SailFin Every feature, from the headend to the couch
This is what SailFin does today on WiConnect’s live service, grouped by where it sits in your TV operation. What we’re still building is listed separately at the end, so you always know which is which.
Headend and encoding
Turns the feeds you already receive into IP channels, on servers at your own headend.
- Multicast ingest: takes MPTS or single-program multicast from satellite receivers and off-air tuners, picking the program and audio tracks by PID.
- Encoders you manage from the admin: create, start, stop, restart and probe each channel’s encoder, with its input, output and server shown.
- Self-registering workers: each encoding server joins automatically, reports its load and channels every few seconds, and is grouped by headend.
- Multiple headends: separate sites run independently, and a channel can have sources at more than one headend, with failover between them.
- GPU transcoding: uses NVIDIA encoders where a server has one, for example for phone-friendly versions of channels.
- Stream probe: inspects any feed from the headend’s own network (programs, video, audio and ad cues) before you build a channel on it.
- Multiple audio tracks: main and second-language audio carried through to the apps.
- Receiver inventory: each headend’s receivers and feeds tracked alongside the channels they serve.
- Safe updates: new versions roll out to every server from one promote step, without touching each box.
Delivery and rights
Gets each stream to the right customer, on the right device, where the programming agreements allow it.
- Home and away: SailFin knows whether a viewer is on your network or elsewhere, and applies each channel’s rules for both.
- Per-channel rules: switch any channel on or off for away-from-home viewing, for phones, for DVR and for ad insertion, one at a time or in bulk.
- Secure streams: every stream uses signed, expiring links tied to an authorized device.
- Stream and device limits per plan, enforced at playback.
- Streaming edge: a public delivery point for viewers away from home, with the headends kept private behind it.
- Set-top box support: keeps Ministra (Infomir MAG boxes) in sync automatically, with permanent stream addresses that follow a channel when it moves between servers.
- Clear refusals: when a stream isn’t allowed, the app says why (not in plan, not available away from home, account on hold) instead of failing silently.
Customer apps
Apps for the TV and the phone, published on Google Play.
- Google TV and Android TV app: a modern home screen with a highlights banner and channel rows, a full guide grid, and live playback.
- Phone and tablet app: the same service with a touch interface, on the same Play listing.
- Easy sign-in: scan a QR code on the TV with a phone, enter a short code, or sign in with an email and password.
- Remote-friendly: channel up and down step through channel numbers like cable, with a favorites row and picture fit options for older channels.
- Device identity: each TV, phone or tablet is identified by make and model, so accounts list real devices, not duplicates.
- Viewer settings, including control over interactive ad responses.
Guide and discovery
Helps customers find something to watch, using your lineup and your own viewing data.
- Program guide from Schedules Direct, synced nightly with a 14-day lookahead and per-channel mapping.
- Tonight highlights: the TV home screen banner picks live sports, movies and popular shows from the guide and from what your customers actually watch.
- Your say: pin, hide or reorder highlights, and add your own promo cards for your services.
- Guide preview in the admin for any channel.
Network DVR
Recordings stored on your own servers at each headend.
- Record from the guide: recordings are captured at the headend from each channel’s own stream; playback in the apps is rolling out now.
- Shared recordings: one copy of a program serves every customer who recorded it, where your agreements allow, which saves storage.
- Storage pools per headend on your own hardware, with usage shown in the admin.
- Automatic expiry of old recordings, and DVR switched on or off per channel.
Subscribers and billing
Plugs into the billing and customer systems you already run.
- Plans and add-ons: channel access, stream and device limits per plan, plus add-on packs such as sports.
- Device management: each account’s devices with type, model and last seen, with removal rules for customers and full control for staff.
- Account status: active, past due and suspended, each with a clear message to the viewer.
- Integration API: a signed API to create subscribers, change plans, link TVs, list devices and pass billing status, with webhooks back to your systems.
- Self-service sign-up, ready to use: WiConnect’s customer portal shows the full flow (sign-up, card payment, autopay, TV activation) working against the API.
- Operator API keys for your own tools and reports.
Local advertising
Turns the networks’ local ad breaks into income.
- Break detection: reads the networks’ SCTE-35 cue markers and logs every local break.
- Spot upload with checks: length, format and loudness are checked on upload; loudness is corrected to broadcast level automatically.
- Prepared per channel: each spot is matched to every channel’s live format, and re-prepared automatically if a feed changes.
- Slates per headend fill any part of a break without a spot.
- Rotation and separation: spots rotate fairly, and the same spot never repeats on a channel within the time you set.
- Interactive ads: viewers press OK to ask for a text, a call back or an offer; the response goes straight to the advertiser.
- Proof of play: every insertion is logged with the households watching, ready for advertiser reports.
Operations and monitoring
Shows what’s wrong and where, before customers call.
- Stream health: every channel checked continuously, from the feed to the stream customers receive.
- Issues list: problems gathered in one place, with the likely cause named.
- Viewer statistics: live viewers by channel, recent sessions, and trends by channel and subscriber.
- Channel cost tracking: import your programming invoice and see each channel’s cost per subscriber next to how much it’s watched.
- Programming agreement rules: record each programmer’s terms, such as home-only channels or DVR limits, and apply them to the lineup.
- Staff accounts for the admin, with activity logged.
Deployment
Runs where it suits you.
- Hosted by us or on your servers, with the encoding always at your headend.
- Runs in containers on ordinary Linux servers, including hardware you already own.
- Your brand on the apps and the customer experience; your channels, agreements and customers stay yours.
Coming next
Being built now or next. Ask us where any of these stand.
- More devices: Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV and iPhone, smart TVs, and a web player.
- Studio-grade content protection (DRM) for the devices that need it.
- Catch-up TV: watch shows from earlier in the day on selected channels.
- SRT and HLS ingest for networks delivered over the internet instead of satellite.
- Advertiser self-service: businesses upload spots, book campaigns and see their reports online.
- Ad-free option as a paid add-on for your customers.
- Phone-friendly versions of every channel, for full lineups on phones and tablets.
- Multi-operator hosting: several providers on one hosted platform, each with its own data, keys and settings.
- Receiver monitoring through LibreNMS, with remote power-cycling of headend equipment.
See it running
We’ll walk you through every one of these on our live service.