Video Breakthroughs

The French TNT 2.0 connected television specifications now include MPEG DASH support, but is it a mandate or an update?

One of the more interesting bits of news coming out of last week's IBC tradeshow in Amsterdam was that the French government has mandated the use of MPEG DASH in all connected televisions.

The full story is a little more complicated, due to the number of connected TV initiatives floating around Europe. France's connected television scheme, backed by industry and government groups, is called TNT. It currently stands at version 2.0, which was launched mid-2011. The recent move to add DASH support to TNT 2.0 is the source of the buzz.

TNT is a French-only subset of what is commonly called Hybrid Broadcast Broadband television, or HbbTV, a pan-European standard for interactive televisions that now stands at version 1.5.

The HbbTV (Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV) consortium has announced the publication of version 1.5 of its hybrid TV specification. Building on existing standards and web technologies, the HbbTV specification provides the features and functionality required to deliver feature rich broadcast and internet TV services.

Version 1.5 of the HbbTV specification notably introduces support for HTTP adaptive streaming based on the recently published MPEG-DASH specification, improving the perceived quality of video presentation on busy or slow Internet connections. It also enables content providers to protect DASH delivered content with potentially multiple DRM technologies based on the MPEG CENC specification, improving efficiency in markets where more than one DRM technology will be used. Version 1.5 significantly enhances access to broadcast TV schedule information, enabling operators to produce full seven-day electronic programme guides as HbbTV applications that can be deployed across all HbbTV receivers to provide a consistent user experience. The latest advances are based on activity within the HD Forum in France as part of the development of the TNT 2.0 specification

Ligada iSuite consists of a highly automated test harness and test suite covering HbbTV, OIPF, DRM and DASH adaptive streaming. The company is engaging with a number of hybrid platform operators to provide interoperability, functional and security tests.

Digital TV Labs can offer existing extensive HbbTV 1.1 and 1.5 test suites including DASH adaptive streaming, as well as specific operator test case authoring, allowing users to build their own test suites. The company offers an outsourced test service in the UK and Hong Kong for receiver manufacturers, and in addition provides test servers covering prevalent DRM systems.

Product page : http://www.digitaltv-labs.com/products/consumer_electronics/details/hbbtv