Strategy & Technology (S&T), Access, and Pixsan have partnered to announce Project Uno, a software system that leverages the Universal Television Kit (UTK) shared source code base for hybrid TV platforms. The three software companies hope to provide Uno to operators as a common platform for both DVB and HbbTV deployments.
Project Uno claims to be able to provide a “close-to-turnkey” solution for DVB and HbbTV, and says it “offers broadcasters, content owners, test houses and device makers a target device reference platform.” Its initial profile is available for Freeview Play in the UK, which is itself based on the HbbTV 2.0 spec.
Uno is based on the UTK framework, which was developed by UK TV software house Pixsan “to offer a royalty free shared source project to increase innovation and reduce support costs. Project Uno is a really useful way to create robustness and innovation for everyone who wishes to see Freeview Play a success,” – in the words of Jon Williams, the CEO of Pixsan.
UTK is essentially a reference platform that developers can use to write and program apps and services for set tops and smart TVs. The framework doesn’t have any customers yet, as it’s still early days, but from the quick demo we were shown at TV Connect, it looks like a pretty capable TV platform – with the added bonus of compatibility thanks to the wonders of HTML5.
Pixsan says that UTK offers both broadcast and OTT providers the benefits of open and familiar standards that run on a wide range of existing SoCs. In addition, it notes that adopters can take a modular or customizable approach to areas such as DRM and conditional access, which should add up to provide an easily adaptable software environment for TV operators.
UTK is offered in an open source code package, with no IPR fees or royalties, and Project Uno adds S&T’s Redkey MHEG5 engine (which powers services like the interactive overlays seen in the BBC’s Red Button service, and a mandatory part of Freeview) and the Access NetFront browser – specifically the NetFront NX HbbTV profile, which supports the Webkit engine and is broadly optimized for embedded devices, to run HTML5 apps.
Currently, the Uno reference implementation is running on x86 architectures, but this will likely eventually include ARM-based chips too – as set tops become smaller and more power efficient. The group say that the current reference design can be used to verify, test and harden existing software stacks and applications, to ensure compatibility.
“With Project Uno, development partners, operators and application developers can access a common solutions, which can be used to allow collaboration between all parties in the broadcast and OTT value chain,” said David Cutts, the CEO of S&T. “Platforms like Freeview Play require the robustness of not just the device software itself, but the applications and services that are necessary for it to run a system the consumer will rely on and enjoy. Out industry delivers increasingly complex services, which means that shared understanding of issues will enable an improved user experience.”