itaas, a provider of end-to-end iTV solutions for the digital TV industry, has joined hands with interactive TV media company BIAP  in a bid to add BIAP’s Enhanced Binary Interchange Format (EBIF) platform and its associated development tools to itaas’ istart developer program. 

 

The agreement is expected to broaden development opportunities for enhanced television (ETV) applications and will allow itaas and BIAP, the first company to deploy EBIF marketwide on Cisco (News - Alert) set-top boxes, to work together to advance the development of new EBIF-based applications and services.

 

The istart developer program, based on the currently deployed BIAP EBIF platform, enables the deployment of interactive and enhanced television applications on Cisco’s digital set-top boxes (STBs). 

 

“Offering BIAP’s EBIF Platform and tools under the istart umbrella opens up yet another door for application developers,” said Jaspal Bhasin, chief operating officer of itaas. “Developers looking to write EBIF applications can now turn to itaas for tools and support across multiple platforms and set-top box types. BIAP’s strength and resources in enabling EBIF on multiple platforms adds another compelling incentive to MSOs, application and content providers.” 

This is a significant step for the application developers as the joint initiative enables itaas to provide support, expertise and resources to developers who are creating compelling EBIF applications.

 

With additional deployments of BIAP’s EBIF platform across both legacy and next generation Cisco STBs, application developers will also be able to reach millions of Cisco STBs in subscriber homes.

Developers who join the istart BIAP EBIF program will gain access to development tools, documentation, software upgrades and support for the BIAP EBIF platform and companies will be able to utilize itaas for assistance in architecture, design, development, and testing of new applications. 

“We are thrilled to work with itaas to expand the developer community for EBIF applications,” said Aaron Ye, chief technology officer of BIAP. “Leveraging itaas’ application development and support expertise along with BIAP’s EBIF technology and commitment to open standards, we hope to foster a vibrant developer community and accelerate the development and deployment of new, compelling and revenue-generating EBIF applications.”

In addition to providing the cable industry with a CableLabs (News - Alert) standards compliant EBIF platform for Cisco, Motorola and tru2way set-top boxes, BIAP also offers AdWidgets, which is an EBIF and SCTE 130 standards-based interactive advertising system, from campaign management to delivery to viewer measurement.