The Digital Video Broadcasting Project (DVB) is an industry-led consortium of more than 270 broadcasters, manufactuerrs, network operators, software developers, regulatory bodies and others in over 35 countries, all committed to designing open technical standars for the global delivery of digital televison and data services. Services using DVB standards are available on every continent, with more than 170 million DVB receivers deployed.
The DVB Project has adopted new procedures to promote the wide availability of technology based on DVB standards. This initiative is the result of a broad, on-going review conducted by DVB regarding its policy governing intellectual property rights (IPRs). The review was the result of members’ concerns about possible delays and uncertainties pertaining to the launch of the MHP (Multimedia Home Platform) licensing program. Questions were also posed to DVB by the European Commission about DVB’s IPR policy and the necessity of timely disclosure of licensing terms for essential intellectual property rights.
DVB has encouraged the development of voluntary licensing programs (patent pools). One program that has been noted provides licenses to patents that are vital to its DVB-T standard. Because of the IPR review there are now new procedures added to the activities to encourage patent pools that are:
- Those responding to a “Call for Technology” may be requested to confirm a willingness to enter into a patent pool
- The early launch of the pooling effort can be promoted through the convening of information meetings while a specification is still under development
- Once a pool is in formation by rights holders and a facilitator, the DVB Project Office will monitor the progress of the pool and, where required, lend technical and other support to help completion of the program; and
- Assertions of essentiality of patents included within a pool may be subject to “peer review” by DVB specialists
Carter Eltzroth, Legal Director of DVB, stated, “It was our frustration with the MHP process and its results that sparked DVB’s policy review. The MHP pool took too long to complete and multiple layers of confidentiality surround its results. Implementers can’t easily assess the quality of the patents included in the pool. Our pilot peer review program raised a number of technical points on the MHP patents, but the confidentiality rules within the MHP licensing program have blocked any meaningful discussion with the patent holders or the pool administrator.”
Peter MacAvock, Executive Director DVB, said, “MHP has pointed to some flaws in the pooling process. Our IPR review is addressing these issues. And the new measures are already showing results, with the completion in a matter of months of the new licensing program for CSA3 [Common Scrambling Algorithm] technology and the reinvigorated effort for DVB-H.”
Commenting on this IPR initiative, Anthony Dixon, Chairman of DVB’s IPR Module (and General Counsel Pace Micro Technology plc) said, “DVB has been able to add to its IPR toolkit within the policy framework long established by the DVB’s Memorandum of Understanding. During 2008, the IPRM will continue to examine methods to improve the transparency of the results of the pooling process and otherwise to foster the early and easy availability of licenses of patents for implementing DVB standards.”
Patent pool fostering is one element of DVB’s policy on intellectual property rights. That policy also commits each DVB member to grant licenses to its IPRs essential to DVB standards on terms fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory except if the member has given notice otherwise—Geneva, Switzerland
DELIVERY
Bytemobile, Inc. has released their Unison Media Fidelity Service for the delivery of PC-quality internet video on mass-market mobile devices. The company launched the new service with the latest release of its Unison multi-service architecture and platform. The first release of Unison Media Fidelity Service (MFS), which was announced initially on July 11, provides: Web video discovery and access from mobile browsers on mass-market handsets; Dynamic video transcoding adapted to each device; Dynamic bandwidth shaping for optimization of video streaming according to network bandwidth. MFS is the first carrier-grade, commercial infrastructure solution to adapt and optimize web multimedia content for mass-market mobile devices without client software downloads or other device changes. All that is required on the device is a standard media player. As a result, operators are able to deliver all internet video, from user-generated content on YouTube and MySpace to branded commercial media on CNN and MTV, to their handset subscribers—Mountain View, California
DELIVERY
Corning Cable Systems LLC, part of Corning Incorporated‘s [NYSE:GLW] Telecommunications segment, has announced that Connexion Technologies has made the first purchase of Corning’s ClearCurve product offering. Connexion Technologies is deploying fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) networks on a wide scale across the United States. They will use ClearCurve Rugged Drop Cable in their multiple dwelling unit (MDU) deployments. Connexion Technologies previously deployed ClearCurve products in a West Palm Beach MDU field trial. Because of the deployment cost savings, Connexion Technologies chose to purchase the products for future installs—Hickory, North Carolina
CREATION
There’s a free FME FDO Provider for AutoCAD Map 3D 2008 now available from Safe Software. This allows Map 3D users to access nine popular import formats from directly with AutoCAD’s Data Connect Dialog Box. The file is available for download from the company’s website. The FME FDO Provider integrates with the Data Connect dialog to enable quick connectivity to key spatial data formats. They include ESRI ArcInfo Export (E00), Geography Markup Language (GML), and MapInfo TAB/MIF/MID. Map 3D users will be able to read data direclty without having to copy the datasets—Vancouver, British Columbia
CONTENT
The Satellite Awards from The International Press Academy honor the most outstanding achievements in the fileds of cinema, televisiona nd new media. This year’s awards will occur on December 16th at as-yet unamed venue. This is the 12th year of the awards. For additional details and reservations, click here. In addition to the Satellite Awards, recognition is also given to veteran artists and personalities who have become pioneers and institutions in the entertainment industry. Past recipients have included Martin Landau, Gena Rowlands, Rod Steiger, Stan Winston, Richard Donner, George Lucas, James Cameron and Jerry Lewis, to name but a few.
