Open IPTV Forum commissions Digital TV Labs to provide OIPF test suite

BRISTOL, UK — Digital TV Labs, which provides independent, specialised receiver conformance products and professional services, has today announced that the OIPF – Open IPTV Forum – has commissioned the company to develop a test suite and associated test harness to enable the certification of OIPF-conformant IPTV, OTT and hybrid devices.

The Open IPTV Forum enables and accelerates the creation of a mass market for IPTV by defining and publishing free-of-charge standards-based specifications for end-to-end IPTV services of the future. This is both for “open” (OTT) services and “managed” IPTV systems, with the tests commissioned from Digital TV Labs designed for both. HbbTV, widely adopted by broadcasters across Europe, is based on the specifications created by the Open IPTV Forum.

The results of the co-operation will be included in the first release of the OIPF Test Suite expected to be available early next year as well as the second release of the HbbTV Test Suite expected in the second half of 2013. Digital TV Labs has been very closely involved with the development of the official HbbTV Test Suite against the v1.1 specification from within the HbbTV Consortium and has authored nearly 50 per cent of its tests. The OIPF test suite will be operated by an OIPF test harness based on an upgraded Ligada iSuite providing a common, automated test tool for both HbbTV and OIPF testing and conformance.

Keith Potter, Digital TV Labs CEO, says, “We are now developing an OIPF test suite, using our considerable expertise in this space, based on our leading HbbTV test product, Ligada. We believe that this is an important initiative by the OIPF, benefiting from the cooperation with the HbbTV Consortium, as there are many technology crossover points – MPEG-DASH being a prime example – and this will allow test material to be created far earlier than without the cooperation. We are very pleased that our market-leading expertise has been recognised.”

Dr Nilo Mitra, OIPF President, says “We are pleased to have Digital TV Labs contributing to the work of the Forum as both a partner and member. This test suite is an important part of the Open IPTV Forum’s work. It is critical to enabling interoperability for Connected TVs and will deliver significant cost savings to the whole IPTV Industry, as well as usability benefits for the end consumer. “