Demonstrations at last week's IBC trade fair in Amsterdam showed that a substantial amount of progress has already been made in creating a broadband return-path for MHEG-5, the UK's digital-terrestrial interactive television standard. MHEG specialist Strategy & Technology showed a working example of such an application, with side-by-side demonstrations of the BBC's multi-screen news application on two Freeview set-top boxes - one a conventional one, the other broadband-enabled. The conventional version allows the viewer to switch between only two different screens after pressing the red button. In contrast, the broadband-enhanced one offered the same functionality as the BBC's interactive satellite service, with six separate screens. Strategy & Technology director David Cutts, who is leading a project by industry association the Digital Television Group to create the new standard, said that "quite a lot of the specification is done."
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