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Tag Archive for 'EBU'

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

Germany falls in line with UK and France on harmonization of 800MHz band for mobile broadband

February 27, 2009 by Barry Flynn

Germany will be the first country after the UK to harmonise the so-called 800MHz band (780-862MHz) for mobile broadband use, and others will follow soon, it emerged yesterday at Informa’s Digital Switchover Strategies conference in London.

Pearse O’Donahue, head of the Radio Spectrum Policy unit in the European Commission’s Information, Society and Media Directorate-General, told delegates that the German move indicated the EC was succeeding in its mission to persuade Member States of the benefits of earmarking a common frequency band across the EU for possible future use by future mobile broadband services (see previous post here).

Els Hendricks, head of European affairs at commercial broadcaster ProSiebenSat.1, confirmed that Germany’s agreement to harmonisation was imminent, subject to the regulator agreeing to certain conditions demanded by German broadcasters.

These included future occupants of the 800MHz band compensating broadcasters for the costs associated with migrating any broadcast services already occupying these frequencies.

In the UK, Ofcom has put these costs at £5-18m.

Matthew Conway, director of operations at Ofcom’s Spectrum Policy Group, indicated there were other European territories apart from Germany that would follow the UK’s lead, but declined to identify them.

However, Elena Puigrefagut, a senior technical engineer at the European Broadcasting Union, argued that those countries that had so far agreed to harmonization were confined to those where the costs of doing so were lowest, because they had minimal usage of the 800MHz band. The EBU’s analysis showed that the first five Member States to agree to the move - Sweden, Finland, Switzerland, France and the UK - all fell into this category.

She concluded that the costs of harmonization were very significant for the majority of European territories, and predicted that it would lead to a ‘second switchover’.

Posted in Broadband and Digital Terrestrial. 1 Comment