First DLNA CVP-2-Certified Products for In-Home Streaming Due by Year-end

CVP-2, which is an addition to the DLNA 1.5 specifications, will likely start appearing in the first products by year-end with certification testing to begin at six labs in September, said Bhagwat, who also is the principal video systems architect at CableLabs. About 90 percent of the testing protocols are complete, with the remainder for live streaming of linear content to be in place by May, Bhagwat said.

Cable operators -- Comcast, Cox and Time Warner Cable are among the first announced backers for CVP-2 -- likely will install the technology at head-end servers for connecting to subscriber devices, Bhagwat said. Among the key ingredients in the new protocols is the use of HTML5, which allows the development of “write once, play anywhere” content applications across a range of browsers and platforms using remote user interface (RUI) technology, industry experts have said. The new guidelines build on DLNA content sharing, adding protected streaming using Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP-IP) Link Layer, client authentication to verify certified devices and a low-power mode to meet energy consumption regulations.

Though many of the big pay-TV operators such as AT&T, Cablevision, Charter Communications, DirecTV, Dish Network and Verizon, haven’t yet announced CVP-2 support, there are several unidentified consumer electronics manufacturers, chip suppliers and service providers that have contributed to the guideline development, Bhagwat said. Broadcom and Samsung are numbered among the CVP-2 supporters. DLNA’s promoter member roster includes Arris, Intel, LG Electronics, Microsoft, Panasonic, Sony and Verizon. DLNA has 215 contributor members. About 2 billion DLNA-compliant devices have been sold since the first DLNA specs were released in 2003, the DLNA says.

"Cox, Comcast and Time Warner are typically the leaders of the industry and others typically follow them and that is what you are seeing here,” Bhagwat said. “In terms of support from others, they are watching this very carefully and depending on the rollout, they will follow.” Comcast’s six-tuner XG1 HD DVR is expected to back CVP-2 and Cox has demonstrated its Trio user interface using CVP-2 guidelines.

CVP-2 likely will first appear in higher-end devices, including those that have already implemented HTML5, Bhagwat said. Android-based tablets will likely follow the first wave of Blu-ray players, TVs and videogame consoles that feature CVP-2, Bhagwat said. Whether CVP-2 will eventually become a baseline technology within the DLNA standard hasn’t been decided and certification of DLNA 1.5-equipped products will continue as before, Bhagwat said. But “the alliance certainly would like to see that all the DLNA devices going forward do support the CVP-2 profile and it becomes the new baseline,” he said. “At that time, we may call it DLNA 2.0 or just keep it as a CVP-2 profile.” DLNA 1.5 was released in 2006, but any change isn’t likely for one to two years as the industry works through the new guidelines, Bhagwat said.

"There is a desire to identify CVP-2 separately from the old DLNA guidelines” that govern the sharing of stored content within a home, Bhagwat said. “That’s why we decided to keep it as a separate device profile and see what kind of response we get. After that, we may be able to decide what is the best way to take this forward. The service providers and manufacturers don’t see CVP-2 as the end goal and it will be an evolving thing.” Bhagwat expects DLNA “will add some new functions in enabling subscription TV content,” including guidelines for delivery from the cloud, he said. DLNA also is weighing creating a “consumer-facing” name for CVP-2, so the technology can more readily be identified in the market, he said.

In developing new features for CVP-2, delivery of 4K content will be brought into the mix by adding the needed media formats, including H.265 and HEVC, in updated guidelines that govern the transfer of content between products and servers, Bhagwat said. While CVP-2’s focus was on supplying content via “traditional forms” of delivery including cable, satellite and telco, DLNA also started discussions with over-the-top (OTT) service providers about providing cloud-based programming, Bhagwat said. DLNA hasn’t previously supported OTT services with its baseline specifications, given its roots in delivering programming across a home network, he said. DLNA is working on some “projects” for cloud-based content, with results expected by early 2015, Bhagwat said. The projects have been in discussions for about nine months, he said.

"We certainly see an opportunity to evolve the CVP-2 specification to support cloud-sourced content and that could be from anybody, including traditional service providers as well as Netflix, Amazon and Hulu,” Bhagwat said. “We certainly want input from OTT providers as well and we would like to work with them to make sure their services can work on DLNA devices.”