Qvest Equips RTL+ With Modern Software Architecture

Qvest‘s digital product development team has worked closely with RTL to comprehensively modernize the software architecture of its streaming platform. With this upgrade, the online broadcaster RTL+ can use resources even more effectively while increasing productivity, Qvest says.

With RTL+, the German TV broadcaster RTL operates Germany’s largest streaming service with over 3.4 million users. The team at Qvest Digital AG, a part of the Qvest Group, was responsible for the comprehensive modernization of this streaming platform. This involved a complete overhaul of the existing software architecture. The result provides RTL+ employees not only significantly increased efficiency in media technology workflows, but also economic benefits.

As part of the modernization, the existing software architecture was converted from a backend-for-frontend (BFF) pattern to GraphQL with Federation. Here, the Qvest team was able to draw on many years of experience in the field of platform development.

In the process, numerous separate APIs, each of which was connected to a different frontend of the streaming service (web app, mobile app, TV app, etc.), were replaced by a harmonized API. The newly created, central interface for all software teams enables easier further development of the platform as well as time savings of up to 30% in the workflow. This increase in efficiency has a direct impact on time-to-market and thus results in a significant business advantage.

The close collaboration between RTL+ and Qvest has resulted in a solution that optimizes the platform’s technological performance and leads to a more agile and cost-efficient way of working. The modernized architecture enables the team at RTL+ to use resources more effectively while achieving higher productivity in content development and delivery. Key factors in the success of the GraphQL Federation implementation included troubleshooting and community building, in addition to tooling and schema management.