Multimedia Home Platform MHP
The Multimedia Home Platform (MHP) is a vital standard for transmitting and presenting interactive content via the set standard of digital television in Europe. Developed by the Digital Video Broadcasting project (DVB) and published by ETSI it is the world's first open standard for truly interactive digital TV.

DVB is an industry-led consortium of over 300 broadcasters, manufacturers, network operators, software developers, regulatory bodies and others in over 35 countries committed to designing global standards for the global delivery of digital television and data services.

MHP as one of the DVB's core standards is and will be deployed by the vast majority of European broadcasting networks. Since the specification of GEM (Globally Executable MHP), again published by ETSI and approved by the ITU in March 2003, is building on MHP, MHP forms the basis for the first ever worldwide standard for interactive television. By providing an internationally acknowledged standard finally a horizontal market can be deployed.

Interoperability is the most critical challenge to success in environments shaped by various device manufacturers, network operators and content providers. DVB has taken this into account by releasing an official MHP Test Suite for Conformance Testing of receivers. Every MHP device on the market must have passed this Test Suite in a self-certification process applied by the manufacturer. The strength and quality of the official Test Suite directly influences interoperability of systems in the market and is an ideal means to ensure that MHPs support all features as defined in the MHP specification.

Test Suite for MHP
Test Suite versions 1.0.2a and 1.0.2b have been made available in September 2002 (1.0.2.a) and January 2003 (1.0.2b). Early March 2003 the DVB Technical Module approved version 1.0.3 of the MHP specification and is further working on advanced versions of MHP, such as the internet access profile (MHP 1.1.2 and PVR extensions).

Huge effort both financially and in manpower has already been invested by a several companies, amongst them the partners who have now joined in the MHP-CONFIDENCE project, into the state of art achieved for the currently valid Test Suite 1.0.2.b and for improvements to the MHP standard itself: A major part of these contributions has been made by partners represented in MHP-CONFIDENCE and at current its results are readily being used on a global scale.

MHP-CONFIDENCE will now build on past experience and new experience from the emerging market to develop qualified conformance tests for selected new versions of MHP.

MHP derived or related specifications as additional targets for exploitation
Most world-wide standards for interactive TV build on MHP or are ralated to MHP. For successful introduction, they equally need strong and dedicated conformance testing and thus form natural targets for further exploitation of the work carries out by MHP-CONFIDENCE. This section gives a summary on these standards.

Globally Executable MHP (GEM)
GEM was created to enable organisations (e.g. CabIeLabs) to define specifications based on MHP together with DVB. It has the following goals:

• To maximise interoperability between GEM-based specifications from different organisations
• To maximise the presence of MHP components, enabling economies of scale for the whole interactive broadcast chain
• To take into account local business and technical constraints.

GEM is not a standalone specification that can be directly implemented but a framework to be used by the organisations wishing to define specifications based on MHP. Additionally, the design rules of the GEM specification enable content authors to write applications that can be directly interoperable across different GEM-based receivers. The GEM specification lists those parts of the MHP specification that have been found to be DVB technology or market-specific. It allows these to be replaced where necessary as lonq as the replacement technology is functionally equivalent to the original – so called ‘functional equivalents’.

Open Cable Application Platform (OCAP)
OCAP is a GEM-based terminal specification designed to fit the technical and business environment of the cable industry in the United States.
At a technical level, the various DVB technologies and specifications that are not used in the United States cable environment are removed and replaced by their functional equivalents, as specified in GEM.
At a business level, OCAP extends MHP with support for a ‘monitor application’ which puts the Cable MSO (network operator) in charge of the policy of the receiver. It also adds support for ‘unbound applications’ which can run at any time and are essentially disconnected from whatever TV channel is currently being watched on the OCAP receiver. Examples of these unbound applications indude email clients and video-on-demand dient applications.

ARIB B23 (Application Enqine Platform for Diqital Broadcasting)
The ARIB B23 specification is a GEM-based terminal specification complementing the existing Japanese digital broadcast specifications. A noticeable functional equivalent redefined by ARIB concerns the application transport protocol where a data carousel-based transport protocol is being used instead of the DVB object carousel.

ACAP
Previously known as DCAP, ACAP is the result of an informal activity between CabIeLabs, various companies who work with it to create and maintain the OCAP specification, and the ATSC. One goal was to define a common application format between cable & terrestrial TV in the United States. A second goal was to enable easy relaying of terrestrial digital TV signals (including interactive applications) onto cable, given appropriate business arrangements. ACAP is now being maintained by the ATSC within a Specialist Group named S2.

Further details of this overview and related links are availbale in chapter 5 of the Final Report of MHP-CONFIDENCE.

Deployment or MHP in Europe
In Italy MHP receivers continue to even after the subsidy was focussed on areas where analog switch-off is closest. As of May 2006, just under 4M receivers had been sold of which 50% received the subsidy and 50% did not. 97% of these were MHP receivers. (http://www.dgtvi.it/stat/Diffusione_Decoder/Page1.html)

MHP receivers have been introduced in Spain with services from RTVE with partners, Fresh It, Abertis and Soluziona. Applications include an EPG, advanced digital teletext, radio services, information services about the traffic, weather and the Stock Market. A promotion campaign is planned. (http://www.advanced-television.com/2006/news_archive_2006/jul3_jul7.htm#rtve)

MHP services based on MHP 1.1.2 will be introduced in Austria before the end of 2006. (http://www.rtr.at/web.nsf/deutsch/Portfolio_Presseinfos_nach%20Datum_PresseInfoDatum_PInfo27062006RF?OpenDocument or http://www.dvb.org/about_dvb/dvb_worldwide/austria/ )

Other countries are considering introducing MHP however information on plans for MHP introduction is speculative and subject to change due to the ongoing dispute over the MHP patent licensing terms. A number of pay TV operators have deployed MHP or are in trials with MHP. There is however very little publicly available information from these operators.