D1: Analysis of the current MHP situation Version 3 (Updated in March 2006) Document / Version number:
D1 / ver. 3.0
Date:
31.03.2006
Issued by:
The MHP Knowledge Project
Project Acronym / Reference:
MHP-KDB / 507442
Abstract: This deliverable is an update of WP 2, task 2.1, “Analysis of the Current situation”. It takes into consideration the whole life time of the project and has two major aims: Part one provides a first overview over European MHP issues in general, thus offering a content basis for documentation in the MHP-Database. The analysis in chapter 2 offers valuable documentation of open MHP issues fed from partners’ practical experience. This was a basis for the database requirements in task 2.2. The focus has been put on interoperability, trying to cover most relevant aspects. D1 has been a working document, and was updated twice during the project.
Keyword list: DVB, MHP Market in Europe, Authoring Tools, Set-Top Boxes, Play out, Interoperability, Interactivity, Digital TV, End-to-end MHP Solutions, Testing Tools, Analyzing Tools, Database Requirements
Visit the MHP Knowledge Database: www.mhpkdb.org
MHP-KDB
D1: Analysis of the Current Situation (Version 3)
March 2006
Document Information: Document Type: Document No.: Title:
Deliverable D1 Benefits and exploitation opportunities
Version No.: Related to work package: Type of the Deliverable: Dissemination level:
3 (Updated in March 2006) WP 2 Report Public
Author:
Olav Frølich, Helge Tesgaard (DR), Tim Koch (DW), Klaus Merkel, Marcel Langlois (IRT), Sabine Flandin, Bruno Margerand (Philips), Nico de Abreu, Bettina Heidkamp (RBB), Timo Mollzahn, Oliver Künzel (Panasonic), Johan Wittebolle, (tComLabs), Per-Erik Uthus, Truls Langeggen, Aase Merethe O. Pettersen (Telenor), Juan José Navamuel (ITA), David Abadía (ITA), Carsten Köllmann (UDE)l
Due date: Delivery date (ver. 1): Delivery date (ver. 2): Delivery date (ver. 3):
February 2003 April 2003 31st July 2005 31st March 2006
Copyright notice © 2006 Institut für Rundfunktechnik GmbH on behalf of The MHP Knowledge Project This work may be reproduced and redistributed, in whole or in part, without alteration and without prior written permission, provided all copies contain the following statement: © 2006 Institut für Rundfunktechnik GmbH on behalf of The MHP Knowledge Project. This work is reproduced and distributed with the permission of the Institut für Rundfunktechnik GmbH. No other use is permitted without the express prior written permission. For permission, contact info@mhpkdb.org. This document is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. As we are interested to continuously improve the quality of our documents, we kindly ask you to report back any error you find in our documents or any improvement you are able to suggest. This can be done via writing comments into the database or by an email to feedback@mhpkdb.org.
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CONTENT 1
INTRODUCTION (UPDATED IN VERSION 3)...................................................................... 5
2
CURRENT SITUATION ......................................................................................................... 6
2.1 High level overview of MHP...................................................................................................6 2.1.1 Markets (updated in version 2)..................................................................................................6 2.1.1.1 Interactive Digital Television in Germany (updated in version 3) .......................................6 2.1.1.2 Interactive Digital Television in Flanders (updated in version 3).......................................10 2.1.1.3 Interactive Digital Television in Austria (updated in version 3).........................................11 2.1.1.4 Interactive Digital Television in Switzerland (added in version 3) ....................................12 2.1.1.5 Interactive Digital Television in the UK (added in version 2)............................................12 2.1.1.6 Interactive Digital Television in Denmark (updated in version 3) .....................................12 2.1.1.7 Interactive Digital Television in Norway (updated in version 3) .......................................13 2.1.1.8 Interactive Digital Television in Sweden (added in version 3)...........................................14 2.1.1.9 Interactive Digital Television in Finland (updated in version 3) ........................................15 2.1.1.10 Interactive Digital Television in Italy (updated in version 3) ........................................16 2.1.1.11 Interactive Digital Television in France (updated in version 3).....................................21 2.1.1.12 Interactive digital TV in Spain (updated in version 3)...................................................23 2.1.1.13 Interactive Digital Television in Singapore ...................................................................26 2.1.1.14 Interactive Digital Television in Australia.....................................................................27 2.1.1.15 Interactive Digital Television in Korea..........................................................................29 2.2 Standardization (updated in version 3) ...............................................................................33 2.2.1 Status of MHP standardization (added in version 3) ...............................................................33 2.2.1.1 MHP standard versions.......................................................................................................33 2.2.1.2 MHP 1.0.x specification erratas..........................................................................................33 2.2.1.3 MHP 1.1.x draft specification.............................................................................................34 2.2.1.4 GEM 1.0.x specification errata...........................................................................................34 2.2.1.5 MHP standard profiles........................................................................................................34 2.2.1.6 MHP test suite ....................................................................................................................34 2.2.2 MHP extension activities in DVB (updated in version 3) .......................................................34 2.2.2.1 Personal Digital Recorder...................................................................................................34 2.2.2.2 Other activities....................................................................................................................35 2.2.3 Transition of between MHP standard versions (updated in version 3)....................................35 2.2.3.1 Transition between MHP 1.0.2 and MHP 1.0.3..................................................................35 2.2.3.2 Transition from MHP 1.0.3 and its erratas .........................................................................36 2.3 Strategy – Political and Legal Initiatives.............................................................................37 2.3.1 European Level .......................................................................................................................37 2.3.1.1 European Union Policy (updated in version 3)...................................................................37 2.3.1.2 Lobby Organizations ..........................................................................................................39 2.3.2 National Level .........................................................................................................................41 2.3.2.1 The Nordic countries (updated in version 3) ......................................................................41 2.3.2.2 Flanders ..............................................................................................................................42 2.3.2.3 Germany (updated in version 3) .........................................................................................42 2.4 Technology .............................................................................................................................43 2.4.1 E2E..........................................................................................................................................43 2.4.2 Playout.....................................................................................................................................45 2.4.3 MHP-Terminals.......................................................................................................................46 2.4.4 Authoring Tools (updated in version 3) ..................................................................................51 2.4.5 Testing and Analyzing Tools...................................................................................................52 2.4.5.1 General MHP Test Concepts ..............................................................................................52 2.4.5.2 Examples for Testing and Analyzing Tools (updated in version 3)....................................54
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2.4.6 Applications ............................................................................................................................55 2.4.6.1 Germany (updated in version 3) .........................................................................................57 2.4.6.2 Denmark (updated in version 3) .........................................................................................60 2.4.7 Migration from Proprietary Applications (updated in version 3) ............................................60 2.4.7.1 Proprietary standard of Premiere Direct (added in version 3) ............................................61 3
ANALYSIS OF EXPERIENCES .......................................................................................... 62
3.1 Interoperability......................................................................................................................62 3.1.1 General ....................................................................................................................................62 3.1.2 Application Development and Management ...........................................................................62 3.1.2.1 Synchronization ..................................................................................................................63 3.1.2.2 Signaling.............................................................................................................................63 3.1.2.3 EIT......................................................................................................................................63 3.1.2.4 Application Management ...................................................................................................64 3.1.2.5 Return channel....................................................................................................................64 3.1.2.6 Application performance ....................................................................................................64 3.1.2.7 Application security............................................................................................................65 3.1.2.8 Memory and storage ...........................................................................................................65 3.1.2.9 Object carousel ...................................................................................................................65 3.1.2.10 Robustness .....................................................................................................................66 3.1.2.11 User Interface and Graphics...........................................................................................66 3.1.2.12 Authoring Tools.............................................................................................................67 3.1.3 Usability (ease of use of applications by the consumers)........................................................68 3.1.3.1 Use of remote control keys and keyboard ..........................................................................68 3.1.4 Report on Results from Interoperability Workshops...............................................................68 3.1.4.1 Analysis of Reports ............................................................................................................69 3.2 4
End to End architecture........................................................................................................69 TRENDS............................................................................................................................... 70
4.1 4.1.1 4.1.2 4.1.3 5
What are our expectations from the market and technology ............................................70 Distribution..............................................................................................................................70 Receivers .................................................................................................................................70 Services ...................................................................................................................................70
CONCLUSIONS................................................................................................................... 72
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1 Introduction (updated in version 3) This deliverable documents the outcome of task 2.1 of WP 2, “Analysis of the current situation”. Throughout the project, a version 2 of deliverable D1 became necessary in order to reflect recent developments regarding MHP deployment in some countries. In this updated version (3) also some missing information from the previous version has been added. Updated chapters and sections are indicated accordingly in their headlines. This will be the final version of the document and as such a part of the MHP-KDB final report. The analysis performed included the following aspects: •
MHP implementations in STBs and IDTV sets.
•
Development and use of MHP play outs and E2E architectures.
•
Development and execution of MHP applications.
•
IRT's interoperability workshops.
•
Experience from preparation and use of the DVB MHP test-suites for STB
Issues/topics of importance to the MHP-related industry, which need further investigation, had to be identified. The following approach for this work was chosen: The document as an outcome of task 2.1 offers both a momentary overview of selected aspects of the status quo of MHP in Europe as well as an analysis of the aspects of the standard that will need further investigation. Therefore, the document is structured into the two large successive chapters “Current Situation” and “Analysis”. Consequently, the deliverable has two major aims: 1. To provide an overview of the European MHP issues in general, thus offering a content basis for specific documentation in the MHP-Database. 2. To offer a valuable first documentation of open MHP aspects fed from the partners’ practical experience. This was a basis for issuing the database requirements in task 2.2. The focus has been put on interoperability, trying to cover all relevant aspects. Obviously now that the database has been established the document’s chapter 3 Analysis of Experiences which served as a first requirements documentation at the start of the project is now that the database actually exists, outdated. However, it is kept in the document as it might still contain interesting information for some. As far as technological facts are concerned, the MHP-Guide available from the MHP Knowledge Database (MHP-KDB) is the outcome of the project and offers a large pool of MHP-related knowledge both theoretically and practically. This Document D1 however offers some additional specific information especially on the market situations in Europe and on regulation and policies.
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2 Current Situation 2.1
High level overview of MHP
2.1.1 Markets (updated in version 2) This market chapter provides an overview of the MHP situation in some European and non-European countries. Generally spoken, it can be said that since its introduction MHP has developed from a concept into a commercially available solution. MHP services and equipment are commercially available in Italy, Germany, Finland and Spain. Market players in other regions, like Scandinavia and Flanders have taken the formal decision to move to MHP and are currently preparing the market rollout. The following table gives an overview over the MHP activities in the different countries.
Country Germany Flanders Austria Denmark Norway Finland Sweden Italy France Spain Hungary Singapore Australia Korea
DVB-S
DVB-C
DVB-T
●
● ● ○
●
○ ● ● ● ● ○
● ●
● ○ ○ ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●
●
● MHP applications on air ● MHP application on air (new in version 2) ○ MHP services planned for the near future
2.1.1.1
Interactive Digital Television in Germany (updated in version 3)
The major German market players have considered the introduction of digital television including interactivity via APIs since 1995. Due to the lack of standards, original planning was based on proprietary systems. It became clear quickly, however, that these systems were not suitable for open, horizontal mass markets. German partners have consequently contributed very actively to the development and deployment of MHP. MHP was first demonstrated at IFA 1999, the first regular services were started in mid 2002. An interim phase where Open TV was used as API, found its end when Open TVapplications were stopped in 2003. Meanwhile several broadcasters (all free TV) offer a number of regular MHP services which will be described in chapter 2.4.6.
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In addition to the MHP activities of established TV broadcasters, some new players have entered the stage: The big German mail order company "Otto" has tested to offer its products via TV, using an interactive MHP application. Furthermore, "Hörzu", a well established TV print magazine, now broadcasts an MHP version of its TV-guide via TV. The "Deutsche TV-Plattform" and the IRT have been engaged for years in supporting the introduction of MHP by marketing measures as well as by open technical workshops. Even though in 2003 more digital satellite receivers than analogue satellite receivers were sold in Germany for the first time, MHP has not yet developed into a market success. This is to some extent due to the current availability of low cost set-top boxes that make higher prices for MHP terminals appear unjustified. On the one hand, vendors argue that there are not enough applications currently on offer or in development. In turn, content and application providers tend to wait for a sufficient number of MHP terminals before they embark into new application and service developments – a certain deadlock has been the consequence, the well-known chicken-and-egg problem in horizontal markets. By 31 December 2003, German public service broadcasters terminated their use of the Open TV standard for the provision of enhanced digital television services via satellite. Since then they have been providing these services in MHP exclusively for both cable and satellite retransmission. In addition, the start of DTT and the analogue switch-off on 4th August 2003 in the region Berlin/Brandenburg was accompanied by the introduction of enhanced TV services based on MHP. Since then a number of regions followed and some are already preparing DVB-T (see Figure 1). In February 2004, major German public and private broadcasters ARD, ZDF, ProSieben/Sat.1 Media AG and RTL Television met with representatives of the Media Institutions of the German states (DLM) and German end device manufacturers cooperating in the Central Association Electronic Technology and -Industry (ZVEI). All participants agreed on a package of measures in direct consequence of the joint declaration of German public and private broadcasters for the timely introduction of MHP in September 2001 – known as “Mainzer Erklärung” (Mainz Declaration) – that had seen a more general commitment to the introduction of MHP in Germany. Following their announcement the large ProSiebenSat.1-Group started offering MHP applications in 2004. Announcements of manufacturers that they would enforce their efforts in developing and offering low cost Free-TV-Receivers with MHP-API have not been fulfilled so far (see below). As an example of the German interactive TV market, ARD is one of the major players here. With establishing the ARD Play-Out-Center at ORB (now project partner RBB) it started its activities in this sector as early as 1997. In line with its commitment as a public broadcaster to provide seamless access to information for all its users, from the start of its interactive TV activities ARD has supported “Free TV“ and open standards. It strongly believes that the current situation of fragmented markets with vertically integrated proprietary platforms allows for powerful gatekeepers to control technology, hardware devices, content, and competitors. Instead, it aims at achieving open access to infrastructures of communication. Being part of the former Free Universe Network (F.U.N), a Free-TV Network of more than 30 content providers, network operators and device manufacturers, it first used the Open TV standard. Based on the Mainz Declaration of September 2001 (see section 2.3.1.2), ARD moved to adopting the MHP standard as soon as this was available. This joint declaration of German public and private broadcasters for the timely introduction of the MHP standard (from 2002 onwards) was approved by the German public and private broadcasters. ARD has been broadcasting its first applications based on MHP since August 23, 2002. By the end of 2003, all ARD’s interactive services and developments had been migrated from Open TV to MHP, which is now the standard interactive TV platform at ARD. Two major general levels are to be distinguished whenever ARD’s MHP activities are referred to in this document:
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The national level: Since 1997, ARD has been broadcasting digital TV services from Potsdam (DVB-S, C): 18 TV channels plus accompanying services including program enhancement (shows, sports), an extensive EPG and a so called “Online Channel”, an extra multimedia feature channel incl. news and additional info on certain service programs. In 2002, the ARD TVportal (Open TV) was launched providing access to news, program tips, the EPG etc., as well as options to choose TV, Radio, and the interactive „feature channel“ etc. (DVB-S). From August 2002 onwards, all these services were migrated from Open TV to MHP. The regional level: This refers to MHP applications broadcast via DVB-T in the different German regions. As described in the passage below, DVB-T has been successively introduced in different German regions, starting with Berlin and Brandenburg in August 2003. Thus some MHP applications are broadcast via ARD’s regional channels and there are also ARD interactive applications that are broadcast regionally. MHP applications offered by ARD are listed in detail below in chapter 2.4.6.1.
DVB-T Figures released by the consumer electronics association ZVEI show that 2.3 million DVB-T set-top boxes have been sold in Germany since the initial launch of DTT in 2002. Of these, 1.05 million set-top boxes were sold in the last quarter of 2004. DTT services were launched in 2002 in the Berlin/Brandenburg region. The availability of DTT services has spread since and DVB-T is now available in other regions including parts of northern Germany, North Rhine Westphalia and Frankfurt. By the end of 2005 the majority of Germany’s congested urban area have been covered by DVB-T. The transmission of analogue TV signals will be ceased successively.
Figure 1: DVB-T penetration in Germany in 2005
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It can be assumed that the purchase of DVB-T boxes will increase continuously in the next years in Germany due to the fact that terrestrial analogue TV will be switched off by 2010. Since the beginning of 2005, three DVB-T boxes enabling MHP are available on the German market (see also section 2.4.3). The sales prices of the MHP DVB-T boxes range from 225,-€ to 800,-€, while prices for DVB-T boxes not supporting MHP start at 70,-€. The higher costs and the lacking of a good promotion of MHP terminals might constrain their powerful impact on the German TV market. If these problems will be overcome and the broadcasters will offer more interactive services, MHP will have a bright future in Germany.
DVB-C In January 2005 German cable operators decided to support MHP in their networks. Germany’s public services ARD and ZDF are now available including their MHP applications in the major German cable network as provided by Kabel Deutschland (KDG). Furthermore, private broadcaster EURO1 is preparing MHP services for DVB-C, largely targeting the area of interactive shopping.
The Market for MHP Terminals (Set-Top-Boxes, etc.) Despite the positive figures given above it is surprisingly difficult to purchase MHP terminals in Germany. There is almost no promotion activity and most boxes cannot be bought in shops. Only after dedicated research on the web users find information on available STBs and other MHP terminals. Sony’s iDTV must have been a flop as it cannot even be found on the web any longer, in December 2004 Nokia announced that they will stop producing their Mediamaster 310 S 1 while, at the same time, they stress that MHP still plays an important role in their strategy. Humax, Panasonic and Philips still have MHP terminals on the German market. Samsung prepares a dedicated DVB-C box in cooperation with EURO1. “The device is being developed exclusively for EURO I AG, Bremen, and is available in a package with the EURO I-TV Portal, which combines interactive entertainment formats and shopping services.” It will include PVR and time-shift functions. 2 Decoder
Reception
Price EURO
Humax DTT 4000
T
245,90/ 269
Humax LD 17-T
T
799-988
Philips DSR 5600
S
170-190
Panasonic TUMSF100
S
299
Nokia MM 310 S
S
299,00
Comment
LCD TV with integrated DVB-T receiver and MHP
Production stopped
1
This announcement was made in an interview with German iTV news online-magazine digitalfernsehen.de and is available at http://www.digitalfernsehen.de/news/news_20300.html 2 Press Release available at http://www.scip.tv/pressemitteilungen/2004_09_08_Sam_E.pdf IST-2003-507442
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2.1.1.2
C
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PVR, time-shift function
Interactive Digital Television in Flanders (updated in version 3)
In the region Flanders in Belgium, media (TV, Radio) is organized differently for each of the communities (Flemish speaking, French speaking and German speaking). In the Flemish community, there is a very dense bi-directional cable network controlled by six regional cable operators, grouped in Interkabel, and one multi-regional cable operator Telenet. About 97.5% of the homes can be connected to that network and more than 90% of these homes are connected to the cable network to receive analogue cable television. At this moment, there is only a small base of digital cable receivers for Canal +. In September 2003, the public Flemish broadcaster VRT, the commercial broadcasters VMMa, VT4, and recently MTV and the owners of the cable network Interkabel and Telenet signed a cooperation treaty called “Vlaanderen Interactief” (Flanders Interactive). Within this cooperation, they will do research on the technological and the social scientific side of iDTV. This cooperation will also prepare the introduction of iDTV in Flanders. This project is supported and funded for 12.4 million euros by the Flemish government. “Vlaanderen Interactief” has chosen one standard: MHP. The different broadcasters will use the same digital head-end that will be constructed in the NOC of Telenet. This digital head-end contains the MHP application carousel system and the multiplexers to create the different multiplexes. Each broadcaster delivers its video streams and puts its applications on the carousel. The digital head-end will also manage the return channel and will be responsible for billing. Euro-DOCSIS broadband cable modems will be used as return channel. In addition to a number of digital television channels, Telenet will offer different types of applications: a TV portal, an EPG, interactive applications like voting, shopping, PVR etc. The government is also interested in offering access to different e-government services, and in the near future everyone will be able to authenticate himself by putting his electronic identity card in the smart card reader of the set-top box.
New situation in Flanders 05-2005 During the last year, the plans for interactive digital television in Flanders described above did not change. Apart from some promotional websites that went online and some test trials, the commercial roll out has not been started yet. They announced that two types of MHP terminals will be available: a digibox, which is an interactive MHP set-top box and a digicorder, which is an interactive MHP set-top box with an integrated digital video recorder. Belgacom, the incumbent national telephony operator and a competitor of Telenet, announced that they also will offer digital TV over xDSL this year. Besides digital TV, video on demand, web access and interactive TV will be offered. The middleware will be produced by Myrio, which was recently taken over by Siemens (the system integrator for the Belgacom TV project). For strategic reasons, not much technical information is made public, but the first test trials have been started. In the meantime, Flanders is fully covered by DVB-T. Only the TV (2) and Radio (9) channels from the public broadcaster VRT are available. No interactive services are offered and the VRT doesn’t make any promotion for that network. On the cable networks from Interkabel, people are now also able to receive digital TV (DVB-C) without any interactive services.
Update situation in Flanders 03-2006 Since May last year, quite a lot around DTV happened in Flanders. The project “Vlaanderen Interactief” is over and the commercial deployments have started.
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In September 2005 the cable operator Telenet started its commercial deployment of interactive digital television based on MHP. In addition to a number of digital television (> 75) and radio (>50) channels, Telenet offers different types of applications: a TV portal, an EPG for all broadcasted channels, Video On Demand, shopping and will launch a PVR within the next months. The set-top boxes with a hard disk of 160 Gbyte (Digicorders) are already sold, but a software update is needed to add the PVR functionality. The Flemish broadcasters produce MHP applications linked to the programs they broadcast. The public broadcaster makes also most of its own programs from the last 7 days available on the Video On Demand platform. The government is still interested in offering access to different e-government services and in the near future everyone will be able to authenticate himself by putting his electronic identity card in the smart card reader of the set-top box. At the end of January, Telenet announced that they have sold more then 100 000 MHP set-top boxes. Belgacom, the incumbent national telephony operator and a competitor of Telenet, offers since the summer of 2005 also digital TV, but over xDSL. Beside digital TV, an EPG and Video On Demand that is available at the moment, they will also offer Personal Video Recorder functionalities, interactive applications and web access (email and chat). BelgacomTV is not based on MHP. Since January 2006 a new player came into the TV market TV-Vlaanderen. It is the first satellite TV operator focused on the Flemish market and uses the SES-ASTRA platform to broadcast its TV channels. Nothing changed to the DVB-T network from the public broadcaster. The three DVB technologies to broadcast digital TV are now available, but most people still use the analogue cable to watch TV. 2.1.1.3
Interactive Digital Television in Austria (updated in version 3)
In the Austrian city of Graz a DVB-T test, including the broadcast of MHP based interactive content, was running for 3 months starting in June 2004. This test run was provided by public broadcaster Österreichischer Rundfunk (ORF), the regulatory authority Rundfunk und Telekom Regulierungs-GmbH, Siemens AG Österreich, Telekom Austria AG, as well as the private broadcasters ATV+, goTV, ProSieben Austria, SAT.1 Österreich, Steiermark 1 and Aichfeld TV. Additionally to the three TV services ORF 1, ORF 2 and ATV+, that are broadcast regularly, a specially programmed interactive service called „!TV4GRAZ“ was distributed via DVB-T. 150 MHP enabled DVB-T set top boxes, equipped with return channel functionality, were provided to households for using the broadcast interactive service. The interactive content was accessible to the consumers via the MHP-Portal. It contained enhanced applications, like EPG or news ticker as well as interactive applications using the return channel, like a quiz and an interactive advertisement that included the possibility of requesting further information. Austrian cable network operators are also testing MHP via DVB-C and cable based return channel. The cable network operator Salzburg AG had running test applications, including news ticker, SMS/email applications, games and ticket ordering, until February 2005. Liwest, another cable network operator in Austria, has some MHP terminals, equipped with return channel based on the TV cable, at their customers and also tested some MHP applications. In addition to the MHP applications provided by the cable operator the customer can use all MHP applications provided by German broadcasters and in future also the applications of the Austrian public broadcaster ORF will be inserted.
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On Feb. 23 2006 the Austrian regulator granted a license to operate two nation wide DVB-T multiplexes to the “Österreichische Rundfunksender GmbH&Co KG” (ORS). The ORS will serve as a platform operator for these two multiplexes. Part of this license is the obligation to use MHP for interactive applications. This license explicitly refers to Art. 18 of the framework directive and the obligation of the EU member states to encourage open API standards in its MHP argumentation. The ORS has published a receiver specification (to be found at www.ors.at) which requires the implementation of MHP 1.1.2 for compliant receivers. This specification is also valid for the satellite market as the relevant services are also distributed via DVB-S – including the MHP applications. It is planned to add on the first multiplex a MHP bit rate of 600 kbit/s to each service. Besides an MHP EPG also commercial MHP applications are foreseen. 2.1.1.4
Interactive Digital Television in Switzerland (added in version 3)
In January 2006 the SRG (the Swiss public broadcaster) has announced to launch interactive services using MHP by 2007. MHP will then be used via DVB-S and DVB-T. The SRG intends to use MHP also via DVB-C; the Swiss cable operators, however, have partly introduced OpenTV and would like to keep this system. One specific aspect of SRGs service concept for MHP is the support of disabled people by the optional transmission of additional information. Starting in March 2006 the terrestrial transmission will be migrated to DVB-T. This process will be completed in 2009. Via satellite, SRG will open in May 2006 a second DVB-S transponder to broadcast their programs. HDTV is announced by SRG in 2010. 2.1.1.5
Interactive Digital Television in the UK (added in version 2)
Broadcasters in the United Kingdom are providing a lot of interactive content ranging from simple applications displaying additional information up to enhanced interactive applications using the return channel. However, all these applications aren’t based on MHP but on OpenTV (Sky Digital, BBC), MHEG-5 (terrestrial digital TV) or other platforms. The interactive content is quite successful and the consumers are used to press the red button for activating interactivity, e.g. in a sports bidding application. MHP is currently only a topic for the BBC, which is doing some research projects answering questions like, which possibilities are provided by MHP 1.0 and MHP 1.1 or how can MHEG-5 content be migrated to MHP? However, it is most likely that the success of the available interactive content, implemented with MHEG-5/OpenTV, and the number of devices in the market will avoid a short term introduction of MHP services and devices in the United Kingdom. 2.1.1.6
Interactive Digital Television in Denmark (updated in version 3)
Denmark currently has digital cable (TDC) and satellite (Canal Digital and Viasat) networks. At present, there is not too much interactivity on air. Existing offers are either based on OpenTV (TDC and Viasat) or MediaHighway (Canal Digital). The construction of a DTT just finished (end march 2006). This network only offer interactive content based on MHP. At launch time the services are: •
DigiTV launcher - responsible for managing scarce resources
•
DigiTV EPG - a MHP implementation of an EPG reading the SI schedule data
•
DR Ekstra - a super teletext MHP application.
•
TV2 Ekstra - a super teletext MHP application based on ITV Factory from NPTV (http://www.nptv.fr/)
DR Ekstra the DR Portal, is available in the satellite networks in proprietary APIs as well as in MHP. This, however, refers only to the migration period. After that it will be MHP
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only. The MHP-portal is available in the DTT network, and, most probably, also in the cable network as part of the 'must carry legislation' but this has not happened yet. The DTT network construction is just finished and was in operation 1st of April 2006. The channels that will be available initially in the DTT network will be DR, DR2, TV2-DK and one channel with a signer. The market for set-top boxes will be horizontal with no subsidizations. The DR interactive 24/7 information service was launched in the fall of 2004 and is broadcast on satellite (OTV on 5 degree E). DR has been supporting MHP from the very beginning - through participation in MHP Alliance, MHP Action Group and through NorDig. In June 2001, DR initiated an analysis project with the purpose of preparing DR technically to develop and broadcast MHP applications. It is the result of this work that is now used in the development of the DR Portal application and its supporting infrastructure. 2.1.1.7
Interactive Digital Television in Norway (updated in version 3)
Norges televisjon as (NTV) has applied for a license to develop and operate a digital terrestrial network for television in Norway. Norsk Rikskringkasting AS (NRK), TV 2 Gruppen AS and Telenor Broadcast Holding AS each own one third of NTV. The rapid development of the terrestrial network and establishment of a new competitive pay-TV player is a major technical and financial challenge. NTV guarantees the development of three multiplexes covering 95 per cent of households. Of these, one multiplex will be developed that also offers coverage in satellite shadows. A multiplex will have room for seven to ten channels. NTV’s entire content will be available to all viewers within the basis coverage. NTV proposes a dynamic development plan that will involve controlled rollout in eleven regions. NTV plans to start the rollout six months after a license is awarded and the launch in the first region is scheduled for autumn 2006. The final shutdown of the analogue terrestrial network in the last region will be possible by the end of 2008. The development plan will ensure that NRK2’s terrestrial network coverage will be significantly improved at an early stage. NTV also expects the digital terrestrial network to have coverage of more than 70 per cent for weekend/holiday homes. From its launch, NTV will offer pay-TV featuring 20-25 channels. NTV wishes to offer its audience all the Norwegian language channels and the most popular international channels. Local television and an open channel will be ensured space and capacity on the platform. NRK’s public service channels on TV and radio will be available to the public free of charge except for the cost of receiving equipment. After the shutdown of the analogue channels, the digital terrestrial network will be capable of sending approximately 20 additional TV channels through the development of a further two multiplexes. NTV will organize the digital terrestrial network and pay-TV in two legally distinct companies. The existing NTV will be the license holder and platform operator, while a new company (NTV II) will establish pay-TV services for consumers. This will ensure nondiscriminatory terms for access to the platform. In addition to an increase in the number of channels, the digital terrestrial network will give consumers digital value-added in the form of improved pictures and sound. The digital terrestrial network will also be capable of offering consumers digital value-added in the form of new services such as an electronic program guide (EPG), super teletext, games and information services. Through the use of open standards and specifications, NTV will stimulate the development of new and innovative services for consumers. This can provide consumers with easy access to a wide range of services from a variety of suppliers. NTV will choose MPEG-4 compression technology for development. This will ensure consumer access to programs sent in high-definition TV (HDTV) when it is launched, and to future services. The choice of new compression technology means that the price of digital TV boxes will be higher on launching than for older technological solutions (MPEG2). However, it is assumed that the price of new digital TV boxes will fall to less than NOK 1,500 (Rate 2004) during the second quarter of 2007, i.e. before the shutdown of analogue transmission. NTV will choose technological solutions that are particularly well
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suited to Norway’s topography and climate. NTV’s technical solution will enable mobile reception of digital terrestrial transmissions at lower speeds, for example by ferries and coastal traffic. At Easter 2006 NTV was still waiting for the license. Telenor Broadcast including Satellite Broadcasting, Norkring and Canal Digital have promoted MHP since 2000. In 2000, Satellite Broadcasting started developing an MHP 1.0 platform (playout) which was presented at IBC2000. The reason for starting this development was that at the time no playout platform with the desired functionality was available. As a satellite network operator Telenor wanted a multi-user playout to be also used for cable and terrestrial. Several customers (network operators re-broadcasting Telenor’s broadcast) used the playout / object carousel while the broadcaster controlled its own applications. A web interface was developed where the pilot customers could upload their applications, and the Thor II satellite was used for distribution. The pilot service started with seven customers (net via satellite in 2001 and had MHP 1.0 (enhanced broadcast) on air until October 2003. The main aim was to collect experience, to promote the use of an open API for interactive digital TV and to stimulate the horizontal market and third party application development. Telenor also started an MHP Forum in the Nordic countries in 2002 together with broadcasters and application developers. The forum had meetings where all the partners could discuss the use of MHP and how to launch MHP in the TV market. Telenor is now restructuring the playout (MHP Interactive Broadcast) to make it a commercial platform. Canal Digital is establishing an MHP test lab, both for applications and set-top boxes. In 1998, broadcasters and network operators in the Nordic countries started NorDig to specify a common standard IRD for the Nordic countries. In 2000 Nordig II was specified with MHP Interactive Broadcast profile, and the Nordic broadcasters all promote MHP in DTH when the market is ready both with set-top boxes and applications. All the broadcasters want to use MHP in DTT when it is launched. More details on NorDig are given below in chapter 2.3.2.1. In late 2004 NRK started an MHP service on satellite and in spring 2005 they started a forum for development and usage of MHP together with the other public Nordic broadcasters.
2.1.1.8
Interactive Digital Television in Sweden (added in version 3)
Launched on 1 April 1999, the Swedish DTT platform provides viewers with access to over 30 television program services on 5 multiplexes. It is expected that a sixth multiplex will be launched. DTT services are available to 90% of the population with the multiplex allocated to the public service broadcaster SVT expected to reach population coverage of 99.8% by the end of 2007. The pay DTT platform operated by Boxer TV Access has proven to be a successful model. While slow growth initially plagued the DTT platform in its early years, the platform has witnessed high growth in the past two years. Already the fastest growing digital platform in Sweden, it is likely to become the largest digital platform in 2006. DTT penetration stood at approximately 12% by the end of 2005. Analogue switch-off is set to be completed by 1 February 2008 as mandated by the Parliament. The process will take place by region and in five phases, leaving the largest cities for last. On 19 September 2005, analogue switch-off commenced in the region of Gotland and has since continued in Gävle and Motala / Linköping. In order to help coordinate analogue switch-off, the government has set up a digital switchover commission. The commission recommended the 5 phased approach used for analogue switch-off and provides recommendations and updates on the process to the government. In addition, it is responsible for planning and coordinating public information campaigns. The public service broadcaster (SVT) initiated broadcasting of MHP services on all digital platforms in 2004. These services consist of advanced text information services. A 500 subscriber user trial will soon begin in Gävle using the DVB-T platform to test an MHP-
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based community information service. There are no commercially available MHPterminals in Sweden. 2.1.1.9
Interactive Digital Television in Finland (updated in version 3)
The following tables show the status of digital TV and interactive applications in Finland. All DVB-S channels are available via Thor III.
Launch DVB-S
Tests started [month/year] ?
Regular service started [month/year] 10/2004
DVB-T DVB-C
9/1997 ?
8/2001 Mostly during 2003
Standard for interactive applications MediaHighway (Canal+), OpenTV (Viasat) MHP (regular service 5/2002) MHP (no regular service yet)
Technical operators: • DVB-T network operator Digita Official digital TV and/or MHP groups in Finland: • KASU, national MHP applications (supertext, EPG): •
YLE, MTV, Nelonen
•
RYT (DTV group):
•
Broadcasters etc.
•
SMDTV (DTT League Finland):
•
DVB-T broadcasters
Receivers: Digita DTT network rules of operation defined special requirements for MHP terminals in Finland: http://www.digita.fi/digita_dokumentti.asp?path=1841;2081;3640;2113 http://www.digitv.fi/digiProEtusivu.asp?path=9;1826
MHP-Applications Current MHP applications on air: Broadcaster
Application
All YLE YLE YLE YLE
Supervideotext Memory game NE-spelet News ticker Government facts Hockey score ticker Real estate finder TV-bank Various: Weakest link Formula 1 Ice Hockey etc.
MTV MTV MTV MTV
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Regular service [R] Program related [P] Test service [T] R R R R R
DVB-S [X] S
DVB-C [X]
DVB-T [X] X X X X X
P
X
R
X
R P
X X
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Regular service: applications, which are broadcasted permanently. Program related: applications, which are related to special programs (interactive app.) Test service: applications for test purposes. Consumers Consumers in Finland are already aware of digital TV and 10% of the receivers are MHP terminals. Total number of households in Finland is 2,1M. [% of households] Analogue Digital
Satellite 25%
Cable 50% 15%
Terrestrial 50% 60%
Receivers sold by end 2003: • DVB-T: 250 000 •
DVB-C: 65 000
•
DVB-S: 100 000
Currently in Finland there are about 30 cable providers. There is a plan to switch off analogue transmission by the end of 2004, which will, however, depend on each cable operator. First launched in August 2001, DTT services allow viewers to access 12 free-to-air and 4 pay television program services available on 3 national multiplexes. The first two multiplexes provide services to nearly 100% of the population while the third multiplex has coverage of 78% of the population. The launch of two further multiplexes has been announced. While one multiplex will enhance the DTT offer, the second multiplex will provide countrywide DVB-H services to 70% of the population. Currently, Finland has a DTT penetration of over 30%, including over half of the terrestrial households. It is expected that with further marketing and communication activities, analogue switch-off could be achieved by the 31 August 2007 deadline set by the government. However, an issue may arise from the need to ensure that cable households are converted to digital in order to access digital public service programs. Converting these households to digital may prove difficult given their current (low) level of digital penetration. A consortium of broadcasters and network operators jointly published a report entitled Transition into Digital Time that provides key recommendations for analogue switch-off. The report also produced a detailed timeline and defined the responsibilities of each group involved in analogue switch-off. 2.1.1.10 Interactive Digital Television in Italy (updated in version 3) The penetration of digital television in Italy (26,9%) is over the European average (23,7%). Italy is on the 5th position. There are about 3.318.000 digital receivers, 2.500.000 of them are DTT receivers (most of them MHP-enable due to Government funding). Digital Terrestrial TV has been launched in Italy in December 2003. The Italian national broadcasters (RAI, Mediaset, La 7) have adopted DVB MHP as the standard for interactive applications for the Italian DTT.
The DTT deployment plans The Telecommunication authority is implementing the law for the transition to the new digital terrestrial TV standard. The 30-month experimentation phase started in December
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2003. In 2004, a revision of the rules based on the guidelines proposed by the market was done. DTT will roll out fully in 2006. The regulation defines the broadcast licenses for network operators and authorizations for the TV content suppliers for an antitrust system. The Ministry of Communications will provide the authorizations and licenses. They will have duration of 12 years and will be renewable. On December 1st 2003, Mediaset and RAI started their digital terrestrial TV broadcast with coverage of 50 % of the population with a plan to have a fast extension to the entire country. The Italian government has allocated a budget for a contribution of 150 Euros per interactive DTT receiver for 900,000 receivers. Italy is now by far, thanks to Government subsidies for interactive receivers, the country with the highest number of MHP set-top boxes actually deployed in consumers' houses. In 2006 and 2004 almost 2 500 000 MHP terminals have been deployed into the households.
Broadcasters, technical operators, services: In Italy there are already 15 to 30 analogue programs available. In fact, DTT contents rely on interactivity more than quantity. The major Italian commercial operators launching digital TV programs are RAI and Mediaset. RAI, for instance, has planned to launch two dedicated new channels, in addition to the existing traditional services:
RaiDoc, dedicated to culture, art, literature and music.
RaiUtile, a service dedicated to citizens (administrative services), with traffic information, weather forecast, etc.
For Mediaset, two multiplexes are used to start deploying DTT commercially. The access to DTT content relies on overlapping of coverage from the (3) technical operators:
Elletronica Industriale, technical operator for Mediaset,
RaiWay, technical operator for RAI,
Telecom Italia, technical operator for La7.
DGTVi is an association (composed of RAI, Mediaset, La7, MTv, and the Fondazione Ugo Bordoni) working to enable the deployment of digital TV. On its web site, one can find the coverage of the operators for DTT (www.dgtvi.it). Multiplex National
Dfree
LA7/MTV
DTT Channels also available in analogic Net 4 Italy 1 Sportitalia LA7 MTV Italy Telemarket Net Goats
MEDIASET 1 Channel 5
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New DTT channels LCI Live24 The Single Soccer La7 Sport Channel Test
Boing
Radio
Pay for View
LA7 Cartapiù To LA7 Cartapiù B LA7 Cartapiù C LA7 Cartapiù D LA7 Cartapiù and LA7 Cartapiù F MediasetPremium 1
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MEDIASET 2
RaiUno RAI - Mux To RaiDue RaiTre
2ôre.tv Class News Coming Soon BBC World Channel 5 - MCS Mediashopping 2ôre.tv Class News Coming Soon BBC World RaiUtile Light FD
RaiSportSat RaiNotizie24 RAI Edu1 RAI Doc-Futura
RAI - Mux B
SAT2000
March 2006
MediasetPremium 2 MediasetPremium 3 MediasetPremium 4 MediasetPremium 5
Radiouno Radiodue Radiotre FD Auditorium Isoradio
Interactive services In the Italian DTT networks interactive MHP applications play a very important role. The interactive services of the digital TV are mainly of two types: content-related services associate to the broadcasted television content, and not-content-related services, that is, services independent from the transmissions, generally informative ones. Services related to the television content can be: •
Detailed content of informative character to add value to the audiovisual content
•
Animations and diagram more versatile than traditional ones
•
Votes/surveys
•
Games/tests/quizzes/contest
•
t-commerce
•
Extra audiovisual content, complementary to the main stream
Services that are not related to the audiovisual content can be the: •
Services of T-government that allow to access from home to online shops, offices and data bases of publics entities (local entities, hospitals, schools) and private entities (mail services, banks, etc.)
•
Superteletext, an enhanced teletext with always visible video flows, images and pictures with greater details
•
Electronic programming guide (EPG), that enable operators to personalize the format of presentation of its own offer of contents, with images and advanced designs.
Keeping untouched the traditional function of television (communication, entertainment and information), these services introduce an innovation element creating one relation while enabling interaction between customer and broadcaster. The interaction happens with extreme facility of use through the remote control, integrating in only instrument functionality that until today required the use of several devices (telephone, computer, mail, etc). IST-2003-507442
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The achieved convergence on the house television set opens interesting scenarios as it offers a simple and intuitive way for the viewer to interact in real time with the broadcasted events. With the remote control it is possible to: •
Participate to voting and surveys, replacing the telephone;
•
Obtain additional information, similar to surfing via Internet;
•
Play quizzes and tests related to the program;
•
Buy products presented in the programs.
The complete list of all MHP applications is too long to be reproduced here; it can be found at http://www.dgtvi.it/canali_servizi. The overall offering per DTT provider is:
Mediaset
26 applications
LA7/MTV
10 applications
LA7
6 applications (public services/ e-government)
RAI
8 applications
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MHP Terminals According to the deployments encouraged by the subsidies a big number of MHP terminals is now available in the Italian market. The decoder list (as published at http://www.dgtvi.it/consumer_info/stb.html) is given below:
STBL 3006
Access Media
STBL 3012
Access Media
Interact 1
Dipro
JS-6000 Mhp
Jepssen
JS-6000 W Mhp
Jepssen
JS-6000 PRV DA Mhp 80 Gb
Jepssen
DTT 4000
Humax
DTT 4100
Humax
LIT 17 DTT
Humax
Mediamaster 310T
Nokia
DTR 6600
Philips
DTR 6600/08
Philips
DTB-9500F
Samsung
DT5200
Worldsat
SRT5500 MHP
Strong
I-CAN
ADB
I-CAN 2000T
ADB
MHP 9000
Hyundai
TS 7.3
Tele System
MHP T
Digiquest
T3010MHP
Homecast
T3010MHP
Fairmate
T - 333
Echostar
To allow an optimum interoperability between the various networks carrying MHP applications and the available decoders the DGTVi has generated a "D-Book" (http://www.dgtvi.it/stat/Industry/D-Book/Page1.html). This “D-Book” clarifies general DTTV issues like: •
Modulation issues (hierarchical modulation)
•
Audio issues (MP3, multiple audio. multiple channel)
•
Teletext
•
Software updates
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Also MHP specific issues are covered: •
Video resizing
•
Return channel procedures
•
Memory behavior
•
MHP loading and memory management
DGTVi proposes that manufacturers to conform their products to D-Book on a voluntary basis. A DGTVi logo has been created and will be released for certified receivers that will pass a test procedure. These tests are performed in a self certification process by the vendor itself. Additionally a voluntary submission to a test procedure made available by a third party Test Lab is possible. Therefore “Blind Tests” have defined between DGTVi and the Test Labs.
2.1.1.11 Interactive Digital Television in France (updated in version 3) The DTT launch has taken place officially on March 31st 2005. The coverage, at this stage amounted to 35% of the population at start, and has been extended to 50% in October 2005. The legal date of the PayTV services launch, which have the particularity to mandate MPEG-4 video codec compliance, was on the 1st September 2005. The Pay TV services had a legal mandatory 6 months delivery time to respect. All the MPEG-4 pay TV services have now started to broadcast. Interactive TV services linked to pay TV offers: •
C+ bouquet is not currently proposing interactive features.
•
TPS bouquet is planning to use receivers equipped with OpenTV interactive engine.
Key issues in the context of the DTT services launch:
Commercial operator identification: commercial distribution will be probably split between the two main operators (C+ / TPS). Newcomers are still waiting for commercial / technical solution with regards to commercial service offers.
A merge between TPS bouquet and C+, to the benefit of the latter, is currently under way. It is expected to be completed in July 2006.
8 new services applicant to the DTThave been selected by regulator CSA on 10th May 2005. There are now 18 FTA channels + 11 payTV services.
Association for DTT download (ATH) status officially published, and legally backed by the regulator CSA. Choice for a DVB/SSU simple profile. First contract signed on April 2006; first experimental and commercial download has taken place Q1 2006. (Philips download)
Start of MPEG-4 pay TV emissions started 5-6 months after DTTV 2nd phase deployment (1st September 2005).
Proposal for a 6th experimental multiplex running DVB-H services until June 2006, then experimental HDTV services.
Next step: local/regional services planned for phase 3 deployment (autumn of 2006)
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Interactivity: The telecom packet (Including standard recommendations from the European Commission toward MHP) has been adopted in France in July 2004. No consensus could be found between the different players; Public broadcasters support MHP; Commercial broadcasters are generally in favor of proprietary solutions (TPS favors OpenTV, C+ remains neutral). No clear choice on interactivity can be made up to now. The fact that a merge between the two digital TV operators is currently in progress should lead to a clarification of the standard to be chosen. Industry manufacturers representatives union (SIMAVELEC) proposes to use either MHEG-5 or MHP. Via licensing (a patent pool representative company on behalf of MHP licensees holders) has issued on the 2nd of March 2006 a statement with regard to the broadcast fees per services. Amounts are considered as redhibitory by Free to air broadcasters. MHP experimentation led by NRJ FTA broadcaster as well as several content editors are currently authorized for a 2 months period since 1st of march.
Legal aspects Two technical arrests describing the signal content compliance as well as the legal obligation for DTT receivers were promulgated by the Ministry of Industry: •
Receiver: The receiver must be compliant with IEC/CENELEC 62216-1.
•
Signal: Signaling and securing information must be compliant with TS 102 812(MHP 1.1). If any broadcaster used another standard, it has to be a nonproprietary open standard and it must be made known to the CSA (regulatory board).
DTT situation at T0+52 weeks The DTT launch in France seems to be a success according to the set-top box sales at T0+3 weeks, see Figure 2. Week 11
Week 12
Week 21
Week 36
today
March 20
March 27
April 2005
September 2005
April 2006
Official launch: 31 / 03
75 000 units
300 000 units
1 250 000 units
1 800 000 units
Figure 2: Cumulated sales of DTT STB in France / Source: Gfk/SIMAVELEC Note that set-top boxes sold on the French market cover only non-interactive products range.
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2.1.1.12 Interactive digital TV in Spain (updated in version 3) At the beginning of 2004 the situation of the DTT in Spain was determined by the fusion of the operators Via Digital and Canal Satélite Digital to constitute Digital+ and by the bankruptcy of the terrestrial DTT operator Quiero TV. The digitization process of the cable operators and the TV over ADSL offer (launched by Telefonica) have incorporated new elements to this market. The current situation of digital television in Spain has changed and now shows a panorama dominated by the cable platform (1.325.000 clients). Satellite receivers descended to 1.188.000 clients during the last quarter of 2005. In the year 2004 the number of homes having a terrestrial digital decoder began to be of some importance. Till January 31st 2006, 1.110.000 DTT receivers have been sold. However, only a 9% of them support MHP functionalities. Within this market context several issues are considered as key aspects:
Transition to the terrestrial digital television (DTT) before 2010. The television operators’ business evolution for cable and satellite in the new digital scenario. The evolution of television over ADSL and IP. The perspectives of new services and formats like DVB-H and high definition TV (HDTV).
Digital TV platforms Satellite The satellite technology is more extended and it has adopted the digitalization process faster due to its lower update cost. The fusion of the Via Digital and Canal Satélite Digital platforms, the growing competition of the cable sector and a business model based on maintaining a high entrance price in the basic packages have caused a continuous descent of clients using this platform from the year 2001. Cable Although initially the cable platform deployed in Spain was analogue, the various operators were involved in the digitalization process of their networks to be able to transmit a greater number of channels and to introduce other services. The big Spanish cable operators, ONO and AUNA, concluded the year 2004 almost reaching 100% the digitalization process. All new clients receive digital television. These companies are impelling the progressive migration of their clients from analogue to digital. Digital Terrestrial TV (DTT) After the crash of the platform Quiero TV, DTT has been restricted to the transmissions of the operators that transmit free, and to the very limited offer of the other two operators that obtained also licenses (VeoTV and NetTV). During 2005, the Government has initiated a set of actions in order to get ready for the analogue switch-off before 2010. Thus, since November 2005, more than 20 free DTT channels are available, some of them including MHP interactive services (EPG, enhanced teletext, …). Mobile Digital Terrestrial TV (DVB-H) The different Spanish mobile telephony operators are working hard in several trial projects to study the chances that television on mobile phones via DVB-H offer for their business.
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TV over ADSL Television broadcast through a broadband connection is the latest option incorporated in the market of digital TV. Telefónica has launched its television service Imagenio, using this technology, having about 5000 clients at the end of 2004. Other telecommunications operators like Wanadoo or Jazztel that offer wide band connections have included also during the year 2005 this television offer to their package of services. Interactive MHP Services Some field trials and deployment tests projects (including MHP services) have been carried out; among these initiatives we can find the projects ACTUA TV and MICROMERCADOS. The ACTUA TV project consisted of a series of demonstrations, carried out in diverse commercial centres, dedicated to show to the public the technological capacities of Terrestrial Digital Television and of the MHP interactive applications. The demonstrations were carried out in stands with STB and iDTV. The base of the demonstrations was the programming of TELEMADRID and laOtra, acting as an interactive portal and enhanced TV. More projects in this line are being planned with the final objective to make the STB market more dynamic and to transform DTT into a reality. The project ACTUA TV was carried out during the year 2003 and 2004. The project MICROMERCADOS consisted of a group of tests of the operation of Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT), framed in a project based on adding a channel to the digital emissions of Televisió of Catalunya. This project was developed during 2003 and 2004. The goal of this project were to obtain information for the future deployment of the terrestrial digital TV (to verify the correct operation of the STB and the installation of the necessary infrastructure, to run some interactive applications, etc.) analyzing at the same time the spectators’ reactions. The interactive contents contained interactive MHP applications (including also the possibility to use the return channel), audio digital with Dolby system, emission of movies in format 16:9, etc. Some of the offered interactive services were news tickers, weather forecast, chat, text messaging and interactive advertisements. The continuation of the project MICROMERCADOS is known as MARESME DIGITAL. Within this project a deployment of the required infrastructure of DTT will be made in the area of the Maresme, taking into account the experiences obtained during the execution of the project MICROMERCADOS. The region of Maresme was chosen as pilot area (although more areas will be involved in the future) as an example for poor television signal coverage due to the complicated geography of the territory. The project has been developed during the year 2005. The Spanish Government is also supporting digital TV and MHP based interactive services new generation during the period 2004-2007 through several national initiatives. Services: There are currently a considerable set of interactive services broadcasted within several national DTT channels. These services are mainly informative: o
Program Guide
o
Enhanced Teletext
o
Meteorologic Information
o
Traffic Information
o
Stock Exchange Information.
The offer of Regional TV operators is more complete, including also interactive services which use the return channel:
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o
iVote: Viewers can vote during TV events
o
Participation in TV Contests
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However, there is a lack of experience in broadcasting applications synchronized with the audiovisual content such as interactive adverts. The table below shows the new national channels with available in DTT: Multiplex National
Channel 61 (RTVE)
DTT Channels New DTT Radio also available channels in analogic La Primera Canal 24h RNE C La 2 Canal 50 RNE 1 Aniversario Clan TV RNE 3
Channel 66 (RTVE, NetTV, VeoTV) Cuatro Channel 67 La Sexta 1 (Sogecable, La Sexta) Channel 68 (Telecinco, NetTV)
Channel 69 (Antena3, La Sexta)
TeleDeporte (RTVE) NetTV VeoTV 1 VeoTV 2 CNN+ 40 Latino TV
Telecinco
Tele 5 Estrellas Tele 5 Sport Fly Music
Antena3
Neox Nova La Sexta 2
their interactive applications
Interactive Applications Launcher (RTVE) Digitext (RTVE) EPG (RTVE) Launcher (RTVE) Digitext (RTVE) EPG (RTVE) EPG (Sogecable)
Launcher (Antena3) EPG (Antena3)
Receivers: During the last months, after the launching of the DTT channels, a huge range of simple receivers with no access to interactive services have been made available in the market. However, the offer on MHP-enabled receivers are difficult to find and their prices are not competitive. In March 2006, MHP-enabled receivers available in Spain for DTT are: Manufacturer Humax Nokia Pace Samsung Philips Philips Philips Finlux Engel Digiquest Homecast
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Model DTT4100 MHP 310-T MHP DT 420 MHP DTV 9500 MHP DTR4600 MHP 28DW 6658 (IDTV) 32DW 6658 Digibox MHP DTT6000i MHP MHP 2006 T3010 MHP
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2.1.1.13 Interactive Digital Television in Singapore Status of digital TV and interactive applications in Singapore: Launch DVB-T
Tests started [month/year] 01/1999
Regular service started [month/year] 03/2001 (TV mobile & simulcast)
Standard for interactive applications MHP
Current analogue broadcasting in Singapore (Broadcasters, operators, services): Broadcaster
Public [X]
Media Corporation of Singapore Private Ltd SPH Media Works STAR HUB Cable Vision Ltd
Private [X] X
Service-name(s)
Satellite
Cable
Channel 5 Channel 8 CNA Central SURIA Channel U Channel I
X
Terrestrial X
X
X
X
Current digital broadcasting in Singapore: Broadcaster Public Private Service-name(s) [X] [X] Media X Channel 5 Channel 8 Corporation of CAN Singapore TV Mobile Private Ltd
DVB-S
DVB-C
DVB-T X
Official digital TV and/or MHP groups in Singapore: MHP Task Force (Media Development Authority of Singapore) Current MHP terminals either still under test or already available on Singapore market: Manufacturer
Model
ADB Panasonic
Ican TU-MTF100
Test [T] In market [M] T T
DVB-S [X]
DVB-C [X]
DVB-T [X] X X
MHP-Applications Current MHP applications on air: Broadcaster
Application
Media Corporation of Singapore Private Ltd
Food Guide Weather News EPG Shopping.
Regular service [R] Program related [P] Test service [T]* T
DVB-S [X]
DVB-C [X]
DVB-T [X] X
* Regular service: applications, which are broadcasted permanently Program related: applications, which are related to special programs (interactive app.) Test service: applications for test purpose.
Consumers Awareness of digital TV is not too high among consumers, yet.
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Total number of households in Singapore is ~1 Million [% of households] Analogue Digital
Satellite 0 0
Cable 20% 0
Terrestrial 100% 0
The DTV deployment plans are still under discussion. Looking into the near future, the Media Development Authority of Singapore actively promotes launching MHP DVB-T DTV services in Singapore. Local broadcaster Media Corporation of Singapore has been running MHP trials since 2002. It also simulcasts 3 TV programs, with an extra channel dedicated to TV mobile (for reception by public buses and trains). Full commercial services are expected to roll off once DVB-T (including MHP) receivers are available. 2.1.1.14 Interactive Digital Television in Australia Status of digital TV and interactive applications in Australia: Launch DVB-S DVB-T DVB-C
Tests started [month/year] 2000 2003
Regular service started [month/year] 1996? 1 January 2001 March 2004
Current analogue broadcasting in Australia: Broadcaster Public Private Service[X] [X] name(s) Aust Broadcast X ABC Corp Seven Network X 7 Nine Network X 9 Network 10 X 10 Special X SBS Broadcast Ser WIN Television X WIN Southern X SC Cross Broad Telecasters X Australia NBN Australia X NBN Imparja X Imparja Foxtel X Foxtel
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Standard for interactive applications (MHP, others)? OpenTV 2003 MHP March 2004 OpenTV March 2004
Satellite
Cable
Terrestrial X X X X X X X X X X
X
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Current digital broadcasting in Australia: Broadcaster Public Private Service[X] [X] name(s) Aust Broadcast Corp X ABC Seven Network X 7 Nine Network X 9 Network 10 X 10 Special Broadcast Ser X SBS WIN Television X WIN Southern Cross Broad X SC Telecasters Australia X NBN Australia X NBN Imparja X Imparja Foxtel X Foxtel Austar United X Austar Commun
DVB-S
March 2006
DVB-C
DVB-T
X
X X X X X X X X X
X
X X X
X
Technical operators: • Transmitters Australia (transmitter operator) •
Broadcasters Australia (transmitter operator)
Official digital TV and/or MHP groups in Australia: • Digital Broadcasting Australia; http://www.dba.org.au/ •
Commercial Television Australia; http://www.ctva.com.au/control.cfm
Broadcasters have also contact to the DVB Organization in the context of changing the MHP standard to include HD MP@HL. Receivers Current MHP terminals either still under test or already available in Australian market: Manufacturer
Model
Humax ADB Panasonic Philips
I-Can TU-MTF100 IDTV
Test [T] In market [M] T T T T
DVB-S [X]
DVB-C [X]
DVB-T [X] X X X X
MHP-Applications Current MHP applications on air: Broadcaster
Application
ABC Others
EPG will follow
Regular service [R] Program related [P] Test service [T]* R (starts March)
DVB-S [X]
DVB-C [X]
DVB-T [X]
* Regular service: applications, which are broadcasted permanently Program related: applications, which are related to special programs (interactive app.) Test service: applications for test purpose.
Consumers Awareness of digital TV is not too high among consumers, yet. Total number of households in Australia is ~7 Million [% of households] Analogue Digital
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Satellite 0% 9%
Cable 13% 0%
Terrestrial 99% 4%
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The DTV deployment plans DVB-S (there is no analogue satellite broadcast): Satellite Optus B1 Optus B1
Broadcaster Sky Channel Network 10
Optus B1 Optus B1
SBS TVNZ
Optus B1 Optus B3 Optus B3 Optus C1 Optus C1 Optus C1
ABC Aurora (Optus) GlobeCast Austar Foxtel Aurora
Number of transponders 8 transponders 1 transponder for central Australia only 3 transponders 2 transponders ( New Zealand spot beam) 6 transponders 1 transponder 2 transponders 10 transponders x 9 transponders 3 transponders
Foxtel (cable provider) in Australia is still broadcasting in analogue mode, but is currently changing to digital broadcasting. Roll out of DVB-T: Five broadcasters in all major cities started broadcasting DVB-T in 2001 (population coverage 64%). All other regional areas started broadcasting on 1 January 2004. By 2005 broadcasting coverage of DVB-T will be the same as analogue PAL broadcasting. Coverage will be > than 90% of population. Plan to switch off terrestrial analogue broadcasting: 2008 - but this date has to be reviewed against the digital receiver market penetration. Four major broadcasters want to implement MHP. One major broadcaster wants to use HTML. Different to the European situation, HDTV is broadcast in Australia. All in all, a considerably higher demand for digital TV products is expected within the years to come. 2.1.1.15 Interactive Digital Television in Korea DTV status Status of digital TV and interactive applications in Korea: Launch DVB-S DVB-T DVB-C
Tests started [month/year] November / 2001
Regular service started [month/year] March / 2002
Standard for interactive applications (MHP, others)? MHP ACAP OCAP
Note: In Korea, terrestrial broadcasters adopted ATSC for their DTV transmission standard so they have started both trials with ATSC-DASE based iTV services and regular services since 2001.
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Broadcasters, technical operators, services: Current analogue broadcasting in Korea: Broadcaster KBS MBC SBS EBS AFN
Public [X] X X
Private [X]
Servicename(s)
Satellite
Cable
Terrestrial X X X X X
X X X
Note: AFN is American Force Network, a special broadcaster for American forces in Korea Current digital broadcasting in Korea: Broadcaster Public Private [X] [X] SkyLife X
Servicename(s)
DVB-S
DVB-C
DVB-T
X
KBS, MBC and SBS will start digital broadcasting based on ATSC. SkyLife is the only operator to broadcast broadcasters’ content while most terrestrial broadcasters manage their transmission by themselves. Official digital TV and/or MHP groups in Korea: •
TTA (Telecommunications Technology Association, http://www.tta.or.kr/English/new/main/index.htm ) is managing iTV standard for Korean DTV and iTV , MIT (Ministry of Information & Technology) has deeply involved in this activity
•
Within this association, there are three subcommittees for each distribution channel (Terrestrial-ACAP, Satellite-MHP, Cable-OCAP).
Participants of this association •
http://www.alticast.co.kr
•
http://www.acanettv.com/
•
http://www.gentor.com
•
http://www.hansolcsn.com
•
http://www.gamchannel.com
•
http://www.aircode.co.kr
•
http://www.epg.co.kr
•
http://www.YandP.co.kr
•
http://www.dmcc.co.kr
•
http://www.borazone.com
•
http://www.cybercvs.com
•
http://www.itmg.co.kr
•
http://www.first2000.co.kr
•
http://www.dtvplus.co.kr
Receivers There are no special requirements for MHP terminals in Korea beyond the DVB-MHP specification, but it is required to have a resident Korean bit-map font, NTSC analogue output and AC-3 Dolby support.
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Skylife distributes boxes with subsidy binding with a one year subscription, or a minimum subsidy for purchase of a box. Current MHP terminals still under test or already available in the Korean market: Manufacturer Samsung LG Humax Techmate Handan Hyundai digital tech. C&S tech.
Test [T] In market [M] M M M M M M
DVB-S [X] X
DVB-C [X]
DVB-T [X] X
X X X X
X
X
M
X
Note: Samsung and LG have prototypes of the OpenCable-OCAP box for testing together with Korean Cable MSOs. MHP-Applications Currently more than 20 MHP applications are on air: Broadcaster
Application
SkyLife SkyLife SkyLife SkyLife SkyLife SkyLife SkyLife
Game Education Fortune Stock Weather Real estate Voting
Regular service [R] Program related [P] Test service [T]* R R R R R R T
DVB-S [X]
DVB-C [X]
DVB-T [X]
X X X X X X X
*Regular service: applications, which are broadcasted all time. Program related: applications, which are related to special program (interactive app.) Test service: applications for test purpose.
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Consumers There is already quite a high level of awareness concerning digital TV. According to a survey conducted by the “Mae il Kyung Jae”-newspaper, 7 out of 10 viewers plan to buy a digital TV receiver. SkyLife has been promoting MHP-based iTV services to consumers on a broad scale. The major market force for switching the basic Sat box to an MHP box is awareness of iTV based on MHP. Total number of households in Korea: 14.4 million [% of households] Analogue Digital
Satellite 7.9%
Cable 40% 0%
Terrestrial 60% 7.1%
A Terrestrial broadcaster is currently simulcasting. The DTV deployment plans: Current satellites: Moo Gung Hwa satellites no. 1, 2 and 3 The switch-off phase of analogue TV has already started with the beginning of digital services. The 7 main service operators have reached subscriber numbers as follows: •
C&M Communications: 1,026,000
•
Hyundai Communications Network: 720,000
•
On Media: 441,303
•
DreamCity Media: 359,015
•
CJ CableNet: 980,000
•
Qrix #: 410,000
•
Taekwang: 1,838,246
DVB-T is not available as Korea adopts ATSC. All analogue TV is to be switched off by 2010. The Korean Government (central and municipal) plans to launch an E-Government application (similar to current E-Government performed via the internet). Furthermore, the Korean public broadcaster plans to launch an MHP-based E-Learning application. Conclusion Digital TV in Korea will grow rapidly. DVB-S has already started and there are already more than 1 million viewers watching DVB-S through satellite provider SkyLife. Finally, all major Korean terrestrial broadcasters are already broadcasting digital TV at a designated time while still broadcasting analogue contents. By 2010, all analogue TV will be switched off and digital broadcasting will dominate the Korean TV industry.
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D1: Analysis of the Current Situation (Version 3)
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Standardization (updated in version 3) This chapter describes shortly the MHP standardization, the status concerning the standardization process and the situation of MHP as a world wide standard.
2.2.1 Status of MHP standardization (added in version 3) 2.2.1.1
MHP standard versions
DVB Multimedia Home Platform (MHP) is a standard available in the ETSI (www.etsi.org). As of April 2006, the following versions are available: MHP 1.0: MHP 1.0 MHP 1.0.1 MHP 1.0.2 MHP 1.0.3 MHP 1.0.3
ETSI TS 101 812 v1.1.1 (2000-07) Withdrawn ETSI TS 101 812 v1.1.2 (2001-10) Withdrawn ETSI TS 101 812 v1.2.1 (2002-06) ETSI TS 101 812 v1.3.1 (2003-06) ETSI ES 201 812 v1.1.1 (2003-12)
MHP 1.1: MHP 1.1 MHP 1.1.1
ETSI TS 102 812 v1.1.1 (2001-11) ETSI TS 102 812 v1.2.1 (2003-06)
These specifications are the result of work performed by the DVB Technical Module (Technical Aspects of MHP (TAM) sub-group) initiated by MHP commercial requirements from the DVB Commercial Module and approved by the DVB Steering Board in October 1997. The DVB TM also created another specification, the "Globally Executable MHP" (GEM), which is necessary to make the MHP standard less DVB-specific in some parts; this concerns mainly the signaling (DVB-SI). The objective of GEM is to harmonize middleware systems in order to promote application interoperability. This has resulted in the following standard registered at the ETSI: GEM 1.0 GEM (1.0.1) GEM 1.0.2
ETSI TS 102 819 v1.1.1 (2003-01) ETSI TS 102 819 v1.2.1 (2004-05) ETSI TS 102 819 v1.3.1 (2005-10)
GEM 1.0.1 supports OCAP (OpenCable Application Platform) which is defined by CableLabs. GEM 1.0.2 supports ARIB, the Japanese TV standards body. 2.2.1.2
MHP 1.0.x specification erratas
There have been some errors or unclarities that could lead to misunderstanding in MHP 1.0.x specifications which DVB has considered and has provided solutions to. This has led to the publication of MHP 1.0.2, followed by MHP 1.0.3 and later on of erratas, as explained below. For MHP 1.0.3, in June 2004, DVB has approved and released a set of errata to the MHP 1.0.3 specification. It is available on the DVB MHP website (www.mhp.org): « Errata 2 to MHP 1.0.3 ». In March 2006, DVB has approved and released a new revised set of errata: « Errata 3 to MHP 1.0.3 ». In this document, DVB indicates that, as of March 2006, it has not decided when or if to publish a version 1.0.4 of the MHP specification. If this happens, the largest factor influencing the timing will be the number and severity of the technical changes found.
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D1: Analysis of the Current Situation (Version 3)
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MHP 1.1.x draft specification
For MHP 1.1.x, DVB provides the draft specification of MHP 1.1.2 in the form of a DVB Blue Book (A068r1) and has published in May 2005 a presentation overview of this version. A068 will become available from ETSI in due course. 2.2.1.4
GEM 1.0.x specification errata
In March 2006, DVB has approved and published a set of corrections to GEM as well as packaged-media: « GEM 1.0.2 Errata #1 ». In this document, DVB indicates that it has not, as of March 2006, decided when or if to publish a version 1.0.3 of the GEM specification. Publishing a new version of GEM is generally triggered by a request from one or more organizations with a liaison arrangement with the MUG (MHP Umbrella Group, in the DVB Project). 2.2.1.5
MHP standard profiles
DVB MHP defines 3 profiles for the MHP terminals: • MHP Enhanced Broadcast profile (in MHP 1.0 version and above)
2.2.1.6
•
MHP Interactive Broadcast profile (in MHP 1.0 version and above)
•
MHP Internet Access Profile (in MHP 1.1 version and above)
MHP test suite
A test suite is available to validate the conformance of MHP terminals with respect to the DVB MHP specification. If a MHP implementation passes the test suite, it can then apply for the MHP logo. A test suite is available for MHP 1.0.2 conformance of receivers. Test suite version
Release Date
Status
Corresponding MHP standard version
MHP 1.0.2.a
June 2002
Now replaced by MHP 1.0.2.b
MHP 1.0.2
MHP 1.0.2.b
December 2002
MHP 1.0.2
To date (April 2006) there is no test suite available yet for the versions 1.0.3 and 1.1.1. More information is available by DVB and on the DVB MHP website (www.mhp.org). It is important to note that the latest MHP test suite must be used when testing compliance to the MHP specification. The IST project MHP Confidence will provide a candidate for MHP 1.0.3 (and errata) conformance test suite to DVB.
2.2.2 MHP extension activities in DVB (updated in version 3) 2.2.2.1
Personal Digital Recorder
DVB has created modular extensions to MHP and GEM to support Personal Digital Recorder (PDR) features. This is typically aimed at terminals equipped with a hard disk in order to record and playback digital TV programs. For GEM, the extension has been co-developed with CableLabs and is designed for both DVB and US cable environments, while remaining independent of DVB and US cable protocols and signaling. This forms a “common core” between MHP and OCAP. The extension is available on the DVB MHP website as Blue Book “A088” entitled “Digital Recording Extension to GEM”. IST-2003-507442
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For MHP, the Blue Book “A087” entitled “PVR/PDR Extension to the Multimedia Home Plaftorm” extends the GEM PDR “common core” to integrate DVB SI (Service Information) and TV Anytime. The specification covers APIs, signaling and also the definition of basic features for a recording engine. Currently, the PDR extension can be added to both MHP 1.0.x and MHP 1.1.x terminals. However, due to small changes needed to MHP 1.0, use of MHP 1.0 with the PDR extension would not properly pass the MHP 1.0 conformance test suite. So, depending on the speed of market adoption of MHP 1.1.x, DVB could remove the possibility to use the PDR extension with MHP 1.0.x and allow it only for MHP 1.1.x. 2.2.2.2
Other activities
DVB ensures the maintenance work of the standards. DVB also currently works on the MHP IPTV extension which addresses DVB services over IP networks for MHP terminals.
2.2.3 Transition of between MHP standard versions (updated in version 3) 2.2.3.1
Transition between MHP 1.0.2 and MHP 1.0.3
In the course of the DVB corrigenda process, a number of specification items of MHP 1.0.2 were modified and fixed, resulting in version 1.0.3 of the MHP standard. The current situation, at the time of writing this document (April 2006), is as follows. MHP terminals already deployed on the market are MHP 1.0.2 receivers compliant with the DVB MHP test suite 1.0.2b. Broadcast applications are MHP 1.0.2 interactive applications. As a matter of fact, it is expected that the receivers will be upgraded to MHP 1.0.3 latest errata, once the conformance test suite for MHP 1.0.3 is available. There will be a migration of platforms in the near future with a transition phase of both receivers compliant with MHP 1.0.2 and receivers compliant with MHP 1.0.3 errata x. It is of utmost interest for all stakeholders in the MHP end-to-end value chain that interactive applications co-exist and work with both types of receivers until the end of the migration phase. In this respect, there are MHP features not to be used when developing applications: •
Because they have changed / have been fixed between MHP 1.0.2 and 1.0.3 versions,
•
Because they are non-interoperable,
•
Because they are not properly tested in the MHP conformance test suite or
• Because today’s implementations are yet unreliable. Modifications performed between MHP 1.0.2 and MHP 1.0.3 may have different impact. Some are only editorial changes to ambiguous passages of the specification. Most changes are fully backwards compatible, there are, however, also a number of modifications that actually imply changes in the specification, which will cause problems during the transition phase. The list of modifications and their analysis is provided in the MHP Knowledge Database. These modifications can be categorized as follows; the number in brackets shows the number of changes in this specific area: •
HAVi (50)
•
DSM-CC, IO (49)
•
Graphics related (47)
•
Applications (46)
•
DVB-J APIs (41)
•
Security (35)
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•
SI (34)
•
Media (28)
•
Return Channel (15)
•
MPEG (7)
•
Events (3)
•
Other (11)
March 2006
Transition from MHP 1.0.3 and its erratas
Implementations of MHP 1.0.3 terminals and applications should be compliant to the latest errata. Between MHP 1.0.3 official version and MHP 1.0.3 errata 2, the following changes have been made: • Major technical changes: 13 • Minor technical changes: 51 • Editorial changes: 110 Between MHP 1.0.3 official version and MHP 1.0.3 errata 3, the following changes have been made: • Major technical changes: 15 • Minor technical changes: 64 • Editorial changes: 130
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D1: Analysis of the Current Situation (Version 3)
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Strategy – Political and Legal Initiatives
2.3.1 European Level 2.3.1.1
European Union Policy (updated in version 3)
The EU Commission welcomes the introduction of MHP as European ITV standard. EU commissioner Erkki Liikanen stated at the 4th EBU conference (March 2001) in Brussels: “The Commission welcomes in particular the development of the Multimedia Home Platform (MHP) standardized by the Digital Video Broadcasting Group (DVB). The MHP platform has been developed by the industry, for the benefit of the industry. The Commission considers that this voluntary, industry led standardization is the best process to reach interoperability, and to guarantee widespread implementation of the standard. Given the fact that the MHP standard was agreed on the assumption that it would remain a voluntary standard, and given the widespread support for it, I see no need to make implementation of the standard mandatory in our Directives, as some suggest.“ The new EU regulatory framework for electronic communications networks and services has been implemented in most of the EU Member States by now. Article 18 of Directive 2002/21/EC on a Common Regulatory Framework for Electronic Communications Networks and Services (also know as the Framework Directive) requires Member States to recommend service providers and equipment providers to use an open API. Competition in digital interactive TV is seen in the context of interoperability: if interoperability and freedom of choice for users have not been adequately achieved in one or more Member States, the Commission is allowed under the framework to take action in the area of digital interactive TV: Article 18 Interoperability of digital interactive television services 1. In order to promote the free flow of information, media pluralism and cultural diversity, Member States shall encourage, in accordance with the provisions of Article 17(2): (a) providers of digital interactive television services for distribution to the public in the Community on digital interactive television platforms, regardless of the transmission mode, to use an open API; (b) providers of all enhanced digital television equipment deployed for the reception of digital interactive television services on interactive digital television platforms to comply with an open API in accordance with the minimum requirements of the relevant standards or specifications. 2. Without prejudice to Article 5(1)(b) of Directive 2002/19/ EC (Access Directive), Member States shall encourage proprietors of APIs to make available on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms, and against appropriate remuneration, all such information as is necessary to enable providers of digital interactive television services to provide all services supported by the API in a fully functional form. 3. Within one year after the date of application referred to in Article 28(1), second subparagraph, the Commission shall examine the effects of this Article. If interoperability and freedom of choice for users have not been adequately achieved in one or more Member States, the Commission may take action in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 17(3) and (4).
Article 18(3) of Directive 2002/21/EC requires a review of the status of interoperability of interactive digital television services across the European Union. Results are to be presented by July 2004 at the latest. Currently, the EU Commission is reviewing and seeking comments from all stakeholders for that purpose. According to Art. 17, a standard "may be made compulsory", if interoperability has not sufficiently been achieved.
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The political aims standing behind Article 18 of Directive 2002/21/EC are in particular revealed in the so called Recital (31) which is part of the preamble of this Directive. Herein, importance is stressed that interoperability has to be reached on consumer level: Recital (13) of the Directive 2002/21/EC Interoperability of digital interactive television services and enhanced digital television equipment, at the level of the consumer, should be encouraged in order to ensure the free flow of information, media pluralism and cultural diversity. It is desirable for consumers to have the capability of receiving, regardless of the transmission mode, all digital interactive television services, having regard to technological neutrality, future technological progress, the need to promote the take-up of digital television, and the state of competition in the markets for digital television services. Digital interactive television platform operators should strive to implement an open application program interface (API) which conforms to standards or specifications adopted by a European standards organisation. Migration from existing APIs to new open APIs should be encouraged and organised, for example by Memoranda of Understanding between all relevant market players. Open APIs facilitate interoperability, i.e. the portability of interactive content between delivery mechanisms, and full functionality of this content on enhanced digital television equipment. However, the need not to hinder the functioning of the receiving equipment and to protect it from malicious attacks, for example from viruses, should be taken into account.
On 26.09.02, the European Parliament issued a resolution on the successful introduction of digital TV in Europe. Here, Member States and Commission are requested to name measures which they will take in order to foster an open interoperable standard for digital TV and migration to an open API on basis of MHP. It asks for the Commission to provide a clear timeframe and requests the European Council to provide an EU Action Plan for the successful introduction of digital TV in Europe. The list of relevant standards is published in the Official Journal of the European Communities. Following a series of recommendations, in particular by the European Parliament, the EU Commission published the MHP standard in the Official Journal in January 2003. MHP is thus at present still the only European standard endorsed by the Commission under Article 17(1) of the Framework Directive. In a reply to the European Parliament, Commissioner Liikanen even described MHP as “the most obvious way to achieve interoperability”. The EU initiative of the MHP Implementation Group is well described in the EU Communication dating 02.02.2006 and therefore is quoted from that paper: “The MHP Implementation Group set up as a result of the 2004 Communication held its first meeting in Brussels in November 2004. The aims of the group were to exchange information, report on best practice and facilitate contacts between actors in the interactive television field. This action sought to help MHP build critical mass and achieve economies of scale, overcoming the fragmentation problem that new broadcasting products face. In response to the Council conclusions, the work of the group encompassed issues related to interactive digital television in general, including the use of standards other than MHP. The group held five meetings between November 2004 and September 2005. Players participating in the Group included ministries and regulatory authorities, broadcasters, network operators, manufacturers, industry associations and research projects. Ten country cases were presented (Italy, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Hungary, the Netherlands, Spain, Germany and Belgium) along with other industry presentations, demonstrating the importance of the debate for European broadcasting.”
In their “Communication ... on reviewing the interoperability of digital interactive television services” dated 02.02.2006 (COM(2006) 37 final) the EU Commission states:
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“The demand for interactive TV applications has proved to be less than many forecast some years ago, and the commercial success of interactive television remains limited. The most successful applications have been in the area of quiz shows, sport, gambling and reality television; governments have yet to find ways to exploit the technology successfully as a means of communicating with citizens.” “Developments in the market, particularly in Italy, have shown that interoperability can be achieved when stakeholders act together with a common aim to implement a technical standard like MHP, but that this in itself is not sufficient to ensure the emergence and growth of interactive digital television services; further business and technical developments are needed.” The resulting conclusions of the Commission contain the following statements: “The Commission’s priorities are now to work with Member States to ensure the successful switchover to digital TV, which is a pre-requisite for having interactive digital services, and to support open standards and the ongoing cooperation on interoperability and exchange of best practice between Member States and between stakeholders.” “The Commission considers ... that mandating EU-wide standards under Article 18(3) of the Framework Directive would not contribute significantly to the growth of interactive digital television in Europe, and could have significant negative effects.” “The Commission ... considers that the market is best served at the present time by continuing to rely on industry-led voluntary standardisation initiatives.” By this communication the Commission plays back the main responsibility to successfully introduce an open interoperable API system to the market.
2.3.1.2
Lobby Organizations
The MHP Alliance of Broadcasters, equipment manufacturers and network operators aims at establishing DVB-MHP as a European standard as soon as possible, both through memoranda of understanding and with the regulatory support of the European Commission and national regulatory authorities. It would like to see a strong legal commitment to MHP as single European standard for digital television by means of EUwide legislation. The Alliance welcomed the Commission Staff Working Document on “Barriers to widespread access to new services and applications of the information society through open platforms in digital television and third generation mobile communications”. It also supports the goals of European Framework Directive on electronic communications networks and services which is to achieve full interoperability for digital television on the level of the consumer, i.e. for services as well as for hardware. The MHP Alliance will actively participate in the recently launched consultation on the level of interoperability in digital interactive TV services. In addition, the MHP Action Group also encourages widespread implementation of DVBMHP throughout Europe. It is a non DVB group standing for the European players in the MHP market who have committed to MHP by signing a Memorandum of Understanding. The MHP Alliance is composed of ARD, Bertelsmann AG/RTL Television, ZDF, DR, Philips, Telenor, NRK, SVT, YLE, VRL. The list of members of the MHP Action Group is available at: http://www.dvb-mhp.org/membership_list/members.html Among the MHP-KDB project partners, ARD, DR, Philips and Telenor are all members of both the MHP Action Group and the MHP Alliance. DR is actively participating in the MHP Alliance, the MHP Action Group and NorDig. It would like to investigate further the participation of project partners and others in such interest organizations and the work and activities of these organizations.
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ARD was part of the Mainzer Erklärung (September 2001), the joint declaration of German public and private broadcasters for the timely introduction of MHP. It also took part in the later successive meeting of the Mainzer Erklärung in February 2004 where a package of measures was agreed upon. In addition, ARD is both part of the MHP Alliance and the MHP Action Group. It participated in the MHP interoperability event in Brussels in December 2002. Since November 2004 it has been participating in the EC MHPimplementation group. Panasonic introduced the world’s first MHP certified decoder in the market and is greatly dedicated to ensuring interoperability. Beyond executing the MHP Test Suite on the Panasonic implementation of the MHP middleware, Panasonic has been joining various interoperability groups and workshops together with application developers and other implementers in order to solve interoperability problems. Panasonic is also participating in the MHP Specification group that decides on ambiguities within the MHP standards. Panasonic will therefore fully support the MHP-KDB project by experience of all related engineers to achieve a higher level of interoperability. The main business for tComLabs is offering testing and consulting services. MHP is potentially a very interesting market to expand its business. tComLabs is furthermore involved in the MHP-deployment in Flanders. With this project, it intends to increase its knowledge about the needs and problems of MHP-technology that can be used for helping broadcasters and operators use MHP-technology. The group „Specification of Softwaresystems” at the University Duisburg-Essen has a history in MHP related consulting, experimentation and application production. The group is also partner of the EU project “Technological Perspectives of the Multimedia Home Platform”. It is interested in all software engineering aspects of MHP applications concerning the specialties of the environment given in the area of digital TV. This interest is especially directed towards systematic methods and tools to produce robust and efficient MHP-applications which offer rich content and interactivity. Deutsche Welle actively contributes to the further development and role-out of MHP. Being an associate member of ARD, Deutsche Welle fully supports the principles of the “Mainzer Erklärung” of September 2001. DW is highly interested in sharing its expertise with the project partners and to learn lessons from one another within and beyond the MHP-KDB project. Philips is a member of DVB and is an active contributor to MHP standardization activities and interoperability efforts. Philips is also member of both the MHP Action Group and the MHP Alliance supporting the deployment of the open interactivity standard DVB MHP. Interactivity is seen as a logical feature in the Digital TV product range and its success will depend on having an open standard, like MHP, established in the market. Philips has commercially deployed MHP digital TV receivers in various countries in Europe since 2003 and participates in related MHP interoperability events. Two groups of ITA will be involved in tools development and reference application production; „Multimedia Software Applications and Services Group“ and „Communication and Network Group“. The target MHP application and tools are where interactivity of user and return channel have special importance; also basic reference application and code are relevant in order to fulfill properly knowledge transferring tasks, which are part of our objectives as technologic institute. Others issues which could be detected during Workpackage 2, related to investigate key factors in networks are also target to provide solutions and tools. For this tasks, Communication and Network Group will apply the knowledge in architecture simulation and system validation experience from previous EU projects, using tools like OPNET and others, especially in bidirectional IP channel for interaction.
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2.3.2 National Level 2.3.2.1
The Nordic countries (updated in version 3)
In the Nordic countries the forum NorDig was established to ensure a common minimum of DVB-compliant IRD capabilities in the various networks in the Nordic region. All major network operators, service providers and broadcasters are members. The main work in NorDig in the last years has been on preparing and updating a Unified Specification for IRDs for all platforms and to establish a test regime for IRDs, including introduction of a NorDig label. The NorDig Unified specification: The NorDig IRD technical specifications are established with the aim to ensure that IRDs in the Nordic market satisfy a common set of minimum requirements, independent of operator/service provider and transmission media. The NorDig I specification was first issued in 1998 when the common DVB API solution had not taken specific direction and based on the technical status of that time. The NorDig II specification was first issued in 2000 and added some hardware and software requirements mainly to include a standard API, as specified for the DVB MHP Interactive Broadcast profile. The Unified NorDig specification includes four profiles; Basic TV, Enhanced, Interactive and Internet Access. It includes the NorDig I and NorDig II specifications, plus new specifications for the Basic TV, Enhanced Broadcast and Internet access profiles. The NorDig Basic TV profile corresponds to basic requirements for digital broadcasting, services that do not depend on enhancements by applications or interaction. This profile is a subset of the Enhanced Profile. The NorDig Enhanced profile covers the NorDig requirements for enhanced services that do not depend on an interaction channel, but depend on a standardised API, based on the DVB-MHP 1.1 Enhanced Broadcast Profile. The Enhanced profile is a subset of the Interactive profile. The NorDig Interactive profile covers the NorDig requirements for interactive services, including a standardised API, based on the DVB-MHP 1.1 Interactive Broadcast Profile. The NorDig Internet Access profile covers the NorDig requirements for interactive services that depend on a standardised Internet access, based on the DVB-MHP1.1 Internet Access profile. The Internet Access profile includes the NorDig Interactive profile as a subset.
NorDig has also prepared an IPTV IRD specification based on the Unified specification and has now work going on to include HDTV in the Unified specification. The various members of NorDig are independent of each other but intend to transmit to IRDs that satisfy the specified common requirements. In order to ensure compliance with the NorDig requirements, the NorDig IRDs will be subject to a set of verification tests, based on NorDig Test specifications�.
The NorDig Migration Plan for introducing MHP: NorDig announced a new migration plan for the transition to DVB-MHP, an open system for interactive digital TV. The plan, approved by the NorDig Board October 16, 2002, supersedes a plan put forward in March 2001. The 2001 decision included a provision for amendment or replacement of the plan in the event of "fundamental changes" in the policy landscape. The combined effect of two factors constitutes such a "fundamental change" in the judgment of the NorDig Board; these are (1) the delay in the launching of MHP, and (2) the introduction of Directive 2002/21/EC on a Common Regulatory Framework for Electronic Networks and Services, which is to be
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implemented by Member States by July 2003. The Directive urges Member States to encourage the use of open systems (API) for interactivity. DVBMHP is one such standard.
2.3.2.2
Flanders
In April 2003 the e-government team of the Flemish Community started a project fostering use of interactive Digital Television for e-government purposes. iDTV is considered to be the perfect tool for bringing about electronic communication to every household. Within the e-government initiative six different projects were defined: •
De Vlaamse Infolijn: The goal is to create a central point of contact to reach the Flemish Government for all kinds of information and services
•
VDAB: Use iDTV as a tool to receive information about job opportunities and trainings
•
Toerisme Vlaanderen: Use iDTV as a tool to find all kinds of tourist information: find hotels,...
•
De Lijn: “De Lijn” is the public transportation company for Flanders for buses and trams. They want to use iDTV to promote their services and allow a user to find the best route.
•
Cultuurnet Vlaanderen: The goal is to have all type of information related to festivities, events, ...
•
Lokale besturen: iDTV will be used to have local governments publish information regarding events, services,...
These services will be offered in the near future over the MHP-platform, which was selected for the iDTV project. iDTV will offer (interactive) services over the CATV network, cf. situation in Flanders. 2.3.2.3
Germany (updated in version 3)
For the introduction of Digital Television in Germany, the “Digital Broadcasting” Initiative (IDR) was launched in 1997 by the German Government. The IDR is to develop a strategy for the digitization of broadcasting. It comprises all institutions involved in the digitization process under the leadership of the Federal Government and the Länder. The suggestions and strategies are then to be executed by the government and Länder institutions. The “Launch Scenario 2000” report of the IDR follows a strategy concept developed in 1998 and puts its focus more on implementation. The Initiative recommends that all participants use an open, uniform and hardware-independent application programming interface (API) and that only those systems be used which are compatible with the “Multimedia Home Platform” standard (MHP). It sees MHP as one of the preconditions for the emergence of unfragmented, horizontal market with full competition at the various stages of the supply chain and as a prerequisite for the broadcast of numerous value-added multimedia services which will make it attractive for an even larger public to obtain a digital receiver. The aim of the German government is to have television and radio broadcasting fully digital at the latest by 2010. On the national level, the relevant regulations of the EU framework directive have been taken over into German law. The German telecommunication law now requires that APIs must fulfill the requirements of a standardized or at least open and common API (§ 46 (2), Abs. 2 TKG). This means progress in German law, however, the implementation of standards is not fully required. In addition to the telecommunications law also the competition authorities in Germany have recognized the importance of open and standardized systems. One of the reasons to refuse the take-over of the German cable networks by Liberty Media in early 2002 was that the proprietary API system Liberty intended to use was regarded as detrimental to the competition between program providers. In a very similar way, the take over of
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smaller cable networks by the major cable operator KDG was refused in 2004. Again, the plans of KDG not to use an open API system was part of the reasoning.
On the level of the Länder regulations demanding open and standardized APIs (§ 53 (1) RStV) were established in 2000. Media authorities of the Länder signed the Mainz declaration of September 2001 which stated a general commitment on MHP. Concerning lobbying in Germany by MHP stakeholders please see chapter 2.1.1.1.
2.4
Technology
2.4.1 E2E Developing an MHP service is not just about developing an application, but also about developing the playout- and backend-architectures accordingly. It is critical to keep this in mind before embarking on MHP developments. The end-to-end chain includes: •
Studio, playout, set-top box, back end systems, return channel
•
Development and use of MHP playouts and e2e architectures
•
Distribution issues (content provider / network operator / end user)
•
How to introduce a new media in a technological development environment
•
Architectural issues (MHP-applications vs. backend-systems)
•
Environment- and process-issues (production/staging/test/development)
•
Editorial issues
•
Production issues
•
Operations and Maintenance issues
This complex environment consists of many different systems. The most of these have their own specific requirements towards the system as a whole. These requirements have to be classified and met. This for example refers to flexibility, comparability, open interfaces, easy integration with other systems, scalability. In case of ARD, many different systems for MHP production and playout are being used. The chain is divided into several components: •
Content management systems (OK / EPG-CMS, MHP-application server). Currently three independent Content Management Systems are being used for producing ARD’s/RBB’s MHP applications: o ARD “Online Kanal” system (originally devised specifically for the extra feature channel „Online Kanal“ which can now be accessed via the MHPARD Interactive Portal. The Online Kanal system is based on Lotus Domino Data Base. It provides the data for several MHP applications, like: Feature (accompanying service information broadcast on certain service programs in the Feature Channel), Ticker (a news ticker), and a full News application. The system is connected to the Production Server, which converts XML to Transport Streams or MHP classes. o EPG system delivers information (XML Files) for SI-data playout. This information contains - for example - data for the ARD TV-Portal categories o The MHP application server is used to produce the MHP Portal as such and program enhancement applications, like the quiz application for the Candid Camera Quiz “Verstehen Sie Spaß”).
•
Production server (OC- generator)
•
Broadcasting systems
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OK-CMS
March 2006
Production Server
SW Multipexer
EPG-CMS
DataMultiplexer
OK
Thales (Jade)
EPG
MHP Application Server
MHP Broadcasting Server
The described systems are used by the ARD Playout-Center, which is functioning as content provider, broadcaster and network operator. At present, there are no external application providers having direct access to the systems. Likewise, providers of external sources of information do not have direct access to the systems. External content like VTX- data, weather, e.g. are supplied to an FTP-Server. Data are then edited by the editorial staff or automatically by the CMS. Only after this, the content is broadcasted. ARD uses the IRT-Reference-Implementation for application development and testing. In case of DR, the systems of the ITV Value Chain can be divided into five categories: •
Content delivery systems
•
Content management system
•
MHP playout system
•
Distribution network
•
End user platform
These systems are owned or operated by four different types of players: •
External content providers
•
The public broadcaster
•
Network operators / gatekeepers
•
End users
DR receives content from the external content providers, merges it with the content it produces itself, and distributes it to the end users via the network operators. External content providers Examples of external content providers are companies, who deliver information such as sport results, weather data, etc. DR already has arrangements with such companies for deliverance of content to WWW and videotext, so introducing a new channel such as ITV doesn’t change much. The data is often the same – we already have it in our systems – we do not need new deliveries. We just need to make sure we have the rights to use the data on ITV. This often requires some new contracts.
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The public broadcasters We negotiate with the external content providers about getting the content we do not produce ourselves. We also negotiate with the network operators / gatekeepers about delivering our services to the end users. The e2e architecture will have to support getting the content from external and internal content providing systems as well as delivering the services to the network operators. Network operators / gatekeepers In order to get ITV services out to the end users, DR needs the services distributed in the various networks i.e. distribution is arranged with each of the network operators / gatekeepers of the networks where services are to be presented. Distributing the services to a network raises a number of questions, such as: •
Boxes (middleware APIs) in the network
•
Transport of data to network
•
Available bandwidth to service
•
Different signaling
Distributing services to different networks may require services and e2e architecture to be able to adjust to different boxes/APIs, different ways of transport to network, different available bandwidths, different signaling etc. End users End users want to be able to have as much to choose from as possible, i.e. they want to be able to receive our ITV services no matter which network they are on and which box they use. This raises issues in terms of the number of networks a broadcaster is available on, the quality and functionality of the same services in various networks and on various boxes. Considering using the return-channel, the scenario of different networks with different APIs and different boxes might add a whole new dimension in terms of complexity of the e2e architecture.
2.4.2 Playout For the playout of DW’s MHP application, a DSM-CC object carousel server is used. The application data (text) is based on XML documents. It is played out with a data rate of 500 kb/s. The carousel software is a part of the overall system CORAL. This system is based on the OPENMUX technology, developed by THALES. The device puts the multiplex formation of A/V content and the MHP application data into one transport stream. To modulate the data signals (transport stream) onto a carrier signal, a NEWTEC DVB QPSK modulator is used. The set top box, which decodes the received transport stream, is the FUJITSU SIEMENS Activy 300 with IRT’s MHP reference implementation (MHP 1.0.2.). ARD uses a system broadcasting TRP-Files provided by a production server generating XML to a TRP-Stream containing an Object Carousel. XML Files originate from the Content Management System and contain the application layout description plus the content. It is envisaged to migrate to an MHP broadcasting server step by step. Until then, this MHP Server is only used for the playout of enhancement applications like, “Verstehen Sie Spaß” or “Das Quiz mit Jörg Pilawa”. These applications were programmed externally, they include Stream Events and require a broadcasting system which supports the SE - feature. DR defines the playout system as the system responsible for building and managing the transport stream. The playout system at DR consists of a carousel server with ftp access for updating content. The output of the carousel server is re-multiplexed with radio and TV streams in order to create the so-called “DR Transport Stream (DRTS)”. The DRTS is then transported to partnering network operators and distributed to end users. Currently, the
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only automatic function in DR’s playout system is the update of broadcast application content. All management functions are manual.
2.4.3 MHP-Terminals MHP terminals already deployed/ or soon to be launched on the market, e.g. in Germany, in Spain and in Italy (for Philips respectively with the DSR 5600 (Germany), the DTR 4600 (Spain) and the DTR 6600 (Italy), for Panasonic with the TU-MSF100), are MHP 1.0.2 receivers, compliant with the DVB MHP test suite 1.0.2b. The following table lists set-top boxes and IDTVs available or to be launched soon on the market:
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Manufacturer ADB
Model 2GC5
Type STB
ADB
1H4G
STB
ADB
i-CAN 2000
STB
ADB
i-CAN 3000
STB
ADB
i-CAN 7000
STB
C+/Thomson
Pilottime
STB
Coship Coship Cobra DAW DAW DiPro DiPro Digiquest DMT DTVIA EchoStar
CDVBC5152 CDVBC5600ZM Tigre MHP-S9200 MHP-T9300 DiPro Interact 1 DiPro Interact II MHP 2006 DMT9000 CDS-8800A Falcon MHP
STB STB STB STB STB STB STB STB STB STB STB
DVB-C DVB-C DVB-T DVB-S DVB-T DVB-T DVB-T DVB-T DVB-T DVB-C DVB-S
Engel Finlux Force
TDT 6000i T-510 Force 5
STB STB STB
DVB-T DVB-T DVB-S DVB-T DVB.C
IST-2003-507442
Network DVB-S DVB-T DVB-C DVB-C DVB-S DVB-T DVB-C DVB-S DVB-T DVB-C DVB-S DVB-T DVB-C
March 2006
Countries Middleware Developm. Osmosys STB
MHP version and profile 1.0.2 interactive broadcasting
Developm. Osmosys STB Europe Osmosys Australia Singapore Finland Osmosys Italy
1.0.2 interactive broadcasting
CAS
http://www.adbglobal.com/
1.0.2 interactive broadcasting
CAS
http://www.adbglobal.com/
1.0.2 interactive broadcasting
CAS
http://www.adbglobal.com/
Osmosys
1.0.2 interactive broadcasting
1 CI CAS
http://www.adbglobal.com/
MediaHighway
1.0.2 interactive broadcasting
CAS
http://www.canalsatellite.fr/
AltiCast AltiCast
1.0.2 interactive broadcasting 1.0.2 interactive broadcasting
AltiCast AltiCast Osmosys
1.0.2 interactive broadcasting 1.0.2 interactive broadcasting 1.0.2 interactive Profile 1.0.2 interactive profile
AltiCast AltiCast
1.0.2 interactive broadcasting 1.0.2 interactive broadcasting 1.0.2 interactive broadcasting
Italy
Italy
Italy Italy Italy
Spain Osmosys AltiCast
1.0.2 1.0.2 interactive broadcasting 1.0.2 interactive broadcasting
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Certificate CI/CA 1 CI
1 SCR 1 SCR CAS 2 SCR 2 CI Yes - CAS CAS 1 SCR SCR 2 SCR 1 CI 1 SCR 2 CI 2 SCR
Link http://www.adbglobal.com/
http://www.coship.com/ http://www.coship.com/ http://www.cobraspa.it http://www.digitallworld.com/ http://www.digitallworld.com/
http://www.dmtsat.com/ http://www.dtviacrypt.com.cn/ http://www.echostar-int.com http://www.engel.es http://www.finlux.com/ http://www.force.tv/
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Manufacturer Model Fujitsu-Siemens Activy 300
Type STB
Galaxis
LinuxTV
STB
Handan
SHR-3200D
STB
Handan
SV 3500 MP
STB
Hi-Top
Humax Humax
STB-T1206CE STB-T1207CE STB-T1208CE CI-8140 CXCI-8240T
STB STB
DVB-S DVB-T
Humax
ND-4611
STB
DVB-S
Humax Humax HDT IBM
Lxx-32TPVR DTT 5000 HSS-2100KP Lamar
IDTV STB STB STB
Jepssen Kaon
JT6000 KTF-590MP
STB STB
Kaon
KTF-590MPCO
STB
Kiss LG Electronics
Devine LSS-2300
STB STB
DVB-T DVB-T DVB-S DVB-S DVB-C DVB-T DVB-S DVB-T DVB-S DVB-T DVB-T DVB-S
IST-2003-507442
Network Countries Middleware DVB-S IRT DVB-T DVB-C DVB-S Convergence DVB-T DVB-C DVB-S AltiCast DVB-T DVB.C DVB-S AltiCast DVB-T DVB.C DVB-T AltiCast
March 2006
MHP version and profile 1.0.2 interactive broadcasting
Certificate CI/CA 2 CI
1.0.2 interactive broadcasting
2 CIS SCR
http://www.galaxis.de/
1.0.2 interactive broadcasting
1 SCR
http://www.handan.co.kr/
1.0.2 interactive broadcasting
1 SCR
http://www.handan.co.kr/
1.0.2 interactive broadcasting
2 SCR
http://www.hitopcomm.com/
AltiCast AltiCast
1.0.2 interactive broadcasting 1.0.2 interactive broadcasting
http://www.humaxdigital.com http://www.humaxdigital.com
AltiCast UK/IT/GER/ FIN Alticast Italy Alticast AltiCast AltiCast
1.0.2 interactive broadcasting
2 CI CI CAS 2 SCR CAS/CI CAS 2 SCR 2 SCR
http://www.humaxdigital.com/
1.0.2 interactive broadcasting 1.0.2 interactive broadcasting 1.0.2 interactive broadcasting
AltiCast AltiCast
1.0.2 interactive broadcasting 1.0.2 interactive broadcasting
2 CI
http://www.jepssen.it/ http://www.kaonmedia.com/
AltiCast
1.0.2 interactive broadcasting
http://www.kaonmedia.com/
AltiCast
1.0.2 interactive broadcasting
2 CI 2 CAS 2 CI SCR
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Link http://www.fujitsu-siemens.de/
http://www.humaxdigital.com
http://www.hdte.de/ http://www.ibm.com/
http://www.kiss-technology.com/ http://www.lginnotek.com/
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Manufacturer MHP4Free Motorola Nokia
Model LinuxTV pro Dvi3000 MM 310S
Type STB STB STB
Nokia
MM 310T
STB
Nokia
MM 350T
STB
Pace Panasonic
digibox TU-MSF100
STB STB
Panasonic
TU-MTF100T
STB
Philips
DSR 5600
STB
Philips
DTR 4600
STB
DVB-T
Philips
DTR 6600/08
STB
DVB-T
Philips
DTR6600/00
STB
DVB-T
Philips Samsung
DTR 2610 DSB-A500N
STB STB
Samsung
DTB-9500F
STB
DVB-T DVB-S DVB-T DVB-T
Samsung
DCB-MHP
STB
DVB-C
IST-2003-507442
Network Countries Middleware Convergence DVB-C Motorola DVB-S UK, DE, FR, ES, IT, NL DVB-T Spain, Belgium DVB-T Italy, Finland DVB-S DVB-S Germany Panasonic Austria DVB-T Spain Panasonic Italy Finland Australia Singapore DVB-S Germany 3rd party provider Spain
3rd party provider Italy 3rd party provider Finland, 3rd party Spain, Italy provider 3rd party provider Italy AltiCast
March 2006
MHP version and profile
Certificate CI/CA
1.0.2 interactive broadcasting 1.0.2 interactive broadcasting 1.0.2 interactive broadcasting 1.0.2 interactive broadcasting
Link http://www.mhp4free.de http://www.motorola.com/ http://www.nokia.com/
1 CI CAS 1 CI CAS 1 CI CAS 2 SCR 1 CI
http://www.pace.co.uk/ http://produkte.panasonic.de/
http://www.nokia.com/ http://www.nokia.com/
1.0.2 interactive broadcasting 1.0.2 interactive broadcasting
yes
1.0.2 interactive broadcasting
prototype
1 CI
http://produkte.panasonic.de/
1.0.2 interactive broadcasting
yes
1 CI
http://www.philips.com/
1.0.2 interactive broadcasting
yes
no
http://www.philips.com/
1.0.2 interactive broadcasting
yes
SCR
http://www.philips.com/
1.0.2 interactive broadcasting
yes
1.0.2 interactive broadcasting 1.0.2 interactive broadcasting
yes
http://www.philips.com/
CAS 1 SCR
http://www.philips.com/ http://www.samsung.com/
AltiCast
1.0.2 interactive broadcasting
CAS
http://www.samsung.com/
AltiCast
1.0.2 interactive broadcasting
CAS
http://www.samsung.com/
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Manufacturer Samsung Sony
Model DTB S501 32NX/NS200
Type STB IDTV
Network Countries Middleware DVB-T Italy Alticast DVB-S Finland Sony
Sony
36NX/NS200
IDTV
DVB-S
Sony
KD28DX40
IDTV
Techmate
TM-9000MHP
STB
TELESystem Wisplus Worldsat Worldsat Worldsat
TS7.2DT MHP-C200 DT5200 DT5300 MBT-EMEG-MST
STB STB STB STB STB
IST-2003-507442
Finland
March 2006
MHP version and profile
Certificate CI/CA CAS
Link http://www.samsung.com/ http://www.sony.co.uk/
Sony
http://www.mhp.sony.com/
DVB-S
Sony
http://www.mhp.sony.com/
DVB-S DVB-T DVB-C DVB-T DVB-S DVB-T DVB-T DVB-T
AltiCast
1.0.2 interactive broadcasting
1 SCR
1.0.2 interactive broadcasting 1.0.2 interactive broadcasting 1.0.2 interactive Profile
CAS
AltiCast Osmosys Osmosys
1.0.2 interactive Profile
Italy Italy Italy Italy
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http://www.techmate.co.kr/
http://www.wisplus.co.kr/ Yes Yes
CAS 1 CI,
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2.4.4 Authoring Tools (updated in version 3) The following requirements have been identified for MHP authoring tools, differentiated by the categories “very important”, “important” and “of some importance”. Very important •
Available on PC
•
Access to readable and editable source code
•
Possible to make self developed plug-ins and components
•
Size and efficiency of the code
•
Preview/Simulator
Important •
Debug with break points
•
Cost
•
User support (mail/telephone/user forums etc)
•
Video Scaling
•
User friendliness (Easy ands fast to use)
Some importance •
Component testing tool/CDK (for self-developed components)
•
Access to new components
•
Tool version upgrades
•
MHP version upgrades
•
4:3 and 16:9 modes
•
Events (remote control events)
•
Stream Events and triggering
•
Multi level undo
•
Sound support
Generally, there are a number of very useful authoring tools currently on the market. The table lists a small selection: Pos. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
Authoring Tool Cardinal Studio 4.0 Alticast Composer SONY Media Gateway Snap2 Sublime iTV Suite MediaHighway
7. 8.
TV Plus I Station Snap2 Gear
URL www.cardinal.com www.alticast.com www.snaptwo.com www.softel.co.uk www.canalplustechnologies.com www.aircode.com www.snaptwo.com
More will probably appear as MHP becomes more commercially available. Cardinal Studio is developed by Cardinal Information Systems, Finland. The tool is component drag-and-drop based with a built-in simulator. The tested version is 4.0, full version 30-day evaluation. Running the tool requires an USB port dongle. Several components are part of Cardinal Studio. A package of components is sold as an additional product with source code. More components are constantly during development. IST-2003-507442
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Self-developed components are implemented as Java Beans, saved as jar files and located in the import catalogue in the Cardinal Studio catalogue. During start-up, the program will find the component and the icon of the component will appear as the other components. Cardinal Studio 4 introduces a new layer based model complying with the layer model of MHP. A new component pack offers 38 ready to use components and several source code examples. The pack includes components for EPGs, user interface, data sets, simple scripting and more. AltiComposer 2.0 is developed by Alticast. The tool is a component drag-and-drop based application with a built-in simulator. The tested version is a 30-day evaluation version. AltiComposer 2.0 uses a scripting language, Java script, to implement simple logic into the applications. ARD currently does not use any of the above listed tools for the production of a regular application as most applications are provided by a proprietary Content Management System. This system is based on a Lotus Domino DB and offers a graphical interface both for editorial staff and producers. Some enhancement applications, like “Verstehen Sie Spaß” as well as the ARD TV-Portal were programmed by external companies. In the course of ARD’s MHP activities the market was analyzed and several tools were tested. In addition, authoring tools are used for test purposes and in order to gain MHP know how.
2.4.5 Testing and Analyzing Tools The purpose of Testing and Analyzing tools is to help decoder manufacturers, application developers and broadcasters to maintain interoperability and standard conformance in all points of the MHP value chain. Hence, currently existing and evolving testing and analyzing tools aim at different areas of application, like MHP middleware, MHP applications or monitoring of broadcast streams. 2.4.5.1
General MHP Test Concepts
Integrated Development Environment MHP development environments ideally consists of a development tool for generating Java code and a MHP implementation for testing the behavior of the application against what is expected on a MHP compliant decoder. A PC based reference implementation comes into operation in order to test program variables, memory problems and the behavior of the application on a real implementation. The development tool will automatically deploy the application files to the desired directory path. Since no AIT is available, the reference implementation needs some application property information (initial class, auto-start, etc.). This info may be set in an additional file or menu in the reference implementation. A PC based reference implementation will ensure fast and easy testing and debugging in the development environment, thus reducing the need for access to an MHP set-top box during the whole development process.
MHP Development Environment MHP Development Tool
*.class Resources
PC based MHP reference implementation or MHP emulator
AIT replacement
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Application testing with playout and stream signaling Application testing with transport stream allows for realistic test conditions and it is essential if the application is receiving content related stream events. Functionalities using signaling like stream events and reading PSI/SI tables like AIT and PMT are tested here. The Stream may involve TV and audio content which might help to test functionality like transparency and video scaling.
MHP Development PC
Object Carousel and Signaling
MHP Application
MHP Transport Stream Generator
STB or Implementation
Audio and video
PC based Application analyzing To test applications against MHP conformance and interoperability it can be necessary to obtain detailed information about the internal structure of an application or its behavior during runtime. An analyzing Tool gives information about not compliant constitution or behavior of the application given on the static and dynamic analysis. Measured runtime profiling data can additionally lead to hotspots or bottlenecks in the application to pinpoint and to improve the performance behavior.
MHP Application
PC based Application Analyzer
*.class Resources
PC based reference implementation
Static and dynamic application analyzing
MHP Runtime data
AIT replacement
Conformance testing for MHP implementations In order to create standard compliant MHP-implementations and decoders the behavior of those have to be tested against the MHP specification. This can be achieved by testing tools testing the full functionality which is described in the according specification. An important set of compliance tests is published by ETSI.
MHP Implementation
Test-classes
MHP Implementation / decoder Tester
results / runtime data
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Examples for Testing and Analyzing Tools (updated in version 3)
MHP Test Suite (DVB, ETSI) Official set of tests for MHP, that has to be passed by decoder manufacturers to acquire the MHP Logo. MHP Tester (RTT) The MHP Tester is an application which tests basic features of MHP decoders. Includes features like return channel functionality tests, video scaling tests, rendering speed etc. MHP Application Analyser (IRT) The MHP Application Analyser developed by IRT is an analyzing system intended to perform compliance checks and functional tests on MHP applications. Static and dynamic test procedures examine applications on a wide range of characteristics. Tektronix AD960 Data Broadcasting Test System (Tektronix) The AD960 performs e.g. transport stream analysis with displaying of AIT Table and DSM-CC section. PC based MHP implementation and emulators MHP Reference Implementation from IRT: certified full functional MHP-implementation (http://www.irt.de) MHP4free: MHP4free is a Linux based MHP implementation. XletView: Can be run without a DVB signal. More info on http://sourceforge.net/projects/xletview/.
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2.4.6 Applications In several European countries broadcasters are already broadcasting MHP applications over DVB-S and DVB-T. The applications listed in the table below have been run successfully on different MHP set-top-boxes. Some of the listed applications were merely on-air during major exhibitions (like IFA), but have not been launched as a regular service:
Country
Broadcaster
Application
regular service
DVB-S
DVB-T
Germany
ARD
ARD Portal
Yes
X
X
News
Yes
X
X
ARD Online-Kanal
Yes
X
X
WDR Ticker
Yes
X
X
BR Ticker
Yes
X
MDR Ticker EinsExtra Ticker
Yes
RBB digitext (news)
Yes
X
hr-service applicationYes, (Tipps and Tricks) related
program-
X
Presseclub
Yes, related
program-
X
Fakt
Yes, related
program-
X
Sportschau
Yes, related
program-
X
Bundesliga Ticker
Yes, related
program-
X
Olympia
Yes, event-based, program-related
X
Verstehen Sie Spaß Yes, related
program-
X
Das Quiz mit JörgYes, Pilawa related
program-
X
Tour de France
No
X
c’t magazin Yes, (Computer Magazine) related
program-
x
Feste der Volksmusik Yes, (Music Show) related
program-
x
digitext
Yes
X
ZDF Portal
No
X
ProSieben
ITV
Only IFA demo
X
TV Movie
TV Movie EPG
Only IFA demo
X
DW
DW-World
No
ZDF
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Finland
Italy
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TVC
MTV3
Mediaset
RAI
Australia
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GuiaTVC
Yes, pilot project
X
AraFem
Yes, pilot project
X
Programmacio
Yes, pilot project
X
Meteo
Yes, pilot project
X
3xl.net
No
X
EPG
Yes
X
Supervideotext
Yes
X
Banking
X
Hockey Night
X
Portal
X
Filmissimi Int.
X
Meteo
X
Notizie
X
Portal
X
Servici PA
X
Sereno Variabile
X
Pomodori
X
GT Ragazzi Int.
X
Several demo apps
No
X
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Germany (updated in version 3)
Public Service Broadcasters ARD Applications Since 1997, ARD has been broadcasting digital TV services from Potsdam (DVB-S, C): 18 TV channels plus accompanying services including program enhancement (shows, sports), an extensive EPG and a so called “Online Channel”, an extra multimedia feature channel incl. additional info on certain service programs. In 2002, the ARD TV-portal (Open TV) was launched providing access to all the services listed above including news, program tips etc., options to choose TV, Radio, and the interactive “feature channel” etc. (DVB-S). Since August 2002 all these services were migrated from Open TV to MHP. The ARD TV-portal is now the main ARD-MHP application and offers access to almost all ARD’s MHP applications. The ARD TV-Portal provides the following information: o o
o o o
TIPS – program tip’s divided into dynamic categories defined by editorial staff (part of the EPG). Program information filtered from SI-Information (present, future and scheduling information) (part of the EPG), seven day forecast, 18 TV and 65 radio programs. My TV – personalized information about programs defined by the user (part of the EPG). News – a list of news Headlines with a link to the News application (described below). From the ARD TV portal the user can also switch into any TV or radio program or into the ARD-Online Kanal full application (see below).
Further ARD MHP applications are internally categorized into “regular” applications which are constantly on air and “event applications” which relate to a specific event. Regular program enhancement applications also belong to this event category. Regular Applications: ARD Online-Kanal full application (Feature Application) Is broadcasted on an extra Channel “ARD Online Kanal”. Offers independent multimedia services as accompanying information for selected television and radio programs. Central News application (part of central ARD Portal – see above): o o
Provides news information Content originates from Videotext (VTX), automatically generated by the CMS (with some editing) A number of News Tickers bound to the different special or regional channels: EinsExtra Ticker, WDR Ticker, BR Ticker, MDR Ticker, including personalization options. o o
Event Applications: Sportschau Sports news full application, broadcast in addition to each “Sportschau” transmission. Fussballbundesliga Ticker o
o Soccer news ticker application. Fakt and Presseclub
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Enhancement services with political topics to the show as ticker or full application. o Return channel function. “Verstehen Sie Spaß” (including return channel function) and „Das Quiz mit Jörg Pilawa“ o
o Interactive games accompanying the shows. Olympic Games Extra Service o Channel navigator with specialized EPG for Olympic Games events. o Full screen application with dedicated Olympic Games news. Tour de France Ticker
Overlay application with latest news on the Tour de France results, including a live graphical overview of the tour’s current stage. C`t Magazine o Interactive, accompanying information for computer and technology magazine. Tipps and Tricks o
Interactive, accompanying information on service program six days/week.
FAKT o Interactive, accompanying information on service program. Feste der Volksmusik o Interactive application, additional information accompanying a popular show on German folk music. On a regional level, some of the applications described above are also broadcast in the different regions which have already switched to DVB-T. Three ARD applications were adapted for DVB-T broadcast in the region Berlin Brandenburg. These are the ARD TVPortal, AOK full application and the news application. In addition to that, the RBBdigitext application with regional news can be reached from the (national) news application. The data for this application originates from the regional analogue VTX and is produced automatically. WDR (Western Germany) broadcasts their specific news ticker (WDR news ticker) and BR broadcasts their BR news ticker.
Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF) ZDFvision is the digital channel of Germany’s second public service TV channel ZDF (“Zweites Deutsches Fernesehen”). ZDFvision is available via DVB-C, DVB-S and DVB-T (in Berlin-Brandenburg and certain areas of Western and Northern Germany, since May 2005 also in Middle Germany). In 2004 ZDFvision has launched a number of interactive MHP based services: ZDF-Portal A portal for navigating through their services. ZDFdigitext Enhanced Videotext ZDFinformativ ZDFinformativ offers additional information for programmes of ZDF’s digital info channel ZDFinfokanal, incl. programme preview and a news ticker – since November 2004.
ZDFinteraktiv LESEN An interactive program on current literature with background information on authors, and new books. ZDFinteraktiv Reiselust Interactive Magazine on Traveling and Tourism - since Sep 2004 IST-2003-507442
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Kids’ Game Show “1, 2 oder 3” The Kids Show where children have to hop on one of three fields to answer a question basically a very active form of multiple choice - is an ideal basis for an interactive service. Sports news services ZDFvision offered a number of interactive information services on current sports events such as EURO 2004 and the Olympic Games 2004 (together with ARD).
Event-based broadcasts ZDFinteraktiv Menschen The yearly show “Menschen” (~People) is now being enhanced with extra information on the people, prominent as well as hitherto unknown, and their stories ZDFinteraktiv Unsere Besten “Unsere Besten” was a successful show on the most important Germans throughout history (“Our (Germany’s) Best”). The extra service offered background information, biographies, and statistics. The service that accompanied the first show of a limited series that introduced the nominated persons and ended in a prize game, consequently also offered a betting game.
Private Broadcasters EURO1 AG After plans to prepare the launch of a digital program focusing games, interactive shopping and other marketing applications plus communication tools (email), EURO 1 remains silent on future MHP activities.
MTV MTV Germany, in co-operation with T-Online and Alticast, is preparing a new interactive portal with news, downloads and Gaming. The service has been announced and presented at CeBit 2005 and relies on the return channel to download its content. MTV proposed to bring the service on-air as soon as appropriate MHP set-top boxes with DSL feature become available.
RTL Germany RTL has offered a limited set of MHP services such as news, horoscopes, weather and an interactive version of “Wer Wird Millionär?” (“Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?”). Since the end of 2005, RTL has discontinued the broadcast of MHP services due to the rather unsatisfactory acceptance of these services. It is planned to continue the transmission of MHP applications if iTV succeeds.
Pro7 Sat.1/Pro7’s iTV pilot has won the TV Movie Award in the iTV category in 2004. Apparently, however, there has not been a launch of the actual applications or services, yet.
Fox Kids Interactive Learning Application for Kids. The kids program “Goosebumps” is broadcast in English and children are invited to answer questions in German to prove their understanding of the foreign language program.
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Denmark (updated in version 3)
Denmark Radio Application DR has implemented an interactive TV service called “DR Ekstra”. The portal is DR’s first MHP application. The service is intended to be offered to all DR viewers on DVB platforms. That is, the service is implemented in MHP and Open TV (OTV), - and distributed on one satellite network and on DVB-T. It will possibly be distributed on DVB-C later on. Two other services a DigiTV launcher application and a DigiTV epg application has been developed for the Danish DTT network. TV2-DK provides an interactive TV service called “TV2 Ekstra” for the Danish DTT network. The DigiTV launcher application manages scarce resources on the DTT platform. The other services ask the launcher for scarce resources such as the graphic layer. The launcher knows at any time which application has the graphic layer. The launcher can at anytime call the graphic layer back and give the resource to another application. The launcher supports virtual auto start. When the user selects a service the launcher can be configured to auto start an application. The launcher also supports preloading of applications. This means that the user will see the button when it has been loaded. This gives the impression of quick start-up times for the user. The “DR Ekstra” and “TV2 Ekstra” services are portal applications, which start automatically (using the virtual auto start explained above) when the viewer switches a channel where they are present. From within the DR portal application, the viewer can change to any DR channel (on the satellite network this feature includes radio channels). The two portals provide various kinds of textual information - some of which is specific to the selected channel (e.g. program-related information), and some of which is independent of the selected channel (e.g. news, weather, etc.). Some information is program-following (e.g. information about the program being shown) and some not (e.g. news etc.). Some information is time-critical and some is not. DR is involved in the following areas of work during the project: •
Concept creation (including graphic design and usability design)
•
End-to-end process design (from content creation to system monitoring and control)
•
End-to-end technical architecture (from content creation to playout and distribution)
•
Cross-platform ITV content management system development
• MHP playout system development MHP app development
2.4.7 Migration from Proprietary Applications (updated in version 3) Migrating to MHP from a proprietary API is very costly when you need to re-design your entire system and applications. When German broadcasters started their first applications based on OpenTV in 1997 it was quite clear already that the final technical target would be the MHP standard, which was already on its way in the DVB project. Some time later, when MHP came close to its market introduction, German broadcasters developed a system which allowed to simulcast in OpenTV and MHP. The content was generated in an XML format, which could be broadcast and interpreted by OpenTV and MHP applications. This procedure, however, had some intrinsic constraints as it did not allow for realizing complex games and for using some MHP features like the compression of data during transmission. Finally, this concept was given up and completely new and independent MHP applications were developed. In parallel, the “frozen” OpenTV applications were still broadcast for some time and switched off by the end of 2003.
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Due to the launch of MHP the OpenTV receiver market did not grow during the past years; only about 150,000 OpenTV decoders were sold in the German market from 1998 until the end of 2003. MHP specifies an extensive application execution environment for digital interactive TV, independent of the underlying, vendor-specific, hardware and software. This execution environment is based on the use of a Java virtual machine and the definition of generic APIs that provide access to the interactive digital TV terminal's typical resources and facilities. The interoperable MHP applications are running on top of these APIs. As the figure below shows the MHP applications need the APIs for access to the different software languages.
MHP applications come in new flavors. The types are C++ applications. These are not very popular, partly because the specification for C++ was not completed with MHP 1.1, and partly because many broadcasters, MHP terminal manufacturers and content developers find it too complex and difficult to implement. The most popular flavor is DVBJ applications. These are written in Java using the MHP API set and consist of a set of class files that are broadcast with a service. C++ applications are known as library codes. These are a concept similar to applets for Web pages. Like applets, the C++ engine code allows also an external source (the application manager in the case of an MHP receiver) to start and stop an application. The disadvantage of C++ is the limited programmer and the less degree of standardization between C++ and the operating system. The industrial standards of Microsoft will be similar to this. It brings up an interface between there own operating system and any MHP-applications. But the terminal manufacturers and content developers have to use the operating system windows. 2.4.7.1
Proprietary standard of Premiere Direct (added in version 3)
Another proprietary system with market opportunities runs on the Humax’ set-top box iPDR 9800. The middleware was developed for Premiere and is able to access the device and the built-in hard disk over a carousel server. The proprietary standard of Premiere allows for transmitting MPEG video files with the data stream in contrast to the MPEG video in a broadcast stream.
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3 Analysis of experiences NOTE: This chapter describes the base on which the requirements to the project working parties was based. It is now kept for historical reasons. (editor)
Based on the current situation and practical experience gained by project partners, this chapter •
Documents major open issues in implementing the MHP standard
•
Offers a first basis for issuing requirements for the other work packages in the project. Consequently, together with the preceding chapter, this is a basis for further exploration and analysis in order to reach answers, sample- and test applications in the KDB database. Most of the documented issues are described in bullets which represent a synthesis of challenges and problems the different partners in WP2 have experienced and know about.
3.1
Interoperability
3.1.1 General Since first practical experiences with MHP were gained around the occasion of IFA 1999 it has become evident that the interoperability of applications and decoders at a technical detail level would be a challenging issue for this complex standard. Enabling interoperability is enabling several systems (the components of the MHP end-toend value chain) to interact with one another and exchanging data according to a prescribed method in order to achieve predictable results. In order to deal with these interoperability issues, a lot of testing has already been performed, basically checking all available applications on the emerging decoder implementations. IRT’s interoperability workshops provided the organizational framework and technical basis for many of these tests. Today, there are still unresolved issues. In addition, the findings of the tests have not been systematically and completely documented. Interoperability, performance and ease of use are the responsibility of the actors of the complete MHP value chain. Solving the described problems is the prerequisite for MHP’s large-scale market success, which will be dependent on stable interactive services with a good performance. This is where MHP-KBD takes up action: It is designed to provide a framework for an efficient and practical approach of solving the still outstanding interoperability issues. The different chapters below will mention the same tasks seen from different point in the value chain.
3.1.2 Application Development and Management The partners’ testing and pilot activities have shown the need to analyze the main problems of interoperability. Problems have been manifold. All points mentioned summarize important issues arisen from this work, which have also been recurring topics in IRT’s interoperability workshops. To ensure predictable and future-proof applications, MHP-KDB shall produce guidelines for application authoring to avoid interoperability issues between applications and receivers.
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Development and execution of MHP applications will be studied and short examples and guidelines will be provided.
3.1.2.1
Synchronization
Synchronization of applications and other types of service content (audio and video) in MHP is based on DSM-CC stream events. Stream events can be used for synchronizing the application with the television program (e.g. when can the viewers start voting?). DSM-CC specifies two types of stream events •
Scheduled events
•
Contains time code, specifying when the event takes place
•
Broadcasted in advance
•
Can be used to implement near frame accurate precision of triggers
•
Complex implementation
It has been suggested to replace scheduled events by better mechanisms for synchronization •
Do-it-now events
•
No time code, event should be triggered on STB as soon as possible.
•
Less accurate
•
Simpler than scheduled events
It is important that these events are sent on time and processed by each MHP box in the same way. Scheduling of event playout in the DSM-CC system can provide some of the functionality provided by scheduled events, i.e. the possibility to schedule the event in advance of the actual event if the time trigger time is known. It is important that the events are not lost in the E2E chain and that the behavior is consistent across STB implementations. 3.1.2.2
Signaling
The use of signaling according to DVB and especially the use of descriptors and component tags to be sure that STBs react as expected will be a part of the study. PSI/SI • An interesting fact is the interrelationship between MHP presentation and DVBtables, as PMT. If, for example, a program map table (PMT) without a component tag within the video descriptor is broadcast, some background images are not displayed.
3.1.2.3
•
AIT signalizing. How does a set-top box react on an application that is signaled as auto-start?
•
The consequences of different SI-Filtering have to be treated as well
EIT •
Reading EITs: How does the set-top box read the event information table? Which information is buffered on the box?
•
EIT schedules: Retrieving EIT scheduled events shows different behavior on different implementations, some take a long time to show the information, some never show it.
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•
3.1.2.4
March 2006
Dynamic updating of EIT according to changes in program flow and events in the TV program.
Application Management
The cooperation between application management and the behavior of the navigator in the STB are an important issue concerning the customer of the broadcasters and network operators.
3.1.2.5
•
Life cycles:
•
Loading,
•
Reloading of new data (when, how, etc.)
•
Out of JAVA memory
•
Avoid deadlocks in interactive applications (e.g. applications blocking and waiting for events in the event thread itself)
•
Launch of broadcast applications from the resident navigator. The way a user can start the applications is different for each resident navigator. Application developers expect the navigator to show a selection of available applications, but the MHP implementation just requires start of applications signaled as “autostart”. There are still some specification issues about selection dialogue, especially for applications, which are depending on each other. Some resident navigators allow to start several applications at the same time, others not.
•
Service and application switching. What should happen with the application when another service is chosen?
•
Non-service-bound applications and their integration with the resident navigator. How does an application of the broadcaster, which is designed to navigate, interact with the resident navigator on the box?
•
Management of service selection in broadcast and resident applications After service selection within an MHP application users expect to stay on the selected service when exiting the application
•
Focus management between Xlets and the resident navigator. How is the focus management between paused Xlets / active Xlets / the resident navigator implemented? When MHP applications are “autostarted” during zapping, users expect to be able to continue zapping using the navigator
•
Starting performance of applications has to be examined as well as the stopping of applications
Return channel
The return channel is an important mechanism used in many services/ applications. This is an unexplored area and needs to be further investigated in this project.
3.1.2.6
•
Application use of Return Channel for reporting (High score in games and other interactivity issues)
•
Application use of Return Channel to receive further information
•
Return channel as an Internet interface
•
Return channel as interactive communication in banking, e-mail etc.
Application performance
Responsiveness of interactive applications is a key factor for the satisfaction of the enduser and, hence, for the deployment of MHP. Application developers often expect MHP applications to run as fast as if on a computer, but processors in MHP terminals today are much slower than PC processors.
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MHP applications depend fundamentally upon the installed Middleware. Being JAVA based, MHP is well performing on PC or STB, because there is sufficient memory and CPU performance. Long reaction or loading times do obviously not push the usability, but lack of memory is of course not the only problem. Other points are:
3.1.2.7
•
Inefficient code
•
Differing programming (failure of interpretation of specification)
•
Management of event listeners by an Xlet (when paused, when destroyed…)
•
Management of unexpected infinite loop in Xlet
•
Management of errors and exceptions
•
Application start up time
•
Application size, code compacting techniques
•
OC tuning, OC structuring
•
Performance issues (e.g. with animations)
Application security
There are still no root certificates available from DVB, therefore, it is not possible to sign applications up to now. Applications need to be signed to get permission for specific actions on the implementation. This is very important in order to launch a high quantity of MHP terminals in the real market. •
3.1.2.8
Which classes, files and directories must be signed? How does this interact with the performance of dynamic carousel systems?
Memory and storage
Memory management in the Java API has unfortunately shown to be very limited in its possibilities. There are also long loading times (memory not sufficient) and inconsistent behavior of MHP TERMINALS (failure of interpretation of code). •
Management of scarce resources of the decoder
•
Release by the Xlet of relevant resources when it is paused
•
Release by the Xlet of all its resources when it is destroyed
•
Management and release of resources in the MHP middleware
•
Use of more than the minimum requirements in term of memory
•
Management of out of memory exceptions in the STB middleware
•
There can be a big difference between different boxes. Some boxes are much faster in drawing and loading files from a carousel. More physical memory doesn’t always result in more memory available due to the garbage collector. The garbage collection takes more time and it interferes longer with the running applications.
•
Persistent memory: • There is no universal agreement how broadcasters should use the memory • There is no agreement which rules the STB shall apply for the deletion of files • Memory capacity is not yet sufficient • Out of JAVA memory
3.1.2.9
Object carousel
The following areas have been identified as subjects for further investigation: •
Interface program planning system / CMS to play-out system
•
Deployment of application in playout system / DSM-CC carousel
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•
Update of content: The update of content after an application has been started shows different behavior on different implementations
•
Making content dynamic
•
Hierarchical structure of content presentation
•
Update of content data (text, images…) in real time in the broadcast for applications
There are different approaches to optimize object carousels (OC), like using each one carousel for the application and for the content or even more carousels with different repetition rate for content with high and low priority: •
Structuring of the OCs. Which files (classes and other files) are placed in which module on the carousel? What is the ideal repetition rate of each module?
•
Composition and optimization of Object Carousel (Modules, DII)
•
Playout experiences have shown that changing the organization of the DSMCC-carousel currently does not work. Thus, potential performance enhancement cannot be realized and tested.
3.1.2.10 Robustness In the course of work with MHP during the past years robustness of set top boxes has increased. “Crashes” have decreased, but restarts are still required every too often. Generally some boxes have troubles displaying (decoding?) video while working hard. Robustness could be obtained by: • Clean programming, •
Catch of exceptions,
•
Memory management (get enough memory for the application),
•
Manage of Xlet methods,
Incomplete Xlet termination The MHP specification clearly defines that all resources reserved during the life of an Xlet shall be released during the destroy part control by the Xlet itself. Memory leak Due to small memory footprint of actual MHP receiver, memory leak may be very critical for robustness. Bad callback event implementation in Xlet As for standard java development, implementation of event callback requires some attention. Depending on the implementation of the event management mechanism in an MHP receiver, an Xlet may lock the system globally or partially. Infinite loop (deadlock) due to bad handling exceptions or waiting for other events inside the callback may be the cause of such deadlock. 3.1.2.11 User Interface and Graphics It has been experienced that the color options in MHP are very limited and further investigations how to handle this should be made. Good-looking applications are important for MHP to be well received by end users and become a success. The following items have to be studied: •
Adaptation of graphics to MHP color palette
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Various drawing features: not every box draws its images in the same way. Not every box supports well the same features, e.g. double buffering and some drawing rules
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Resident font and downloaded fonts
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Graphics: use of transparency, composition of graphics over graphics
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Use of HAVi UI is quite complex. It is a new framework and the default look is different for each implementation
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JAVA Media Framework. • Problems with Audio/Video (on/off) and • Initializing, starting of applications, • Different reactions from the various STBs
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Fonts generally: • Incorrect presentation, (font spaces) • Different interpretation of font characteristics, • Different rendering of fonts,
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Downloaded fonts: In MHP implementations there is only one font mandatory. If applications want to use other fonts, they have to be downloaded, which increases the loading time of the application (small part only)
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Video device / Background device integration
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Still picture display in the background
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DVB Events and AWT event of precise instructions in certain areas
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Drip feeds: What is the preferred way to load and play drip feeds on a set-top box?
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Scaling of video
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Drawing issues (e.g. double buffering) various drawing features
3.1.2.12 Authoring Tools
Output
Editing
Inputformats
General
Concerning Authoring Tools, experience has shown that the old-fashioned text editor still offers the easiest authoring of simple MHP Applications. Most MHP Authoring Tools integrate pre-programmed Java-classes, which can have a lot of information overhead. This mostly results in an increased data volume. Generated codes of different tools could be broadcast independently from the play out system. The following points should be considered in more detail in the course of the project
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Video Synchronization, Trigger-concept:
3.1.3 Usability (ease of use of applications by the consumers) Several of the partners in the project have experience with user testing on interactive TV applications, both internally and on fairs. There has been positive feedback and we are convinced that the additional interactive TV services are easy to use and that the handling is intuitive. We will investigate further the collective experience of end-user feed back on broadcast applications. High usability of broadcast applications is very important for MHP to be well received by end users and become a success. 3.1.3.1
Use of remote control keys and keyboard
MHP applications start automatically when selecting a service with an auto start application signaled. Thus users can get confused when zapping through the channels or just watching a service. It can also be confusing if special ‘TV keys’ like number-keys are not forwarded to resident navigator when the MHP application is started. There are clear ways defined in MHP how to handle this, but, up to now, behavior is still very different on each receiver. •
Which keys does the set-top box optionally support? Only a very limited set of keys is required.
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Remote control keys sharing between broadcast and resident applications. Some resident apps ‘take the keys from the app’ at certain times (e.g. a few seconds after channel change).
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Keyboard: There are different approaches like showing a virtual keyboard on the screen or use the number keys for text input as with a mobile phone
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Use color keys if appropriate
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Optimize start-up time of the application
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Use virtual mobile phone keyboard for input of short texts (e.g. name, address)
3.1.4 Report on Results from Interoperability Workshops During the very early implementation phases about 1999 there was mainly one decoder type available. From the year 2000 onwards more decoder implementations became available to the developers and soon the demand for systematic testing of applications on all available implementations became obvious. In order to provide an infrastructure for this the IRT began to organize "Interoperability workshops". These workshops are attended by application developers as well as by decoder manufacturers. The infrastructure, which is provided in these workshops, allows locally uploading applications of all kinds on a server and playing them out on a local RF network. All available MHP terminals can be connected to this network, which in parallel carries the program signals that are available via satellite. Thus a maximum of cross checks is possible and the personal contact between all developers allows a good discussion of all occurring problems. Enabling interoperability is enabling several systems (the actors of the MHP end-to-end value chain) to interact with one another and exchanging data according to a prescribed method in order to achieve predictable results. Interoperability, performance and ease of use are the responsibility of all the actors of the MHP value chain. Taking into account different architectures of set-top boxes to make the application running on as many STBs as possible: • IST-2003-507442
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Problems of interoperability of MHP applications and MHP terminals
Analysis of Reports
The attendance of the last interoperability workshop at IRT shows that there still is considerable demand to treat interoperability issues. More than 20 "real" applications plus various test applications were tested on 13 different decoder types. Thus the range of the MHP market as it exists today seems to be covered adequately and in a representative way. The problem analysis shows that interoperability issues cannot be limited to a few selected aspects but that there is a wide range of MHP features which lead to questions (among others at the last workshop in Jan. 2004: user events, return channel, font rendering, JMF, life cycle, repainting, IP-drips). Most of these issues have been known for a long time. This shows that the process of finding and dissemination of solutions needs to be improved. Problems have been documented in quite a detailed way; however, so far, consensus on the solutions and conclusions has been reached only for a small fraction of the problems due to organizational reasons and lack of time. Details are available to the attendants of this workshop; a more anonymous version may be used as detail input for this project. Problems identified during the MHP Interoperability workshops have been solved in the past, but there are still some open issues:
3.2
•
Font Rendering: It was decided by the German TV platform to use 14/9 as the default aspect ratio for fonts. This helped a lot to let the applications look more similar on different applications, but there are still slight differences. Application developers still report that it is not predictable how a text will be rendered by the implementations
•
Return channel: Settings within the implementations like default telephone number or dialing prefix for an in-house telephone system are not handled properly by some implementations.
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Security: There are still no root certificates available from DVB, therefore more interoperability issues are expected to appear once first signed applications will be on air. Tests during the most recent workshop showed that signed applications run 20 to 25 percent slower than unsigned applications.
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Key Events: There is still no common understanding if key events shall be sent to the MHP application or to the inbuilt navigator when the MHP application does not have the focus or is invisible
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Graphics/Video: There are still slight differences in handling transparency in overlaying graphics and in ability to scale video
End to End architecture The End-2-End architecture is elaborated in detail in the MHP-Guide available under http://www.mhpkdb.org/publ/mhp-guide.pdf and in deliverable D14.
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4 Trends 4.1
What are our expectations from the market and technology
4.1.1 Distribution Current estimation of the number of digital households in Europe is about 45 millions. This is roughly shared between satellite and cable, which are the main contributors with provisional progress of 10% per year from 2006 onward. But we believe that digital terrestrial TV, with free to air, should boost this figure in the period of 2006-2012. Indeed, many countries have planned to launch Digital Terrestrial TV before 2006 with digital switchover around 2010. Although it might not be the reality at that time due to various parameters, Digital Terrestrial TV deployment together with the reduced delta cost between digital and analog receivers will probably create a ramping situation leading to “full” market penetration in Europe in 2012! Distribution of Broadcasting through fixed communication networks based on xDSL will most certainly have a substantial part of the market in 2010. One important question today is how the internal distribution in the home will be organized in 2010. At that time a lot of different services will be distributed through these networks, and it is not likely that separate “tuners” will be used for every user “terminal”. The need for a kind of “Residential Gateway” and internal distribution is recognized, and work has started to prepare Commercial Requirements and Specifications. It is still a lot of work to be done to be able to introduce real commercial solutions. The internal networks will most certainly be based on WLAN to be flexible and to avoid internal cabling. Even if WLAN is already used in professional IT-networks today, cheap solutions with capacity for distribution of TV programs, real Quality of Service and security for pay-services and banking and other commercial use, must de developed.
4.1.2 Receivers Today’s situation for Digital TV Receivers Software is quite complex due to many proprietary solutions chosen for both Pay-TV decoders and Free-To-Air zappers. MHP is the Open Standard that aims at providing a solution to facilitate the competition in the middleware offering, favoring horizontal markets, and an Open API for application development. With Digital Terrestrial TV deployment and costs erosion of digital receivers, MHP will most probably become gradually the worldwide middleware for Digital TV, leading to a substantial growth in the number of actors making use of MHP. Besides this market evolution, and in a 2010 perspective, the complexity of the digital receiver’s environment will have grown dramatically, due to the convergence of digital applications and devices. Hence, MHP as the key catalyst on the path to the convergence of services will have to adapt itself, getting richer and richer, e.g., by addition of modules for IP-tuners, Personal Digital Recorders (PDR) and several types of handheld devices for portable and mobile use.
4.1.3
Services Mobility will be even more important in the future, and not only the youngsters will be used to having access to all kind of services also outside the home. This means that many new services, for different purposes, will be developed. It is the services that will attract consumers to use the new media, and the easier they are to access, the more users there will be.
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All actors in the market, the broadcasters, the service-providers, the network operators, the manufacturers and the consumers are depending on open standardization of the different tools that are used, to get big volumes. That will lead to lower prices and more income to secure more investments.
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5 Conclusions (updated in version 3) This document presents an overview of the current situation of MHP with respect to interactive TV in Europe and in some countries outside Europe. It does not only refer to a market review but also to some specific standardization and migration issues, and, last but not least, mentions critical issues in today’s implementation of the MHP standard. The latter is fed from project partners’ practical day-to-day experience – and thus represents all sections of the MHP end-to-end value chain: Broadcasters, STB manufacturers, network operators and application developers. In summary, aspects covered in chapter 2 of the document are: •
The market situation o Since its introduction MHP has developed from a concept into a commercially available solution. MHP services and equipment are commercially available in Germany, Finland, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Flanders and Denmark. Market players in other regions, like Norway, Austria and Switzerland have taken the formal decision to move to MHP and are currently preparing the market rollout.
•
Broadcasters and Viewers o All three broadcasters participating in the project strongly believe in the benefit of MHP as the standard for implementing digital TV which they see as the way forward in order to present better services with a considerably added value to their users. They believe that the future of TV/converged services lies in this interactivity and that MHP allows for providing userfriendly services for all – thanks to a horizontal market.
•
Standardization o DVB’s standardization activities are summarized including, the status of the standardization process, the situation of MHP as a world wide standard and relevant aspects in migration from MHP 1.0.2 to MHP 1.0.3.
•
Strategy – Political and Legal Initiatives o On the European policy level, a number of initiatives has shown that the EU Commission generally welcomes the introduction of MHP as one major European ITV standard. On the European lobby level MHP Alliance, MHP Action and MHP implementation group have been very active in promoting the standard and are supported by a number of project partners. o On the national level, the document covers policies and lobbying in Germany, Flanders and Scandinavia concerning digital TV in general and MHP specifically. o All partners involved in Work Package 2 have been engaged in a number of initiatives and lobbying organizations from the start of the introduction of MHP. They regard this project – which has originated in such lobbying activities - as the logic consequence of this engagement and hope for the MHP-database to speed up its actual technological implementation and market success.
•
Applications o The description of applications – both an overview of existing applications in Europe and a more detailed description of individual applications provided by project partners – shows that Europe has taken a great step forward in this respect in the past years. A great number of innovative applications is already on air in regular operation, more services are planned, and the total switch over to the MHP basis is partly fulfilled already, partly planned.
•
Authoring tools o The relevant requirements for MHP authoring tools are listed.
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Detailed test results, including an overview, for more complex proprietary authoring tools and tools available on the market are available via the MHP Knowledge Database.
•
E2E technology o Providing MHP services is not just about developing applications, but also about developing the playout- and backend-architectures accordingly. It is critical to keep this in mind before embarking on MHP developments. The solutions used by ARD/RBB and DR are described.
•
Playout o Exemplary solutions implemented at RBB/ARD, DW and DR are documented.
•
Receivers o Here, quite a comprehensive table of MHP terminals already available on the European market and being under test/prototype stage are listed. This table is a basis for the MHP-database. It has been updated and extended as to specific features of the boxes throughout the course of the project. It is expected that yet a number of new receivers will be launched in the market in order to bring (already existing) services to the users in initiating an MHP mass market.
•
Testing and analyzing tools o The purpose of testing and analyzing tools is to help decoder manufacturers, application developers and broadcasters to maintain interoperability and standard conformance in all points of the MHP value chain. Currently existing and evolving testing and analyzing tools are summarized in the document.
The analyzing part clearly shows that implementation of the MHP standard still requires fine tuning between the different stakeholders of the MHP value chain and tightening of the interpretation of the standard in order to reach satisfying interoperability and performance. As listed in chapter 3 in more detail, it is found that such open issues still exist at different stages: •
In application development
•
On the playout signaling
•
Implementation details in STBs
•
Presentation of content and interaction with the viewer
All this clearly shows the need of a common knowledge database to cover all these aspects and thus to ease the expansion of MHP as the interactive API on TV. The analyzing part also shows that the creative people in the TV program making process have not fully been aware of the possibilities of MHP in making TV programs. The Project Partners believe that this document is quite a valuable collection of knowledge. The combination of describing the status quo and raising questions as to the open aspects of MHP already delivered quite a comprehensive picture at the start of the project. The document is now complemented and extended by the comprehensive “MHPGuide”, originating from the project and also available via the MHP-KDB. The “MHPGuide” is a free guidebook that offers comprehensive knowledge on all fundamental aspects of MHP for all those involved along the end-to-end chain of interactive TV (http://www.mhpkdb.org/publ/mhp-guide.pdf).
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