With cable operators, application developers and consumer electronics companies ramping up their tru2way deployment efforts, Motorola announced today that it has released a software development toolkit designed to test and debug tru2way applications.
The kit, which is called DevPlatform for OCAP, includes a Windows PC-based set-top Simulator and an MPEG Transport Stream Section Generator. With the toolkit, Motorola said developers can write, compile, load and run OCAP applications on both the simulator and the company’s OCAP set-top environment without needing an actual headend or additional software licenses.
Vidiom and itaas also have development kits for tru2way.
Tru2way is the consumer-oriented name for the OpenCable Application Platform (OCAP), which was originally part of the broader OpenCable initiative that CableLabs launched in 1997 to promote the deployment of interactive services over cable. OCAP consists of a stack of middleware software that resides between applications and the operating system within a consumer electronics device, such as a set-top box or OCAP-compliant TV set.
The nation’s top-six cable providers – Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cox, Cablevision, Charter and Bright House Networks – have committed to support the tru2way platform on systems covering more than 90 million U.S. homes by the end of this year. Currently, Time Warner Cable has tru2way deployed on more than one million set-top boxes.
The six-largest cable operators and CableLabs have also signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with a number of consumer electronics companies, including LG Electronics, Sony and Panasonic.
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