Humax

The Situation

Founded in 1989, Humax provides high-quality video and broadband gateways to major broadcasters and telecom carriers in 80 countries around the world. As a leading global gateway provider, Humax has acquired world-leading digital broadcasting device technologies for manufacturing digital set-top boxes. Its aim is to create a platform where customers can enjoy digital content at home, easily and conveniently. An attestment to its success, Humax won both the 2016 AT&T Supplier Award and the 2016 BT sustainable supplier award.

The Challenge

As the number of functions running on firmware have increased, Humax states that software updates on its platform have increased nearly tenfold over the past five years. When a large firmware update is released simultaneously for set-top boxes sold around the world, it requires a significant amount of network infrastructure and network capacity. Due to a lack of proper infrastructure, it would take hours to download the firmware and to boot the set-top boxes under Humax’s current platform. Humax also had to reliably handle rapidly-growing download traffic around the world.

The Goals

• Establish reliable network infrastructure to support the rapidly growing firmware download capacity quickly
• Ensure service consistency without downtime — even during peak hours
• Provide reliable service globally and gain visibility into global traffic

The Results

• Website operated under stable conditions despite very high traffic load, due to Akamai’s Media Delivery Solutions
• Recorded no downtime since the introduction of the solution (in 2011/five years ago)
• Provided reliable services in 80 countries without having to deploy additional network infrastructure

Why Akamai

Enhanced Customer Confidence by Recording No Downtime for Five Years

Consumers turn on their set-top boxes at home around the same time – before going to work and upon returning home from work. This means that downloading large software files occurs almost simultaneously on numerous devices around the world. Failure to respond to traffic can lead to immediate downtime or require hours to download files when customers turn on their set-top boxes simultaneously. This can have a direct impact on service and a negative impact on Humax’s business performance.

Humax has been able to further enhance customer confidence by experiencing no downtime since it introduced Akamai’s Media Delivery Solutions in 2011. In addition, it responds with firmware software capacity of more than 1GB files, which is greater than the 100MB capacity of five years ago. Humax's IT Infrastructure Team Manager Yoon Dae-chul said, “We never worry any longer about bandwidth when releasing large firmware updates due to the solution’s excellent scalability. This enables us to operate our business more reliably.”

Reliable Service in 80 Countries Without Investing in Network Infrastructure

Humax’s headquarters in Korea directly manages the software support of a large number of set-top boxes sold in 80 countries around the world. Akamai’s global network has helped Humax provide its innovative services around the world quickly and safely without having to deploy or build out additional network infrastructure.

“We believed that Akamai’s global coverage was what we really needed to provide our services around the world more reliably. We have greatly benefited from visibility into traffic usage and information offered by the Akamai Intelligent Platform™, a distributed platform that operates worldwide. Akamai truly helps us maintain trust with global customers,” said Yoon.

About Humax

Founded in 1989, Humax is a leading global gateway manufacturer that provides high-quality video gateways and broadband gateways to major broadcasters and telecom carriers in 80 countries around the world. Humax has its headquarters and R&D center in Korea and Vietnam respectively, operating 20 corporations and branch offices in the U.S., U.K., Germany, United Arab Emirates, Japan, India, Australia, and Brazil. As of 2015, Humax generates sales of KRW1.4267 trillion and has over 1,000 employees around the world. For more information, please visit https://americas.humaxdigital.com/.