Back in 2007 a handful of leading vendors along with major telcos AT&T and Telecom Italia joined forces to create the Open IPTV Forum (OIPF) with the goal of defining and publishing open and free standards for end-to-end Internet Protocol television (IPTV) services. OIPF has now grown to almost 50 members and the standards it has developed have come to underpin key components of the IPTV ecosystem.
The Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV (HbbTV) TV-compatible browser specification uses a subset of The OIPF’s TV-compatible browser specification, the Declarative Application Environment (DAE) and is now widely deployed in retail connected TVs in various EU regions.
CombiTel managing director, Eugene Razbash, will be catching up on the latest HbbTV developments at the IBC 2013 event in Amsterdam this month and says he is looking forward to introducing the technology to Australia.
HbbTV will enable consumers to access new services from entertainment providers such as broadcasters, online providers and consumer equipment manufacturers including catch-up TV, video on demand, interactive advertising, personalisation, voting, games and social networking as well as programme-related services such as digital text and EPGs.
OIPF’s mission at its foundation was “to enable a new mass market for IPTV by creating a set of unambiguous end-to-end specifications for IPTV services of the future, followed by a certification program for their implementation.”
To date that mission has been only partially accomplished and OIPF has set out the details of its achievements to date in a white paper ‘Connecting TV to the Future: White paper 2013, an updated version of one produced in 2012.
Its Release 1 specification provide an end-to-end solution for a limited range of IPTV services that can be provided in both the managed network and open Internet modes of operation. Release 2 evolves and extends the functional scope of the specifications in many areas.
These specifications are accompanied by profiles that define the minimum set of features that a TV or STB must support in order to be able to claim compliance to one of the profiles and also the maximum set of features that a service can rely on being present in the end user’s device. According to the white paper, “the overall objective of defining the profiles is to enable the best possible capability and flexibility for service providers to deploy services to terminals that are available in the horizontal (ie non-subsidised) market.” OIPF has defined three profiles for Release 1. The Release 2 profiles have not yet been published.
Also, OIPF says it is close to completing the administrative policies and procedures necessary for “a comprehensive and robust certification program that will offer the necessary proof of compliance to [the] specifications.”
Despite having made considerable progress in the standardisation of IPTV services, much remains to be done, according to the white paper. “Even today, IPTV solutions have predominantly been ‘vertical’ in that the key components or entire systems are proprietary, closely tied to one or a few vendors,” it says.
“While some of the specifications of such solutions may be based on open standards, the particular way these are ‘stitched together’ remains proprietary, and the details are not exposed as open interfaces allowing alternative vendor equipment to be substituted. Consequently, costs for service providers are outside their control, and they are tied to the feature development and upgrade cycles dictated by the solution provider.”
CombiTel
Specialist IPTV systems integrator focusing on service providers and enterprises. CombiTel offers unmatched value to its clients based on its unique mix of skills and many years of experience in both Telecommunications and Broadcasting. We have a proven track record and happy customers in Australia and New Zealand.
More information: combitel.com.my
