Interview with Emanuele Baroni (from Newslinet)
Emanuele Baroni, co-founder of Rubidia, explains how the HbbTV Jump, a uniquely Italian phenomenon, is anticipating the future of television broadcasting with DVB-I. Designed to overcome technical and economic limitations in delivering high-definition content, the Jump enables users to enjoy superior viewing quality by leveraging internet connections when Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) bandwidth is insufficient. This solution, which is easy to implement and cost-effective, is compatible with 97% of smart TVs currently on the market, although the lack of uniformity among manufacturers remains an ongoing technical challenge.
The evolution of the HbbTV system is significant: from simple catch-up TV, it has become a complex platform offering Video On Demand (VOD), audience analytics, surveys, and targeted advertising. The complete transition to DVB-I in Italy is slowed down by the persistent digital divide, particularly affecting rural and mountainous areas, as well as infrastructure limitations of Internet Service Providers (ISP). A possible, though not widely implemented, solution could be IP multicast, capable of optimizing video stream distribution.
The HbbTV Jump system proposed by Rubidia supports the HLS-m3u8 standard, with latency times varying between budget and high-end smart TV models. The software continues to evolve, especially regarding advertising features developed in collaboration with Adserver.Online, to ensure targeted campaigns and accurate reporting, providing cost-effective solutions with a modest annual fee for maintenance and data analytics.