Changes in TV Service Environment and Web Technologies
Jungcheol Park
Team Lead/Web Platform, Platform Dept., Altimedia Corp.
The current TV platform is being reorganized into a browser-driven web and a mobile based Android TV.
Recently, Google's Android TV has successfully entered and rapidly expanded the market by incorporating flourishing mobile services such as YouTube and Google Assistant into the TV market.
On the other hand, the OIPF/HBBTV which advocates a public standard platform and the Web platform that represents the open source-based RDK, also called as hybrid web platform, appears to be lacking in service development and dissemination compared to the development of web-based technology and its potential. The centralized development of a giant company Google and the fertile ecosystem of Android built on it are powerful drivers behind Android's service innovation. Fortunately, TV users do not seem to make as many demands as mobile. At least as far as now. Moreover, these TV user-required services are well-implemented using today’s existing web technologies.
• Changes in media consumption - OTT
Live channels are no longer the only means of media consumption. A TV connected to the Internet by IP, enabled active media consumption from the existing passive media consumption and is positioned as another media consumption method. Major OTTs such as YouTube, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Disney+ are becoming a primary means of the media consumption.
Most of the major OTT services operate their own platform but the underlying technologies can be seen as MSE (Media Source Extensions) and EME (Encrypted Media Extensions). MSE enables media playback without browser plug-in, also can maintain the quality of media playback independently from the device. EME is a technology responsible for content security, which is a prerequisite for video on demand. Media playback and security, which are key functions of OTT, can be implemented by using these two technologies.
• Changes of UI – Zero UI
For a long time, TV input devices seemed to have no other option but a remote control. However, advances in technology are showing different aspects of input devices that were unlikely to be possible. Zero UI represents the usage of a device or application without a screen. Behavior and voice recognition are typical and show different usability than conventional screen-based UI. New interfaces always require adaptation efforts from the users.
There are many technologies that fail to overcome the awkwardness, but at least voice recognition is unlikely to be like this. This is because voice recognition is already a part of our life through other devices such as smart speakers. Particularly, it provides a tool which is new innovation, for TV input devices that had no other alternative than remote controls that were not suitable for modern services. Voice recognition allows us to no longer move the focus of the on-screen-keyboard while searching for media content and escape the inconvenience of pressing remote control buttons dozens of times. The Web provides WebSpeech as a technology for voice recognition. By converting input speech audio to text (STT) or providing the opposite function (TTS), web application can recognize the user's voice.
Currently, voice recognition is widely used for simple word recognition such as search in most applications, but the possibilities are limitless. For example, Altimedia's voice solution (Voiceable™) deserves a higher level of voice recognition. This is because it is possible to understand and interpret the current screen UI and context to implement actions that best suit the input voice. It also could be called as a web 3.0 type TV service that aims to provide personalized information using artificial intelligence.
• Web technologies worth for TV services
The fact that the latest web technologies are based on H/W device support and cannot be used on our common TV sets is a concern for web platforms with the diversity characteristics of uncontrolled devices. Nevertheless, since most technologies are supported by PC browsers, pilot development will be possible, and considering the recent rapid development of H/W, it will become a technology that will gradually increase the value of major TV services. Here are some useful technologies in developing TV services.
─ WebRTC : Voice, video, and file can be exchanged between p2p. Microphone, camera, and call/chat services can be implemented
─ WebVR, XR : Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) can be implemented. It makes to feel realistic with a three-dimensional screen that is different from the conventional flat screen
─ WebGL : Originally a technology for 3D graphics, but nowadays it is becoming an accelerator for Deep learning on the browser. If you use Local deep learning, you will be able to provide personalized services that have evolved from recommendations
Services using Web technology have clear advantages over platform-dependent services such as Android because they have very weak platform dependencies. In other words, it provides an environment that is easy to run the same application on various devices with browsers such as PC, STB, and mobile, and it is also easy to transplant to a heterogeneous platform in the form of platform-dependent native service using WebView. In addition, as mentioned above, the technical infrastructure for implementing services is not lacking compared to other platforms. The general nature of the web and the TV-Friendly application of trendy technologies may lead to the transformation of TV from image quality to user service and further expansion of the ecosystem of web TV services.
