HbbTV gaining momentum worldwide

The harmonization of broadcast, IPTV and over-the-top broadband streaming is getting closer to fruition, and a number of international players are trotting out products designed to take advantage of an HbbTV standard that makes it all happen.

Germany's Kathrein TechnoTrend is working with Belgium's Zappware on interactive applications that run on a new series of hybrid set-top boxes and TV browser vendor Espial, of Canada, is bringing out a TV browser that supports HTML5 and the HbbTV 1.5.

Thomson Video Networks is taking it even further by partnering with httv on an end-to-end HbbTV platform that takes aim on the DVB-T2 and OTT markets and offers broadcasters "solutions to deliver new services such as HbbTV 1.5 that perfectly complement their premium live broadcast content in the most cost-effective, bandwidth-efficient manner possible on every platform and device," said Eric Gallier, Thomson Video Networks' marketing vice president in a story carried by Broadband TV News.

Finally, even as these companies are launching products, Digital TV Labs is introducing a "purpose-built test tool" to make certain that HbbTV devices support the Common Interface (CI+) technology that allows separation of conditional access functionality from a digital TV receiver-decoder Host into a removable conditional access module (CAM).

Digital TV Labs' CEO Keith Potter said the new test tool needed to reach market quickly because many consumer electronics devices don't fully support all aspects of the HbbTV specification.

"We believe that ensuring CI+-enabled HbbTV device interoperability will drive the next generation of HbbTV applications for broadcasters as well as accelerate the adoption of HbbTV in new countries and platforms," Potter said in a Broadband TV News story.

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