Standardization Activities

MPEG-DASH (Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP) is an international open standard, published by ISO in April 2012.

The DASH Industry Forum (DASH-IF) is a group of leading streaming companies who got together to promote and catalyze the adoption of MPEG-DASH and help transition it from a specification into a real deployments. To facilitate the use of MPEG-DASH the DASH-IF has launched the dash.js project. The project provides a free, open source DASH player which serves as a JavaScript reference client to implement production grade DASH players. It relies on the Media Source Extensions (MSE) and the Encrypted Media Extensions (EME) defined by W3C for the playback of MPEG-DASH content.

In December 2019, Fraunhofer FOKUS has been awarded by DASH-IF to maintain the source code of the dash.js project. Our work includes labeling, commenting, resolving and closing open issues and pull requests as well as implementing new features specified within the DASH-IF. 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 a large number 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.

• More about our DASH activities

HbbTV (Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV) is a new industry standard providing an open and business neutral technology platform that seamlessly combines TV services delivered via broadcast with services delivered through broadband. Furthermore it enables access to Internet only services for consumers using connected TVs and set-top boxes. The founding members of the HbbTV consortium together with a large group of supporters jointly developed the HbbTV specification to create a global standard for hybrid entertainment services. Version 1.2.1 of this specification has been approved by ETSI as ETSI TS 102 796 in November 2012. Since June 16^th 2014 the OIPF (Open IPTV Forum) merged their Activities with the HbbTV Association into a single organization within the legal structure of the HbbTV Association.

The HbbTV specification is based on existing standards and web technologies including OIPF (Open IPTV Forum), CEA, DVB and W3C. The standard provides the features and functionality required to deliver feature rich broadcast and internet services. Utilizing standard Internet technology it enables rapid application development. It defines minimum requirements simplifying the implementation in devices and leaving room for differentiation which limits the investment required by CE manufacturers to build compliant devices.

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) develops interoperable technologies (specifications, guidelines, software, and tools) to lead the Web to its full potential. W3C supports the Open Standards Principles, an empowering model that improve the way people develop new technologies and innovate for humanity.

W3C follows the “Web for All” and “Web on Everything” principles: The aim of “Web for All” is to make the benefits of the Web available to all people, whatever their hardware, software, network infrastructure, native language, culture, geographical location, or physical or mental ability. “Web on Everything” goal is to increase the number of different kinds of devices that can access the Web like smart and mobile phones, interactive TVs, voice systems, kiosks, etc. The “Web Of Things” W3C activities can be also classified in the “Web on Everything” domain.

FOKUS is an active member in W3C and is participating and contributing in many of its groups like “Web and TV Interest Group”, “Second Screen Presentation API Community Group”, “TV Control API Community Group”, “Web of Things Community Group” and others. FAMIUM, the end-to-end prototype implementation for early technology evaluation and interoperability testing introduced by FOKUS, offers early proof-of-concept implementations for different W3C APIs: FAMIUM Multiscreen components include an implementation of the “Second Screen Presentation API” that works across different devices and platforms. FAMIUM DASH and DRM components offer implementations that enable Adaptive Media Streaming and Encrypted Media Playback in Browser using the W3C MSE and EME APIs. FAMIUM Internet of Things develops different features discussed in the W3C Web of Things Community Group. FAMIUM TV Control Service provides an early implementation of TV Control features based on the requirements developed in the TV Control API.