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Alcatraz Pro – a natural successor of Alcatraz cloud service
In the second article of our solutions section, we would like to introduce you to the Alcatraz Pro cloud service, which will become a reliable partner for every telecom operator that chooses inext set-top boxes.
For inext, the idea of remote control of set-top boxes in the network is not new, since for 9 years our clients have been enjoying the convenient functionality of the Alcatraz system, which currently includes hundreds of thousands of devices from more than one hundred and fifty operators.
Alcatraz is a SaaS virtual device management system designed to monitor and control STBs in a specific network. With its help, operators can, among other things, remotely independently or automatically block the device.
Alcatraz Pro significantly expands the functionality of its predecessor, first of all, by allowing the operator to send push-notifications to the consoles, which will greatly simplify and optimize the communication process with the end user. Such notifications can be sent both to all devices on the network or to selected categories, for example, sorted by firmware version.
Also, for convenience purposes, a feature has been added that allows you to create push notifications and send them to the mailing list immediately, or you can choose to schedule them by specifying both the start date and the end date of the mailing.
An important point inherited from Alcatraz to Alcatraz Pro is a very simple and intuitive control panel – the operator can still immediately see the device model, mac address, serial number, software version, ip address and the time of the last power on the network .
However, using the Pro version opens up a completely new level of information provision in regards to the end user’s device.
With Alcatraz Pro, the operator will have access to the following parameters:
- Device activation date;
- Language;
- Android version;
- Type of connection to TV and WiFi;
- Connection level;
- Installed applications;
- Device temperature;
- The amount of free memory.
With new search capabilities, the operator will now be able to find devices by model, firmware version, MAC address, IP address, and even a comment on a specific device, which will save time and resources during continuous use.
Another interesting expertise of the Pro version is the ability to check the network bandwidth using iPerf3 (testing the network connection with the ability to select the direction and type of TCP/UDP traffic), which will allow you to get detailed results by time, data volume or the number of packets in a few clicks.
In conclusion, it should be noted that Alcatraz Pro also significantly increases the range of commands that can be applied to the inext set-top box – obtaining a screenshot, sending a remote control command to the device, rebooting the device, returning the device to factory settings, turning on/disabling automatic firmware updates (full or phased deployment of the update and testing on a limited group of devices), updating data on the device (for example, temperature).
Alcatraz Pro is an innovative solution for managing Android boxes that significantly improves functionality and usability compared to the previous version, and we are confident that it will become a convenient everyday tool for all our partners and allow them to focus their time and efforts on improving their own technology. After all, we know that this is why they choose inext!