[webtv-ws3] Summary of The Third W3C Web and TV Workshop

Summary of the Third W3C Web and TV Workshop

19-20 September, 2011
Hollywood, California, USA

Hosted by Comcast Cable

Overview
---------

Following the success of its regional workshops in Tokyo, Japan [1]
(September 2010) and Berlin, Germany [2] (February 2011), the W3C (the
World Wide Web Consortium) held the Third Web and TV Workshop -
"Entertaining Content" - on September 19-20 in Hollywood, California,
USA hosted by Comcast. The main focus of the third workshop was to
gain diverse regional perspectives from industry stakeholders and
specific use cases and requirements from the content creators and
distributors, many of whose are headquartered in North
America. Together with the first and second workshops, this third
event helped to complete the global and diverse industry perspectives
that W3C brings to its work.

The detailed minutes from the workshop are available at:
 http://www.w3.org/2011/09/webtv/minutes.html

Also the HTML version of this summary, which includes links to
detailed discussions on each use case/requirement, is available at:
 http://www.w3.org/2011/09/webtv/summary.html

In the previous two workshops, participants identified opportunities
for convergence of Web and TV infrastructure and began identifying
technical challenges. The goal of the third workshop was to continue
the global conversation about the convergence of the Web and TV and
its impact on the needs of content creators and distributors. The
needs brought forward during the two-day workshop were subsequently
discussed by the W3C Web and TV Interest Group face-to-face meeting
immediately following the workshop.

Workshop Participants
----------------------

The workshop had 147 attendees from key stakeholder industries
including:

- Television Broadcasters
- Browser vendors
- Cable television operators
- Consumer electronics manufacturers
- Content providers
- Video service providers
- Semiconductor manufacturers
- Research institutes
- Software vendors
- Standardization organizations
- Telecommunications companies

Please see also the attendees list at:.
 http://www.w3.org/2011/09/webtv/attendees.html

Executive Summary
------------------

The Third Web and TV Workshop put a spotlight on significant gaps
between the Entertainment Industry's and the Web community's
experiences, perspectives and expectations. While participants all
embraced the current and future benefits of the W3C's Open Web
Platform based on core Web standards such as HTML5, CSS and SVG, they
acknowledged that closer collaboration of stakeholders in the entire
ecosystem is needed to bring desired results to fruition faster.

Video content and distribution requirements, as well as device and
content security challenges were identified as key priorities. Greater
contribution of concrete, specific use cases and requirements from
content creation and distribution organizations as well as
contribution of technical staff resources are needed in order to
accelerate the standards development work. Additionally, browser
vendor companies and the developer community needs to understand the
unique challenges that the Web and TV convergence represents.

The workshop included a variety of presentation topics and formats,
including keynote presentations, short presentations, moderated panel
discussions, demonstrations and audience participation. The keynote
speaker Sree Kotay, Comcast, expressed a strong sense of urgency for
the industry to make Web and TV convergence work, or watch the
opportunity pass by. W3C's CEO Jeff Jaffe explained how the Open Web
Platform is transforming broadcasting, entertainment and home network
industries as well as many other industries. Philippe Le Hegaret
provided deep technical overviews of the current and future Web
standards work that are the foundational building blocks for the Open
Web Platform.

The co-chairs of the W3C Web and TV Interest Group provided status
reports on the Media Pipeline and Home Networking Task
forces. CableLabs' CTO Ralph Brown lead a discussion panel whose
participants represented consumer/end user, content creator and
distributor points of view. Subsequent sessions provided a variety of
demonstrations, technical presentations and panel discussions.

Key take-aways from the workshop included:

- Agreement of the potential to leverage existing technologies, e.g.,
  HTML and CSS, and not reinvent the wheel.

- Combination of multiple input modalities, e.g., text, voice and
  Braille, would be useful.

- The Home Network Task Force of the Web and TV Interest Group will
  bring their requirements to the Device APIs Working Group, and see
  whether the requirements are in scope of the Working Group or not.

- Regarding captioning, a Community Group was proposed. The Web Media
  Text Tracks Community Group started on September 30.

- There is strong need for adaptive streaming in standardized way,
  which is addressed in the Media Pipeline Task Force.

- Further investigation of the existing implementations and
  conversations with other standardization bodies are needed,
  particularly regarding new APIs for TV services.

- The Media Pipeline Task Force is investigating requirements for
  standard APIs for control of and error reporting from DRM systems.

- There is an issue of privacy on Parental Control that needs further
  study.

- Emergency response requirements are important but need more
  analysis.

- Clear use cases and requirements that address the gaps between the
  existing technology are needed. Greater participation among all the
  stakeholders is required to achieve success.

Specific conclusions and actions:

- The Open Web Platform has strong potential and is on the right
  track, though there needs to be even stronger collaboration within
  the W3C and with the community.

- The Web and TV Interest Group will discuss the issues from this
  third workshop during its first F2F meeting on September 21-22, and
  see what has been done by the existing Task Forces, what additional
  work the group can take on, and what work is out of scope or needs
  more resource support.

- The W3C will hold the Technical Plenary and Advisory Committee
  Meeting (TPAC) 2011 on October 31-November 4 in Santa Clara, and
  many W3C Working Groups will have their F2F meetings
  there. Representatives from the Web and TV Interest Group will meet
  with related Working Groups during the Technical Plenary meeting
  week to discuss the Web and TV requirements with them.

F2F Feedback and IG Report
---------------------------

The Web and TV Interest Group discussed all the topics from the third
workshop during its first F2F meeting on September 21-22, and decided
on next steps for each topic, e.g., submit functional gaps to Working
Groups or create new Interest Group Task Forces. The conclusion is
included in the group's September Report at:
 http://www.w3.org/2011/webtv/wiki/Web_and_TV_Interest_Group_Report_201109

Please note that all the requirements raised during the previous
workshops (=Tokyo workshop and Berlin workshop) were also discussed
and categorized during the F2F meeting, and have been included in the
above group report.

Requirements and functional gaps identified in the group report are
being discussed with W3C Working Groups, which define new standards
for the Web.

[1] http://www.w3.org/2010/09/web-on-tv/summary
[2] http://www.w3.org/2010/11/web-and-tv/summary

Yosuke Funahashi, Giuseppe Pascale, Mark Vickers, Karen Myers and Kaz
Ashimura, Workshop Organizing Committee

--
Kaz Ashimura, W3C Staff Contact for Web&TV, MMI and Voice 
Tel: +81 466 49 1170

Received on Tuesday, 1 November 2011 12:27:09 UTC