A group of prominent technology companies including Alcatel-Lucent, Hispasat, Nagra Kudelski, SmartJog and Teleste are to investigate the distribution of TV programmes and services over broadcast and broadband networks, focusing on key factors that will significantly impact the delivery of multimedia contents in Europe.
H2B2VS – HEVC Hybrid Broadcast Broadband Video Services will be carried between 2013-2015 and will be coordinated by Thomson Video Networks.
Lack of bandwidth is becoming a major problem for the development of future television. The new video formats, such as 3D and Ultra-HD, are bogged down by the limited transmission capacity of the current broadcast (terrestrial, satellite, cable) and broadband (ADSL, fibre, mobile) networks and video compression standards. Meanwhile, the consumer demand for new services is increasing heavily as the number of TV sets connected to the Internet is expected to grow to more than 500 million by 2016.
The lack of sufficient bandwidth slows down the development of new value-added services associated with broadcast programmes, while in broadband networks it causes difficulties in guaranteeing quality of service to all subscribers.
The H2B2VS project, quietly launched earlier this year, will focus on the hybrid distribution of TV programmes and services in broadcast and broadband networks while making use of the new video compression standard: High Efficient Video Codec (HEVC).
The new standard increases network capacity by providing up to a 50% better compression ratio than is available with current technologies; while utilising the hybrid networks helps developing new attractive services for consumers without the need for huge investments.
The project aims to propose solutions that will ensure the best quality of experience for end-users and drive the development of new video streaming services and future commercial products.
