Opera TV reveals role in Humax's industry-first Freeview Play STB


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Editor

| 19 October 2015





Leading middleware firm Opera TV has announced details of the part it is playing in Humax's new HbbTV 2.0 SDK set-top boxes (STBs), unveiled last week.


HbbTV 2.0 is based on HTML5, aligning it with modern Internet standards, which enables broadcasters to offer their viewers advanced experiences for digital streaming over linear programming. The first live deployment of the devices are with UK DTT provider Freeview which now offer the boxes so that users can access both linear and on-demand content, including catch-up TV services such as BBC iPlayer, ITV Player, Channel 4's All 4, and Channel 5's Demand 5.

Opera's HbbTV 2.0 SDK is built on top of Opera's TV SDK, which is highly optimised for smart TV and STB hardware, and supports a wide range of standards and use cases. The SDK brings HTML5 capabilities such as Opera's Unified Video Architecture (UVA), which supports all major video streaming standards in use by content owners, allowing for playback of popular consumer OTT services.

"The Opera TV SDK has been deployed on millions of Humax set-top boxes since 2011," commented Graham North, commercial director, Humax. "Opera and Humax were once again quick to adapt to new market developments, making us the first to bring consumers advanced products with superior performance."

Added president for TV and devices at Opera, Aneesh Rajaram: "We're delighted today, as our agility in building a complex, industry-first product - and our strong partnership with Humax - has resulted in a win for consumers and the industry at large ... Opera TV continues to work hard to empower content owners, device manufacturers and service providers to offer the most compelling proposition for their consumers. And, with HbbTV 2.0 now live in the market, we expect more OEMs and set-top box manufacturers to deploy this standard in the coming months."