For the past 16 years, our engineers have built many of the most important apps in streaming, on mobile and the TV. From HBO GO to MTV to NBC News and CNBC, we know the streaming business like the back of our hand.
Few clients, best-in-class engineers. We take on only a few clients at a time, so your product gets our best engineers and is done right the first time.
Most recent first. On most of these projects, our engineers worked inside the client’s own team as embedded consultants and engineering leads, alongside their staff and other vendors. Each case study spells out exactly what our role was.
We're helping NBCUniversal build out its news and lifestyle streaming apps on iOS and Roku, for some of the most-watched brands in American news.
From 2019 to 2025, Apple engaged CS54 to engineer Radar, Apple’s internal tracking tool for iOS and macOS, used every day by everyone from the CEO to Apple’s film studios to every employee.
A live, real-money trivia show hosted by Kevin Jonas. Questions and results stayed in sync with the live video for every player, even during big traffic spikes.
A complete revamp of the Babies“R”Us iPhone app, turning it into a full mobile shopping experience.
Helped architect Viacom's next-generation shared codebase powering its brand apps.
Architecture and lead engineering for Yahoo's premium video app.
Lead mobile engineering for HBO's streaming service as it grew from the web to every screen, including helping build the next generation of HBO GO, the platform that evolved into HBO Max.
| Project | iOS | Apple TV | Roku | Android | macOS | Web |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NBCUniversal | ||||||
| Apple | ||||||
| Pop Culture Live | ||||||
| Babies“R”Us | ||||||
| Galactic Nemesis | ||||||
| MTV & Comedy Central | ||||||
| Yahoo Screen | ||||||
| HBO GO & HBO Max |
Shipped to production Prototype, or delivered with a partner
“CS54’s team and I worked together on multiple top-hit games for iOS and Android. Their talents really shined when they developed a live streaming gameshow from the ground up called Pop Culture Live. The game, app, streaming, and coordinated apps worked flawlessly together. From soup to nuts, they set up the studio, the custom teleprompter apps that tied into our gameshow database, the camera and lighting, the front-end apps, and a platform that could handle hundreds of thousands of concurrent streams at a relatively low cost. Just a fantastic team.”
“It was a pleasure working with Charles and the CS54 team to explore the possibilities for a streaming platform we were considering. Although the project ultimately didn’t move forward for reasons beyond our control, we learned a great deal through the collaboration and gained a clearer understanding of our options. We hope to work with them again in the near future.”
“I worked with Charles and his CS54 team at HBO during the build-out of HBO GO. They’re reliable and hard-working: whatever the complexity or deadline, they make sure the work ships on schedule. They also adapt quickly to new technology, which matters in a field that changes as fast as streaming.”
“CS54 helped consult on our next-gen platforms that integrate native applications as well as advanced AI systems. They helped us identify any potential weakness in our current setup and how we could optimize for better customer experiences. The whole team was awesome to work with, and we can’t wait to start another project with them in the near future.”
We can join your team or own the whole build. Either way, you get senior engineers who have shipped video apps used by millions of people.
We bring your live channels and video library to the TV. We design one product, adapt it to each platform's remote and store rules, and take it through certification and launch.
Every engagement includes analytics and video quality monitoring, automated testing, a security and DRM review, and full documentation handed to your team.
Smooth start-up and adaptive streaming, DRM integration, and server-side ad insertion that protects your ad revenue on every device.
HLS / DASH · FairPlay · Widevine · SSAI
Companion and flagship mobile apps that share code, analytics and design with your TV apps, with AirPlay and casting built in.
Swift · Kotlin · AirPlay
Senior architects who join your team: platform strategy, vendor selection, code reviews, accessibility and hiring.
Strategy · Accessibility · Code review
Our own senior team covers the full stack: the apps, the backend, the video pipeline and the cloud behind them. Every proposal states in writing what CS54 builds and owns, and what your other vendors provide, before any work starts.
Need help choosing these? We advise on vendor selection as part of discovery.
One team for phone, tablet and TV, so features and analytics match wherever people watch.
Apple TV prototypes for HBO GO and Yahoo before tvOS existed. Prototyped the first Apple TV apps for MTV and Comedy Central. Launched Galactic Nemesis as one of the first games on the new Apple TV, and contributed to the success of other TV apps under NDA.
More on Apple TV →Created and contributed to Roku products for HBO, Warner Bros. and NBC.
More on Roku →AirPlay, HDMI out, deep linking and international launches for flagship video apps.
Built Android prototypes for HBO GO, isolating the video player and DRM to find performance limits before launch.
Apple’s Radar macOS client (2019 to 2025), plus Mac control-room apps that ran a live streaming game show.
Managed partner-built connected TV apps for HBO, and kept video and analytics in sync across desktop, Xbox, TV and mobile.
CS54 is deliberately small at its core. The people you meet on the first call are the people who write and review your code.
Nearly 20 years in streaming has also given us a deep bench. When a large project needs more hands, we call in specialists we’ve shipped with before: senior engineers who know our standards, ramp up in days, and jump at the chance to work with us again. They’re not a B team. They’re the people we call because they’re among the best at what they do.
Charles founded CS54 in 2009 and has led mobile and TV engineering on HBO GO, MAX GO, Yahoo Screen and Viacom's MTV and Comedy Central apps. From 2019 to 2025, he led CS54’s engagement with Apple, building Radar, the internal tracking tool used across the company. He has spoken at Adobe MAX, FITC and NYU, and taught at Portfolio Center.
Pierre has built complex software systems since before 2000 for Microsoft, Intel, HBO, Yahoo, the FAA, Disney, Hasbro, ABC Sports, Rand McNally, Arthur Andersen, Peat Marwick, Toys“R”Us and Wizards of the Coast. In games he has shipped work for Midway, Konami, Data East and Incredible Technologies, and he has helped teams at Treehouse Interactive, CS54, American Laser Games, Imagination Pilots and many more.
Bruce is an application architect and developer with a long track record in consumer and enterprise apps. He has designed and built high-profile streaming apps serving millions of viewers, including HBO GO and HBO Now, HBO Max and Max, discovery+, Food Network, MotorTrend+, HGTV and Magnolia. He leads collaboratively, champions agile, self-managing teams, and brings strong project management and clear communication to every engagement.
Joe has more than 15 years in technical operations, specializing in performance, capacity and scalability. He has run infrastructure for large, high-traffic, high-availability media websites, and for specialized SaaS products built for small but demanding and fast-growing user bases.
Ivan has spent his career building video streaming platforms. He worked on HBO GO (HBO’s first TV Everywhere app), PlayStation Vue (Sony’s live TV service), Seeso (NBC’s comedy service) and DirecTV GO (the first OTT service in Latin America). He has led operations teams and worked as a technical product manager, solutions architect and infrastructure engineer, taking services from launch through growth.
Mike began his career in robotics and AI with NASA and the Department of Defense, earning a NASA commendation for his work on machine learning for industrial robots. He has worked on mine detection with radar and navigation without GPS, and over the last 20 years has been a founder, CTO, investor, board member and adviser. He has also served in several White House technology fellowships. In games, he led multiplayer development for Pop Culture Live and launched some of the first online web games for EA Sports and Area/Code in New York.
A streaming app only works if people keep coming back. Our team has also designed, built and marketed mobile games that reached the top of the US App Store, so we know how to drive engagement, pick a business model and make an app pay for itself. Pop Culture Live brought both sides together.
In the press: TechCrunch on the Demi Lovato and DNCE games (2016) · Digiday on Pop Culture Live (2018)
Share a few details about your app and timeline, and we'll set up a call.
Client references from past streaming engagements are available on request.
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