HbbTV

A major pan‐European initiative aimed at harmonising the broadcast and broadband delivery of news, information and entertainment to the end consumer through TVs and set‐top boxes with an optional web connection.

The HbbTV specification was developed by industry leaders to effectively manage the rapidly increasing amount of available content targeted at today’s end consumer. It is based on elements of existing standards and web technologies including OIPF (Open IPTV Forum), CEA, DVB and W3C.

HbbTV products and services will provide the consumer with a seamless entertainment experience with the combined richness of broadcast and broadband. This entertainment experience will be delivered with the simplicity of one remote control, on one screen and with the ease of use of television that we are used to. Through the adoption of HbbTV, consumers will be able to access new services from entertainment providers such as broadcasters, online providers and CE manufacturers – including catch‐up TV, video on demand (VoD), interactive advertising, personalisation, voting, games and social networking as well as programme‐related services such as digital text and EPGs. HbbTV products and services will be developed for all broadcasting technologies including satellite, cable and terrestrial networks. Extensive satellite demonstrations were demonstrated at IFA and IBC 2009.

Homepage of HbbTV

Watch here the video about HbbTV

MPEG4-format (39 MB) or WMF-format (22 MB).

HbbTV® and the HbbTV® -Logo are registered trademark

IRT's services on HbbTV/HbbTV 2.0

Do you face the development of hybrid services or do you search for a reliable partner to test the compatibility and performance of TV receiver devices or do you need a low-cost playout-solution? With more than 20 years of experience in the field of DVB and as a leading member of the HbbTV Consortium, IRT offers comprehensive consulting competence and a custom-tailored service and product portfolio for digital television over cable, satellite, antenna, and IPTV.

IRT offers...
...services and products in many fields of digital television. From encoding, multiplexing and transmitting to the quality ensurance of receiver devices.

We address...
...broadcasters, media companies, service providers, network providers, system houses, software companies and equipment manufacturers.

Our services on HbbTVFor your successful start into HbbTV, the new television technology that brings the Internet to television screens IRT offers:

conformity, performance, and reception tests for HbbTV applications
support for system technology issues
application and test signal development
seminars and workshop

HbbTV 2.0

The boundaries between television and the Internet continue to dissolve. Diversified usage scenarios become available as part of the new HbbTV standard. The IRT accompanied the development of new features and tested them. The new HbbTV 2.0 standard was released in February 2015 and submitted to the European Standards Institute ETSI a short time later. In October 2015, HbbTV 2.0 was adopted as ETSI TS 102 796 V.1.3.1. The first devices can be expected beginning of 2017.

The HbbTV 2.0 standard offers an entire series of innovations that essentially focus on the following four areas:

HTML5 browser profile

HbbTV 2.0 closes the gap between the former HbbTV browser profile based on HTML4 and the currently most often used HTML5 – television and the Internet will merge even more. HbbTV 2.0 defines an HTML5 profile that, alongside the HTML5 video element, also makes CSS3 animations, web-sockets, web storage and loadable fonts usable by HbbTV applications.

Companion screens

Tablets and smart phones – similar to the familiar Chromecast method – can start apps on the HbbTV 2.0 device and, in return, an HbbTV 2.0 application can start an app on the companion screen. A communication interface between the apps on both devices, which is also included in the standard, allows for the implementation of diversified cross-device services.

Synchronisation of A/V streams

In this area, the HbbTV 2.0 standard intends for the possibility to synchronously play back a TV video signal with an audio signal (e.g. with additional language versions) transmitted via the Internet on the TV device. In addition, such an additional audio signal can also be synchronously played back with the TV picture on a companion screen.

Video features

The new standard enables the use of UHD resolution and the more efficient HEVC codex in HbbTV applications on UHD-compatible TV devices. Furthermore, the integration of the DVB-DASH profile for adaptive video streaming – live and on-demand – allows for the use of several additional video resolutions. Last but not least, the EBU-defined subtitle standard EBU-TT-D was integrated for the transmission of subtitles for on-demand offers and live streams via the Internet.

Your contact

Media Services & Platforms

Ralf Neudel
Bereichsleiter
Division Manager

+49 89 32399-340

ralf.neudel@irt.de

Services

HbbTV Showcases Prototyping Consulting Application Testing Seminars (engl.)