6HbbTV (Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV)

Hybrid broadcast broadband TV (HbbTV) is a global initiative focused on the harmonization of broadcast and broadband services and on the proposal of technical specifications how to deliver these services and applications to end users through connected TVs, set-top boxes and multiscreen devices.

The Technical Specification (TS) has been produced by Joint Technical Committee (JTC), Broadcast of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), Comité Européen de Normalisation ELECtrotechnique (CENELEC) and the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI).

Fig. 9 depicts the HbbTV overall system architecture with a hybrid terminal [12]. The description of the HbbTV system architecture is introduced in [12] and more details can be found in [12], [13], [14], [15].

The functionalities of the hybrid terminal create conditions for its connection to both segments of the hybrid network (broadcast and broadband). In this way the hybrid terminal can receive standard broadcast A/V content, application data and application signaling information. In addition the hybrid terminal can be connected to the Internet via a broadband interface. This allows bi-directional communication with the application provider. Over this interface the terminal can receive the different types of multimedia content (e.g. A/V content streaming on demand), downloading A/V content, etc. The broadband interface can also create connection of additional screens (like smartphone, tablet, etc.) to the same local network as the hybrid terminal (Fig. 9).

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Fig. 9 - HbbTV overall system architecture