigorous testing occurs to ensure that subscribers have a quality experience," said Jason Blackwell, Director, Service Provider Strategies, Digital Consumer Practice at Strategy Analytics. "Pay TV operators must now support set-top boxes, tablets, game consoles, smartphones, and other devices, which requires managing a dizzying combination of possible software configurations and hardware platforms. As such, there is growing need for enhanced service validation solutions that provide the efficiency and reliability required to keep pace."

Continued Expansion in North America
StormTest Development Center is the leading video test automation platform, validating services delivered to more than 140 million viewers, across 28 countries. In North America, S3 Group's StormTest products are used by leading pay TV operators, including: Comcast, Mediacom, Time Warner Cable, Videotron, and others.

S3 Group's new North American office based in Philadelphia will support the company's growing customer base in the region, and address market demand for the company's products and services. The office is in addition to the company's offices in San Jose, CA, international headquarters in Dublin, and other locations worldwide.

Continuing its expansion efforts, the company recently hosted its inaugural North American StormTest User Group Conference this month in Philadelphia, replicating the success of the global event held in Europe for the past four years.

StormTest Development Center Product Innovation
The User Group Conference brought together development and operations teams from major pay TV operators to discuss best-in-class methodologies for service validation. Latest product enhancements presented at the User Group Conference included:

• Improved insights with enhanced reporting options: using data generated by test automation to help development, operations and product management personnel assess the performance and service readiness of video services across connected devices.
• Streamlined test development with improved "Navigator" Graphical User Interface (GUI): simplifying the development and reducing maintenance effort associated with test navigation frameworks – saving up to 30% of test development effort in the process.
• Enhanced HD and 4K image handling: migration of underlying StormTest software architecture to 64-bit processing, providing all the power needed for HD and 4K video service testing.

StormTest Development Center is globally recognized for its ability to increase operational efficiencies and provide quality assurance of ongoing video service software releases across set-top boxes, gateway devices, game consoles, connected TVs, and mobile applications.

At NCTA's The Cable Show, April 29-May 1 in Los Angeles, S3 Group will demonstrate its latest advances in video service validation, end-to-end system integration and Reference Design Kit (RDK) migration support in the CableNet exhibit area.

Additional information about StormTest Development Center is available at: http://www.s3group.com/tv-technology/products/stormtest-development-center/.

About S3 Group:
S3 Group is a global leader at enhancing the performance and service readiness of video platforms across connected devices. In both development and production, S3 Group provides unique insights through service validation products and platform integration services for multiscreen deployments. S3 Group has more than 100 customers, across 28 countries, including: Astro, BSkyB, BT, Comcast, Liberty Global, Mediacom, RDK Management, LLC, Swisscom, Time Warner Cable, upc cablecom, Videotron, and numerous others. Visit http://www.s3group.com/tv-technology and http://www.twitter.com/S3Group_tvtech for further information.

SOURCE S3 Group