The initiative set up to provide a standard for the delivery of broadcast and broadband services through connected TVs and STBs, the HbbTV Association, has launched a reference application to ease deployment of its services requiring HbbTV DRM and DASH.
The association says that even though the HbbTV specifications are agnostic with respect to DRM systems, the ability of content providers to deliver DRM protected content to consumers via MPEG-DASH using an HbbTV application is key to enabling the monetisation of HbbTV content and services. It adds that the DASH DRM model has been successfully tested on TV sets representing a large proportion of the installed base in the market, on HbbTV 1.5 and 2.0.1 terminals, and with some limitations, on generic web browsers supporting W3C MSE and EME.The reference application and sample content are designed to serve as a showcase of HbbTV technology and as a resource to help the association’s members validate their tools, content and devices. The application is freely distributed under an open source MIT licence and includes documentation covering the creation of valid MPEG-DASH files from users’ own video content. It is also built to facilitate code reusability for anybody implementing their own DASH video streaming application.
The reference application is expected to be used by HbbTV members as well as non-members. The code and an address for a live instance is available at https://github.com/HbbTV-Association/ReferenceApplication
