IMPALA, the International MHEG Promotion Alliance, has appointed Giri Valliappan as its director of market development. The organisation was established at IBC 2006 with the intention of promoting the MHEG-5 application programming interface that had largely been restricted to the UK DTT platform. Valliappan is well known to members of the DigiTAG organisation and has previously held a number of roles with Cabot Communications.
“IMPALA is here to increase the information flow from companies with expertise in MHEG to those who want to utilise it in order to develop product or launch services,” explained Valliappan.
The organisation now boasts seven supporter members Sony, Samsung, and Hitachi and FreeviewNZ, and has been adopted by the latter’s DTH platform in New Zealand. The organisation was founded by Strategy & Technology (S&T), Cabot Communications and EchoStar Europe.
Non-UK developers also are now stepping up to the plate, with German vendor GkWare launching its MHEG engine at IBC. German streamgurus go common on MHEG
