The TV Connect conference and exhibition took place in London last week. This is the third or fourth that I have attended and usually there are a few unexpected technical items of interest in the exhibition – mainly in connected TV. However, this may have been my last visit as the event seems to be struggling to attract exhibitors, although the conference itself seemed reasonably busy. It didn’t help that it clashed with the DTG Summit in London, which is also a useful broadcast event. The show used to happen earlier in the year and when it moved, the clash was not spotted until too late. The show also suffered from moving from Olympia, where it had been successful, to the Excel Centre in London, which didn’t prove so popular. Although the show moved back to Olympia, momentum seems to have been lost and shows and events need momentum.
Talking of shows moving, we heard recently that the ISE show is looking at possible alternatives to the current venue of Amsterdam. Although the event has been successful, there is a feeling that it might be more so in a more attractive location. Barcelona was one of the locations that has been discussed, but others are in the mix, it seems. Of course, it could be that the organisers are just softening up the ISE management as part of a negotiation about future rates!
We had been around the show floor at TV Connect in not much more than an hour and some of the exhibitors were clearly a little disappointed by the lack of other brands.
Qarva Upgrades Switching and Transmission to UltraHD
We talked to Qarva, that we first reported on at last year’s event, when the company told us about its fast channel switching and high speed low latency transmission format which has not been extended to support UltraHD and the company was streaming UltraHD from Tblisi in Georgia, where the firm is based, to the show, with high quality. The firm told us that it has its own protocol which does not have the latency of HLS and is robust enough to be used for content capture and creation to broadcast standard, eliminating the need for dedicated satellite or other feeds. The Teleport system supports multiple IP connections (MultiPipe) and can support up to 35 Mbps.
The company was also showing its 0.2 second channel switching technology, which has now been upgraded to support UltraHD channels from IPTV providers. The system can boost speeds by a factor of 10 from typical unaccelerated times of 2 to 5 seconds and always stays with 0.5 seconds.
Suite.ST Has Test Software for STBs and Smart TVs.
SuiteST, which is based in Prague, was showing its test software which can be used to test apps on Smart TVs and STBs. The company had an app that it wanted to test and was unable to find a tool, so it built one and then found that it had a range of uses for outside companies. It compares its product to the Selenium test suite for browsers. The software can test apps on a variety of platforms including XBox, Roku, PlayStation and Samsung’s Tizen platform, used in its TVs and LFDs.
As well as testing apps, the system can be used to test TV functions such as OSD operation. The firm has been working with DigitalUK to test apps that use the current smart TV technology. To extend the method of testing, for which it has a patent, the company has a ‘Candy Box’ which it can use to control sets using, for example, infrared.
Suite.ST has a special test box for controlling smart devices. Image:Meko
Vewd Gets Support for VewdOS
Vewd, which was OperaTV, had quite a strong presence at the show to promote its VewdOS, which it launched at CES. The OS is very video-centric and is built on a Linux base – it can co-exist ‘on top of’ a full Android implementation. However, the VewdOS allows much more customisation and differentiation for operators and STB makers. Android is powerful and makes things simple, but it is hard for operators to differentiate, which can reduce competition just to price. The VewdOS means that operators can react to special local conditions such as accesibility regulations or the need to support local customisation.
At the show, the firm announced that it now had support from HiSilicon, which is the SoC subsidiary of Huawei, (although HiSilicon didn’t seem to realise this when we spoke to them!) Vewd told us that ‘prett much everyone’ in the SoC business is able to run the OS.
We asked about support for voice control and it seems that no announcements about what will be supported, but it will be major technologies (we ventured that both Google and Amazon are likely to be supported, perhaps along with Baidu and the company didn’t disagree that this would be a reasonable strategy!).
Round-up
Beamr was at the show to talk about its codecs and transcoding in particular. There was no real news, although the company told us that it was proud of an award that it had won at NAB. The company also showed us how the technology could be used on AWS in the cloud to allow very rapid and flexible scaling of workloads, with a common management interface that can be used to monitor and track transcoding or compression work. It was impressive and another example of the trend we have seen to allow the setup and roll out of new video services at speeds that would have amazed us just a few years ago.
Beamr’s Cloud Management interface for job control of encoding and transcoding. Image:Meko
The DVB was at the show with TNO of the Netherlands and was showing the support of HLG-based HDR on DVB-Dash which is a standard for transporting DVB streams around ip networks and building on the MPEG Dash standard. There was also a demonstration of how the latest version of the operator side of the HbbTV standard can be used by operators to take control of a host system and interface and fit into a standard environment, so that, for example, an app environment can be mapped to appear as ‘just another input’ to a Smart TV or STB. It also means that consumers can try services without committing to hardware and may even allow the elimination of the STB, although this depends on the HbbTV implementation and collaboration between set makers and operators. The system has been standardised and the process is continuing with the development of test cases and standard apps.
DVB had a demo of HLG-based HDR via MPEG-Dash. Image:Meko
HiSilicon was the only chip vendor at the event but didn’t have much news. It did say that it now was certified for the Android TV operating environment. Staff told us that the classic middleware layers are simply disappearing with much cooperation between SoC vendors and others such as those working on DRMs and content protection and HiSilicon told us that it has worked with the OpenTV environment from Nagra. The company has been developing its UltraHD support and has a deal for an STB in Japan with NTT Docomo.
TV Connect was quiet. Image:Meko
