Humax keen to start on Project Canvas box

Humax is champing at the bit to make a Project Canvas set-top box, with UK commercial Director Graham North telling TechRadar that internet services are the most exciting development on UK television's radar.

Stating that Humax will not be producing any new products for the UK that do not have some form of internet connectivity North believes that the BBC's Project Canvas project cannot come soon enough.

"Broadband, or internet services in general, are to us the most exciting next development," said North.

"It's a big change for the consumer in terms of how they access content and all of our products developments globally now are going to be hybrid-type products.

"There are very few markets where we are developing broadcast only products. When it comes to next generation products everything we are launching in the UK will have Ethernet connection because we see that everyone wants to have some form of connectivity for that product."

Trust in progress

Like most manufacturers, North is keen to see the result of the BBC Trust's delayed second consultation on Project Canvas – the venture that may unify the industry around a set of guidelines to bring IPTV and the power of the internet to the television.

"In principle all that Canvas is, is some form of set of standards, a platform and trying to put some quality controls on it," added North.

"Anyone can go along and put their own content on that platform provided it meets certain criteria – it's just creating a way of providing a service in the future and anything that's going to help bring a connected service and get it to market quickly is a great thing.

"If you add that service to your product: something that's going to be good quality and add decent content and be managed properly then that's important.

"I guess potentially the next generation products are already along the vein of Project Canvas, technically speaking."

An industry waits

"Obviously at the moment Project Canvas is still going through the BBC Tust and until that happens none of us know exactly what to expect," North stated.

"It's a process it has to go through but once it goes through that process and we see what the recommendations are then we'll know where we stand on it.

"[The BBC has] obviously extended the secondary consultation but hopefully major delays won't be necessary so the industry can get on with it.

"The industry in general just wants to producs products that can deliver the next generation of features and services.

"Obviously within the industry there are concerns about what those standards and things are but my understanding is that that platform or standard is not supposed to exclude anyone."