Technical Standards

China CE Group Tests with Tektronix

philsandberg — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 03:57:55 +0000

Tektronix, Inc., has announced that China’s Digital Interactive Interface for Video & Audio (DiiVA) Consortium will use Tektronix solutions to conduct compliance test and verification for leading consumer electronics manufacturers. As the first and only physical layer testing solution provider for the standard, Tektronix will provide the DSA71254B Real-time Oscilloscope and the AWG7122B Arbitrary Waveform Generator for the first DiiVA Authorized Testing Center (ATC) located in Guangzhou. The DiiVA ATC will offer compliance test and verification services for high fidelity digital AV equipment, TVs, set-top boxes, DVD and Blu-ray players, and digital home network devices.
DiiVA is the China specific digital interface standard designed to offer a home entertainment networking solution that integrates entertainment content in multiple data formats into a single cable. DiiVA’s high-bandwidth and bi-directional data channel coupled with its networking protocol solves issues enabling any TV to access and control any source device, allowing mobile, PC and CE networks to converge and communicate within a home, and establishing a personal domain that enables the secure transmission of content providing flexibility yet respecting the rights of content owners. Uncompressed video, audio, USB, Ethernet, device control, content protection, power delivery and power management are coordinated throughout the DiiVA network.
The DiiVA Consortium includes Changhong, Haier, Hisense, Konka, Panda, Samsung, Skyworth, Sony, SVA, TCL and Synerchip.
“Tektronix has been partnering with the DiiVA Consortium to define the specifications and test procedures since the early development stage of the standard,” said Chen Xiao-Dong, Chairman of DiiVA Industry Promotion Center, “To ensure complete interoperability in accordance with the new standard, we count on the accuracy, reliability and quality of the Tektronix compliance test solution to serve our valued industry clients who need to speed time-to-market of their DiiVA multimedia devices.”
“Tektronix is proud to be the first electric test and measurement vendor supporting the DiiVA standard and we are pleased to have our test solution adopted by the DiiVA Consortium and Authorized Testing Center,” said Felix Wong, Marketing Director, Tektronix Greater China Region, “We are committed to supporting the initiatives of China’s independent innovation for the development of digital technology.”
The DiiVA solution is built on a foundation of Tektronix test instruments:

The DSA71254B Real-time Oscilloscope provides a high-bandwidth, low-noise environment for accurate capture and analysis of fast serial signal clock rates. Its well-matched oscilloscope acquisition system is critical to eye diagram analysis and margin testing for compliance;
The AWG7122B Arbitrary Waveform Generator, provides complex waveforms containing stresses that mimic the degrading effects of transmission paths to support receiver testing. These hardware tools will be paired with Tektronix application software to enable design and validation engineers to perform quick and reliable compliance testing right on their bench.

Visit http://www.diiva.org and http://www.tektronix.com.

IDF Launches shortDOI Service

philsandberg — Wed, 26 May 2010 05:13:08 +0000

The International DOI Foundation (IDF) has launched the shortDOI Service, a public service, open to anyone, that creates shortcuts to DOI (Digital Object Identifier) names, which are often very long strings. The service creates short handles of the form ‘10/abcde’ and enables short HTTP URIs of the form ‘http://doi.org/abcde’ that are ideal for use in email, blogs, mobile messaging and more.
The IDF runs two services based on handles: the DOI Service, and the shortDOI Service.
To use the shortDOI service, go to http://shortdoi.org or see the DOI Tools page at http://www.doi.org/tools.html.
The DOI System is a system for interoperably identifying and exchanging intellectual property in the digital environment. A DOI name assigned to content enhances a content producer’s ability to trade electronically. It provides a framework for managing content in any form at any level of granularity, for linking customers with content suppliers, for facilitating electronic commerce, and enabling automated copyright management for all types of media. The International DOI Foundation, a non-profit organisation, manages development, policy and licensing of the DOI System to registration agencies and technology providers and advises on usage and development of related services and technologies.
Visit www.doi.org

ETSI Publishes Hybrid TV Standard

philsandberg — Wed, 26 May 2010 04:59:52 +0000

IMPALA, the International MHEG Promotion Alliance, has announced that ETSI – the European Telecommunications Standards Institute – has published the latest version of the market-leading public standard interactive TV middleware as a formal European standard.
Version 2.1.1 of ETSI standard 202 184 contains a raft of very significant updates to the original ETSI MHEG specification from 2004, representing the most important increase in the technology’s capabilities since its inception. These include support for the IP-based MHEG Interaction Channel, which enables hybrid broadcast broadband receiver operation via an IP connection – already being used by Freesat in the UK for catch-up TV services – and full support for HD graphics with increased colour depth and screen resolutions.
The latest version of MHEG was submitted to ETSI in late September and has now been fully ratified. David Cutts, MD of S&T, a Founder Member of IMPALA, says, “The publication of the new version of MHEG by ETSI is a significant milestone for the world’s most popular open standard interactive TV middleware. These developments are a step change in the capabilities of the globally deployed technology providing broadcasters with a cost-effective route into a new world of hybrid service provision and therefore revenue growth.”
The ETSI Work Group, which was set up in October 2008, used the MHEG sections of D-Book 6 as the basis for its work. D-Book 6 (and now 6.1 and 6.2) is published by the UK’s Digital Television Group - the independent, platform-neutral and technology agnostic industry association for digital television in the UK – and provides a clear and ongoing technological roadmap for the middleware.
The MHEG Interaction Channel uses a sophisticated ‘Hybrid File System’ that enables broadcasters to create common applications that can work on both IP-connected and unconnected receivers in a seamless and user friendly way. The MHEG-IC allows the application to determine whether or not an IP connection is possible (i.e. the receiver is equipped with the appropriate hardware and software) and whether or not it is actually available (i.e. has the user actually connected the receiver to the home network?).
The system enables decoding of MPEG-4 or MPEG-2 streams using the same hardware used for broadcast content and can be used to deliver ‘catchup’ TV to a connected receiver or set top box.
Other hybrid technologies currently remain unratified with no publication date yet set.
The founder members of IMPALA are Strategy & Technology (S&T), Cabot Communications and Echostar Europe.
Visit www.impala.org

92nd MPEG Meeting Highlights

philsandberg — Wed, 26 May 2010 04:50:04 +0000

The recent 92nd MPEG meeting in Dresden, Germany covered a range of issues and technology highlights
-Joint Collaborative Team on Video Coding evaluates 27 proposals for HEVC
The Joint Call for Proposals on Video Compression Technology, which was issued jointly by MPEG and ITU-T VCEG in January 2010, had a very successful outcome. 27 complete proposal submissions were received, and the associated video material was evaluated in extensive subjective tests that were conducted prior to the 92nd meeting. More than 4000 video clips in all were subjectively evaluated at the three testing laboratories - FUB, EPFL and EBU. The testing laboratories conducted 134 test sessions involving 850 human test subjects, who filled out 6000 scoring sheets on which 300 000 quality scores were recorded for analysis. The technical evaluation of the proposals was performed by the Joint Collaborative Team on Video Coding (JCT-VC) during its first meeting, which was held under MPEG auspices in Dresden. The results clearly indicated that some proposals exhibited a substantial improvement in compression performance as compared to the corresponding AVC (ITU-T Rec. H.264 | ISO/IEC 14496-10) anchors. In a number of cases, the performance of the best proposals can be roughly characterised as exhibiting the compression capability to achieve similar quality using only half of the bit rate. The JCT-VC has begun identification and integration of proposed design elements toward development of a new video coding design to be known as High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC). A report of the results of the subjective testing will be made available as a public document N11275.
- MPEG issues Call for Proposals for streaming MPEG media over HTTP
Feedback provided by the industry highlighted the urgency for an international standard regarding the delivery of the MPEG content over HTTP. MPEG has decided to launch a separate and immediate standardisation effort specifically addressing this need during its 92nd meeting in Dresden. A Call for Proposals, available at http://mpeg.chiariglione.org/hot_news.htm was issued at this meeting. Responses are due shortly before and will be evaluated at the 93rd MPEG meeting. The new standard is expected to achieve Final Draft International Standard status in July 2011.
- MPEG-U for Rich Media User Interfaces
MPEG has completed the development of MPEG Rich Media UI (MPEG-U), by promoting it to Final Draft International Standard ISO/IEC 23007-1. MPEG-U standardises the packaging, delivery, representation and communication formats for widgets, fundamental building blocks for graphical user interfaces. This new MPEG standard adopts the W3C widget representation and extends it with the unique feature of inter-widget communication. As a result, widgets based on W3C can be played on an MPEG-U player. The standard provides a complete framework that is agnostic to the graphical representation format of the widget itself so that it can be used in a non-Web based environment without a browser. For example, non-MPEG standards for graphical representation such as W3C SVG can be used with this framework.
- New BIFS Profile for enhanced Mobile Services
At this meeting, MPEG completed the standardisation development of the new BInary Format for Scenes (BIFS) ExtendedCore2D profile – promoting the technology for final approval by issuing the specification as Final Draft Amendment 7 of ISO/IEC 14496-11. This profile will enable the development of more efficient and enhanced interactive services for mobile broadcasting services including digital radio or mobile television on small handheld devices. This profile also incorporates additional nodes and technologies specially designed for resource limited devices. Moreover, it is backward compatible with Core2D@Level1 which is widely adopted by the industry. Therefore applications that have already adopted the Core2D@Level1 profile can smoothly transition to the new profile.
- Amendment to MPEG-7 Defines Robust Technology for Video Signatures
At its 92nd meeting, MPEG has completed a new amendment to MPEG-7 Visual (ISO/IEC 15938-3) to enable extremely fast searches of video sequences across large sets of video data by issuing the specification as Final Draft Amendment 4 of ISO/IEC 15938-3. The new amendment defines a very compact description technology for Video Signatures, that has been shown to be robust to various modifications of the video data. This new amendment is therefore exceptionally useful for finding similar and even modified versions of original video sequences.
Visit http://mpeg.chiariglione.org/

AVnu Alliance PlugFest & News

philsandberg — Wed, 26 May 2010 04:17:24 +0000

The AVnu Alliance recently hosted its second PlugFest and added five new members. The industry forum is dedicated to promoting the adoption of the IEEE 802.1 AVB (Audio Video Bridging) standards and the related IEEE 1722 and 1733 for professional A/V, automotive and consumer applications.
With these latest developments, the AVnu Alliance continues to expand the adoption of the non-proprietary AVB standards and advance interoperability among AVB-enabled networked products.
“The member PlugFests are key to moving the AVB technology from paper to practice,” says Rick Kreifeldt, Chairman of AVnu Alliance and Vice President, Systems Architect at Harman International. “By implementing compliance test procedures to ensure AV devices work together, we continue our collaboration with member organisations to refine interoperability specifications and enhance the network backbone.”
The five new members that recently joined the AVnu Alliance represent diverse industry segments committed to reliable, low-latency, and high-resolution networking capabilities for a high-quality A/V experience. The new members include;
- Audinate, creator of the Dante digital media networking technology
- Micrel, global manufacturer of IC solutions
- Sennheiser, manufacturer of microphones, headphones and wireless transmission systems
- Universal Media Access Networks (UMAN), developer of the Universal Network Operating System
- University of New Hampshire Interoperability Lab (UNH-IOL), a third-party laboratory dedicated to testing data networking technologies.
The AVnu Alliance will enjoy its first birthday celebrations at the InfoComm 2010 tradeshow, June 5-11 in Las Vegas.
Visit www.AVnu.org

CAT-iq 2.0 Standards Completed

philsandberg — Wed, 26 May 2010 03:04:52 +0000

Three industry standards groups have jointly announced the completion and official approval of the ETSI Technical Specification TS 102 527-3 (1) which completes the CAT-iq (2) 2.0 related standards. CAT-iq (Cordless Advanced Technology - Internet and Quality) provides full interoperability between devices from different vendors, a key requirement of the Network Operators represented by HGI.
The international association of the wireless home and enterprise communication industry, the Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications (DECT) Forum, joined with the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) and the Home Gateway Initiative (HGI).
With the standardisation of CAT-iq – Next Generation DECT*** – the integration of DECT into Broadband IP-Networks has been successfully concluded. This means that CAT-iq certified products can take advantage of IP connectivity to enable wideband telephony and data driven applications in the digital cordless phone market. The availability of this ETSI Specification, together with others already published, makes it possible for vendors and system integrators to develop CAT-iq 2.0 certified products, based on the ETSI standards. The DECT Forum has set up a Certification Program for CAT-iq 2.0 end products (fixed part and/or portable part) to ensure a mandatory quality level and interoperability to specific product parameters, which will provide a consistent end-user experience.
“The availability of this specification is a major milestone for the wired and wireless communication industry. I am expecting first innovative products, based on the new standard for telephony and data communication, in the second half of 2010”, says Erich Kamperschroer, Chairman DECT Forum.
“We anticipate the start of the certification program around mid 2010 and with an ETSI/DECT Forum Plug fest due to take place in mid June we are really excited by the progress being made”, said Daniel Hartnett, Chairman CAT-iq Working Group within DECT Forum.
“Since its introduction almost 20 years ago DECT cordless telephony has been a long lasting continuous success story”, says Dr. Walter Weigel, ETSI Director General. “With the release of this latest ETSI Specification I am convinced that CAT-iq will continue and likely exceed the impressive worldwide deployment and customer acceptance of DECT as a next generation of wireless communication.”
Philippe Calvet, Chairperson of HGI’s Business Group, commented: “For many of our operator members, CAT-iq technology is important to deliver innovative and carrier-grade, IP-based telephony services to their customers. HGI has gathered the operators’ service requirements and worked closely with the DECT Forum and ETSI. As a result of this strong collaboration, HGI’s requirements have been fully incorporated into the specifications related to CAT-iq 2.0, and we anticipate the continuing cooperation among our groups will lead to further advances in capabilities,” concluded Philippe Calvet.
(1) ETSI TS 102 527-3 V 1.2.1: Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications (DECT); New Generation DECT; Part 3: Extended wideband speech services
(2) CAT-iq is a registered trademark in 47 countries worldwide owned by the DECT Forum. It is based on standards and specifications produced by ETSI (new generation DECT)
Visit: www.dect.org, www.cat-iq.org, www.etsi.org or www.homegatewayinitiative.org/

ISMA Merges With MPEGIF

philsandberg — Wed, 26 May 2010 02:29:31 +0000

The Board of Directors of the MPEG Industry Forum (MPEGIF) and Internet Streaming Media Alliance (ISMA) have entered into a binding agreement to merge the two organisations by allowing MPEGIF members to become ISMA members and going forward as MPEGIF within the ISMA California non-profit corporation. MPEGIF’s current structure as a Swiss association will be dissolved.
“ISMA delivered massively important technology contributions resulting in great value and lasting benefit to our industry over the years,” said Prof. Dr. h. c. Sebastian Moeritz, President of MPEGIF and CEO at dicas. “We are absolutely delighted to see the long cooperation and mutual admiration between ISMA and MPEGIF result in this agreement.”
“MPEGIF is pleased to take this opportunity to increase its strength and to gain the operational efficiencies we will be able to bring to our members”, said David Price, Vice President of MPEGIF and Vice President at Harmonic Inc. “The industry is facing huge changes in the way video is enjoyed and the advocacy of MPEGIF for solution wide standards is more vital than ever.”
“ISMA’s highly successful standards will gain additional visibility through the merger, and will continue to be widely available to the broader industry through the success and influence of MPEGIF,” said Yuval Fisher, Chair of ISMA and CTO of RGB Networks.
About MPEGIF
The MPEG Industry Forum is an independent and platform neutral not-for-profit organisation representing more than 20 international companies and organisations from diverse industries with the goal to facilitate and further the widespread adoption and deployment of MPEG and related standards in next generation digital media services. It provides a forum to exchange information and views on technological, economic and regulatory issues that are relevant to these services. It also provides a powerful industry voice advocating the adoption of standards and consolidating the direction of the industry in the time of transition from analogue to digital television and media services. MPEGIF, with more than 2,500 people subscribed to its mailing lists, has played a significant role in facilitating the widespread adoption and deployment of MPEG-4 AVC/H.264, the Emmy-Award winning video compression technology, as the industry’s video compression standard powering next generation television and most mainstream content delivery as well as consumption applications including packaged media. MPEGIF offers interoperability testing, a conformance program, marketing activities and is present at international trade shows and conferences.
Visit www.ISMA.tv

EBU/AMWA Request for Technology

philsandberg — Wed, 26 May 2010 02:16:40 +0000

Task Force on FIMS (Framework for Interoperable Media Service) solicits contributions on framework to support professional media industry.
The Advanced Media Workflow Association (AMWA) and the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) are co-publishing a Request For Technology (RFT) as the result of joint activities in the FIMS (Framework for Interoperable Media Service) Task Force. The Task Force has been created to address issues around interoperability in digital workflows. The joint effort between the EBU and the AMWA to seek out a common approach to integrate hardware and software components in modern TV production facilities is believed to be a fundamental need of the whole media industry.
In the RFT, the Task Force is soliciting a framework for media services, specific detailed definitions of common media processes, and an overall description of how RFT respondents would break down functions within the professional media industry.
Brad Gilmer, Executive Director of the AMWA said: “The professional media industry really needs a standardised, open framework for media services, along with standardised definitions for common processes in the industry. It is our hope that the report and standards created as a result of this process help guide the industry as we work to create more flexible facilities and workflows.”
John Footen, joint chairman of the FIMS Task Force, added: “the focus of this RFT is on Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), and reflects a move by the media industry toward these systems. Media companies are drawn toward these systems because of a need to increase agility in a market where user requirements are changing rapidly. Keywords are maintainability, scalability and extensibility.”
Jean-Pierre Evain, co-ordinating these activities within EBU said: “this RFT reflects the commitment of key players and shall hopefully bring to fruition the efforts made to educate and convince the broadcast community of the vital importance of such new architectures.”
“We are confident that this RFT will set a first fundamental milestone towards the goal of defining an ecosystem of services for various media production environments” added Giorgio Dimino, joint chairman of the FIMS Task Force.
All interested parties are invited to consult the RFT, which can be downloaded from http://wiki.amwa.tv/ebu/index.php/RfT. For more information, please contact ebu_amwa_adm@ebu.ch Respondents need not be members of either the EBU or the AMWA.
Visit www.amwa.tv

EEG Adopts OpenGear Platform

philsandberg — Wed, 26 May 2010 01:42:26 +0000

Ross Video welcomes EEG to the openGear platform, offering advanced closed captioning and HD workflow tools to broadcasters, content providers and post production.
EEG, headquartered in Farmingdale, NY has a complete line of solutions for closed captioning, quality control, affiliate communications, VANC monitoring, AFD and more.
“The openGear program from Ross Video enables a higher density of EEG solutions in a compact, cost-efficient space,” said Philip McLaughlin, President of EEG. “This platform is a perfect fit for EEG’s new systems, which are modular, highly configurable, and completely interoperable with other openGear products.”
“I am excited with EEG joining the platform, their products will further diversify the offering available in openGear,” said Eric Goodmurphy, Gear Marketing Product Manager, Ross Video. “This further solidifies openGear as the industry standard platform for modular solutions.”
Visit www.eegent.com or www.rossvideo.com

Collada 1.4 Adopters Package

philsandberg — Wed, 26 May 2010 01:34:56 +0000

The Khronos Group has announced that the Collada 1.4 Adopters Package is complete and under final review prior to public release. The Adopters Package contains both conformance testing software and documentation intended to drive rapid evaluation, deployment and acceptance of the Collada specification in 3D content creation, and asset management software.
The Collada specification defines an XML-based schema to enable 3D authoring applications to freely exchange digital assets without loss of information, enabling multiple software packages to be combined into extremely powerful tool chains. The Collada 1.4 Adopters Package and conformance tests are designed to provide distinct levels of conformance and specification adherence that informs users about the suitability of a software authoring environment for use in a Collada tool chain.
Three new levels of Collada compliance are offered in the Adopters Package: Baseline, Superior and Exemplary. Baseline conformance establishes the lowest level of interoperability between applications within a tool-chain. Superior and Exemplary conformance increases the level of interoperability with broader feature support and asset information preservation without transformation. Exemplary software is suitable for the advanced processing and archiving of your valuable 3D assets. Content creation tools can now be certified to provide a trusted chain for preserving 3D content for future usage, while utilising the latest 3D modelling features.
Access to the Collada Adopters Package is available to any interested company by executing the Khronos Collada 1.4 Adopters Agreement. The Adopters Program is intended to promote consistent implementations of the format by many vendors across multiple platforms and to create an objective definition of conformance for the specification. The Adopters Package defines a peer-reviewed Conformance Testing Procedure by which conformant products may use the Collada trademark (available after paying a Conformance Test Submission Fee that covers the costs of development and maintenance of the Adopters Program). Full details of the Adopters Agreement, the Adopters Package and the Collada Conformance Testing Procedure can be found at www.khronos.org/adopters.
“Autodesk is dedicated to providing open solutions for digital entertainment creation,” said Stig Gruman, Autodesk Vice President, Digital Entertainment and Visual Communication. “Today’s digital pipelines require ever greater flexibility to integrate a wide assortment of applications and drive production efficiency. Autodesk is proud to be a major contributor to the Collada Adopters Program and associated Conformance Test Suite development. This program will help tool developers ensure their products work well together.”
“IBM is excited to see the availability of the Collada Conformance Test Suite,” said Neil Katz, Distinguished Engineer, Innovation Initiatives, IBM. “As 3D content continues to become more important across industries as diverse as gaming, healthcare, transportation and financial services, interoperability will be a key factor in setting the pace for its acceptance.”
“Kanzi Solution for User Interfaces and graphical content creation applauds Khronos’ Collada conformance testing,” said Arto Ruotsalainen, Technical Project Manager, Rightware. “This official testing procedure directly enhances Rightware’s Kanzi Solution customer benefits by enabling them to select certified Collada compliant tools.”
“Yumetech and the Collada Working Group worked closely to create a conformance test suite that will help adopters and inform users of the quality of Collada implementations. Collada has significant adoption and this suite will bring everyone together into one ecosystem for the Collada standard” noted Alan Hudson, President, Yumetech and the Web3D Consortium. “The Khronos Adopters Program will encourage high-quality Collada implementations across multiple platforms, and we strongly encourage content developers and platform developers to seek out conformant products to minimise their development costs.”
Visit www.khronos.org