Espial, a specialist in on-demand TV software and solutions, has announced that Steve Morris, systems architect, has been named as a member of the HbbTV (Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV) steering group and will chair the association’s Spec Group Terminals Task Force. The HbbTV Association is a pan-European initiative dedicated to providing an open standard for the delivery of broadcast and broadband services through connected TVs and set-top boxes.

“HbbTV is a global approach to TV innovation with a solid footprint in Europe and interest growing steadily around the world,” said Klaus Illgner, HbbTV Chairman. “As a founding member, Steve has been an active contributor and evangeliser of the HbbTV specifications since the beginning. We look forward to benefitting from his leadership and helping us to expand the adoption of HbbTV into other parts of the world.”

Steve Morris is 20 year veteran in the digital TV industry and a founding member of HbbTV. He has been a major contributor and spec editor for digital TV standards around the world and is co-author of the book, Interactive TV Standards: A Guide to MHP, OCAP, and JavaTV.  Steve currently serves as systems architect at Espial, where he is responsible for defining the software architecture and roadmap for user experience products and leading the company’s standardization activities.  He specializes in working with the following standards-based technologies: HbbTV, HTML5, OIPF, Digital TV, MHP, MPEG, DVB, ATSC, IPTV, HTML, CSS and JavaScript.

HbbTV is an industry standard that provides an open and business neutral technology platform that seamlessly combines TV services delivered via broadcast with services delivered via broadband and also enables access to Internet-only services for consumers using connected TVs and set-top boxes. The standard is deployed in various European countries and a large majority of all connected TV sets sold in Western Europe implements the HbbTV standard.

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