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IBC Report - DVB-T2: a possible home for the DVB’s next-generation handheld standard?

September 13, 2009 by Barry Flynn

Connected TV met up at IBC for the first time with Peter Siebert, who recently took over from Peter MacAvock as executive director of the DVB Project office (earning himself the nickname ‘Peter 2.0′ in the process), and was treated to the latest version of the DVB standards road-map.

One of the most interesting elements to come out of our discussion concerned the fate of what used to be known as DVB-H2 - the next-generation version of the mobile/handheld broadcast standard DVB-H.

Temporarily shelved because of an intervening effort to get the satellite/terrestrial hybrid version of DVB-H (DVB-SH) underway (its first European implementation will be on the Solaris Mobile venture (see previous post), it is now back on the books again - under the working title of DVB-NGH (for ‘Next Generation Handheld).

Asked whether DVB-T2 - which has always encompassed advanced mobile broadcast capabilities as well as high-capacity fixed HDTV ones - mightn’t itself play the role of a DVB-H substitute, Siefert conceded that “maybe [DVB-NGH] is only DVB-T2. The elements of DVB-T2 are a good candidate.”

On the face of it, this might make good sense: operators in some countries are already looking upon robust profiles of DVB-T as a potential substitute for DVB-H, simply because such implementations re-use a pre-existing transmitter network.

Equally likely, perhaps, would be DVB-T2 with ‘add-ons’ - for instance, DVB-NGH could contain DVB-T2 plus LGE (4G) elements - or, indeed, it could end up as something entirely separate from DVB-T2, Siebert said.

In any event, the next DVB Technical Module meeting is expected to give the go-ahead to a new technical group which will decide what NGH will be based on.

At that same meeting, a study group will be reporting back on current industry 3D developments (very much the theme of this year’s IBC show) with a view to a decision being reached about what DVB’s role should be in the 3D standardisation process, if any. Siebert suggested DVB come contribute elements to do with service information and transport protocols.

Siebert said there was also an ongoing discussion going on between the HBBTV backers (see previous story) and DVB as to “whether DVB should play a more active role” in the hybrid DVB standardisation space, perhaps acting as an umbrella group for various industry initiatives.

Amongst other recent developments, nine European operators, including the likes of Kabel Deutschland, Kabel Baden Wittenberg, Ono and Com Hem, have now committed themselves to the next-generation version of DVB’s cable standard, DVB-C2. Siebert commented that in Germany in particular, cable operators were running out of capacity, so they required the extra capacity DVB-C2 could offer. As an example, he pointed to the fact that Kabel Deutchsland’s RFPs now contained questions about whether set-top box manufacturers were able to support DVB-C2.

The first DVB-C2 prototypes are due to be shown at the Anga Cable show in Germany next year, and IBC 2010 would certainly feature the technology, Siebert said.

Posted in Digital Cable, Digital Terrestrial, IPTV, Mobile TV and TV-over-Internet. 0 Comments

IBC Report - Civolution water-marking technology poised for Q1 2010 rollout with major US pay-TV operator

September 12, 2009 by Barry Flynn

The first large-scale deployment of watermarking technology in the pay-TV world should take place in the US in Q1 next year, Connected TV has learned.

Watermarking is a technique which embeds invisible identifiers into broadcast and other content, which can survive multiple transmission, compression and copying stages, in order to identify the sources of pirated material. Each device in the pre-production, production and transmission chain, all the way down to individual set-top boxes, can be given a unique code to pinpoint where the ‘leak’ has taken place.

Speaking at IBC, Alex Terpstra, CEO of Philips watermarking spin-off Civolution, declined to name the US operator in question, but said the Civolution solution it would be supplying is a hybrid one, integrating the technology at the encoder end and the set-top box. This means that as well as identifying piracy taking place at the headend, any set-top box used to illegally re-distribute protected material  can be precisely identified.

“There will be deployments in the field, we hope, in Q1 in North America,” he said. “I believe it is a break-through in the development of this industry.” The water-marking technology will be targeted at  protecting HDTV content.

Previously, except for a few small-scale IPTV deployments where watermarking is integrated into the DRM system , such content identification technologies have been confined to the pre-release market.

Examples include protecting preview copies of films given limited distribution before events such as the Oscars or the Cannes Film Festival, or content aimed at in-hotel distribution (where premium movies are made available before standard pay-per-view and pay-TV release windows).

Terprstra said the fact that the technology was now mature would permit new business models: for example, consumers might be happy to pay a premium to watch a movie at home in VOD mode while (or even before) it was being shown in the cinema. Previously, the studios might have been reluctant to allow this to happen without some sort of guarantee that piracy risks were being addressed.

At IBC, Civolution also announced that Taiwanese company MStar Semiconductor had become the first chipset maker to integrate NexGuard - Civolution’s core watermarking technology - in hardware, as part of its MSD3A11 chipset.

Posted in Digital Cable, Digital Satellite, Digital Terrestrial and IPTV. 0 Comments

IBC Report - HBBTV set for pre-Christmas German retail launch using Humax and Kaon boxes

September 11, 2009 by Barry Flynn

Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV (HBBTV) - a European hybrid DVB/IP platform backed by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) - is due to be implemented in Germany in time for Christmas this year, using retail set-top boxes manufactured by Humax and Kaon. Launches will then follow in Q1 2010 in Austria and Switzerland.

Richard Baker, executive vice president of sales and marketing at ANT, a TV software solutions provider, laid out the schedule for the implementation of the new specification during a demonstration of the system to Connected TV this morning on the EBU stand. This used broadcast HD content from the German free-to-air satellite platform and a 2MBit/s ADSL link, running on a Kaon receiver.

The system was first demonstrated by public broadcaster ARD in association with the Institut für Rundfunktechnik (IRT) at the IFA show in Berlin a week ago. ANT’s role in the demonstration is the contribution of its Galio Suite, which now contains extensions which make it the first platform to implement the full HBBTV specification.

The three HBBTV use-cases shown at IBC were:

1) A combination of Teletext (written in HTML, CSS and Javascript) and HD broadcast content

2) Broadcast applications which can invoke additional material associated with a channel (i.e. calling up a new streamed OTT video)

3) Access to web services and third party content

In order to access such applications, the remote control used includes an extra Web TV button in addition to the standard coloured ones. Interestingly, the same content can be arrived at through use-cases 2) and 3). In the example Connected TV was shown, the red button could be used within a live broadcast to call up a menu from which a live video stream could be ordered (in this case a trailer for some ARD content), using HTTPS over the broadband connection.

Using the red button to access a Web-based entertainment portal, however, gave access to a separate list of streamable OTT content which included the same ARD trailer as mentioned above.

Asked if British players were interested in merging their rival proposals (namely the BBC/ITV/BT hybrid platform Canvas and the DTG’s D-Book 6/7) with HBBTV, Baker was diplomatic, saying only that ANT and its partners had entertained “an open dialogue with the BBC [about Canvas]. If we have the opportunity to support the desires of the BBC, we’d be very happy about that,” he said.

Posted in Broadband, Digital Terrestrial and TV-over-Internet. 1 Comment

Microsoft and Tesco partner for UK launch of downloadable ‘virtual DVDs’

September 9, 2009 by Barry Flynn

We kick off our IBC blogging today with a story about a tie-up between UK supermarket giant Tesco and Microsoft in the UK, who announced this morning that they jointly plan to offer a service this autumn which would allow DVD and Blu-ray quality ‘virtual DVD’ copies of movies to be downloaded for replay on PCs and Macs.The new service, built on Microsoft Silverlight technology, will include interactive features and other add-ons which the partners claim will offer a viewing experience that “goes beyond other digital playback products in the marketplace.”

The basic idea itself is not entirely new, in that it only applies to Tesco customers purchasing certain home video titles from their stores. So in addition to watching them through their DVD players on the TV screen, they will also be able to download a digital copy to a PC elsewhere in the home.

What is new, arguably, is making the DVD ‘bonus’ features available in this way on downloadable content, closing the gap between what is available on a physical disk and a virtual copy. The other significant aspect of the deal is simply that it involves Tesco - one of the UK’s home video sell-through giants. They have enough market power to firmly embed such a service in the UK market, providing it appeals to their customers.

One might also suggest that - if what is being offered is really ‘Blu-ray’ quality in some cases (which will involve quite a lengthy download!) - the (unidentified) Hollywood majors backing the venture appear pretty confident about using a software-based DRM system such as Microsoft’s to protect digital versions of HD premium movie content.

Microsoft hopes to extend this Silverlight-based concept to other markets in due course.

At IBC, Connected TV will be meeting Gabriele Di Piazza, senior director for the Media & Entertainment business in the Communications Sector at Microsoft, to quiz him about the new service and other recent developments.

We plan to post live from the show.

Posted in Broadband and TV-over-Internet. 0 Comments

TV or Videogame? 1 vs 100 on Xbox Live Offers Lifeline To Appointment Viewing

July 21, 2009 by David Mercer

It’s what Interactive TV always should have been. Endemol’s smash hit quiz show, 1 vs 100, is now available as a scheduled, interactive show to Gold members of Xbox Live in the UK. Although in beta phase, the service appears to be working well. I suffered one connection dropout during Friday evening’s show, but otherwise was able to participate fully, first as a member of “The Crowd”, and later as one of the hundred members of “The Mob”. Unfortunately, or perhaps not, I was not selected as “The One”.

My personal background: I’m not a quiz show fan. I used to keep up with “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” in its early years, and I enjoy satirical “quiz shows” like “Have I Got News For You”, but they hardly count as the same genre. I do not go out of my way to find shows in which I can answer the questions, and had not even heard of “1 vs 100” until Microsoft told the press about its launch on Xbox Live.

Some years ago, when red button services were first being rolled out across the UK’s digital TV services, early attempts were made to add interactive audience participation to quiz shows, including “Millionaire”. It was an obvious genre to target, with audiences already sitting at home shouting out answers to questions in frustration at the presumed ignorance of the on-stage participants. But the limitations of the technology, not least through the absence of broadband connectivity, meant that these early attempts were soon abandoned.

It’s ironic, but perhaps not surprising, that it has taken a games console, rather than a digital television platform, to demonstrate what interactive television could eventually become. Tens of thousands of people are now participating, live and in real time, in the same scheduled “programme”, responding to questions through their games controller, seeing themselves (well, their avator at least) on the screen, and accumulating points in competition with their remotely connected opponents.

The operation of the Xbox Live show is clearly heavily automated, and a few kinks need to be ironed out: the various warning notices and texts were barely legible on my museum piece of a 32” CRT TV, for example. I hope Microsoft is not assuming that every single 360-owner has their console HDMI-wired to a 1080p-capable 50” LCD. The pauses between “rounds” and their accompanying messages can also prove a little tiresome. But generally this is an extremely impressive implementation, as with so many things on the Xbox Live platform. Considering this is a beta test, we can only imagine what further refinements will be made as the show evolves.

Our excitement over the technology should not cloud the inevitable doubts over business models and commercial viability. That Endemol, one of the world’s most successful independent developers, has signed up as a partner should be taken as a positive sign, although it has no doubt been suitably rewarded for its risk at this early stage. The trick, as always, will now be to get independent advertisers to recognise the value of targeting 70,000 people (a typical number of simultaneous participants in the US version) whose profiles are well known and whose attention is as guaranteed as it ever can be by scheduled programming. No fast forwarding through these ads…

Following the recently announced plan to launch online music on the Xbox, it’s time to reconsider the term “games console”: if Live’s current progress is anything to go by, few other gadgets will deserve the term “home entertainment centre”.

Twitter: twitter.com/DavidMercer_SA

Posted in TV-over-Internet. 0 Comments