NHK, Japan’s national broadcaster, used its annual showcase ‘0pen House’ to unveil its own hybrid broadcast broadband, ‘Hybridcast’. Systems like this have also been developed in Europe (HbbTV, Canvas, and others). The Open Day showed NHK are well advanced in this too.
A Hybridcast TV allows the viewer to watch both broadcast and broadband on the same TV screen, and the two services can be linked and inter-related. Technically, the prototype NHK system is based on Java, and so may be more similar to the Italian MHP approach of the Blu Ray BD than HbbTV, but there is no decision on a standard yet.
Not just a technology demonstration, NHK showed some impressive applications in action, which would have great public appeal.
Some of the many applications that have been made available
The first was a range of extra content services, including those to help those with disabilities. One example was an application that gave elderly viewers the option of slowing down the TV speech rate.
The second was using HBB for social networking. Tweets about a programme were overlaid over the programme, and they were colour coded, depending on whether they praise or criticise. Viewers can also simply signal a ‘thumbs up’ thumbs down’ type message via a colour code, so a diagnosis of the programme is available to everyone all the time.
The hybrid service can also provide recommendations about which programmes to watch, based on a user’s profile, and other stored information.
A great touch was to interact with the TV and broadband via ‘smart phone’. The result is that you control what you see and hear, or comment on a programme, via your smart phone. Will the smart phone, the broadcast, and broadband internet become the pillars of broadcasting?