Below is a press release which Philips issued last month concerning
giving away an MHEG-5 engine on the internet. This engine is the one
written at Philips Redhill which I have demonstrated on my laptop on
several occasions.
Those of you who are on the MHEG-6 mailing list should have seen this
before but it was pointed out to me that the MHEG-6 list may not be
a very wide distribution.
Apologies to those people who get multiple copies of this.
Philips will be offering this engine for use in MHEG-7 at the Stockholm
meeting. There will be a presentation on it in Stockholm by Andy Maxfield.
Currently I'm not planning to be in Stockholm but I can possibly arrange
to be there on Thursday/Friday if that is really needed.
Jon
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To: All Editors For Immediate Release
Montreux, June 13, 1997
FOR INTERNATIONAL RELEASE
Philips will make example MHEG engine for enhanced broadcast services
available on Internet
In many digital television projects it is recognised that just replacing
analogue audio and video by digital signals will not be sufficient to
generate the interest of consumers. Therefore enhanced broadcast services are
considered essential, because they offer the opportunity for new user
experiences that add interactivity and transaction capability to the
traditional passive broadcast formats.
The early digital market development has been kickstarted by Pay-TV operators
in 'vertical' markets, using partly proprietary technology. For the next
phase of market development, leading to mass penetration, open solutions for
so-called 'horizontal' markets are required, based upon international
standards. On this basis equipment manufacturers can develop their own
implementation while interoperability of services is maintained. Philips is
committed to contribute to the development of such standards in forums like
DVB (Digital Video Broadcast) and DAVIC (Digital Audio Visual Council).
One of the important formats for enhanced broadcast services is the
hypermedia language MHEG (Multimedia Hypermedia Experts Group). This ISO
standard has been selected by DAVIC for the development of applications and
is one of the candidates for consideration by DVB.
'Philips has decided to make an example MHEG engine available via the
Internet'
says Rob van Oostenbrugge, general manager of Philips business unit Digital
Videocommunication Systems. 'It is Philips wish to accelerate a broad
introduction of MHEG products and services. We want to assure customers,
broadcasters and service providers alike that further growth can be
stimulated by compatible and interoperable solutions'.
The objective of this free download is to give a headstart to colleagues in
the industry who want to develop their own implementation. The Philips DVS
site on the Internet can be found at http://www.be.philips.com/dvs. The link
to the MHEG engine will be available within a few weeks. Under certain
conditions Philips is even prepared to give access to the source code of the
engine. The engine has been implemented in Java so that its context can be
understood in a well known environment. The Web-site will be password
protected. However Philips intends to grant access to all serious interested
parties on a non-discriminatory basis.
- end -
For more information, please contact
Philips DVS, The Netherlands
Ms. Ilse van Kuijck
Tel: +31-40-2733615
Fax: +31-40-2736300