Experience Manager is Synamedia Go’s no-code configuration and orchestration layer that allows operators to define, manage, and evolve the end-user experience across supported devices.
It enables teams to control how content is presented, organized, and discovered, as well as how the application behaves when users interact with it, without requiring routine client application updates or code changes for experience configuration.
Content presentation and structure. Define how content is surfaced across screens using curated and automated swimlanes bound to catalogues, metadata, and user preferences.
Navigation and interaction behavior. Control what happens when a user interacts with content or UI elements, such as starting playback, opening a details page, navigating to the TV guide, or moving to another screen.
Swimlane curation and automation. Create different swimlane types for editorial, on-demand, recent, linear TV, recommendations, mixed content, and other experience patterns. Some lanes are curated manually, while others can be populated automatically through rules, metadata, or service responses.
Multi-device experience configuration. Publish and update experience configuration centrally, while taking account of differences in client support and presentation behavior.
Personalized user features. Surface experiences such as Continue Watching, Recently Watched Channels, Favourites, and recommendation rows where supported.
Playback context. Configure experience elements around live playback where the target client supports those options.
Experience Manager is accessed through OpsHub, Synamedia Go’s operational console, and provides a single cloud-based interface for managing experience configuration.
At a high level, Experience Manager answers the question: “What does the user see, and what happens when they interact?”
Experience Manager is designed to give operators direct control over the viewing experience, reducing dependency on development teams and accelerating experience updates.
Key benefits include:
Faster UI and merchandising updates without routine app releases.
Consistent experience configuration across devices, with contextual variation where needed.
Clear separation between content availability and experience presentation.
Ability to tailor experiences by region, device type, catalogue, or user profile.
Centralized control for editorial, product, and operations teams responsible for engagement and discovery.
Experience Manager is typically used by several operational roles:
Editorial teams. Curate and sequence content, campaigns, collections, pages, and swimlanes.
Product owners. Shape navigation, discovery patterns, and experience behavior.
Operations teams. Maintain, publish, and validate configuration across services and devices.
Experience Manager controls the structure, layout, and behavior of user-facing experience components. Operators can configure navigation, discovery, merchandising, personalization, imagery, and selected playback-related behavior.
Top Menu Navigation. Define primary navigation entries across content types and features.
Channel Lists and Groupings. Organize channels by genre or editorial theme.
EPG / TV Guide Rails. Structure programme-guide and schedule-driven browsing.
Nested and Internal Pages. Create destination pages that contain additional swimlanes, channels, or branded experiences.
Content Discovery and Merchandising
Linear Content Rails. Display live or scheduled programmes sourced from EPG data.
VOD Content Rails. Surface on-demand assets from assigned catalogues.
Editorial Rails. Build curated collections defined by operators.
Algorithmic Rails. Display recommendation-driven rows such as Recommended for You or Most Popular.
Mixed Editorial Rails. Combine multiple types of content or destinations in the same swimlane where the target client supports it.
Continue Watching
Recently Watched Channels
Favourites
Profile-based recommendations and discovery rows
Live Player Screen Layout. Control supported UI elements shown around live playback. Exact behavior depends on the client application.
All configured elements remain subject to catalogue rules, entitlement policies, user context, and client support.
Experience Manager configurations are organized into hierarchical structures called EM Trees.
An EM Tree defines:
The overall layout of the experience.
The navigation hierarchy.
Which swimlanes and UI elements appear, and in what order.
Each EM Tree can be:
Assigned to one or more catalogues.
Dynamically updated and republished.
Reused across device types, with contextual adaptation where supported.
This approach allows operators to maintain a consistent experience while tailoring presentation for different regions, devices, catalogues, or user profiles.
A useful operating model is to separate content availability, experience presentation, and client rendering.
Catalogues. Define what content is available to a user.
Experience Manager. Defines how available content is presented, grouped, and navigated.
Client application. Renders the configured experience and implements the supported behavior on a particular device or application.
Content rails configured in Experience Manager can combine linear events from EPG schedules, VOD assets from assigned catalogues, editorial selections, and recommendation outputs.
This separation keeps content availability and commercial rules enforced while allowing the experience presentation to remain flexible.
A capability being available in Experience Manager does not guarantee that every client application supports it. In an ecosystem that includes Synamedia applications, customer-specific applications, multiple device types, and third-party UI vendors, support can vary.
As a result, an operator can configure a feature that is valid from the platform perspective but has no visible effect, or a different visual result, in a particular client application.
The recommended operating approach is:
Keep important platform capabilities available in Experience Manager.
Document which capabilities are supported by each client application.
Define sensible client-side fallback behavior where possible.
Hide or remove capabilities only when they are obsolete, highly specialized, or likely to create unnecessary operator confusion.
Do not delay exposing new platform capabilities until every existing client supports them.
Before publishing client-dependent features, operators should confirm support for the target application and device and validate the behavior on a representative client.
One of the defining characteristics of Experience Manager is that many experience changes can be published centrally without requiring an app-store submission or client redeployment.
When an EM Tree is modified and published:
Changes are published centrally.
Supported client applications retrieve and reflect the updated experience.
The visible result still depends on whether the client supports the configured capability and how that client renders it.
This enables rapid merchandising changes, seasonal updates, promotions, and editorial adjustments with minimal operational overhead.
Swimlanes are the main building blocks used to surface content, destinations, recommendations, and navigation elements. Different lane types serve different purposes, and some require explicit client support.
Common Swimlane Types
Linear Content. Shows live or scheduled programmes sourced from EPG data.
VOD Content. Surfaces on-demand assets from assigned catalogues.
Editorial. Displays operator-curated content collections.
Recommendation or Algorithmic. Displays content returned from recommendation services or configured algorithms.
Nested / Internal Page. Represents a destination page that can contain additional swimlanes or content.
Mixed Editorial Swimlane. A Mixed Editorial swimlane allows an operator to combine several types of destinations and content within the same swimlane. A Mixed Editorial lane can contain:
VOD assets
Shows
Linear events
Channels
Internal pages
Shops
Nested swimlanes
Regular editorial swimlanes This provides more editorial flexibility than a traditional swimlane containing only media assets. It is an important platform capability, but operators should confirm that the target client implements Mixed Editorial behavior before using it broadly.
Editorial App Swimlanes. Editorial App swimlanes allow operators to promote third-party applications, such as streaming services, typically through deep links. Support can vary by application and device. Use this capability where there is a clear product requirement and where the target client has implemented the expected deep-link behavior.
Placeholder Swimlane. A Placeholder swimlane represents content that is generated locally by the application rather than provided directly by the backend. Experience Manager does not control what is displayed inside the placeholder. Instead, the operator configures free-text flags or parameters that are passed to the application. The application interprets those values and decides what should be rendered. Every new Placeholder use case generally requires:
Client implementation.
Agreement on the configured parameters.
Client documentation describing the expected behavior. Treat Placeholder configuration as an integration contract with the client application rather than as a self-contained Experience Manager feature.
Broadcast Schedule is an older implementation based on the same general concept as Placeholder swimlanes. It should be avoided unless there is a confirmed remaining customer dependency.
Personal Nested was introduced primarily for demonstration purposes and is not considered a fully supported production capability. Operators should avoid using it for new production experiences.
Shops are conceptually similar to nested swimlanes but include additional branding capabilities managed through another OpsHub module.
Shop support exists in some applications but not all. Where Shop-specific branding is not supported, the preferred behavior is for the client to degrade gracefully and display the Shop similarly to a standard nested swimlane.
Experience Manager allows operators to configure images directly on a swimlane. These are particularly useful for non-leaf swimlanes, such as nested pages and Shops, although they can also be configured on regular leaf swimlanes.
Poster Poster is the standard image representing a swimlane or destination. Operators should still verify the crop and aspect-ratio behavior in the target client.
Background A Background image can be used as the background of the swimlane, as the background of its See All page, or for both purposes. Exact usage depends on the client design.
See All Image The See All image is intended for designs where See All is represented as a tile inside the swimlane rather than as a dedicated action above or beside it. If the client does not use an in-lane See All tile, this configuration may have no effect.
Title Image A Title image allows the swimlane title to be represented as a graphical logo rather than plain text. Use it only where the target client supports graphical swimlane titles.
Poster Types and Image Ratios
Experience Manager allows the operator to define the expected image type or aspect ratio for a swimlane. The platform can support multiple dimensions and ratios, but not every client or device supports every image type.
Clients should define fallback behavior when they encounter an image type they do not explicitly support. This makes it possible to introduce new image types without breaking older clients.
Operators should also distinguish between supporting an image type and knowing exactly how it will look. Even when an image ratio is supported, the image may be cropped, scaled, padded, overlaid with text, or positioned differently depending on the application, device, screen size, or UI design.
Experience Manager cannot reliably simulate final client-specific rendering. Client documentation should explain both which image types are supported and how those images are expected to appear.
Experience Manager allows a trailer to be configured at swim-lane level. A typical use case is a branded internal page represented by a non-leaf swimlane, where entering the page could trigger a dedicated trailer.
A trailer can also be configured on a leaf swimlane, but the capability should only be used when the target client has a concrete supported UI experience for it. Otherwise, the configured trailer may have no visible effect.
Experience Manager allows a swimlane to contain more than one row. A standard swimlane normally contains a single horizontal row, while multi-row configuration can use settings such as:
Maximum number of items per row.
Number of rows.
Automatic layout, where the application decides how to split content based on available screen size.
Multi-row layouts are common in modern application design, but support is not consistent across all clients. Use them only after validating the target application.
For designs where See All is represented as a tile within the swimlane, Experience Manager can control where that tile appears.
Supported positions can include:
Start
End
Both
This setting is only relevant to clients that implement See All as part of the swimlane itself. It can be ignored or hidden where that design is not supported.
Experience Manager provides a toggle indicating that a swimlane contains adult content. The value can be passed to the client so that the application can apply specific presentation or behavior.
The supplied platform guidance does not establish a clear end-to-end client behavior for this flag. Operators should not rely on it until the intended behavior and client support are explicitly defined.
Experience Manager can control some aspects of how a Series page behaves for content accessed through a particular swimlane, including episode ordering and season ordering.
Before changing these options, confirm current application coverage and customer usage. The key question is whether the same series is expected to behave differently depending on which swimlane the user entered it from.
When a series is added to a swimlane, this option allows the application to replace the normal series tile with the user’s current or next episode.
For example, if a user has already started watching a series, the swimlane could display the next episode to watch rather than the generic series tile.
This introduces additional client-side logic and personalization behavior. Use it only when there is a concrete customer requirement and verified client support.
Related Content Tags allow an operator to provide additional context when the application requests related or recommended content. The application is expected to include the configured value when making the relevant API request.
A typical use case is enforcing commercial or editorial boundaries. For example, recommendations on a branded page may need to be restricted to approved content for that brand.
Use this capability only where there is an active editorial or commercial requirement and where the client implements the expected request behavior.
Experience Manager allows a Channel ID to be associated with a swimlane. This is primarily relevant to internal pages represented by nested swimlanes and can provide the application with information about the channel associated with that page.
A client can use this information for channel-specific behavior, such as exposing or tuning to a channel’s live feed. Support varies, so use the field only when the target client implements the expected behavior.
A safe operating workflow is to move from purpose, to configuration, to validation, to publishing.
1. Define the experience goal
Decide what the user should see and what should happen when the user interacts with the experience. Identify the target audience, region, catalogue, profile, device, and client application where relevant.
2. Select the appropriate EM Tree and page
Confirm that you are working in the correct experience hierarchy and that the change belongs in the intended page, navigation branch, or catalogue assignment.
3. Choose the simplest suitable swimlane type
Prefer a standard, well-supported lane type when it satisfies the use case. Use specialized lane types only when their additional behavior is required and supported by the target client.
4. Configure content and presentation
Set the content source, ordering, imagery, labels, layout, and interaction-related options needed for the experience. Avoid configuring fields simply because they are available if their behavior is not understood.
5. Check client support
For any client-dependent feature, confirm:
Whether the target client implements the capability.
What fallback occurs if the capability is unsupported.
How images, rows, pages, or actions will actually render.
Whether there is a current customer or product requirement for the setting.
Whether the result can be tested on a representative client before broad release.
6. Publish and validate
Publish the change centrally, then validate the experience on representative applications and devices. Check both the expected content and the interaction behavior, not only whether the configuration saved successfully.
Before publishing a significant change, operators should check:
The correct EM Tree and catalogue assignment are being edited.
Navigation and lane order are correct.
Content sources return the intended assets, events, channels, or recommendations.
Images use suitable roles and aspect ratios for the target client.
Client-dependent features are supported or have an acceptable fallback.
Entitlements and user context have been considered.
The experience has been validated on a representative client where possible.
After publishing, verify that the experience behaves as expected in the target application. If the result differs across clients, determine whether the difference is expected client-specific presentation or an implementation issue.
A configured feature has no visible effect The target client may not implement the capability. Confirm support for the specific application and device, and check whether a fallback is defined.
An image looks cropped or positioned differently than expected Final rendering is controlled by the client. Review the client’s documented crop, scaling, padding, overlay, and aspect-ratio behavior.
A Placeholder is empty or incorrect The configured parameters may be missing, mismatched, or unsupported by the client. Check the parameter contract and client implementation documentation.
A Mixed Editorial or specialized swimlane renders incorrectly The client may support only a subset of the lane behavior. Confirm support or test whether a simpler standard lane type satisfies the use case.
See All image or position is ignored The client may not render See All as an in-lane tile. Use the See All pattern supported by the application.
A configured trailer does not play The target client may not provide a UI experience for swim-lane trailers. Use the capability only where a concrete supported implementation exists.
Series or next-episode behavior is inconsistent The behavior can depend on client logic, user history, or the route by which the user entered the series. Confirm the intended customer use case and client implementation.
Content is missing from a swimlane Check catalogue assignment, metadata, EPG or recommendation source, entitlements, and user context. A correctly configured lane can still return no content if the underlying availability rules exclude it.
What to Include When Escalating an Issue When reporting a client-specific Experience Manager issue, capture:
The EM Tree and page or navigation location.
The swimlane and swimlane type.
The configured values that are relevant to the issue.
The target application and device.
The expected behavior.
The actual behavior.
Whether the same configuration behaves differently in another client.
Start with the user outcome. Configure only what is needed to produce the intended browsing, discovery, or interaction experience.
Prefer standard patterns. Use common lane and image types unless a specialized capability is required.
Treat client support as part of configuration. A valid EM setting is not automatically a supported client behavior.
Validate imagery on real clients. Experience Manager cannot reliably preview client-specific cropping, scaling, overlays, or positioning.
Use specialized fields deliberately. Features such as Placeholder parameters, Related Content Tags, Channel ID, and next-episode replacement depend on client logic.
Test representative devices. Where possible, validate changes on the client and device families that matter for the release.
Document exceptions. If a configuration is intentionally client-specific, record the intended client behavior and fallback so future operators understand it.
Experience Manager is the experience orchestration layer of Synamedia Go. It empowers operators to design, control, and continuously improve how users browse, discover, and interact with content without requiring routine code changes or client redeployments for experience configuration.
For new users, Experience Manager can be understood as: “The tool that defines what the service looks like and how users move through it.”
The most important operational principle is that Experience Manager represents platform capabilities, while each client application determines how supported capabilities are rendered and acted upon. Operators should therefore combine centralized configuration with client-support awareness, sensible fallback behavior, and representative device validation.
Experience Manager (EM): The no-code configuration and orchestration layer for the end-user experience.
OpsHub: The operational console through which Experience Manager is accessed.
EM Tree: A hierarchical experience configuration defining layout, navigation, and UI elements.
Swimlane: A row or collection used to surface content, destinations, applications, pages, or recommendations.
Catalogue: Defines what content is available to a user.
Client application: The application or device implementation that renders and acts on Experience Manager configuration.
Fallback behavior: Client-defined behavior used when a configured capability is unsupported.
Non-leaf swimlane: A lane representing a destination or page that can contain additional content or swimlanes.
Placeholder: A lane whose final content is generated locally by the client using configured parameters.
See All: A client interaction for viewing the complete contents of a swimlane; presentation varies by design.
For new users, Experience Manager should be understood as:
'The tool that defines what the service looks like and how users move through it.'
Introduction to Experience Manager
