ACCESS has been showing how DLNA can provide the foundations for whole-home DVR and how, in future, the combination of DLNA HTML5 and RUI will support the secure distribution of premium video and the display of advanced UIs on managed and unmanaged devices around Pay TV homes. In one demonstration at TV Connect recently the company showed how the Finnish television and communications provider Anvia has enabled its customers to access their DVR recordings on tablets and how quickly the recordings start playing on the secondary device.
Using the DLNA standard as the basis for interoperability and content discovery, an Apple iPad displayed possible media sources in the ‘home’ including a Windows PC and the Anvia DVR. Once you selected the DVR, you could browse the recordings and then click to playback a file. The streaming was instant. According to Robert Guest, Global Product Director at ACCESS, the demonstration shows how DLNA is optimized for Pay TV media sharing. “You can push the speed and quality as high as the home Wi-Fi can stand, which is further than is possible over the broadband lines into the home,†he points out.
Anvia has deployed a hybrid HD DVR that can record three streams simultaneously while you playback a fourth, while also sharing two streams over DLNA. This device also supports HbbTV and according to Esa Wahlroos, System Specialist at Anvia TV Oy, the company wants to address a range of media sharing use-cases including sharing recordings and accessing the Pay TV portal on any screen. The Anvia DVR uses the Liège SoC from STMicroelectronics. ACCESS’s NetFront Browser NX 3.0 (a TV centric HTML5 browser) and NetFront Living Connect DLNA multiscreen media sharing software is integrated onto the platform.
In a separate demonstration at the London event, ACCESS showed how another layer of DLNA technology, HTML5 RUI (Remote User Interface), can be introduced to connected home media sharing. This is where a client device first ‘discovers’ a server (like a DVR in the home) and then uses a URL to retrieve and render a User Interface, like the Pay TV programme guide or VOD portal, on the secondary device using HTML5. In effect, the UI is treated like a website, hosted on a server and displayed on the client.
HTML5 RUI is one of the building blocks for the new DLNA CVP-2 (Commercial Video Profile) Guidelines that have just been published, along with DTCP-IP, which provides link protection security for premium video (see separate story). ACCESS supports CVP-2 as an integrated part of its NetFront Living Connect DLNA Technology Component.
