June 22, 2012

Espial Wins Sharp Smart-TV Browser Spot

The Espial TV Browser, released by on-demand-TV software developer Espial, will power new Sharp AQUOS LED TVs in Japan, China and North America, “offering consumers the most advanced smart TV Web experience based on the open-source momentum of WebKit and HTML5,” the company says.

What Sharp wanted was a customizable user interface, HTML5 standards support for open Web browsing and advanced graphics — all in a single browser — that could span different broadcast standards and multiple geographical markets. The Espial TV Browser reportedly met these criteria with advanced Web browsing capabilities, enabling desktop browser performance on next-generation smart TVs.

The advanced graphic capabilities include such HTML5 support as CSS 3D Transforms and Canvas; fast responsive interfaces with an optimized JavaScript engine; and such additional features as websockets and geolocation.

For consumer-electronics manufacturers, the Espial TV Browser can handle regionalized broadcast content delivery, including HbbTV in Europe, CE-HTML in North America, and BML and NetTV/acTVila in Japan. A customizable user interface supports local language requirements, Web content and broadcast television for each region.

The browser is portable across chipsets and devices, which was an important Sharp requirement because its AQUOS LED TVs are based on chipsets from multiple manufacturers. The browser's software development kit simplifies integration with middleware media players, video plug-ins, and Javascript extensions.

In separate news, HDTV maker Vizio says Sceptre Inc., which sells digital TVs in the United States under the Sceptre brand, has become a licensee under Vizio's QAM patent portfolio, thus ending a two-pronged legal battle between the two.

Vizio and Sceptre had been fighting in the International Trade Commission and in U.S. District Court.

While no financial details were disclosed,  Sceptre has agreed to make royalty payments to Vizio for sales of licensed products.