Java for the DVB settops made by CanalPlus (CUBE partner). Comments from CUBE..........
eet.com
Europe seeks Java subset for DVB consumer
platforms
By Junko Yoshida
with additional reporting by Craig Matsumoto
EE Times
(11/20/98, 12:37 p.m. EDT)
CUPERTINO, Calif. — A high-level delegation from Europe's Digital
Video Broadcast (DVB) Project will meet with executives of Sun
Microsystems Inc. next week to present the company with an opportunity to
extend Java's reach deeper into the consumer-electronics realm. The group
wants to use Java as a key underpinning of its Multimedia Home Platform
(MHP), which it hopes will become the basis for a broad array of digital
set-top boxes, televisions and other consumer systems sold in Europe.
The potential catch is that it will ask Sun to create a new subset of Java,
tuned to the needs of digital broadcasting, and turn over management of the
new applications programming interface to a third party or possibly to the
DVB Project itself.
The talks could prove a staging ground for a campaign among TV
manufacturers, set-top makers and broadcasters "to fight against the
monopoly of any software, such as Windows CE, in the
consumer-electronics world," said Jean-Francois Jezequel, marketing and
sales general manager of Digital-TV technologies at Canal Plus (Paris),
Europe's largest digital-video-broadcast service provider, which will have
representatives on the DVB Project delegation. That possibility could prove
compelling to Sun.
Canal Plus has shipped almost 3 million digital satellite and cable set-tops in
Europe that use a "virtual machine" interpreted architecture similar to Java's.
"We would like to upgrade to the Java Virtual Machine," Jezequel said.
Those sentiments are shared by other members of the DVB Project. The
powerful inter-industry group, based in Geneva and composed of leading
broadcasters, service providers and consumer-system vendors, has been the
driving force behind Europe's digital-video standards for cable, satellite and
terrestrial broadcast.
At next week's MHP negotiations, the group will have two questions for
Sun, said Carter Elzroth, chairman of the IPR Module of the DVB Project,
who will be a key figure at the meeting. "Can we add to, select from and
make our own innovations to the Java API? If so, who will be the keeper of
the evolving specifications?"
Mum's the word
Sun officials wouldn't comment on the course of any discussions with DVB
representatives thus far, nor would they comment on the possibility of
licensing a subset of Java to DVB. Sun also declined to confirm whether the
DVB delegation has insisted on owning any Java API that may result from
the talks.
"We're exploring many avenues of what they want to achieve," said Eric
Chu, manager for vertical markets for the Java consumer platform.
Chu also confirmed that Sun is negotiating with the Advanced Television
Systems Committee (ATSC) on the possibility of a new Java subset for use
in U.S. digital-TV receivers and set-tops. Indeed, Chu said the list of Java
licensees includes "a lot of the usual suspects that do a lot in the
digital-television space."
Sources close to the DVB Project, whose membership overlaps that of the
ATSC, confirmed that the two groups are "absolutely aware" of the danger
of coming up with separate sets of Java APIs for distinct DTV broadcast
systems. "They are building a mechanism in their proposals to harmonize the
two eventually," a source said.
Other industry observers echoed concern over the proliferation of
Java-class libraries. "We all understand that Java has the best shot at
becoming the interpreted language that can be ubiquitously used in a variety
of platforms," said Chris Adams, vice president of marketing and systems
solutions at C-Cube Microsystems Inc. (Milpitas, Calif.). "But there are
already so many different versions of Java, and so many more companies
have tried to spin more Java."
At the same time, "nobody, so far, has made a Java API set that's adequate
and complete enough for digital TV," Adams said.
In a recent article, Georg Luetteke, chairman of the Multimedia Home
Platform Group, noted that despite the commonality of DVB standards for
terrestrial, cable and satellite, "the inevitable problem has arisen that
applications and set-top boxes using different APIs are incompatible with
each other. An end user wanting to have access to all the DVB services
available today would have to buy several set-top boxes.
"The full confidence of consumers and the final breakthrough of DVB will
only be achieved in a common horizontal market with full competition
enabled by clearly defined interfaces between the various layers of the
business chain and with a 'standardized' receiver/home terminal [set-top
box, integrated TV set, PC] based on a common API."
View from Sun
Sun's interest in the DTV market is twofold. In the cable arena — where
TCI has announced its future set-top boxes will use Java — broadcasters
would like to query and update customers' set-top boxes remotely. Sun
hopes to develop Java APIs to handle remote management.
More important, Sun wants to leverage Java to tap the advertising bonanza
promised by digital TV. Part of the technology's allure to industry is the
possibility of interactivity with commercials — allowing viewers to
download, for example, information about where to purchase a product in
their area, Chu said.
Here, Java's advantage would be that it doesn't require a massive pipeline
back to the broadcaster; no new infrastructure would need to be built, Chu
said. "Even the satellite people can give you interactive advertisements
without having to change anything they do today," he said.
European industry sources close to the DVB Project said it's crucial that
Sun "play its cards right" at the upcoming meeting. "Sun could lose
everything by getting too greedy or win big as a leading technology supplier
in the consumer-electronics world," said one senior engineering executive at
a major European consumer-electronics company.
The outcome of the negotiations between Sun and the DVB Project could
have profound implications for Microsoft Corp., which has been lobbying
heavily behind the scenes to discourage the idea of using Java API in digital
consumer system standards. The software giant is pushing Windows CE into
digital consumer platforms and is recommending that service providers and
system manufacturers use JavaScript only when necessary.
But the DVB Project hopes to secure Sun's support in putting a
Java-enabled MHP format on the fast track to standardization. Since new
services by many commercial entities within the DVB group hinge on the
completion of MHP, "[We hope] to get done as quickly as possible," said
Peter MacAvock, an official of the DVB Project. |
