Expression of interest in participating in the Workshop ----------------------- Name, organization and contact details ----------------------- Name: Shuichi FUJISAWA Organization: NHK E-mail: fujisawa.s-ik@nhk.or.jp Name: Hisakazu KATOH Organization: NHK E-mail: katoh.h-km@nhk.or.jp Name: Keiya MOTOHASHI Organization: NHK E-mail: motohashi.k-fo@nhk.or.jp ----------------------- Participant's interest ----------------------- In Japan, BML (Broadcast Markup Language) Version 1.0 was published in 1999 as a standard presentation language for digital television sets. The language was standardized as a part of the Japanese digital broadcasting system and has been used for years for various bi-directional/interactive TV programs and social services since the BS (Broadcasting Satellite) digital broadcasting service started in 2000. BML is basically an extension for existing Web standards, e.g., XHTML 1.1, and has been modified for various (Japanese) broadcasting services including 110-degree East Longitude CS Digital Broadcasting, Digital Terrestrial Television, One-Seg (Mobile Terrestrial Digital Audio/Video and Data Broadcasting), CATV (Cable Television) and IPTV (Internet Protocol Television). As of July, 2010, the number of household television sets in use is already more than 80 million in Japan. Since almost all digital TV sets have BML browser capability, a universal service using BML is getting realistic all over the land. Now digital TVs are getting the center of digital home networks, and it is expected that they will be used not only as a receiver for digital broadcasting but also as a central server for variety of entertainment and essential information for everyday life. Also it is strongly desired that TV sets will be better integrated with Web technologies, e.g., HTML5 and get even richer presentation capability. We believe our knowledge and expertise on digital TV broadcasting technology in Japan should be useful to this workshop and we should be able to provide various use cases based on our long-term experience. We are very interested in what kind of roles our expertise on digital broadcasting would play in the context of Web standardization. -------------- Point of View -------------- We are especially interested in the points #1, 3, 5 of following statement. 1. TV and publicness --------------------- In case of natural disasters, usual infrastructures for communications like telephones and mobile phones might not be available. So providing disaster information is one of the very important roles of broadcasting as a public service. We would like to introduce various use cases of public TV network services in Japan. 2. TV devices and their resources ---------------------------------- One of the characteristics of BML (Broadcast Markup Language) is the well-defined balance of compactness and capability which was designed based on the long-term discussion by both broadcasters and appliance vendors. The BML specification was published in 1999, and at that time hardware resources were much less powerful than today. We would like to (1) explain how BML tackled poor hardware resource issue, and (2) provide some suggestions to the workshop discussion, e.g., consideration of extensibility for the future devices/environments. 3. Services implemented by BML ------------------------------- BML (Broadcast Markup Language) has sufficient APIs for MPEG2 TS (Transport Stream), such as APIs for getting values of various descriptors in MPEG2 TS and APIs with event handlers that notify BML applications when and how the state of the current MPEG2 TS changed. These APIs have been used for various TV program services in Japan. Furthermore, there are services that use the BML documents retrieved from web servers and that documents communicate with web applications. So, broadcasters can control their BML applications both by the signals in MPEG2 TS (broadcasting) and by the responses from their web servers. We would like to introduce such existing use cases implemented using BML and see what possible future use cases could be. 4. Collaboration between broadcasting and communication technology - IPTV- -------------------------------------------------------------------------- To implement actual IPTV services, it is very important to clearly define (1) the interface between IPTV middleware, e.g., DRM (Digital Rights Management), and browsers and (2) ECG (Electronic Content Guide) metadata. We would like to introduce several use cases based on our IPTV service experiences in Japan, and see what possible future services could be. 5. Collaboration between broadcasting and communication technology -R&D for the next generation- ------------------------------------------------------------------- There are various pieces of advanced research on next generation broadcasting within the context of Japanese digital broadcasting system. We would like to introduce several existing use cases and research topics related to the scope of this workshop. 6. Comparison between BML and HTML5 ------------------------------------ We have been providing various broadcasting services based on BML (Broadcast Markup Language) technology, and would like to show several use cases which we believe should be discussed during this workshop. We will explain the difference between BML and HTML5 as well. 7. TV as the hub of various information (A) -------------------------------------------- TV is now available in the center of living space at many homes, and it is expected to become a central controller for home network which receives/sends various information about entertainment and everyday life. On the other hand, the arrival of HTML5 is dramatically changing the situation and it is expected TV will get even nicer presentation capability and provide even richer user experiences. We would like to show several use cases of next generation TV as the hub within home network and see how it could be implemented using Web technologies. 8. TV as the hub of various information (B) -------------------------------------------- TVs are installed and used in the center of living space at many home in Japan now, and there is expectation they will become the main controller for various devices within home networks which handle Input/Output information for various entertainments and essential information for people's life. Also TV sets are getting much smarter powered by Web technologies like HTML5 and have started to provide richer user experiences. We would like to show several possible use cases of TV as the hub of various information, and discuss how Web technologies would be useful for them. 9. TV as the hub of various information (C) -------------------------------------------- It is expected TV and broadcasting system will provide not only audiovisual information as currently distributed by broadcasters and communications media but also various services and new user experiences in the near future. In order to materialize that kind of new TV system, we believe it is essential to (1) analyze possible future use cases, (2) consider smarter integration with Web technologies including connection to various non-TV networks.