20 companies showing Qt at IPTV World Forum

Smartlabs Qt UI

Tomorrow one of the world’s top Broadcast events, IPTV World Forum , opens in London, and more than 20 companies are showing Set-Top Boxes (STBs) powered by Qt.

These companies use Qt in all its flavours. Increasingly STB makers are looking to Qt Quick to build innovative UIs with a richer user experience, whereas Telecom and broadcast operators seem to prefer HTML5 UIs powered by Qt Webkit. Of course, a significant number of STB manufacturers are also delivering UIs using classic C++-based Qt.

Only three years ago only a few companies were using Qt in the STB space. Now it has become hard not  to use Qt.

We are on the show floor at IPTV World Forum, in the  IP4.tv booth (booth #191) showing Qt 5 with a freely available and open-source implementation of a media center - running on the inexpensive Raspberry Pi board (ARM11, GNU Linux, $35)

Not all of the 20 companies showing Qt at IPTV World Forum actively market the fact they use Qt, so in this blog post I will focus on a selection of the vendors showing Qt at the show.

 

Httv (Booth #25 – Using Qt Quick and Qt Webkit)

Httv Qt UI

France-based httv will show its httvBOX - an STB turnkey solution - at booth #25. HttvBOX is an embedded software solution for connected TVs and STBs available for all TV distribution platforms from broadcast (DVB-T/T2/S/S2/C) to IP (IPTV, OTT) including hybrid boxes. The main UI of httvBOX is written in QML and runs smoothly even on medium-performance SoCs like the ST7105 (without any OpenGL acceleration). HttvBOX also includes a complete HbbTV solution powered by QtWebkit.

Httv chose Qt technology for its top-performing UI creation framework. Qt helps the httvBOX team offer advanced UI features, it speeds up their development and reduces their time to market. Qt’s code reuse also allows the deployment of httvBOX on various chipsets without additional development.

Ocean Blue Software (Booth #105 - Using Qt Quick)

Obs Qt UI

UK-based Ocean Blue Software is launching its Spinnaker UI at IPTV Forum. Spinnaker  adds a fresh dimension to consumer electronics UIs with a range of stylish animations and advanced design and features that move away from the standard UI offering. You can see Spinnaker with your own eyes at booth #105.

Spinnaker has been developed using Qt Quick and will enable customers to quickly and efficiently re-design the UI using the same layout but with their own corporate identity, or build their own UI from scratch. Either of these options can successfully be achieved using Qt tools. It means that the amount of time and effort required for creating a new User Interface is significantly reduced.

 

SmartLabs (Booth #267 – Using Qt C++)

Russia-based SmartLabs will show its SmartTUBE UI at IPTV Forum. SmartTUBE UI is an STB UI client that runs on STBs, PCs, media centers, mobile devices (iOS, Android, Windows) and Connected TVs. It is very fast when it comes to browsing lists, changing screens or redrawing UI elements. Moreover, SmartTUBE UI is independent of the middleware and can easily be adapted to different presentation required by different telecom and broadcast operators. You can see SmartTUBE UI in action at booth #267.

SmartLabs decided to use Qt because they can adapt their applications easily to different platforms and SoCs. Qt’s support of networking protocols and XML makes the integration of Web services simple. SmartLabs uses Qt C++ to get maximum performance and flexibility.

 

IP4.tv (Booth #191- Using Qt Quick)

IP4.tv is a leading European OEM/ODM of next generation hybrid STBs. The iP4.tv platform combines the latest hardware, software, broadcast and Internet standards like HTML5, HbbTV and various DRM and streaming standards. Their STB range covers IP, DVB-S2, DVB-T/T2 and DVB-C and all kinds of hybrids thereof. Their platform supports the leading DVB security standards such as CI+, Conax and Irdeto.

The UI is built with Qt Quick giving the ability to modify the UI quickly and easily with a standard toolchain. Qt also helps to ensure that iP4.tv’s software platform is portable across many SoCs. By utilising the latest generation of SoCs, iP4.tv can offer the most advanced features including 3D user interfaces and high-performance web-based applications. You can see the iP4.tv platform at booth #191.

 

Nokia Qt at IP4.tv (Booth #191 – Qt 5 on Raspberry Pi)

IP4.tv offered us the great opportunity to show our own Qt demos on their booth at the show, so  we’re showing QtMediaHub - our freely available and open-source implementation of a media center - in two versions. The first version sports the Confluence skin - as you may know it from Xbox Media Center - running on a Trident Shiner SoC using DirectFB.

The second version features a fancy 3D skin running on the low-end and very low-cost Raspberry Pi platform (ARM11). This proof of concept shows what is possible with Qt Quick in Qt 5 and with a powerful OpenGL accelerated GPU. When we show this 3D skin to UI designers, they typically get very excited: “Wow, I didn’t know that you could do that with Qt so easily!” And, then the ideas come flooding.

Come and see Qt at IPTV World Forum, at the iP4.tv booth #191

 

 


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