Smart TV Application Development for the Hotel Chain

Sombra developed Smart TV application for the hotel chain using VueJS. The app was hosted on Netlify and intended for LG TV. Application aimed to inform, control and entertain guests — enriching the guest experience.

Our Approach

We’ve created a VueJs web application and JS application packaged for LG TV in hotel rooms. The application was hosted on a Netlify server. Also, we connected the Netlify CMS to simplify the process of content management.

The app showcases distinctive services directly to guests’ in-room TV, like time, weather, calendar, information about the restaurant, spa, attractions, and special offers for guests. The design and UI are simple and attractive. A user can easily navigate the application only with remote control.

Business Value

Working with popular, but new technology

We were getting acquainted with documentation related to Smart TV development since it drastically differs from those of standard documentation in software development. But our team quickly mastered new technologies and managed to deliver an app within one month.

Dealing with the predefined tech stack

Sombra team worked with predefined by customer tech stack. While we decided on application architecture and selected CMS solution based on what will be most convenient in terms of managing content. If necessary, our team can choose the tech stack based on the needs of the project, time and budget.

Page navigation

Scrolling implementation was challenging in this project. There were two options to navigate the page: using a magic mouse wheel or remote control buttons. The biggest problem was to get the Magic mouse wheel event to scroll the page. According to official documentation, we should either go with Enyo (for webOS v4.0 and lower) or Enact (webOS v5.0).

Since we used webOS v5.0 – Enyo wasn’t an option. But on the other hand, Enact better suits to ReactJs and we worked with VueJS. Being at a dead end, we decided, that the best option is to fit all content on the view-screen eliminating the need to scroll.

Monitoring and logging errors

Working with different TV screens often brings issues with the correct content display. Realizing such a problem will arise, we decided to capture detailed information about errors and request processing in log files, which will then be sent to the specific IP address.

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Chris Garbacz

Co-founder, StudioNinja

The solution launched to user praise and minimal bugs. Sombra has adapted to technical challenges and limited resources throughout the partnership. Consistent communication, flexibility, and a willingness to incorporate feedback have enabled a seamlessly integrated workflow. Our relationship has run smoothly since the beginning.

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Martin Weber

CTO, Fooring Company

This is the best offshoring experience I’ve had in my 25 years of doing this. Sombra is very productive. We’re cranking things out with very little rework needed. We have speed and quality, which is important because the system is live, so if we make a change, it has an immediate effect on our customer base.

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Sloan Ginn

Former Director of Product

Sombra successfully delivered a smooth-functioning product in the time that the client needed. Their developers were competent and receptive to feedback; the team lead, in particular, proved to have great expertise. They were accommodating of large and abrupt changes, making them a reliable partner.

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Jack Crews

CTO, Legal Monkeys

Sombra keeps everything simple and prioritizes getting the work done. One thing that I was pleased with was that Sombra was able to adapt to and learn our approach to software development. They adopted our best practices and were productive within that development methodology. Overall, the quality of their work is above average.