Next steps confirmed for DVB work on Multicast ABR and Native IP
The 96th meeting of the DVB Steering Board (SB) took place this week. Among the key decisions were the approval of the Commercial Requirements for the second phase of work on DVB-MABR and the endorsement of the arrangements for a new technical working group on Native IP.
Multicast ABR Phase 2
This week saw the publication by ETSI of the first DVB-MABR specification, for adaptive bit rate streaming over IP multicast. It was approved by the SB earlier this year. In the meantime, work continued within the DVB Commercial Module to define the requirements for a further evolution of the specification. These requirements were approved by the SB this week and technical work will now commence.
The phase 2 requirements include some elements to support DVB-TA (Targeted Advertising) and also dynamic switching between unicast and multicast ABR streaming. They also make an allowance for optional support of new multicast protocols, beyond those specified in the first phase, and also for unidirectional deployment.
Native IP sub-group
The creation of the new Technical Module Native IP sub-group (TM-NIP) follows the approval in July of Commercial Requirements for the delivery of television, radio and data services in a native IP format, directly tailored for IP-enabled end-user devices, over broadcast links. The new group is co-chaired by Régis Moulin (Eutelsat) and Tom Christophory (SES). DVB Members can join the group now via the members’ portal.
A new revision of the DVB workplan was approved by the SB. This publicly available document provides timelines for all current DVB work items, including those mentioned above.
Finally, there was SB endorsement for the re-election of Georg Nolte (Panasonic) as chair of the Intellectual Property Rights Module and Roberto Dini (Sisvel) as vice-chair.
If your company is not a DVB Member but would like to get involved with our work, including on Native IP or Multicast ABR, we’d be happy to talk to you about membership. More information here.
The next DVB Steering Board meeting is on 11 February 2021.
