How we developed the ARNAIX online cinema platform

The team was faced with the task of creating the technological basis of its own online cinema, which would cover the entire main user path.:

register → Browse the catalog → Select a movie → View → subscribe → reuse the service.

At the same time, the system had to be convenient not only for the viewer, but also for the team that would manage a large amount of content on a daily basis.

Therefore, in addition to the user part, it was necessary to develop our own administrative dashboard and API through which different versions of the product could interact with a single database.

The main objectives of the project:

• create a web version of an online movie theater;
• develop a catalog of films and TV series;
• implement search and categories;
• organize online video viewing;
• create a user’s personal account;
• implement registration by phone number;
• enable SMS confirmation;
• implement a subscription model;
• provide a multilingual interface;
• develop an administrative dashboard;
• create a video content storage infrastructure;
• prepare a PWA version for mobile devices;
• implement an AI consultant.

ARNAIX’s design was completely developed from scratch.

Online cinemas such as Netflix, Okko and START were used as product guidelines for users, but the task was not to copy the existing interface, but to create their own visual system.

The basic principle is a minimalistic interface in which the user switches from searching for content to viewing as quickly as possible.

Figma has worked out the main user scenarios, catalog pages, movie and TV series cards, personal account, subscription, and other interface elements.

Multilingualism was taken into account separately: the interface was designed for three languages at once — Russian, Kazakh and English.

The catalog became one of the central parts of the product.

The user should have been able to search and select content in several ways.:

• by category;
• by genre;
• through a regular search;
• through collections;
• through ratings;
• through the top movies and TV series.

A separate page with basic content information was provided for each movie or series.

Depending on the type of content, the user could:

• Watch the trailer;
• Open a movie;
• Choose a season;
• select a specific series;
• read the description;
• view information about the actors;
• Go to other films featuring a specific actor;
• read related articles;
• see the rating.

The series → season → series structure was implemented separately for the series, so that the content could be properly organized even with a large catalog.

The main function of the platform was to watch videos directly.

A custom viewing script was implemented.:

• starting and stopping the video;
• volume control;
• re-launch;
• skip to the next video;
• watching trailers;
• displaying the status of the viewed content.

The system also had to take into account the user’s interaction with the content in order to further use this data for analytics and personalization.

We have developed a user’s personal account separately.

In it, the user could manage his account and receive information about access to the service.

Main features:

• registration and authorization;
• phone number confirmation;
• changing personal data;
• password change;
• viewing the current subscription;
• changing the language;
• working with account settings.

Registration is implemented via a phone number with SMS confirmation.

The service was used for integration SMSC.kz .

A push notification system was also provided. The user could receive notifications about:

• premieres;
• changes in release dates;
• promotions;
• other content-related events.

ARNAIX was originally built as a paid online cinema.

The user was provided with a 7-day free period, after which a subscription was required for further access to the content.

So the user script looked like this:

Registration → 7 days of free access → subscription → content viewing.

The project provided for one tariff.

The online payment integration started, however, the customer’s API was required to complete the connection. The customer never provided it, so the final stage of payment integration remained incomplete.

One of the key parts of the project was its own administrative panel.

We did not use a ready—made CMS — we developed a management system for the specifics of an online cinema.

This was especially important due to the specifics of ARNAIX: the main content had to come directly from the customer, and information about Kazakh films and TV series is not always available in a ready-made structured form.

Through the admin panel, it was possible to manage:

By users

• addendum;
• editing;
• blocking;
• removal;
• viewing subscription information.

Video content

• uploading a video;
• adding movies;
• adding TV series;
• season and episode management;
• trailers;
• ratings;
• information about the film crew the group;
• actors;
• descriptions.

Content

• articles;
• categories;
• genres;
• compilations;
• top movies and TV series.

Analytics

It provided for the collection of statistics on:

• views;
• for users;
• by age;
• floor;
• genres.

A feedback section was also implemented in the administrative panel, where managers could see user requests and change their status.

It wasn’t enough to just develop an interface and a file downloader for an online cinema.

It was necessary to resolve the issue of storing a large amount of video content and its further distribution to users.

We have worked out the storage infrastructure for movies and TV series, taking into account the cost of storage and data transfer speed.

You have chosen as the cloud storage Mail.ru Cloud, after which the architecture of the platform was prepared in such a way that video content could be downloaded and organized through the administrative part.

This made it possible to separate the application itself from the physical storage of a large amount of video and lay the foundation for further scaling.

An AI consultant, unusual for an online cinema, became a separate stage of the project.

The original idea was that instead of a standard chatbot, the user interacted with a virtual character — the face of one of the characters in the ARNAIX content.

When opening the service, the character greets the user and offers to register, get acquainted with the cinema and watch exclusive content.

We have implemented:

• a virtual character;
• Welcome video;
• voice message;
• user’s transition to AI chat;
• text dialog;
• AI answers to user’s questions.

Generative tools were used to create a visual image, after which the prepared video was embedded into the platform interface.

The AI part was connected via OpenRouter, using DeepSeek to generate responses.

An important point: the AI consultant was not just a concept or a mock-up — the working version was actually implemented and integrated into the platform.

The architecture of the project also provided for the use of a PWA approach for mobile devices.

This made it possible to use one main web codebase and adapt it to a mobile scenario without having to maintain two completely separate native products.

As a result, a mobile version of the product was prepared, which could be used as a basis for further distribution on mobile platforms.

The main backend was developed in PHP/Laravel.

Frontend — React.

MySQL was used to store the data.

A separate API provided the interaction of the client side with the backend and created the basis for using the same server infrastructure by different versions of the product.

As a result, the architecture included several main levels:

User Interface → API → Backend → Database / Content Storage

This made it possible not to link the business logic directly to a specific version of the interface.

In about 6 months of development, the technological basis of the online cinema was created, including:

• a full-fledged web platform;
• own backend on Laravel;
• API;
• the administrative panel;
• catalog of films and TV series;
• search and categories;
• movie and TV series pages;
• seasons and episodes;
• video player;
• trailers;
• ratings;
• information about the actors;
• articles;
• personal account;
• SMS registration;
• the subscription model;
• 7-day free period;
• push notifications;
• multilingual interface;
• video content storage infrastructure;
• The PWA version for mobile devices;
• own product design in Figma;
• a working AI consultant with a virtual character.

The main result is that instead of a separate catalog site, the foundation of a full-fledged OTT/streaming product was created, which combined content, users, subscriptions, videos, administrative management and AI interaction in one system.

The project was stopped by the client at the stage of filling the catalog. The technical part of the platform had been prepared by this point, but without content, a full-fledged launch of the cinema did not make sense.