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Major restructure of DVB’s technical working groups

27.01.2020

Last week’s meeting of the DVB Technical Module approved a significant reorganization of its sub-groups, responsible for the development and maintenance of DVB’s specifications. Five new groups were created and another was renamed to reflect a change of scope.

Representatives of DVB Members can follow and contribute to the work of the new groups by joining them on our new members’ portal at member.dvb.org.

While the TM-IPI group had originally been created to develop DVB’s IPTV specifications, in recent years it took on most work items related to the use of IP in DVB specifications. The result was a proliferation of task forces that have now been elevated to be working groups in their own right. The TM-IPI group is now in sleep mode – it will be reactivated if any maintenance of the DVB-IPTV specifications is needed.

Five new groups

The new sub-groups of the Technical Module are as follows:

  • TM-HB (Home Broadcast), developing a specification to enable consumption of broadcast content that has been retransmitted, through IP means, by a server located in the same home network as client devices. Chaired by Davide Milanesio of Rai.
  • TM-I (Internet), responsible for maintenance of the DVB-I service discovery and programme metadata specification, along with any other technical work related to this and future DVB-I specifications, including provision of technical oversight for the recently announced DVB-I reference application activity. The group is also responsible for maintenance of the TV Anytime specifications. Chaired by Paul Higgs of Huawei.
  • TM-MCAST (Multicast), developing and maintaining DVB’s forthcoming multicast ABR specification. Chaired by Richard Bradbury of BBC, with a vacancy for his co-chair to drive medium and long-term activities.
  • TM-STREAM, responsible for technical activities related to DVB-DASH, including collaboration on Verification & Validation activities with the DASH Industry Forum and the HbbTV Association. The chair’s position is vacant – interested candidates should contact the Technical Module chair Jon Piesing.
  • TM-TA (Targeted Advertising), responsible for the completion and maintenance of DVB’s Targeted Advertising specifications, including verification and validation of the two recently complete specifications. Chaired by Matt Poole of Sony.

TM-GBS becomes TM-MPEG2TS

In addition to the creation of these five new groups, the long-standing TM-GBS (Generic Broadcast Services) group has been renamed as TM-MPEG2TS (MPEG-2 Transport Stream). Its chair Alexander Adolf is stepping down – candidates interested in replacing him should contact Jon Piesing.

TM-MPEG2TS will now focus on maintenance of the DVB-SI specification and other DVB system specifications relating to MPEG-2 transport streams. On-going work related to Targeted Advertising moves to the new TM-TA group, while responsibility for maintenance of the DVB-GSE (Generic Stream Encapsulation) specification moves to TM-MCAST.

The other Technical Module sub-groups that remain active are: TM-AVC (Audio and Video Coding), TM-S (Satellite) and TM-T (Terrestrial).

New structure for DVB Technical Module