The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) is working on measures to unite the various broadband delivery mechanisms emerging in Europe. A meeting of the Geneva-based association’s technical committee, acknowledging the work already completed, agreed a set of measures for Hybrid Broadcast Broadband (HBB) services and devices.
Peter MacAvock of the EBU Technical Office told New Television Insider that while there was a complex environment that brought in systems including HBB, Canvas, MHP and Miniweb, there was also a considerable amount of commonality once the more contentious elements such as DRM and platform specifics were removed. “We’re examining the chain and have said there is quite a bit of commonality both in the applications and the way in which they are delivered. We know there are a number of platforms in existence and we believe that they will exist going forward, but we know there is a level of commonality that can be achieved and we will try to exploit that.”
MacAvock said the organisation would first look at the areas that can be agreed before looking at those that were harder. “The starting element is that the broadband television services are all going to be delivered in the same way, so let’s focus on that, and then we’ll get to a discussion on application signalling and whether you’re in the MHP world or in the MHEG-5 world or the HBBtv world the actual methods you can use for signalling are relatively limited.”
One of the issues is that it is unlikely that a hybrid service could be launched in the UK and do things in the same way as in Germany. MacAvock explained that many of the countries involved were effectively looking for a replacement for teletext, and because that debate at least has passed in the UK, the country could not be forced to adopt a series of technologies that had little additional benefit.
“Even within that context where you have a wide variety of profile of receivers and services there are going to be significant common elements and our aim is to try and say to the broadcast community, let’s take those common elements and specify them, let’s go further and recommend them, so that people will then have a series of building blocks with which to build their services. It won’t be sufficient to develop a full set of hybrid broadcast services and set of equipment but it is a good starting point and what it says to anybody who wants to build boxes if you want to build a box then you know how our services are coming and here’s how.”
The committee said that while there were likely to be various HBB platforms over the foreseeable future, the public interest would be best served by harmonisation. Having multiple HBB platforms in the same market would only increase costs for broadcasters.
MacAvock expressed a hope that a common system could take the pressure off broadcast resources, both linear and broadband, by replicating the same thing several times to target individual populations.
The HBBtv consortium approached the EBU, leading some elements to suggest that the organisation was backing HBBtv over other available systems, but MacAvock was clear that this was not the case. He said the EBU also supported MHP, the middleware that has recently been specified by the Italian digital television association DGTVi in its proposals for broadband connectivity in its specifications for HDTV receivers. “We probably arrived too late to say this is the way that you should do it alone, but our previous experience with MHP suggests we haven’t been ultimately very successful in that domain, but what we have been able to say is that our members are very active in these groups and using these types of technologies, but they do need support to ensure that communication happens well across the boundaries of the industry and that’s where we come in and try and facilitate that and ensure that any of the elements that we can harmonise then we will.”
The Technical Committee has now asked EBU Technical to continue its work in the harmonisation of HBB, working with EBU members, and taking into account the various interactive TV systems already in use.
The committee will also commence work on other elements, described as essential, such as the streaming of long form content over the open internet.
Leave a Reply