S&T, ACCESS and Pixsan have jointly launched Project Uno, a Universal Television Kit (UTK) Shared Source base for hybrid TV projects, such as the new Freeview Play.
In a joint statement the partners said the solution can provide a close-to-turnkey solution for DVB and HbbTV requirements in both free-to-air and operator platforms, and offers broadcasters, content owners, test houses and device makers a target device reference platform. The initial profile is available for Freeview Play in the UK, which is based on the HbbTV 2.0 specification.
“With Project Uno, development partners, operators and application developers can access a common solution, which can be used to allow collaboration between all parties in the broadcast and OTT value chain,” said David Cutts, CEO of S&T. “Platforms like Freeview Play require the robustness of not just the device software itself, but the applications and services that are necessary for it to run a system the consumer will rely on and enjoy. Our industry delivers increasingly complex services, which means that shared understanding of issues will enable an improved user experience.”
The solution is based on the UTK project and consists of the UTK framework, S&T’s Redkey MHEG5 engine and the ACCESS NetFront Browser NX HbbTV Profile. The reference implementation is delivered on an x86 PC platform, which can then be used to verify, test and harden other software stacks, as well as application services running on widely used set-top-boxes and Smart TV platforms.