New technical developments including bringing the internet into the living room are covered by a presentation from Wolfgang Graf, general manager TV, online, audio from the Broadcast Technology Institute (IRT, Institut für Rundfunktechnik GmbH, Munich).
Today, Triple play is well known in TV cable networks, but still requires different consumer devices. Until now media convergence has not been a success story for the German market. Now the internet enters the living room.
Leading CE firms have recently established the Open IPTV Forum, an initiative which has successfully developed the required technical standards. The consumer devices provide hybrid technology, featuring DVB and Internet access capabilities. Several manufacturers have already started their production for the mass market in 2009.
HTML is used as basic middleware. DOM, CSS and JAVA provide handling of fully dynamic websites as they would from the internet. Software components from the Interactive TV environment have been supplemented.
The resulting CE-HTML Broadcast Profile will allow the usage of a data carousel for deploying interactive or internet-like services via the DVB channel. Video download or streaming via IP is supported. With this technology, media convergence becomes reality.
With the well-known mediathek, public broadcasters ARD and ZDF are offering web portals that provide access to popular broadcast content. These services are now beginning to be offered via the TV. Further services are currently being developed by private and public services broadcasters.
The TV cable seems to be the delivery mechanism best suited for this technology and, of course, it’s related services from TV via interactive TV to Internet. The presentation will highlight the current market evolution and the proposed technology and will give an insight into possible service scenarios.
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