Reimagining Digital Experiences and Operations through Custom Media Software Development Services
Updated
Clients served together with our delivery partner NeoSOFT
Media Software Development Solutions
OTT Solutions
Key Highlights:
- Development for mobile, web, and connected TV apps
- Cloud-enabled media processing and delivery
- Video monetization and ad management (AVOD, SVOD, TVOD)
- Data encryption and digital rights protection
Digital Publication Platforms
Key Highlights:
- Scalable CMS and publishing workflows
- Integration with multi-device distribution channels
- Real-time analytics and audience insights
- Tools for authoring, editing, and monetizing content
Film and Television Production
Key Highlights:
- Scheduling, budgeting, and approval workflows
- Collaborative video editing and content review
- Centralized data storage and version control
- Analytics for cost tracking and project efficiency
Print and Digital Media Management
Key Highlights:
- Centralized asset and print management
- Workflow automation for publishing cycles
- Enhanced quality and consistency across channels
- Reduced production costs and turnaround time
Advertising Technology Solutions
Key Highlights:
- Campaign and ad space management tools
- Audience behavior tracking and reporting
- Real-time budget optimization
- Advanced analytics for targeting and conversion
Gaming Solutions
Key Highlights:
- Engaging, interactive gaming experiences
- High-performance and low-latency gameplay
- Multi-platform integration and scalability
- In-game monetization and analytics features
Key Highlights:
- Development for mobile, web, and connected TV apps
- Cloud-enabled media processing and delivery
- Video monetization and ad management (AVOD, SVOD, TVOD)
- Data encryption and digital rights protection
Key Highlights:
- Scalable CMS and publishing workflows
- Integration with multi-device distribution channels
- Real-time analytics and audience insights
- Tools for authoring, editing, and monetizing content
Key Highlights:
- Scheduling, budgeting, and approval workflows
- Collaborative video editing and content review
- Centralized data storage and version control
- Analytics for cost tracking and project efficiency
Key Highlights:
- Centralized asset and print management
- Workflow automation for publishing cycles
- Enhanced quality and consistency across channels
- Reduced production costs and turnaround time
Key Highlights:
- Campaign and ad space management tools
- Audience behavior tracking and reporting
- Real-time budget optimization
- Advanced analytics for targeting and conversion
Key Highlights:
- Engaging, interactive gaming experiences
- High-performance and low-latency gameplay
- Multi-platform integration and scalability
- In-game monetization and analytics features
Custom AI Solutions Designed For Measurable Business Outcomes
Selected clients success stories
Digital Publishing Platform Built for One of the World’s Largest Entertainment-to-Education Publishers
Delivering a visually rich, user-friendly application to discover, manage, and personalize book experiences
4X
15%
30%
Interactive Recipe & Subscription Platform Built for One of the World’s Largest Food Media Brands
Driving higher engagement and subscriptions through a fast, user-driven content experience
25%
30%
15%
Proven Results, Shared by Clients
“Sthenos improved the overall quality of the client’s software by reducing bugs, strengthening system stability, and supporting consistent performance improvements across the platform over time.”
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
“Sthenos delivered the project in line with our requirements and kept the process clear throughout. The team shared regular updates and quality reports, ensuring transparency at every stage.”
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
“Sthenos delivered the project successfully and met our expectations. The team stayed organized, transparent, and communicated clearly, making collaboration smooth throughout the engagement.”
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
“Sthenos improved system performance by cutting report generation time, reducing slowdowns, and increasing reliability, which helped lower support issues across the platform.”
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
“Sthenos noticeably improved the performance and reliability of our systems, ensuring more consistent operations, fewer disruptions, and a smoother experience across our overall technology environment.”
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Custom media software development for streaming platforms, content management systems and digital media operations. This page follows a piece of content from production to audience, names the rules that reach a video stream, an ad and a user upload, and sets out how the build runs, what moves the cost, and what to ask any firm bidding for the work, including us.
Depending on the seniority and mix of the team. Where the scope is clear we quote a fixed price for a defined outcome.
A first production release typically lands in three to six months.
Sthenos holds no SOC 2 report or ISO 27001 certificate of its own.
From the first commit, with no licence back to us.
On this page
- From production to audience: what we build for media companies
- The rules a stream, an ad and an upload answer to
- How a media software build runs
- Build, buy or configure, compared
- What drives the cost of media software
- What to ask before you hire a media software vendor
- What you receive
- Case studies, delivered with our partner NeoSOFT
- Frequently asked questions
- Related pages
From production to audience: what we build for media companies
The six service lines above cover a piece of content across its whole life: planned and shot, stored and versioned, edited and published, streamed, paid for, and measured.
Figure 1. A piece of content from production to audience, and where each rule attaches
Every stage is a phrase from this page's cards: scheduling and budgeting from film and television production, storage and version control from the same card and from print and digital media management, CMS and publishing workflows from digital publication platforms, the apps and the AVOD, SVOD and TVOD models from OTT solutions, and audience insights from digital publication and advertising technology. The badges name the rule that attaches to each stage, as set out below; none is a Sthenos credential.
Streaming across mobile, web and smart TV, for live broadcasts and video on demand, with data encryption and digital rights protection.
Content creation, real-time editing and CMS integration for newsrooms, media houses and magazine publishers.
Planning, scheduling, budgeting and post-production, with approval workflows and collaborative review.
Centralized asset and print management and workflow automation for publishing cycles.
Campaign and ad space management, audience behavior tracking and real-time budget optimization.
Console, mobile and web games, from concept and design to testing and deployment, with in-game monetization and analytics.
The production line is operations management software for a studio: planning, scheduling, budgeting and approvals in one place, with analytics for cost tracking and project efficiency. The publishing line starts from what our digital publishing platform explainer describes: software that lets publishers create, manage, and distribute their content across digital channels.
The rules a stream, an ad and an upload answer to
47 CFR 79.4, closed captioning of video delivered over the internet
Who issues it, and whom it binds. The Federal Communications Commission, at 47 CFR 79.4: “All nonexempt full-length video programming delivered using Internet protocol must be provided with closed captions if the programming is published or exhibited on television in the United States with captions”. The rule binds the “Video programming distributor or video programming provider. Any person or entity that makes available directly to the end user video programming through a distribution method that uses Internet protocol.”
Where it touches this page. The OTT card's live broadcasts and video on demand across mobile, web and connected TV apps are that distribution method, so where the rule applies, captions have to travel with the content to every one of those apps.
DMCA section 512, for platforms that host what users upload
Who issues it, and whom it binds. The US Copyright Office explains section 512: “The safe harbors shield qualifying online service providers from monetary liability for copyright infringement based on the actions of their users, in exchange for cooperating with copyright owners to expeditiously remove infringing content”. It is a safe harbor a provider qualifies for rather than a mandate.
Where it touches this page. “Once the online service provider has received a compliant notice, it must act expeditiously to remove or disable access to the infringing material.” To qualify, a publishing platform or a game with user-generated content needs a route for that notice built in, next to the digital rights protection already on the OTT card.
VAST, the template behind video ads
Who issues it. The IAB Tech Lab, which describes VAST as the “Video Ad Serving Template for structuring ad tags that serve ads to video players”. The IAB Tech Lab page does not describe it as mandatory.
Where it touches this page. Video monetization and ad management for AVOD services is on the OTT card, and campaign and ad space management is on the advertising technology card.
GDPR, when the audience is in the EU
Who issues it, and whom it binds. The European Parliament and Council, in Regulation (EU) 2016/679. Article 3(2) reaches a controller or processor not established in the Union where the processing relates to offering goods or services to people in the Union, or to “(b) the monitoring of their behaviour as far as their behaviour takes place within the Union.”
Where it touches this page. Audience behavior tracking and reporting on the advertising technology card, and real-time analytics and audience insights on the publication card, are that kind of monitoring when the audience is in the EU.
How a media software build runs
The four steps below condense the stages published on our custom software development page. We work in two week sprints, so working software arrives every two weeks and a first production release typically lands in three to six months, as published on our about page.
- DiscoveryThe problem, the constraints and the success criteria are mapped before a line of code. It ends with a written scope and a costed roadmap, which is the point at which a fixed price becomes possible.
- Architecture and designThe data model, where state lives, how the system fails, how it scales, and how a reviewer will later verify its security posture.
- Build and releaseTwo week sprints that end in something reviewable, then hardening, testing and a controlled release with the rollback path decided before the deployment.
- Handover and supportThe repository and the cloud accounts in your name, then monitoring, maintenance and a roadmap tied to business outcomes.
Build, buy or configure, compared
Requests that arrive as a need for custom media software have three honest answers, and only one of them is a build. If you already own a content platform, the gap is often configuration, data quality and integration rather than a missing system.
Buy or configure what you own
When- The process is the same one your competitors run
- The product covers it without heavy configuration
- The licence cost is proportionate to the people who will use it
Build
When- The process is genuinely how you compete
- Data residency or a control framework rules out the hosted option
- The integration surface is so specific no product will cover it
The full comparison, with where each answer goes wrong, is on our custom software development page.
What drives the cost of media software
Our rates are $150 to $250 per hour, depending on the seniority and mix of the team, and a typical project runs $50,000 to $200,000. Where the scope is clear we quote a fixed price for a defined outcome, with a costed roadmap before any build starts.
- How many systems it has to talk to. Multi-device distribution channels, CMS integration and ad platforms are all named on this page, and every integration adds a counterparty whose availability, data quality and release calendar you do not control.
- How many devices it has to reach. Mobile, web, smart TV and console each carry their own release process, which the OTT and gaming cards both name.
- The control framework the contract names. Captioning, digital rights protection or a privacy target carries evidence, review and documentation the same build would not otherwise need.
- How settled the scope is. A settled scope can be quoted as a fixed price; an unsettled one priced as though it were settled is where the buffer comes from.
- The seniority and mix of the team. This is the stated reason our own rate band has a range at all.
- What happens after launch. A quote that stops at go-live is not cheaper, it is shorter.
What to ask before you hire a media software vendor
Every one of these is already published on this site, so you can put all of them to us as easily as to anybody else.
- Ask what they have integrated with, by name and version. Experience with a platform and a completed integration against it are different claims.
- Ask how captions and rights protection travel with the content from the asset store to the player.
- Ask which certifications are audited and which are self declared, then ask for the report date.
- Ask for named engineers on the contract, and a notice clause if they change.
- Ask what happens when the estimate is wrong.
- Ask what they would not build.
What you receive
- The repository and the cloud accounts, in your name from the first commit, with no licence back to us.
- A written scope and a costed roadmap, before any build starts.
- Working software every two weeks, not a status report about software.
- Architecture and a security posture you can put in front of a reviewer.
- Infrastructure your own engineers can run once we hand it over.
- Monitoring, maintenance and a roadmap after launch, priced up front.
Case studies, delivered with our partner NeoSOFT
The two case studies in the carousel above were delivered with our partner NeoSOFT: the digital publishing platform built for an entertainment-to-education publisher, delivering a visually rich, user-friendly application to discover, manage and personalize book experiences, and the interactive recipe and subscription platform built for a food media brand, built around a fast, user-driven content experience.
Frequently asked questions
What is a digital publishing platform?
A digital publishing platform is software that lets publishers create, manage, and distribute their content, books, journals and courses, across digital channels. It replaces the slow print and PDF workflow with one system that handles everything from authoring to delivery.
Does online video need closed captions?
Under 47 CFR 79.4, nonexempt full-length video programming delivered using Internet protocol must be provided with closed captions if the programming is published or exhibited on television in the United States with captions.
What is VAST in video advertising?
VAST is the IAB Tech Lab's Video Ad Serving Template, used for structuring the ad tags that serve ads to video players. On this page it sits behind video monetization and ad management for ad-supported services.
What does section 512 of the DMCA do?
It gives qualifying online service providers safe harbors from monetary liability for copyright infringement based on the actions of their users, in exchange for cooperating with copyright owners to remove infringing content, including acting expeditiously once a compliant notice arrives.
What does media software development cost?
Our rates are $150 to $250 per hour, depending on the seniority and mix of the team, and a typical project runs $50,000 to $200,000. Where the scope is clear we quote a fixed price for a defined outcome, with a costed roadmap before any build starts.
How do you work with NeoSOFT?
A senior Sthenos team stays accountable on every engagement, and through our partner NeoSOFT we add enterprise-scale delivery capacity. Where enterprise-scale certifications matter, we reference NeoSOFT accurately rather than claiming them as Sthenos's own. The commercial relationship stays with Sthenos.
Related pages
- What is a digital publishing platform?, the definition this page builds on.
- CMS solution, for content management and publishing workflows.
- Mobile app development, for OTT and game apps.
- Education and learning, where publishing meets learning platforms.
- Data analytics services, for audience analytics.
Talk to an engineer. We are happy to answer any questions you may have and help you determine which of our services best fit your needs. Talk to our engineers.
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