Standardization Activities

The 5G-Media Action Group (5G-MAG) is an international non-profit association fostering collaboration across the media and connectivity industries. The members develop an ecosystem of interoperable, standards-based solutions to create and optimize media experiences across the Internet & mobile networks (5G/6G). One of the main goals of 5G-MAG is to transform specifications into products from market-driven requirements, collaborating with SDOs, and developing open-source software to catalyze adoption.

The 5G-MAG Reference Tools are the concrete result of these efforts. This development program makes specifications from organizations such as 3GPP and MPEG accessible and tangible for developers and stakeholders across the world. Since the start of the development program, Fraunhofer FOKUS is responsible for the coordination of all development activities. This includes areas and topics such as “5G Media Streaming”, “5G Broadcast”, “UE Data Collection, Reporting and Event Exposure”, “Emergency Alerts” and “5G Multicast Broadcast Services”. Moreover, topics such as “XR Media Integration in 5G” and the “V3C Immersive Platform” play a crucial role in the 5G-MAG Reference Tools.

As part of the work on the 5G-MAG Reference Tools, Fraunhofer FOKUS is participating in 3GPP working group meetings. Learnings from the implementation of the 5G-MAG Reference Tools are shared and discusses with the 3GPP experts to improve the specifications and catalyze their adoption.

Bitkom is Germany’s leading digital association, representing over 2,700 companies across the digital economy, including startups, SMEs, and global enterprises. The organization plays a central role in promoting digital transformation across industries and public sectors, offering platforms for collaboration, policy advocacy, and innovation exchange.

In the NewTV sector, Bitkom supports the evolution of modern video content and broadcasting technologies, including streaming, interactive formats, and advertising innovations. Through its AK NewTV working group, Bitkom brings together experts to explore trends in video advertising, data-driven targeting, and the future of digital media. In the Metaverse domain, Bitkom fosters dialogue on immersive technologies, virtual environments, and their applications in business and society. Meanwhile, in the eLearning sector, Bitkom’s AK Learning Solutions focuses on digital education tools, platforms, and strategies for lifelong learning.

The Fraunhofer-Institute FOKUS is actively engaged in all three of these areas through its participation in Bitkom working groups. It holds a board position in AK NewTV, where it plays a key role in shaping the group’s strategic direction and activities. Additionally, FOKUS regularly contributes to AK Metaverse and AK Learning Solutions, participating in discussions and knowledge exchange with industry partners to drive innovation in immersive media and digital education.

The Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA) develops open technical standards to provide verifiable provenance and authenticity for digital content. By defining a secure, tamper-evident format for embedding metadata into media files, C2PA enables creators, publishers, and consumers to trace the origin and modification history of images, videos, and other digital assets. This is a key step in combating misinformation, enhancing transparency, and fostering trust in digital media.

CAI and CAWG – Supporting the C2PA Ecosystem: The Content Authenticity Initiative (CAI) and the Creator Assertions Working Group (CAWG) are related key efforts supporting the mission of C2PA. CAI brings together stakeholders to promote digital provenance and transparency, laying the foundation for C2PA standards. CAWG focuses on empowering creators with tools and guidelines to make verifiable assertions – such as authorship, rights, and AI involvement –ensuring their role is visible and protected in the content authenticity chain.

Fraunhofer FOKUS is a member of C2PA and supports the C2PA standard with its FAMIUM Content Provenance and Authenticity framework, enabling cryptographically verifiable assertions about content origin, authorship, and modification history for media content and LLM answers. This integration is particularly effective in streaming environments, where FAMIUM works with MPEG-DASH and DRM technologies to ensure the integrity of live and on-demand content.

The WAVE (Web Application Video Ecosystem) Project, hosted by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA)®, aims to improve how internet-delivered commercial video is handled on consumer electronics devices and to make it easier for content creators to distribute video to those devices. The WAVE project focuses on commercial internet video and web applications, and developing interoperability tools for global compatibility.

The work in CTA-WAVE is carried out in project task forces. Fraunhofer FOKUS is contributing to the work of various of these project task forces. One specific focus is on the implementation of the WAVE Streaming Media Testsuite as part of the work in the Device Playback Capabilities Task Force. 

The WAVE Streaming Media Test Suite – Devices is a set of unit tests for media presentation using MPEG CMAF media formats and the W3C Web technologies for streaming media, the “Media Source Extensions” and “Encrypted Media Extensions”. Each individual test contains HTML, JavaScript and CMAF-compatible test content. The test suite also includes a test runner based on that in the open source ‘web platform tests’ project but packaged to be easier to install and run for a broader user group. The highly automated test suite generates a test report based on recorded test runs and offline analysis. 

FOKUS is also the main contributor to the WAVE Web Media API Snapshot Test Suite since 2017. The Web Media API Snapshot specification is a curated set of stable and widely supported web APIs essential for media playback on consumer electronics devices, such as smart TVs and set-top boxes. Jointly maintained by the W3C and CTA WAVE, it serves as a reference for implementers and standardization bodies like HbbTV and ATSC to ensure consistent and interoperable support for key media functionalities. The snapshot includes APIs for media playback, streaming, encrypted content, and communication, helping streamline development and improve compatibility across platforms.

The Deutsche TV-Plattform (German TV Platform) is a registered association based in Frankfurt am Main and serves as a central forum for dialogue and coordination among stakeholders in the German audiovisual media industry. It is organizationally affiliated with the ZVEI (German Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers’ Association) and brings together over 50 members from across the media value chain – including public and private broadcasters, device manufacturers, network operators, technology providers, research institutions, and representatives from politics and regulatory bodies.

The platform’s mission is to promote the introduction, dissemination, and advancement of digital television technologies in Germany. Key focus areas include HDTV, Ultra HD, HbbTV, DVB-T2 HD, Smart TV, IPTV, and other innovations in digital media. Its work is structured into thematic working groups that address technical, regulatory, and strategic issues. The Deutsche TV-Plattform acts as a neutral forum for industry, research, and society to exchange ideas, coordinate interests, and inform the public about technological developments.

The Fraunhofer-Institute FOKUS has been an active contributor to the Deutsche TV-Plattform for many years. FOKUS regularly participates in meetings with expert presentations, sharing insights on the latest developments in research and international standardization. In addition, FOKUS supports the platform in organizing interoperability events, conducting field tests, and contributing to studies that help evaluate and advance new technologies in the digital media landscape.

DVB (Digital Video Broadcasting) is an international industry consortium that develops open technical standards for digital broadcasting. It aims to facilitate the global implementation of digital television and radio services, including satellite, cable, and terrestrial broadcasting. DVB standards are widely adopted across the world, ensuring interoperability and high-quality broadcasting services.

Fraunhofer FOKUS is involved in multiple DVB related projects.
The Joint Content Conformance Project (JCCP) aims to improve and refactor the current code base of the Conformance Validator. It was funded by DASH-IF along with the DVB Project, the Consumer Technology Association WAVE (Web Application Video Ecosystem) Project, the HbbTV Association, and ATSC.
In the context of DVB-I, Fraunhofer FOKUS plays a pivotal role in advancing the standard’s practical deployment. As part of the German DVB-I Pilot Project, Fraunhofer FOKUS developed a reference DVB-I client for Android TV, which integrates deeply with HbbTV to support hybrid broadcast and broadband services in close collaboration with German public broadcasters ARD and ZDF. This client enables seamless access to DVB-I service lists and applications, including support for low-latency streaming and interactive features. Additionally, Fraunhofer FOKUS has extended its DVB-I research into immersive environments, showcasing DVB-I streaming capabilities within XR platforms through its Metaverse Testbed. This includes experimental implementations for head-mounted displays (HMDs) such as Meta Quest and Apple Vision Pro, demonstrating how DVB-I can deliver linear TV and interactive content in extended reality contexts.

HbbTV (Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV) is an industry-led initiative that defines and promotes an open standard for delivering advanced interactive TV services via broadcast and broadband networks. It enables seamless integration of traditional broadcast content with broadband-delivered services, offering viewers a richer and more interactive television experience on connected TVs and set-top boxes.

The HbbTV specification is based on widely adopted standards and web technologies, including DVB, W3C, MPEG-DASH, and CTA WAVE. It supports a broad range of features such as catch-up TV, video-on-demand, interactive advertising, personalization, voting, and social media integration. By leveraging standard Internet technologies, HbbTV facilitates rapid application development and simplifies implementation for device manufacturers, while allowing room for innovation and differentiation.

Standardized by ETSI (ETSI TS 102 796), HbbTV has become a globally recognized framework for hybrid TV services, supported by broadcasters, network operators, device manufacturers, and technology providers worldwide.

FOKUS plays a key role in supporting and advancing the HbbTV ecosystem:

• It contributes to the development of the HbbTV specification, ensuring alignment with emerging technologies and industry needs.
• It supports HbbTV testing, particularly in areas related to Media Source Extensions (MSE) and Encrypted Media Extensions (EME), which are essential for secure and adaptive streaming.
• It provides a lightweight HbbTV Library for Android, enabling easier integration of HbbTV functionality into Android-based platforms.
• It hosts the annual HbbTV Plugfest at its Berlin facility, offering a collaborative environment for developers, broadcasters, and manufacturers to test interoperability and showcase innovations.
  

The Metaverse Standards Forum is a global industry initiative that brings together standards organizations, companies, and academic institutions to foster interoperability and open standards for the metaverse. The forum focuses on identifying gaps, aligning requirements, and accelerating the development of foundational technologies across areas such as 3D assets, spatial computing, networking, and immersive media.

Fraunhofer FOKUS is an active participant in the Metaverse Standards Forum and contributes to several domain groups, including Volumetric Video, Industrial Metaverse, and Network Requirements and Capabilities. Through its applied research and prototyping, FOKUS helps translate emerging standards into practical, interoperable solutions that support the development of an open and inclusive metaverse. 

Schulconnex is a standardized application programming interface (API) for synchronizing identities and school context data. Context data includes roles, group memberships, subjects, a school number, or information about educational programs. The API for source systems allows data to be synchronized between school administration systems. The API for services can be used by educational media to retrieve school data in the context of registered users. Schulconnex is tailored to the German school system and complies with European data protection requirements.

The Streaming Video Tech Alliance(SVTA) is an International Technical Association which provides a forum for companies around the world in the streaming video industry to collaborate on improving streaming video interoperability. Network operators, service providers (CDNs), vendors, research organizations, and other technical associations collaborate in working groups (WG) to define streaming video best practices and specifications which ensure a more consistent end-user experience and promote further adoption of online video. 

Fraunhofer FOKUS has been awarded by the DASH-IF WG to maintain the source code of the dash.js project and lead the “dash.js WG”  in SVTA. The work includes labeling, commenting, resolving and closing open issues and pull requests as well as implementing new features specified in MPEG-DASH related standards and documents. The robustness, the wide support of features and the possibility of customizing the player makes dash.js an ideal client used in production by multiple companies and numerous of our own customers. As one of the early adopters of MPEG-DASH, Fraunhofer FOKUS is using dash.js in numerous projects and is happy to assist with any problems or specific requirements around dash.js and DASH in general.

In addition, Fraunhofer FOKUS is co-chairing the “Players and Playback WG” in SVTA dealing with technical challenges across the player and device ecosystem.

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is the leading international standards organization for the Web. It develops open, interoperable technologies –including specifications, guidelines, software, and tools – to ensure the long-term growth and accessibility of the Web. W3C champions the principles of “Web for All” and “Web on Everything,” aiming to make the Web accessible to everyone, regardless of device, location, or ability, and to extend its reach across a wide range of platforms including mobile devices, smart TVs, and immersive systems.

Fraunhofer FOKUS is a long-standing member of W3C, contributing to several working and interest groups that shape the future of web-based media and multiscreen experiences:

• In the Media Working Group and the Media and Entertainment Interest Group, FOKUS contributes to the evolution and testing of key media technologies, particularly Media Source Extensions (MSE) and Encrypted Media Extensions (EME), which are foundational for adaptive streaming and secure content playback in browsers.
• FOKUS plays a leading role in the Second Screen Working Group, where it contributes to the specification and validation of the Presentation API and Remote Playback API, enabling seamless multiscreen and remote media experiences. Louay Bassbouss from Fraunhofer FOKUS serves as co-chair of this group.
• FOKUS also supports the development and adoption of emerging web technologies such as WebRTC, WebTransport, WebCodecs, and WebXR, applying them in advanced solutions for remote rendering and streaming to browsers and head-mounted displays (HMDs), as well as in content delivery via Media over QUIC (MoQ).

Through its FAMIUM platform, Fraunhofer FOKUS provides early proof-of-concept implementations and testing environments for W3C APIs, accelerating innovation and ensuring interoperability across the web ecosystem.