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Industry
Consumer Electronics
Region
North America
Use Case
Peridio Fleet
Customer Since
2023
How Telly Masters Rapid Software Delivery to Power the Next Generation of Consumer Electronics
Challenge: Managing Complex Software Updates at Scale
Telly has established a high-velocity development environment where dozens of software engineers work across multiple release trains, shipping updates to a massive fleet of devices. By implementing Peridio's platform, they've achieved what would typically require a dedicated team of engineers with just 1.5 engineers supporting the integration, allowing them to focus resources on product innovation rather than infrastructure maintenance.
Background
Telly has been one of Peridio's flagship customers from the very beginning. Their innovative dual-screen TV design challenges industry norms with a unique approach:
1. The primary top screen delivers sports, entertainment, and movies
2. The secondary bottom screen (the smart screen) brings all new experiences to the living room like video calling, news, weather and sports updates, video games, and a fitness studio without interrupting the primary content.
As Eric Loes, Head of Software Engineering at Telly, explains: "You're only as successful as getting your software out to your hardware" - a philosophy that has guided their approach from day one.
In an industry known for slow updates and cumbersome interfaces, Telly recognized that their success would depend on superior software deployment capabilities and an efficient engineering team that could maintain quality as their device fleet expanded into the hundreds of thousands.
Key Challenges & Solutions
Build vs. Buy Decision
One of Telly's earliest strategic decisions centered around whether to build their firmware management system in-house or partner with a specialized platform.
"It's hard to sell to finance or your CEO why you need to invest engineering and resourcing into a reliable system to deploy," Eric notes. "Firmware update infrastructure is more or less a separate product line that needs maintaining."
While a basic AWS IoT implementation might have seemed sufficient initially, Telly recognized that production-ready features at scale would require significant ongoing investment. Having seen these systems occupy more than half a dozen engineers at his previous position at Vizio, particularly when developing nuanced controls required for a software app store, Eric knew there had to be a better approach.
Managing High-Volume Software Development
With dozens of software engineers working on multiple release trains across 20+ unique applications, Telly needed a sophisticated system that could:
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Enable high-velocity development and testing workflows
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Safely deploy updates to customer devices on a regular cadence
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Track update success rates across their growing device fleet
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Optimize bandwidth usage with targeted component updates
Peridio's platform provided the comprehensive solution they needed, allowing their engineering and test teams to ship updates internally multiple times daily while maintaining a cadence of monthly updates to their production fleet.
How Telly Uses Peridio
Given that Telly was one of Peridio's earliest customers, they've been instrumental in shaping the platform's features to ensure it meets the needs of engineering teams globally.
Cohort-Based Release Management
Telly implements a sophisticated five-tier cohort system for controlled rollouts:
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Nightly Debug Cohort: Used for daily builds and rapid testing
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Nightly User Cohort: For production-like testing without debug features
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Release User Debug Cohort: For release candidate testing
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Public Beta Release User Cohort: For early adopter testing
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Partner Release Debug Cohort: For third-party vendor integration
They also create temporary release cohorts as needed for specific feature testing or parallel release trains, providing the flexibility essential to their development process.
Advanced Release Management
Telly leverages several key aspects of the Peridio platform:
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Phased, Scheduled Releases: Enabling controlled deployment to different user segments
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Device Cohorts with Tag-Based Rollout: Allowing precise targeting of updates
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Component-Based Updates: Optimizing bandwidth and reducing update package size
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Visualization and Analytics: Providing real-time insights into fleet performance
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Differential Updates: Managing 20+ unique applications across their TV ecosystem
"We now can scale it in a way to not only reduce costs by not having the entire firmware update, we could potentially have every piece updated by itself," explains Eric.
Customer Support Integration
The platform's integration capabilities have proven particularly valuable for bridging engineering and customer support teams.
"Customer support and engineering have to be best friends when it comes to a hardware software product," Eric notes. This collaboration is facilitated through Peridio's APIs and webhooks, allowing support teams to access relevant device information and update status without requiring engineering intervention.
Results
The implementation of Peridio has delivered impressive results for Telly:
Update Success Rate
An industry-leading 95% of devices complete updates within just 7 days of release (with plans to push this to 98%)
Monthly Production Updates
Consistent delivery to their entire device fleet
Multiple Daily Internal Builds
Supporting rapid development cycles
Streamlined Engineering
Managed with just 1.5 dedicated engineers
Advice for Teams Starting Out
Based on their experience, Telly offers valuable advice for teams implementing cohort-based deployment strategies:
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Establish a Flexible Foundation: Implement a versatile cohort and tagging system early to support future growth
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Start Small and Controlled: Begin with limited rollouts before expanding to your full device fleet
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Optimize Update Delivery: Break down large firmware packages into components for efficient distribution
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Automate from Day One: Build automation into your processes from the beginning
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Prioritize Monitoring: Focus particularly on update success rates to catch issues early
As Eric recommends: "You want to ensure your own success. The easiest success is bundle everything together and get that going, make sure that you're seeing updates within your KPI metrics, and then once you get that reliability, you can start enhancing it."
Looking Ahead
Telly continues to push the boundaries of what's possible with their firmware management approach. Their upcoming plans include silent updates, enhanced release note automation, and expanded testing capabilities.
Through their ongoing collaboration with Peridio, they've transformed firmware updates from a necessary maintenance task into a strategic advantage. With 95% of their device fleet successfully updating within a week of release, they can confidently deliver new features and improvements that enhance the user experience with each update cycle.
"It's hard to sell to finance or your CEO why you need to invest engineering and resourcing into a reliable system to deploy... Firmware update infrastructure is more or less a separate product line that needs maintaining."
Eric Loes | Head of Software Engineering
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