Ocean Blue Has HbbTV Interests | Rohde & Schwarz Signal SNG Success | SpectiCast Has STB Selection | U.S. House of Representatives Says No To Net Neutrality [SatBroadcasting™]

April 15, 2011

The market interest in HbbTV continues to grow, with interest spreading throughout Europe. The standard is driven by content providers and manufacturers who want to try and generate one common solution, delivering rich entertainment content to consumers via their TV or set-top box (STB). Germany is leading the way with many of the satellite operators generating “live” applications. In the UK, the DTG and other organizations, such as Freesat and YouView, are working to ensure that MHEG will coexist with other presentation engines — this opens up the possibility of having HbbTV applications in the UK alongside the existing MHEG services. In turn, MHEG-5 is being adapted so that DVB signalling for applications can operate along side HbbTV. The rate of development and interest in the standard has not come without its issues. As many applications and boxes struggle to maintain compatibility, the lack of conformance and testing for both products and applications is causing concern. Fortunately, the HbbTV certification group (of which Ocean Blue is a member) is close to defining a test framework and the mechanism in which product can obtain the logo. At the moment, self conformance via an open source test kit seems to be the most likely outcome. While the product certification issues are progressing and will catch up, there is still a great concern that there seems to be little effort to ensure application authors are generating content that will function on all receivers. For this reason, HbbTV may still be at a cross roads, as previous history has shown, if the content providers cannot feel confident that their applications will run on all products, they may loose faith and associated advertisement revenue. Ocean Blue software maintains its HbbTV browser agnostic approach to the market and offers various solutions. Ocean Blue can provide complete turnkey solutions for DVB-C, DVB-S2 and DVB-T/T2. The Company’s Voyager MHEG-5 and the associated DSM-CC / AIT handler can be provided as modules to work alongside a third party Hbbtv browser.

Ocean Blue homepage for more info

Rohde & Schwarz FSC Spectrum Analysers have been selected by Sat-Comm as the default offering in their mid range and high end Satellite News Gathering (SNG) vehicles. The move also formalizes Sat-Comm’s status as a formal Value Added Partner of Rohde & Schwarz UK. Sat-Comm has a complete range of satellite uplink solutions, from compact, fully redundant SNG Fly Away systems, to Outside Broadcast vehicles with satellite capabilities. The range also covers terrestrial microwave vehicles and mobile GSM base-stations, communications technologies for which Rohde & Schwarz supplies a full range of test and measurement equipment.

Company homepage link

SpectiCast has selected Amino set-top boxes (STBs) to deliver high quality content to theaters worldwide. The Company’s proprietary Digital Theater Network (DTN) delivers the highest quality audio visual digital experience using advanced Internet-protocol technologies operating over a network that has global reach. Amino has worked with SpectiCast to integrate their proprietary technologies into its A540 personal video recorder (PVR) STB to enable the delivery of broadcast quality audiovisual content using standard, commercial-grade Internet connections. SpectiCast’s services leverage patented technologies to deliver extremely high quality audiovisual content using standard, commercial-grade Internet connections for both live and pre-recorded content. SpectiCast has extensive experience in the fields of data networking, video transmission technology, video production, and the cultural arts. Since the fall of 2008, SpectiCast’s DTN has delivered live simulcasts, as well as encore performances for organizations like The Philadelphia Orchestra Association, The Curtis Institute of Music, and The Free Library of Philadelphia. SpectiCast is currently expanding into traditional film distribution to independent and art house theaters as well as non-traditional theaters such as performing arts and community centers.

SpectiCast homepage link

In a story posed by Phil Kurz of Broadcast Engineering, on April 8th the U.S. House of Representatives, by a vote of 240-179, approved a measure to nullify FCC net neutrality rules adopted last year. A similar piece of legislation in the Senate to reject the rules has 39 co-sponsors. Following the House vote, the Obama administration said a veto to protect the agency’s Preserving the Open Internet rules is a possibility if the Senate votes to overturn the rules. The commission’s net neutrality rules, adopted in December 2010, prevent carriers, such as AT&T, Verizon and Comcast, from discriminating against competitors by impeding the transport of content over their broadband networks. Republicans backing the legislation have said the FCC lacks the authority to impose the net neutrality rules and that the government should stay out of regulating the Internet. In a press statement issued on his congressional website, Fred Upton, R-MI, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, called the FCC’s net neutrality rules “overreaching” and said they would stifle innovation, investment and jobs in the private sector. “Free market principles and consumer demand have been the driving forces of the Internet’s success and should remain so today,” Upton said. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, speaking at the Free Press National Conference for Media Reform 2011 in Boston after the House vote said she didn’t think the Senate would support the House measure to nullify the FCC’s net neutrality rules. In April 2010, a federal appeals court ruled the FCC did not have the authority to regulate Internet traffic under existing law. The case stemmed from the FCC’s response to steps taken by Comcast to slow BitTorrent file transfers by customers. The ruling prompted the FCC to try again, finding a different rationale for its authority to regulate Internet traffic management to ensure that content receive equal treatment by carriers. <