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Interop across platforms

BBC and Dolby have given the demo of DVB-CSS a boost, along with the news that it is the underlying spec for inter-device synchronisation in HBBTV 2.0.

First up, Peter Siebert, the executive director of the DVB, tackled the issue of existing solutions that are not standardised or interoperable.

“It is a challenge that we have those big eco systems like Android and Apple, and in Android you have the sub systems of Samsung and other vendors. We would like to secure our standard’s interoperability across all platforms,” he said.

“A good example is our DASH demo. We started with several proprietary solutions and MPEG decided to create one standard in MPEG-DASH,” he continued.

That work is done. DVB is here to prove it works. Phase one is two blocks – synchronisation in time so both devices can deliver frame accurate content, and content detection, so both devices know which content
is active.

“It is up to the industry to implement the hooks and mechanisms in their systems. Broadcasters have to provide the necessary metadata, and the manufacturers have to implement our protocol stacks,” said Siebert.

Matt Hammond, senior research engineer, BBC R&D, added: “We were involved from the writing of the specs, and we have also worked in parallel with some of the groups downstream from the DVB that are taking this spec and working to incorporate it into TV platforms.”

1.D81 (DVB), www.dvb.org

8.G08 (BBC R&D), www.bbc.co.uk/rd