RTVE takes the step towards the adoption of big data

The public corporation puts out a tender for 4 million euros (6 million with taxes) for the contracting of a big data service for user experience, analytics, user tracking and recommendation.

The Spanish Radio Television Corporation (CRTVE) is willing to take the decisive step in the adoption of big data. To this end, it has just launched a tender for 4 million euros (6 million with taxes) for the contracting of a big data service for user experience, analytics, user tracking and recommendation.

CRTVE has launched the MyRTVE proposal, which aims to provide the Corporation's services with greater personalization, as well as improve the interaction and knowledge of users who use its services and products.

In this environment, big data plays a key role in providing technological capabilities for the capture, processing and storage of information that is increasingly generated by user interactions with the CRTVE digital ecosystem. On the other hand, it is necessary to transform this information into knowledge that allows initially launching a recommendation system adjusted to the characteristics and preferences of each user. Finally, this bidding process aims to lay the foundations for advanced analytical processes that allow CRTVE to transform this information into value for the business.

The public corporation now intends to adopt a big data solution that includes tools for user tracking, recommendations and user analytics. It also aims to provide itself with the computing and storage capacity necessary to support the developments carried out, and for the analysis and exploitation of the information obtained. This capacity will be provided through a managed Big Data infrastructure.

The big data solutions that RTVE intends to adopt through this tender foresee the implementation of a user activity capture system (user tracker). Its objective will be to capture information about the content that users consume and how they interact with them in any of the different products and services that CRTVE has available to end users.

Likewise, it will be essential to have an intelligent and real-time recommendation system, understanding by real time the fact that the results change depending on the last actions that a user has taken. The purpose of this system is to provide the Corporation's users with personalized content for their tastes, consumption patterns or personal preferences.

The user tracker is responsible for capturing user interactions on the client and recording them on the CRTVE servers. This information is stored in data lakes. These data are analyzed and exploited by the analytical system to show information on consumption, and by the recommendation system to show content to users according to their habits and preferences.

In addition to the aforementioned developments, it is necessary to have the capacity to provide an advanced analytics and data engineering service that allows improving developments, performing post-hoc optimizations, new data correlations... The developments have to be based on a series of principles such as the optimization of storage and processes and the reuse of components, both input/output and computing; processing and cost optimization; and simplicity in change.

The specifications establish that the managed big data infrastructure service must include the storage of the vast volumes of data that the use tracker, recommendations and analytics developments manage; cloud infrastructure components; licenses to use the service; the installation, configuration, adaptation and parameterization of all the elements involved; accommodation, processing and infrastructure support, among others.