The HbbTV Association has swelled its powers with the launch of HbbTV 2.0 and its merger with the Smart TV Alliance. Organisation chair and MD of IRT Klaus Illgner-Fehns also raised the issue of the management layer required to make IP production work.
“We need a management layer. The network, its capabilities, the bandwidth, the SLA and the QS are crucial, “ he said. “We talk about remote and file production and IP studio, but without a reliable and high quality network nothing in those approaches works.
You would have a hard time with cloud-based production unless the networks are right.”
Reliable QS and different traffic patterns come heavily into play. What about v2.0?
“For the end user it creates a tighter link between broadband and broadcast, from your smartphone onto the TV screen. You can kick off applications from the TV on the secondary screen,” said Illgner-Fehns.
“We support synchronised streaming, so you can sync a stream delivered over broadband to a broadcast stream.”
The key professional aspects are support for HGML 5, which triggers easier app development, and the second screen which allows for interesting new business models. Illgner-Fehns added:
“The Smart TV Alliance has reached out to the development community, and it is coming purely from OTT, so bringing us together creates a common technology platform, enriched for the OTT market.”
