EON - SmartTV OTT Platform

A large-scale OTT (Over-The-Top) streaming platform serving millions of users across the Balkans, delivering live TV, on-demand content, and interactive features across multiple Smart TV devices and platforms.

The project involved leading frontend development through a critical Vue 2 to Vue 3 migration while simultaneously improving architecture, performance, and code quality at enterprise scale, with particular focus on optimizing for constrained Smart TV hardware.

Overview

EON represents one of the largest television streaming platforms in the Balkan region, competing with major international streaming services while serving the unique needs of regional audiences across diverse Smart TV devices, set-top boxes, and web platforms.

The platform delivers comprehensive television experiences including live channel streaming, catch-up TV, video-on-demand libraries, electronic program guides (EPG), user profiles, parental controls, and content recommendations—all optimized for TV remote control navigation across diverse hardware capabilities.

The role encompassed leading the next-generation platform development, conducting the Vue 2 to Vue 3 migration at scale, and achieving substantial performance improvements particularly on older, constrained Smart TV devices where optimization is most critical for user experience.

Responsibilities

Technical Details

The Vue 2 to Vue 3 migration required careful strategy to minimize disruption to millions of users while enabling modern development patterns. The migration was executed incrementally, converting components module-by-module rather than attempting a risky big-bang rewrite, ensuring continuous service availability throughout the transition.

The Composition API adoption improved code organization, particularly for complex stateful components managing video playback, EPG data, and user interactions. Logic previously scattered across mixins and component options was consolidated into focused, reusable composables that dramatically improved maintainability and testing capabilities.

Performance Optimization - Measurable Impact:

The most significant achievement was optimizing legacy code for Smart TV hardware constraints, particularly on older devices with limited processing power and memory. Through systematic profiling and optimization, key response time was reduced by 74.5%—from 762ms to 194ms on constrained Smart TV devices. This represents a 4-5× improvement in navigation latency and render times, transforming a sluggish, frustrating user experience into a responsive, television-quality interface.

The optimization strategy included:

Architecture Improvements:

The frontend architecture was restructured for scalability across multiple platforms—Smart TVs, set-top boxes, and web. Clear separation of concerns emerged with well-defined data layers, business logic modules, and presentation components. This structure supports the platform's complexity while enabling multiple developers across cross-functional teams to work concurrently without conflicts.

Role-Based Access & Theming:

Implemented comprehensive role-based access flows supporting three user types—visitors (unauthenticated), registered users, and active subscribers—each with appropriate content access, UI variations, and feature visibility. The white-label theming system utilizes configurable styling pipelines, enabling platform customization for different markets or partner brands without codebase duplication.

Feature Development:

Key features delivered include:

Cross-Platform Strategy:

Navigation system optimization addressed the unique challenges of TV interfaces—deterministic focus management, spatial navigation algorithms, and remote control input handling that feels natural and responsive despite hardware limitations. The system adapts intelligently to different input methods (remote control, game controller, keyboard) across device types.

Video player integration required careful handling of platform-specific APIs, DRM implementations for content protection, adaptive bitrate streaming for varying network conditions, and seamless transitions between live and on-demand content. Performance tuning ensured smooth playback startup, minimal buffering, and reliable stream switching even on constrained devices.

The build pipeline was modernized for faster development cycles and reliable production deployments, with improved bundling strategies, aggressive tree shaking, environment-specific optimizations, and monitoring integrations that reduce application size and startup time while maintaining code quality.

Features

Technologies

Outcome

The Vue 3 migration successfully modernized the platform's technical foundation while maintaining uninterrupted service for millions of users across the Balkans—a testament to careful planning, incremental execution, and thorough testing at enterprise scale.

Performance Impact:

The 74.5% reduction in key response time (762ms → 194ms) on constrained Smart TV devices transformed user experience on older hardware—the demographic that benefited most from optimization. Navigation that previously felt sluggish and frustrating became responsive and television-quality, directly impacting user satisfaction and platform retention. The 4-5× improvements in navigation latency and render times established EON as competitive with major international streaming platforms despite hardware constraints common in the Balkan market.

Memory leak resolutions eliminated production crashes and stability issues that previously plagued long-running sessions, particularly important for always-on Smart TV applications. Users reported fewer app crashes and smoother multi-hour viewing sessions.

Architecture & Scalability:

The modernized architecture positioned EON for continued growth across multiple device categories—Smart TVs, set-top boxes, and web platforms—with a unified codebase that supports platform-specific optimizations. The Composition API patterns improved code reusability, reduced duplication, and accelerated development velocity for new features across cross-functional teams.

The role-based access flow implementation enabled flexible business models, supporting free preview tiers (visitors), registered accounts with extended access, and full subscriber experiences—all managed through a single platform with appropriate feature gating and UI adaptations.

The white-label theming system opened partnership opportunities, allowing EON to power branded streaming experiences for telecom operators and content providers across the region without maintaining separate codebases.

Feature Delivery:

Key features like auto-preview, enhanced profiles, and visitor flow increased engagement metrics and conversion rates, making content discovery more intuitive and reducing friction in the user journey from discovery to subscription.

The improved on-screen keyboards and optimized text input reduced frustration during search and login flows—critical touch points where poor UX historically caused abandonment on TV platforms.

Leadership & Collaboration:

Leading frontend development across the next-generation platform involved coordinating with backend teams, product managers, QA engineers, and UX designers across multiple markets. The successful delivery demonstrated technical leadership, project management, and the ability to maintain quality standards while meeting aggressive timelines in a fast-paced OTT environment.

Long-term Impact:

The project demonstrated expertise in large-scale frontend development, complex migration strategies at millions-of-users scale, TV platform optimization for constrained hardware, memory management, and collaborative leadership in enterprise environments. Successfully navigating the Vue 2 to Vue 3 transition while simultaneously improving performance by orders of magnitude represents significant technical achievement with measurable business impact.

The modernized, performant, and scalable codebase positions EON for continued competitiveness in the streaming market, with a foundation that supports emerging features, new platforms, and evolving user expectations in the rapidly changing OTT landscape across the Balkans and beyond.