mhp

Helsinki-based interactive TV company, Icareus (note: the company's offerings include a range of authoring and delivery solutions for MHP, OCAP/tru2way, MHEG and other platforms, as well as an extensive catalog of off-the-shelf interactive TV games and other applications), contacted [itvt] last week to let us know that it has delivered a range of interactive TV solutions to Bruneian national broadcaster, Radio Television Brunei (RTB). The broadcaster--which operates five digital TV channels, RTB 1 and RTB 2 (simulcast), RTB 3 (HD), RTB 4 (international) and RTB 5, as well as five radio networks--is using the solutions to power MHP-based interactive TV services.

VOD technology provider, SeaChange International, announced last week that it has entered into a binding agreement to acquire all the outstanding shares of VividLogic, a privately owned, California-based provider of software and services to cable operators, set-top box manufacturers and consumer electronics suppliers, whose competitors include Alticast, ADB's Osmosys and enableTV. According to SeaChange, VividLogic's software products include tru2way, MHP and Globally Executable MHP (GEM)-based IPTV operability for set-top box and CE manufacturers, in-home content protection and funded software development for the creation of service provider-sponsored home media gateways.

Korean MHP, tru2way and Blu-ray specialist, Alticast, will later this week announce that it has opened an engineering center in Wroclaw, Poland. The company says that the expansion is in response to "the steady growth of the European MHP/GEM interactive middleware and the imminent publishing of GEM 1.2 Hybrid Broadcast Broadband interactive middleware."

Geneva-based set-top box company, Advanced Digital Broadcast (note: the company, generally referred to as ADB, is the corporate stablemate of interactive TV software and services specialists, Vidiom Systems and Osmosys), announced last week that it has launched its first high-definition interactive digital terrestrial set-top box for the Italian retail market. According to the company, the i-CAN3810T-HD, as the box is branded, is being distributed in retail outlets throughout Italy by ADB partner ZAP, and will support the Mediaset Premium pay-TV service, which is accessed via a pre-paid card or through the Easypay subscription solution.

Korean MHP, tru2way and Blu-ray specialist, Alticast, contacted [itvt] Wednesday to let us know about its exhibit plans (Hall 1, Booth 1.C35) for the IBC show in Amsterdam later this week.

Among other things, the company plans to unveil what it bills as "the world's first single-middleware, dual-interactive commercialized hybrid receiver," which is powered by its Alticaptor middleware. According to the company, such hybrid receivers "represent the future of broadcasting," enabling viewers to enjoy a "seamless mix" comprised of 1) VOD content and catch-up services delivered through an IP network and 2) high-quality linear interactive HD real-time channels delivered via satellite.

Geneva-based Advanced Digital Broadcast (ADB) last week announced the launch of an interactive digital satellite set-top box, the i-CAN1110SH, designed for Italy's new Tivu Sat platform. The box--which will be marketed under the i-CAN brand and which is the first ADB satellite product to be deployed in Italy--will be distributed in retail outlets throughout the country by ADB's distribution partner, ZAP.

MHP, tru2way and Blu-ray specialist, Alticast, will shortly announce that it has appointed David Housman as CEO of its Alticast Americas arm. Housman was most recently SVP and general manager of rival Vidiom Systems, and has been replaced at that company by Jeff Berenson, who was formerly VP of integration and deployment.

International digital TV standards consortium, the DVB Project, announced Tuesday that the 80th meeting of its DVB Technical Module has "re-factored" the GEM and MHP specifications, in order to change the order of referencing between the specs, with MHP now referencing GEM rather than vice versa. The diagram below shows the relationships between the DVB Project's various GEM-related documents after the re-factoring (note: the green arrow between GEM and MHP designates the new order of referencing).

At the ANGA Cable show in Cologne, Tuesday, Strategy & Technology--a UK-based company that specializes in solutions for standards-based interactive TV (its products include the TSBroadcaster and TSPlayer systems, which are used for the creation and transmission of MHP, MHEG, tru2way and ETV applications; and the widely licensed RedKey MHEG engine)--announced that it has developed what it billed as the first applications to be shown to bring streaming video from the Internet to the TV, under broadcaster control, using the latest MHEG-5 middleware specifications.

At the ANGA Cable show in Cologne, Monday, MHP and OCAP/tru2way specialist, Alticast, launched a GEM (stands for "Globally Executable MHP," a subset of the MHP interactive TV standard that defines a platform-independent common core engine on which interactive applications can run across a range of delivery systems, and that is supported by the DVB, CableLabs, the ARIB, the ATSC and the Blu-ray Disc Association) product called the AwakenTV FastMHP/tru2way Graphical User Interface (GUI).

ICT Results, an editorial service created by the European Commission to showcase European Union-funded research in information and communications technology (ICT), published a report, Wednesday, on an EU-funded project called Enhanced Learning Unlimited (ELU), that was established to develop methodologies and tools for enabling learning via interactive TV ("t-learning").

Interactive TV software company, Osmosys (note: the company, which, together with Vidiom and set-top box vendor ADB, is part of the ADB Group, specializes in Java-based ITV solutions, such as MHP and OCAP), last month announced the launch of its MHP 1.2 software, which it bills as allowing operators to provide "next-generation" TV services and as helping bridge the worlds of broadcast and IP video. According to the company, the new software is compatible with terrestrial, satellite, cable and IPTV services, and supports advanced features on networks with always-on Ethernet connections.

--Company Showcases New Technologies at IBC

[itvt] has learned that Geneva-based ADB Group, which acquired US
tru2way/OCAP specialist, Vidiom Systems, back in February, 2006,
has sold parts of that company's professional services business back to

In a letter sent last Thursday to the DVB Project, Jean-Michel Bourdon,
president of Via Licensing, the company that administers the patent
pool for the international MHP interactive TV standard (note: it also
administers the patent pools for the OCAP/tru2way and TV-Anytime
standards), stated that the members of the MHP patent pool have
decided to remove the controversial requirement that free-to-air
broadcasters pay MHP license fees. Last year, when Via Licensing
unveiled the terms of the worldwide joint license agreement for patents
deemed essential to the DVB-MHP 1.0 standard, it stated that
free-to-air broadcasters generating no revenue from MHP-based
services could purchase a five-year license either for $3000 per year or