London, UK – 1st September 2010: IMPALA, the International MHEG Promotion Alliance, has welcomed the news that the BBC – via its TV Platforms Group – recently announced the open source release of its MHEG+ programming language and toolkit using the Apache 2.0 license.
“This provides another option for MHEG application developers, one that will assist in the development of the standard by encouraging more programmers to work in this field and to create iTV applications and it is therefore a welcome addition,” says Bob Lamb, MD of Cabot Communications and Founder Member of IMPALA.
MHEG+, which has been released on a blog written by Mike Hatton, Senior Software Engineer for the BBC’s TV Platforms Group, was developed in 2005 as a BBC Research & Development project. The BBC describes it as both a language and a comprehensive suite of tools including a compiler, debugger, an emulator, automated testing tools and a code editor. It has been used to create applications for both Freesat and Freeview in the UK.
Hatton said in his blog, “We think MHEG+ is too useful a tool to keep to ourselves. Open sourcing MHEG+ is another example of the BBC’s drive towards openness and demonstrates our eagerness to give something back to the technical community. Further, we hope to encourage the community to get involved in MHEG+ and make it better.”
Lamb concludes, “For some programmers this will make it easier to develop MHEG applications and to create tools that they feel comfortable with. Sitting alongside existing manufacturer and open source solutions, this can only help drive the adoption of MHEG.”
Founder members of IMPALA will be releasing extensions to MHEG+ that support international profiles into the Open Source process started by the BBC.
