Germany’s IRT to showcase HbbTV 2.0

The research institute for public-broadcasting organisations in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, IRT, will present an HbbTV 2.0 showcases at its booth at IBC.

The IRT developed the HbbTV2.0 prototype service in close cooperation with the innovation projects division of ARD broadcaster Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (rbb) and TV manufacturer Samsung.
It combines live streaming using MPEG-DASH (Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP) and subtitles based on the EBU-TT-D specification.

The work was carried out with HBB4ALL, a European co-funded project on media accessibility in a connected TV environment.

Several partners have contributed to the showcase – Samsung is providing a prototype TV based on their current HbbTV development, rbb is supplying sample A/V and subtitle material for the demonstrations, while ARD broadcaster Bayerischer Rundfunk is streaming the TV channel Das Erste to the internet in accordance with the new HbbTV 2.0 specification.

The HbbTV 2.0 specification was published early this year and supports the latest web standards like HTML 5, TTML subtitles (EBU-TT-D), the DVB profile of MPEG-DASH and the new video codec HEVC enabling new formats up to UHD.

HbbTV 2.0 allows for new applications that will connect devices like tablet PCs or smart phones with the TV to extend the user experience to multi-view and multi-user applications. The first HbbTV 2.0 devices are expected to launch in 2016.

The IRT will exhibit at IBC on stand 10.F51