EventReview

Coronado, California
[itvt] Issue 4.12 12/20/01

By Tracy Swedlow for [itvt]

On October 25th, a few weeks post CableLabs' announcement that it would embrace the Java-based Multimedia Home Platform (MHP) as the core of its Open Cable initiative's OpenCable Application Platform, Canadian Java development company, Espial, hosted a highly relevant, full-day seminar entitled "The Interactive TV Era: building Java-based Digital Set-top Boxes." The seminar took place at the Loews Coronado Bay resort, near San Diego, California-an unusually glamorous and luxurious place to discuss Java virtual machines, Java classes, and how Java will support new ITV devices and applications.

About 100 people attended the event-a mix of Java developers, interactive TV executives, and hardware manufacturers working with Java. After introductions from Espial's Chris Hausner, area sales manager for the Western U.S, [itvt]'s Swedlow gave the keynote speech, which discussed definitions of ITV, its history, market conditions/trends, predictions about hot technologies, and thoughts about how Java would play a part in the developing market. As luck would have it, as she was speaking about the first ever set-top project-called QUBE and offered in the 70's in Columbus, Ohio-a hand went up in the back of the room: sitting in the last row was Mike Korodi, the former VP and general manager of the QUBE system. Mr. Korodi, as it happens, is still in the ITV business. He now works for a company called PTSC, which develops Java-based embedded microprocessors, as its VP of sales and marketing. The next day, Swedlow was privileged to spend several hours at the offices of PTSC, talking to Korodi about the history behind QUBE.

After Swedlow's speech, Dr. Neale Foster, Espial's director of marketing/TV, gave a detailed presentation entitled "Key Requirements for Set-top Boxes." He elaborated on Espial's ITV solutions, such as its DeviceTop operating system, the Escape browser, the DeviceServer, and the devicetop.com community of Java developers, which Espial helped start and currently maintains. After lunch and a little schmoozing around the vendor displays, Bill Sheppard, group business development manager for digital television at Sun Microsystems, presented a well-articulated, carefully delineated Power Point presentation on Sun's vision for Java technology. He outlined the extent to which Java is being used for existing platforms and appliances and its impact on standards development for DVB-MHP around the world. For most of the afternoon, Espial's JVM vendors, Insignia, NSIcom, Skelmir, Tao, Trimedia, and WindRiver, provided detailed presentations about how their companies are using Java and Espial products.

At day's end, a panel Q&A session provided some intense debate: the four panelists (Rod Crawford of the Embedded Microprocessor Benchmark Consortium [EEMBC], Vincent Perrier of Wind River, Sheppard, and Swedlow; Foster moderated) challenged each other on such topics as how the ITV industry will develop over the next 3 years and what role Java will play in its future. Crawford, for example, felt that the home gateway strategy would "grow considerably," Perrier believed the industry would see a greater unification of the Web and the TV, and Sheppard predicted that MHP would develop worldwide and that content will begin to appear quickly after that: "The software is not all that sophisticated. Small teams or even individuals will be able to develop their own programs and applications like gamers used to do in the early years. The development environment will be great." Swedlow focused on the rise of VOD, arguing that developments in interactive applications would support the emergence of documentaries and niche-form interactive learning entertainment, and talked about the potential use of Java in handheld lap tablets, such as the one recently unveiled by Motorola at the Western Show. Panelists also discussed the increasing use of Java technologies on mobile phones (especially common in Asian markets) and how those technologies might easily migrate to set-top boxes, now that middleware vendors like Liberate and WorldGate are working so closely with Java. Swedlow also raised the possibility of widespread integration of Flash and Java in the set-top space.

When the day was over, many people remained to talk in the exhibition room. All in all, it was a productive, well-thought-out event.

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