MHP gets endorsement from DVB members

Digital Video Broadcasting Project members Canal+Technologies and CableLabs have backed MHP as an open standard for interactive TV in both the cable and satellite sectors. DVB now believe that the groundswell of opinion within the industry places MHP one step closer to becoming the open standard, common API for interactive TV.
DVB and CableLabs, the technology consortium for cable systems operators in North and South America, have announced that North American cable operators have agreed that MHP is to become the core of the OpenCable Application Platform (OCAP). OCAP is the software specification of the OpenCable project, a development that solves the problem of proprietary operating system software by creating a common platform upon which interactive services may be deployed.
The OpenCable set-top box will allow the cable household to access both digital broadcasting and interactive digital applications. Over 85% of North America's cable households could potentially benefit from MHP-based interactive services.
Don Dulchinos, Vice President of CableLabs' Advanced Platforms and Services, said: "We are pleased to be working with DVB. The OCAP specification has been based on MHP from the start, but we now have an agreement and plan to coordinate the details of the current and future development, implementation and testing of the product."
Canal+Technologies have revealed that the MediaHighway technology it is selling to EchoStar is to be MHP Compliant. The effect of this announcement on the implementation is "enormous" for MHP, say DVB, as EchoStar is the largest DVB-S provider in the US with over five million customers.
Peter MacAvock, Executive Director of the DVB Project Office, said: "CableLabs decision to adopt MHP and the Canal+ agreement with EchoStar are additional milestones for the specification, which has been reaching critical mass. DVB believes that MHP as a common API has great advantages for manufacturers, content developers and consumers alike. These moves open up an enormous market for content providers to author MHP compatible applications for the growing number of MHP set-top boxes, bringing the write once, read anywhere aspect of DVB-MHP to the forefront of content provision."
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 delivery of digital television and data services. DVB, www.dvb.org
(GMcG)