MeeGo TV working group established
March 23, 2011
From IP&TV World Forum
The Linux Foundation, the nonprofit organisation dedicated to accelerating the growth of Linux, has revealed the formation of the MeeGo Smart TV Working Group.
MeeGo is an open source Linux project targeting multiple segments including automotive systems, netbooks, tablets, TV’s, and set-top boxes, among others, and uses Qt to enable cross-device applications. The Working Group is designed to help drive the evolution of MeeGo within the television ecosystem and provide an open framework for industry creativity and innovation.
Early Working Group participants include some pioneers in the Smart TV industry and represent leading service providers, system integrators, hardware platform manufacturers and solution providers that include: Amino Communications, Intel Corporation, JetHead Development, Locatel, MIPS Technologies, Nokia, Nokia Siemens Networks, Sigma Designs, Telecom Italia, Videon Central, and Ysten, among others.
Working Group members will define software components and a compliance programme as well as focus on building an innovative and thriving ecosystem of developers and content providers with leading capabilities and tools.
“The Smart TV segment is growing fast, and with it comes both opportunity and complexity,” said Ibrahim Haddad, Director of Technical Alliances at The Linux Foundation. “MeeGo is built from the ground up to address next-generation computing in multiple market segments like Smart TV and is intended to help advance Linux in this burgeoning market in the year ahead.”
According to The Linux Foundation, the transition to Smart TV will introduce dramatic changes to the television industry and will provide new programming, application and services opportunities to the entire ecosystem of service providers, content creators and distributors as well as to hardware and software developers. MeeGo Smart TV specifications are designed to provide an open framework to enable this community to drive these innovations to consumers.
The MeeGo Smart TV Working Group will begin defining software components providing platform standardisation, while giving developers the ability to focus on competitive differentiation within the TV market segment with tools such at Qt.
Members of the Working Group will submit code, which upon acceptance will be made available to the industry via MeeGo.com on a twice a year release cadence (Q1 and Q3). The first MeeGo Smart TV Working Group meeting will be held in April 2011.