ATVI, the independent device testing company founded by RTL and ProSiebenSat.1 Media, has been urging European broadcasters to use it as their common and shared test facility to ensure television models are compliant with HbbTV addressable advertising, including the frame accurate ad insertion supported with the HbbTV TA (Targeted Advertising) specification. Peter Neumann, CTO at ATVI, highlighted some of the testing challenges, not least scale if each broadcaster individually signs off television sets as meeting the minimum specifications to ensure a good user experience.
Neumann spoke about his organisation’s pan-European ambitions, with the hope that it will test all devices in the European market. ATVI publishes a list of compliant devices on a per-market basis that broadcasters can access. The list is maintained, taking account of firmware updates with re-testing, for example.
Speaking on an HbbTV-organized webcast about addressable TV this week, Neumann predicted that HbbTV TA will become more established next year. He noted that ATVI tests each television with different content to check accuracy frame by frame, backed by human verifications, and he reminded the audience of the requirement for audio synchronization too.
ATVI believes all this complexity should be removed from broadcasters who are looking for an open standards approach to addressable TV that does not rely on platform operator partners.
