Opera and max communication to bring the Web to eviado set-top boxes

Opera Software today announced its cooperation with max communication, the Germany-based trading house. max communication will launch a new eviado hybrid, HD set-top box for the retail market, featuring powerful Web technology from the Opera Devices SDK.

With stringent support for emerging industry TV standards, including HbbTV and OIPF, the Opera Devices SDK is optimized for TV screens. Web technology is proven to be a fast and cost effective way to implement full Web browsing, create widgets (TV-Apps), support Over-the-Top (OTT) solutions and render on-screen content. The result is a premium, feature-rich experience with full support for next-generation Broadcast portals and services, such as ARD/ ZDF Mediathek, Tagesschau and ARTE.

“Due to Opera’s support for standards such as HbbTV, Ce-HTML and W3C, they were the best choice for bringing the full power of the Web to the eviado STBs,” said Frank Zimnik, CTO, eviado. “With Opera technology, we are able to deliver next generation TV services right now, whether it is Video-on-Demand, new applications from third parties or simply full Web browsing from the TV screen.”

“Opera running on eviado’s hybrid HD STB is a masterful combination of the best in interactive TV today,” said Lars Boilesen, CEO, Opera Software. “We have made it our priority to support recognized industry standards in order to enable new, Web-based content and services that meet the requirements of broadcasters and STB manufacturers.”

Real-life example

Using Opera’s technology, you can enable an existing, PC-only, Video-on-Demand (VoD) catalog and bring this content to a STB. By adding local subtitles to the thousands of VoD titles from online providers, the result is a purpose-built VoD catalog ready to address a global market.

Availability

The eviado set-top boxes with Opera will be released Q2/2010 and will be exclusively distributed by max communication.

Source:  Opera