The MHEG-5 specification is constantly evolving, with MHEG-5 v1.06 being the current standard and a prerequisite for Digital TV equipment to feature the ‘digital tick’ logo in the UK.  This constant evolution presents manufacturers with the challenge of keeping abreast of the latest MHEG-5 standard while also minimising the time and cost of integration with their existing platform.

As a global supplier of DVB solutions tailored to manufacturer’s needs, Cabot is able to offer Mercator, a comprehensive MHEG-5 engine.  Available as part of the Aurora DVB complete middleware solution or as a MHEG-5 plug-in, Mercator has been designed and tested to enable manufacturers to include the very latest MHEG-5 functionality in their products in the shortest possible time scales.

Recent Mercator enhancements

Cabot has recently extended MHEG country support to include New Zealand.  This means that Cabot software fully supports the New Zealand MHEG profile for Set Top Boxes (STBs) and Integrated Digital Televisions (IDTVs) coexisting with the UK MHEG profile within the same engine. This provides manufacturers with the ability to deploy the same solution in multiple regions, effectively streamlining products and speeding up time to market. Cabot has also created a Turkish MHEG reference solution as a demonstration of further possibilities for extending the MHEG profile.  Over the coming months, additional MHEG country support is planned as part of Cabot’s product development roadmap.

A future proof MHEG-5 engine

As part of Cabot’s continuous technological development programme, Cabot regularly contributes to leading industry initiatives and programmes which help to drive the development of the digital television industry. Through Cabot’s contribution to Impala, the International MHEG Promotion Alliance and the Digital Television Group (DTG) MHEG-5 UK Profile v1.06 test suite, Cabot has developed a future proof method for manufacturers to continuously and seamlessly keep pace with the evolving MHEG standard.  This significantly reduces manufacturers’ costs both in introducing new products to market and in maintaining existing product lines.  In addition, Cabot is chairing the development of the DTG HD MHEG profile and has been responsible for driving the specification. This HD functionality is currently being integrated into Mercator. Cabot is also currently actively involved in development of the Return Channel Specification for MHEG, in conjunction with the DTG.

A high quality user experience

In order to meet viewers’ high expectations for instant reactivity from their digital TV devices, Mercator was designed from the ground-up for the lower power processors and small memory footprints used in cost efficient receivers.  This ensures both fast and memory efficient operation even in resource constrained environments.

As the Mercator MHEG-5 engine has been designed as a consumer embedded product, it provides the fastest possible user interaction speeds for the highest quality, most responsive viewing experience.  Furthermore, Mercator has been extensively tested to provide a reliable, stable and robust service which consumers can trust.

Easy integration for shortened product development time

Integrating an MHEG-5 engine into an existing DVB software implementation requires substantial changes to be made to the middleware stack.  The lengthy development times involved often mean that products ultimately reach the market at a higher price and at a later date than the manufacturers had been targeting, missing their market window.  Mercator solves this problem by providing standardised interfaces and components, allowing easy integration and substantially reducing engineering time and effort.  Mercator is fully portable and includes many features which enable it to be integrated with other DVB cores with minimal time and effort, including a software development kit utilising C++ programming language and market-leading porting guides and support services.