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[Digital TVs and PCs Converging] [Digital Standards Wars First] [Multi-Layered Systems and Software] [The DVB Standard]
The original idea was for all TV-top decoders to use a common hardware and software format, thus allowing subscribers to easily switch from one service provider to another. However, on 22 September 1998, the Independent Television Commission (ITC) announced that service providers were to be allowed to sell TV sets that exclusively carried their own services - an announcement at odds with the European Commission who has required the use of a common interface (CI) and common access (CA) mechanisms for all integrated TV sets. Whilst the ITC has also said that their systems are to have a "common interface" it is less likely that manufactures will make such sets because of the higher cost and the need to acquire proprietary information.
There are over 200 companies and organisations working on the DVB standard (see below) but standards take time to agree and there are vested interests at stake. In Europe it looks like the cable companies will standardised on Liberate's (formally NCI's) TV Navigator, with BSkyB backing OpenTV and the terrestrial broadcaster ONdigital backing MediaHighway+.
Over in the US, OpenTV, an interactive software company, has shipped over four million digital receivers worldwide with the OpenTV software, and the software has been deployed by 13 television networks including BSkyB. OpenTV backers are Myriad International Holdings, Thomson Multimedia (RCA) and Sun Microsystems. In October 1999, OpenTV gained a further $32m backing from Liberty Digital, AOL, General Instruments, News Corp. and Time Warner to develop a suite of e-commerce digital TV channels.
Also in the US, Wink Enhanced Broadcasting provides set-top box software that allows TV viewers to ValueVision's home shopping channels (to be rebranded as SnapTV) to order with a click of their remote control. Another US company, ACTV Inc., provides software called HyperTV that allows viewers to sports pay-per-view channels to select different camera angles and statistics and to replay scenes. It will be used by the Viewer's Choice channel. HyperTV also allows advertisers to target individual households.
| Sun itself is pushing
PersonalJava and
JavaOS. Meanwhile
Microsoft,
who is late to the game, is pushing it's Windows CE operating system for
the set-top decoders. Microsoft has recently invested in 2 of the UK's
3 major cable companies who have committed to a rival system from
Liberate (formally NCI)
called TV Navigator. In the US Microsoft has an agreement with AOL
who will use Windows CE in its Interactive TV set-top boxes but currently
AOL has made no plans to move into the UK cable market. In March 2000,
Microsoft signed an agreement with NDS Group, Murdoch's News Corp's pay-TV
arm, whereby NDS will licence software to Microsoft so that both companies
can sell interactive TV services.
Microsoft has also purchased the WebTV company ostensibly for its technology, but some say that was a defensive move to stop its system becoming a de-facto standard over Windows CE. Another player, Scientific Atlanta has developed PowerTV to be used with Liberate's TV Navigator. CableLabs, a consortium of over 60 cable providers, funds research and development projects for the cable industry with the aim of promoting open standards for set-top boxes. |
 |
Liberate software in action with on-screen direct response buttons. |
The standards chosen by the various UK providers are as follows.
| Provider | API | CA | Internet |
| The Digital Network | MHEG-5 (as simplified form of HTML) | Seca | ? |
| ONdigital (terrestrial) | MediaHighway+ | Seca | Yes |
| Sky Digital (satellite) | OpenTV | NDS | Not yet |
| CWC (cable)(3) | Liberate (5) TV Navigator | Nagra | MCNS |
| NTL (cable) | [Originally] DTV Navigator [now choosen Liberate (5) TV Navigator(2)] | Nagra | DVB/DAVIC(6) |
| Telewest (cable) | [Originally] OpenTV(1) [now choosen Liberate (5) TV Navigator (4) ] | Nagra | Not yet |
(1) In Nov 98 Telewest announced it
was reviewing its plans to use OpenTV. |
Multi-Layered Systems and Software
The Application Programme Interface (API) is used to receive information about the programme (e.g. the picture ratio), data information for displaying on the screen (e.g. programme schedules), or receiving and executing application programmes (applets). How that information is described is defined by the Service Information (SI) standard. The API is an essential link to provision of Electronic Programme Guides (EPGs) and later to e-commerce applications. The EC would like the industry to agree on the use of common standards so that independent software vendors could write and market EPG user interfaces and e-commerce applications that would work on all broadcasting systems, much like most PC software is written to run on IBM architecture machines running MS Windows. However, broadcasters would prefer to lock in consumers so they can have an income stream to recoup their significant investment in DTV.
The Common Interface (CI) defines a standard interface socket in digital TVs or decoders into which consumers can insert a module in-order to receive signals from different broadcasting systems. Consumers could then buy a decoder or DTV set first and then choose their prefered broadcaster, changing at a later date if they were dissatisfied. CI sockets have yet to appear because broadcasters are providing their own decoders for exclusive use with their system. The Conditional Access (CA) software ensures that the subscriber is authorised to receive the channel. It usually interfaces to a smart card that subscribers must insert into the set-top box. Again there are currently different standards.
In its report, The Development of the Market for Digital Television in the Europe Union COM(1999)540, the European Commission proposes that regulatory principles are applied in a homogeneous manner across the sectors impacted by convergence.
| In the long run the Digital Television
Group (DTG) aims to develop the DVB Common
Interface. This is based on the latest
MHEG-5 ISO standards (the Digital TV
equivalent of MS Windows on a PC) (see diagram on the right). They also
have an On-Demand Services sub-group looking at standards for interactive
services. The UK terrestrial services use a sub-set of MHEG-5.
Due to the fast moving nature and convergence of both the computer industry and digital TV, further enhancements to the standards to MHEG-6 and 7 are already underway. Within Europe, open standards are being developed jointly by DigiTAG (The Digital Terrestrial Television Action Group) and DTG. They aim to achieve agreement in a common European standard, called EuroMHEG. This standard would also be applicable for interactive services delivered by cable or telephone using the new ADSL standard. |
|
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| The ultimate end-game (for some!) is a set of common standards for all digital audio/visual devices in the home. One such project is DVB's Multimedia Home Platform which uses Java, and there is another project within the DAVIC - Digital Audio Visual Council. With a common standard different devices will be able to intelligently communicate between themselves and the outside world as well as easily exchange content along the whole content supply chain. Migration from MHEG-5 is an important objective. More recently a consortium between Grundig, Hitachi, Philips, Matsushita, Sharp, Sony and Thompson under the title HAVi Consortium have proposed a standard for connecting devices in the home including set top boxes. Presumably Sun's Jini is a rival contender. | You can download Power Point presentations for both DVBs Multimedia Home Platform "The Next Wave" (1.3MB zip file at the top of the referenced page) and DAVIC's vision of the future "What is DAVIC" (568K zip file at the bottom of the referenced page). |
Unfortunately, in the race to launch the digital services, it looks like many different incompatible standards may well be established. In the UK there are 4 different multiplex operators each with their own standards or variations of the standards. Additionally there is an open market in desk top decoders but in reality the market for decoders, especially multi-standard decoders, has been inhibited by the distribution of free decoders by the operators. Discussions on "backward compatibility" and a standard interchange format are underway but it could be too late. If this happens then content providers, advertisers, etc. will need develop different versions for the different systems and may well find consumers having problems, particularly with 3rd party decoders.
The UK company Cabot has developed various software tools that can generate interactive applications for multi-platforms. Demo systems include Aesop, a tool for delivering interactive TV adverts that could for example run as text and buttons superimposed over a cookery programme, or run in a separate window. The advert could be for supermarket that has packs with all the ingredients ready to take away. Buttons could link to a search engine to find the nearest store. Or it could be used by the broadcaster as a value added service, offering recipe information or other merchandise.
One of the key features of the decoders is to provide access to the Electronic Programme Guide that will help subscribers find programmes of interest from amongst the 100's of channels available.
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