New Initiative accelerates the creation of a mass market of interoperable IP-connected TVs and STBs for applications and services

September 7, 2012

The Open IPTV Forum (OIPF) and the Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV (HbbTV) Consortium today announced their collaboration on the testing of technologies common to IPTV and enhanced broadcast environments. These include testing the Declarative Application Environment (colloquially referred to as the “OIPF browser”) and the Media Formats specifications that are currently being implemented in retail connected TVs and STBs in those regions where hybrid services based on the HbbTV specification are deployed.

This initiative enhances the cooperation that began a year ago and has now delivered common procedures for the development, review and acceptance of test material by engineers from both OIPF and HbbTV. Test material can be used by any test tool implementing the defined interface specifications which permits its use via IP or broadcast techniques. These procedures and specifications define a testing environment that can be used in product development, acceptance testing by service providers, and formal conformance testing at test centres.

The results of this co-operation will be included in the first release of the OIPF Test Suite expected to be available in the first quarter of 2013 and the second release of the HbbTV Test Suite expected in the second half of 2013. These test suites are essential for improving interoperability between connected TV applications, services and receivers and reduce the costs related to resolving interoperability problems.

Dr Klaus Illgner-Fehns, Chair HbbTV Consortium, comments “Test material is expensive to develop, and sharing the costs between the two organisations will result in more test material being created earlier than would be possible without the co-operation.” “Furthermore”, he adds, “reviewing test material is time consuming, and sharing this between the members of the two organisations will result in both organisations’ test suites also being available earlier”.

Dr Nilo Mitra, OIPF President, says “Having one set of test material for the common technologies of both organizations delivers significant cost saving for companies who want to benefit from implementing both organizations’ specifications.” “Moreover”, he notes, “the referencing of the OIPF browser by various regional standards throughout the world will lead to greater value of its testing and increase the number of compliant and interoperable devices worldwide.”

Other aspects of the successful cooperation between these two organizations include enhancements to the OIPF browser to support additional requirements arising from the deployment of browser-based television applications.