Building Hellas TV: Live HLS Streaming, Picture-in-Picture & Google Cast in React Native

The Motivation Behind the Project

Live media streaming on mobile requires robust playback lifecycle handling, low memory footprints, and instant background audio playback for radio streams. Hellas TV was designed to provide a unified broadcast client for Greek and Cypriot channels.

Core Features and Design Goals

• Low-latency HLS & DASH live video playback using modern expo-video
• Seamless Picture-in-Picture (PiP) background video support
• Cast live streams directly to Google Chromecast devices
• Full Greek TV Electronic Program Guide (EPG) schedules with timeline visualization
• Instant offline-capable radio stream player with lockscreen audio controls

Technical Implementation

• Integrated react-native-google-cast for seamless big-screen remote control
• Built resilient HLS stream parsing to gracefully recover from network drops
• Zero-freeze Google UMP consent race guarding AdMob initialization

The Technology Stack

Built with Expo SDK 57, React Native 0.86, expo-video, expo-router, and Google Cast.

Final Reflections

Leveraging official native video components ensures zero stutter and native Android OS media integration.