DVB at Broadband World Forum Europe

30 September 2008

Brussels – 30 September 2008 – The DVB stand at Broadband World Forum Europe (30 September – 2 October) is hosting a number of important technology demonstrations that highlight the latest developments in the standardisation work being carried out by DVB to achieve interoperability, stimulate growth and enable greater economies of scale for IPTV.

The demonstrations include products and solutions from the Institut für Rundfunktechnik (IRT), Osmosys and Thomson.

The IRT demo features a full IPTV-server system for both video and audio streaming and metadata support. The demonstration shows how its IPTV Metadata Server provides all necessary metadata information to run IPTV services compatible to the DVB-IPTV standard (ETSI-TS 102 034 v. 1.2.1). It delivers all required Service Discovery and Selection (SD&S) records and EPG data for Broadcast Content Guides (BCG) via http and multicast delivery mechanisms.  The software-based IRT DVB Playout Server facilitates the preparation and multiplexing of various data transport streams and in the case of IPTV the transport streams can be transmitted via UDP and RTP. Finally, the IRT Multiformat Metadata Converter allows the generation of metadata in several output formats from one or more different input sources.

Osmosys is presenting its MHP-IPTV client running on an ADB hybrid Cable/IPTV HD PVR set-top box. This setup shows DVB-IPTV interoperability with a SD&S server and IPTV streams provided by IRT. In addition, the set-top box also includes a DLNA MediaServer and MediaPlayer for access to the home network A/V contents.

Thomson’s DVB-IPTV CDS (Content Download Service) advanced research demonstration showcases a new generation of robust Video-On-Demand service. Based on content download over a DVB-IPTV managed network, the CDS features two service modes: push (for delivery of popular content to multiple set-top boxes, triggered by the service provider) and pull (for delivery of long-tail content, at the explicit request of a service customer). Multicast and Peer-to-Peer (P2P) protocols are efficiently used to optimise network resources and quality of service, both key-points in such services.

A growing list of organisations is working alongside the DVB Project to provide the IPTV industry with the appropriate level of standardisation. These include ATIS-IIF, DLNA, ETSI-TISPAN and the Open IPTV Forum amongst others.  DVB’s task is to help define and develop appropriate standards for the delivery of DVB services over such networks, and to provide a means of integrating these with other broadband services, whilst maintaining maximum interoperability with existing DVB broadcast standards.

In view of the complex nature of IPTV, and the varied facets of such services, there are numerous DVB groups dealing with IPTV. DVB’s unique approach is based on consensus approval between its diverse members based on commonly-agreed commercial requirements.

Key DVB-IPTV specifications already published by ETSI include:
•    TS 102 034 : Transport of MPEG-2 TS-Based DVB Services over IP Based Networks
•    TS 102 539 : Carriage of Broadband Content Guide (BCG) Information over Internet Protocol
•    TS 102 824 : Remote Management and Firmware Update System for DVB IP Services

DVB’s interactive middleware specifications, DVB-MHP and GEM, also include IPTV profiles.