MHEG-5
Encyclopedia
MHEG-5, or ISO
International Organization for Standardization
The International Organization for Standardization , widely known as ISO, is an international standard-setting body composed of representatives from various national standards organizations. Founded on February 23, 1947, the organization promulgates worldwide proprietary, industrial and commercial...

/IEC
International Electrotechnical Commission
The International Electrotechnical Commission is a non-profit, non-governmental international standards organization that prepares and publishes International Standards for all electrical, electronic and related technologies – collectively known as "electrotechnology"...

 13522-5, is part of a set of international standards relating to the presentation of multimedia information, standardised by the Multimedia
Multimedia
Multimedia is media and content that uses a combination of different content forms. The term can be used as a noun or as an adjective describing a medium as having multiple content forms. The term is used in contrast to media which use only rudimentary computer display such as text-only, or...

 and Hypermedia
Hypermedia
Hypermedia is a computer-based information retrieval system that enables a user to gain or provide access to texts, audio and video recordings, photographs and computer graphics related to a particular subject.Hypermedia is a term created by Ted Nelson....

 Experts Group (MHEG). It is most commonly used as a language to describe interactive television
Interactive television
Interactive television describes a number of techniques that allow viewers to interact with television content as they view it.- Definitions :...

 services.

Characteristics

MHEG-5 is a cost-effective, licence-free, efficient, public standard interactive TV middleware that is used both to send and receive interactive TV signals. It allows a wide range of TV-centric iTV services to be deployed. It is used by Freeview and Freesat
Freesat
Freesat is a free-to-air digital satellite television joint venture between the BBC and ITV plc, serving the United Kingdom. The service was formed as a memorandum in 2007 and has been marketed since 6 May 2008...

 in the UK, Freeview in New Zealand, TVB
Television Broadcasts Limited
Television Broadcasts Limited, commonly known as TVB, is the second over-the-air commercial television station in Hong Kong. It commenced broadcasting on 19 November 1967...

 in Hong Kong, Freeview
Freeview (Australia)
Freeview is the brand given to the digital terrestrial television platform in Australia. It is intended to bring all of the free-to-air broadcasters on to a consistent marketing platform to compete against subscription television, in particular Foxtel, and coincides with the expansion to 3 digital...

 in Australia, Saorview
Saorview
Saorview is the national free-to-air digital terrestrial television service in Republic of Ireland.The service began operation on 29 October 2010 on a trial basis with full launch on 26 May 2011. By legislation it was required to be available to approximately 90% of the population by end of...

 in Ireland and has been specified in South Africa.

Recent work by the DTG in the UK has led to the development of the MHEG-5 Interaction Channel (MHEG-IC), which enables an extension of broadcast interactive services to be delivered via an IP connection. The principles behind the MHEG-IC are to provide a seamless viewer experience of broadcast delivered content augmented with content delivered over IP as an extension of the channel or network. Broadcasters have full editorial control of the user experience. The MHEG-IC gives access to streamed on-demand video content in addition to traditional text and graphics as well as the ability to support secure transactions.

MHEG-5 is an object-based
Object-based
In general, object-based indicates that something such as a theory, language, or model is based on the concept of object.In computer science, the term object-based has two different senses:...

 declarative programming
Declarative programming
In computer science, declarative programming is a programming paradigm that expresses the logic of a computation without describing its control flow. Many languages applying this style attempt to minimize or eliminate side effects by describing what the program should accomplish, rather than...

 language which can be used to describe a presentation of text, images and video. An MHEG-5 application consists of a number of Scenes which the user of the application can move between. Each Scene lists the items of text and graphics to be presented and can contain blocks of procedural
Procedural programming
Procedural programming can sometimes be used as a synonym for imperative programming , but can also refer to a programming paradigm, derived from structured programming, based upon the concept of the procedure call...

 code which are executed in response to one of a predefined set of events such as keys being pressed, timers firing or content being successfully loaded into memory. These blocks of code consist of elementary actions which can perform operations such as changing the text displayed by a text object
Object (computer science)
In computer science, an object is any entity that can be manipulated by the commands of a programming language, such as a value, variable, function, or data structure...

, or starting a video clip playing.

MHEG-5 specifies a hierarchy of classes that are available to the application author. Unlike in object oriented languages, it is not possible for new classes to be defined. The standard defines two representations of MHEG applications, one of which is textual and the other is represented in ASN.1
Abstract Syntax Notation One
Data generated at various sources of observation need to be transmitted to one or more locations that process it to generate useful results. For example, voluminous signal data collected by a radio telescope from outer space. The system recording the data and the system processing it later may be...

. Applications are normally written in the textual notation and then encoded into ASN.1 for interpretation by the MHEG engine.

MHEG-5 is suited to programming interactive kiosk
Interactive kiosk
An Interactive kiosk is a computer terminal featuring specialized hardware and software designed within a public exhibit that provides access to information and applications for communication, commerce, entertainment, and education....

s and interactive television
Interactive television
Interactive television describes a number of techniques that allow viewers to interact with television content as they view it.- Definitions :...

 services.

Use in other standards

MHEG-5 has been selected as the mandatory interactivity engine for CI+ compliant TVs (and other CI+ devices).

Profiles and commercial roll-out

The MHEG-5 language itself is just that, a language. To be useful in any particular context, the language needs to be profiled
Profile (engineering)
In standardization, a profile consists of an agreed-upon subset and interpretation of a specification. Many complex technical specifications have many optional features, such that two conforming implementations may not inter-operate due to choosing different sets of optional features to support...

.
A broadcast profile of the language has been standardized by ETSI forming ETSI standard ES 202 184.

United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

, MHEG-5 is used to provide interactive
Interactive television
Interactive television describes a number of techniques that allow viewers to interact with television content as they view it.- Definitions :...

 services for digital television. The full specification of how MHEG-5 is used in the context of the UK Freeview platform is the UK Profile of MHEG-5
UK Profile of MHEG-5
The UK Profile of MHEG-5 is a technical specification describing how the MHEG-5 language is used to provide interactive television services. It was developed to provide interactive services for the UK digital terrestrial television platform by a group of broadcasters including the BBC and...

. MHEG is also used on Freesat
Freesat
Freesat is a free-to-air digital satellite television joint venture between the BBC and ITV plc, serving the United Kingdom. The service was formed as a memorandum in 2007 and has been marketed since 6 May 2008...

, as opposed to the proprietary OpenTV
OpenTV
OpenTV is an interactive television company founded in 1994. Its main business involves the sale of set-top-box operating systems and software. On March 28, 2010 OpenTV became a fully owned subsidiary of the NAGRA Kudelski Group and officially delisted from the NASDAQ, where it was previously...

 platform used on Sky.

Hong Kong

In Hong Kong, TVB
Television Broadcasts Limited
Television Broadcasts Limited, commonly known as TVB, is the second over-the-air commercial television station in Hong Kong. It commenced broadcasting on 19 November 1967...

 has also selected MHEG-5 middleware for interactive services available on its digital broadcasting channels.

Ireland

Ireland has selected MHEG-5 (UK Profile, v1.06) middleware for interactive services as a recommended feature of its Minimum Receiver Requirements for DTT in Ireland. The name for Ireland's free digital service is Saorview
Saorview
Saorview is the national free-to-air digital terrestrial television service in Republic of Ireland.The service began operation on 29 October 2010 on a trial basis with full launch on 26 May 2011. By legislation it was required to be available to approximately 90% of the population by end of...

.

Class hierarchy

Note: You can download the PDF version of above image from http://mheg5.net/down/class.pdf.

See also

  • Multimedia Home Platform
    Multimedia Home Platform
    Multimedia Home Platform is an open middleware system standard designed by the DVB project for interactive digital television. The MHP enables the reception and execution of interactive, Java-based applications on a TV-set. Interactive TV applications can be delivered over the broadcast channel,...

     (MHP), an alternative technology used for interactive television services in some European countries.
  • Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV
    Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV
    Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV is both an industry standard and promotional initiative for hybrid digital TV to harmonise the broadcast, IPTV, and broadband delivery of entertainment to the end consumer through connected TVs and set-top boxes...

     (HbbTV), an alternative technology used for interactive television services via broadcasting and broadband communication media in some European countries.
  • OpenTV
    OpenTV
    OpenTV is an interactive television company founded in 1994. Its main business involves the sale of set-top-box operating systems and software. On March 28, 2010 OpenTV became a fully owned subsidiary of the NAGRA Kudelski Group and officially delisted from the NASDAQ, where it was previously...

    , a proprietary system used for interactive television on Sky
    British Sky Broadcasting
    British Sky Broadcasting Group plc is a satellite broadcasting, broadband and telephony services company headquartered in London, United Kingdom, with operations in the United Kingdom and the Ireland....

     in the UK.
  • MediaHighway
    MediaHighway
    MediaHighway is an interactive television middleware software introduced in 1993 by Paris-based Canal+ Technologies SA, part of the Canal+ Group. It is currently owned and developed by the NDS Group, which acquired it from Thomson SA in 2003. According to the manufacturer it is used by 69 million...

    , a proprietary middleware for interactive television owned by NDS
    NDS Group
    NDS Group Plc. is a developer of pay TV technology. NDS was established in 1988 as an Israeli start up company. It was acquired by News Corporation in 1992. The company is currently headquartered in Staines, United Kingdom...

    .

External links



Open Source Software:

Commercial websites:
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