US cable-industry research, development and standardization consortium, CableLabs, announced Thursday the alpha version of a new Enhanced TV (ETV) Test Suite, which is intended to support ETV user agent development (note: ETV user agents are the software components that process an ETV application on a set-top box). Based on the CableLabs Enhanced TV Binary Interchange Format (EBIF) specification, the test suite is comprised of a set of test EBIF applications, a test plan, and test controller software (complete with source code). CableLabs, which describes the test suite as providing "preliminary test coverage" for developers of ETV user agents, says that it will continue to expand test coverage and provide updates to the suite in the coming months.
At the same time as it announced the availability of the new test suite, CableLabs also announced the launch of a new ETV Lab at its test facilities, which it says includes a comprehensive collection of ETV user agents for both legacy set-top boxes and tru2way devices from the major US cable operators, as well as test applications, example commercial applications, and various test tools. The organization says that the ETV Lab is open to application developers, programmers, cable operators and device manufacturers (note: more information on the lab can be found at cablelabs.com/certqual/development). "ETV is going to play an important role in the interactive digital video services MSO's will be introducing, as indicated by the large volume of EBIF and ETV applications on display at the recent Cable Show," Steve Reynolds, SVP of premises technology at Comcast, said in a prepared statement. "This new ETV initiative from CableLabs is another example of the cross-industry collaboration that will lead to new ways for consumers to interact with content on their TVs." Added So Vang, CableLabs' VP of advanced media platforms for the CableLabs' OpenCable initiative: "Our test program and our interoperability process will continue to advance quickly and stands ready to serve suppliers when they are ready to participate."
While CableLabs' ETV technology is designed to enable interactivity on the millions of low-resource cable set-top boxes currently in the field that are incapable of running CableLabs' more advanced Java-based tru2way middleware, it can also run on tru2way-enabled set-top boxes and television sets. Because an ETV application is bound to a specific channel, ETV apps can be integrated into commercials, allowing viewers to use their remotes to make purchases or request additional information on products. It is therefore a key technology for the US cable industry's interactive and addressable advertising initiative, Canoe. More information on the ETV specifications is available at opencable.com/specifications/etv.html. CableLabs hosts regular interoperability events for ETV and tru2way. The contact for licensing the new ETV test suite and for participating in these interop events is CableLabs' senior manager of vendor relations for OpenCable, Phil Bender (p.bender@cablelabs.com).
