The BBC has started a small closed technical trial to test technologies associated with pushing programming to digital video recorders. It will allow viewers to select from up to 50 hours of automatically recorded programming a week.
The BBC has started a small closed technical trial to test technologies associated with pushing programming to digital video recorders. It will allow viewers to select from up to 50 hours of automatically recorded programming a week.
In partnership with Cabot Communications, the BBC has developed an interactive application to enable the recorded programmes to be accessible through a custom navigation interface.
The application will be tested with a group of 300 participants from in and around the London area and run for around three months.
A special digital terrestrial television video recorder will store up to 100 hours of programmes, with 50 reserved for BBC material, which will be automatically recorded and made available in a rolling seven-day window.
The objective of the trial is to test the technologies that could allow digital video recorders to store and replay rich interactive applications and create a video rich navigation.
The aspiration is to ultimately enable viewers to create their own personal packages of programming.
“As we move further into an on-demand world, where viewers are looking for more opportunities to take control of their viewing schedules, it is imperative that the BBC is at the forefront of exploring new technologies to meet their needs,” said Rahul Chakkara, Controller of BBCi.
The partnership with Cabot was first announced at the IBC trade show in September. It involves adding hooks in interactive applications based on the MHEG standard to enable them to set recordings, download broadcast data to local storage, and access acquired media assets from the hard disk, including recorded programmes, text, images and audio visual clips, as well as interactive applications.
Enabling material to be pre-loaded onto digital video recorders opens up opportunities such as push video-on-demand, resident promotional trailers and more complex interactive applications, while making more efficient use of broadcast bandwidth.
Cabot Communications, based in Bristol, England, is a pioneer of the MHEG-5 interactive television, providing software to set-top box and digital video recorder manufacturers. It claims its products are deployed in over half the Freeview set-top boxes in the UK.