UCI Forum and HCL to develop H.265 test suite

UCI Forum Signs Development Agreement with HCL Americas

SAN RAMON, Calif. — The Unified Communications Interoperability Forum (UCI Forum) today announced that it has signed an agreement with HCL Americas (HCL) to develop an H.265 test suite for its members to verify compliance with the upcoming UCI Forum interoperability profile for H.265 HEVC and SHVC. Under the terms of the agreement, HCL will develop the test plan, verification software tool and supporting documentation.

Members of both UCI Forum and International Multimedia Telecommunication Consortium, which will merge and operate under the IMTC banner, will all benefit from the test suite for H.265 HEVC and SHVC interoperability.

As part of the agreement, HCL engineers will participate in the UCI Forum Video Task Group work on the H.265 interoperability profile. The group will address bitstream-level codec configuration and certification, as well as transport-level (media only) configuration and certification. Early participation by the HCL development team will allow them to gain familiarity with the requirements of the test plan and test tool and thereby shorten the development cycle of the project deliverables. The contracted development work will be formally initiated when the Video Task Group freezes the H.265 specification.

The H.265 Test Suite will enable UCI Forum members to use the test plan and tool to aid in development and testing of H.265 codec implementations. The test tool will be installed and operated within members’ own test environments within their laboratory network to verify compliance with the UCI Forum H.265 profile and will speed time to market and reduce development costs.

“We are delighted to team with HCL to deliver this valuable interoperability testing service to our members. We selected HCL after an extensive search for labs because of their strong reputation for independent, vendor-neutral testing and years of experience,” said Matt Collier, president of UCI Forum. “The participation of the HCL development team in the creation of the interoperability profile before the development work is scheduled to start is a testament to the partnership that has been forged between UCI Forum and HCL Americas.”

“We at HCL see the UCIF partnership as a strategic step towards extending our commitment to ensure interoperability of products in Unified Communications and feel proud to be part of UCI Forum Video Task Group to contribute in H.265 Test Tool Development,” said Rajeev Agrawal, Vice President for Global Strategic Business Segment at HCL. “We look forward to mutually growing this partnership with active participation in defining specifications and providing engineering services to UCIF member partners.”