TARA Systems > News

News

New Embedded Wizard V6.10: Menus, editor, virtual keyboard and fancy lightweight 3D animation

It enables more flexible, powerful and comfortable GUI development for embedded platforms than ever before. EmWi V6.10 enhances the class library 'Mosaic 2.0' with additional widgets and templates, e.g. for menus, panels and dialogs, a multiline editor with text navigation and zoom, and more. Full version and a free trial version can be found at our download center.

 

conplement AG audits TARA's 'way of working'

In Summer 2011, conplement AG, a leading provider of consulting for software engineering and process optimization, has assessed TARA's software processes for one of TARA's key customers. As a result, conplement confirmed, that TARA's management culture, processes, methods and tools for embedded software engineering constitute an enormous advantage over its competition.

 

Embedded Wizard's Graphics Engine 2.0 available for many new chipsets and OS

To continue the further expansion of Embedded Wizard in Consumer Electronics, Industrial, Automotive, Home and Medical appliances, EmWi is now available for many new chipsets, various operating systems, e.g. Linux, Android, Apple iOS and WindowsCE, as well as graphics APIs such as OpenGL and DirectFB.

 

TARA Systems teams up with major CE manufacturer: Significant improvements planned for Inaris DVB Middleware

Since 2008, TARA has developed and continuously extended its Inaris DVB/PVR Middleware. Amongst TARA's customers, the Inaris Middleware is well-known for its modularity and portability, the sophisticated software architecture and the automatic system and unit testing. Now TARA teams up with a major CE manufacturer to integrate and extend the Inaris Middleware for various DVB Set-Top Box product lines, including PVR and HbbTV enabled devices. Based on that cooperation, the following extension will be realized in the upcoming month:

  • Preparation of Inaris Middleware for embedded Nagravision integration
  • Extensions for HD+
  • Preparations of Inaris for CI+ integration

The first release of the extended Inaris Middleware is planned for end of Q1/2012. It will provide a robust, flexible and well-tested DVB middleware solution to customers, who plan to develop a dual tuner PVR Set-Top Box with CI+ and Embedded Nagra.

 

TARA contributes to next generation HbbTV developments

The importance of HbbTV accross Europe is constantly growing and thus, also TARA Systems increased its various activities in this area. In 2011, TARA became a member of the HbbTV consortium.


Now, TARA is part of HBB-Next, a new EU-funded initiative for future improvements of HbbTV, together with broadcasters, universities and manufacturers. The initiative researches and develops new solutions for e.g. multi-user scenarios, user identification and personalization, as well as content distribution amongst various different device types. Furthermore, TARA teams up with Astra Platform Services (APS) to improve DSM-CC Object Carousel distribution and reception.

 

DSM-CC Object Carousel Receiver Component for HbbTV, MHP in TV sets and STBs

For most interactive TV applications, DSM-CC object carousels are the standard way to receive application data from the broadcast stream. DSM-CC is used in e.g. HbbTV, MHP, DBook, ATSC, and GINGA in Brazil. Besides it's popularity, the implementation of reliable DSM-CC software is quite complex, requires an expert knowledge and is often underestimated by developers.

To speed up the software development for interactive TVs and STBs, TARA now presents the Inaris DSM-CC Receiver as completely independent implementation of the DSM-CC object carousel standard. It is fully compatible with HbbTV and MHP and was designed as robust and reliable stand-alone component for integration into customers' TV/STB middleware: one flexible and robust solution for several interactive TV scenarios.

 

HbbTV Application Testing demonstrated at Hybrid Workshop 2011 in Potsdam/Germany

tl_files/modern_blue/tara/hbbtv_logo.png

The Hybrid Workshop 2011 in Potsdam on 06. April, organized by the "Deutsche TV Plattform" attracted over 100 marketeers and engineers, which are active in HbbTV application development and related areas. On that occassion TARA Systems contributed with a paper about its current HbbTV testing and monitoring strategy. It ranges from TARA's DiVi software tools for e.g. analysis and generation of AIT data to application testing and monitoring on a real DVB-S HD Set-Top Box, which is based on TARA's own HbbTV implementation and includes a web-server to access the monitoring data from PC.

As the importance of HbbTV is growing, not only in Germany, and more and more applications are developed, also the need for efficient application testing increases. TARA Systems, who is also active in the HbbTV Testing Group, will furthermore support these needs with tools and solutions. For further information please contact us.

Flexible and independent HbbTV receiver solution +++ Solutions for HbbTV Application Testing & Monitoring

tl_files/modern_blue/tara/hbbtv_logo.png

February, 2011: TARA Systems has reached a significant milestone in its own HbbTV receiver software implementation. In March 2011, TARA Systems will release the first browser-agnostic and middleware-independent HbbTV solution available in the market, to provide flexibility and planning reliability to CE manufacturers.

Besides the HbbTV receiver solution, TARA has extended its DiVi Test Tools, to enable the generation of HbbTV signaling inside DVB transport streams for test purposes. Furthermore, TARA currently develops an "HbbTV Testbox" intended to enable HbbTV application testing and transmission monitoring e.g. for application developers and broadcasters.

DiVi Software Tools V3.0 for improved DVB Receiver Testing

DiVi Logo

December 2010: We are happy to announce the release of the latest DiVi Software Tools Version 3.0 for improved DVB receiver testing. The new version now support the application information table (AIT) for HbbTV, the related content table (RCT) for Freeview+ in the UK and UTF-8/16 string encoding for international language support.

The DiVi Software Tools V3.0 is now available at our download center. For download details, price and purchase conditions, please see:

HbbTV Receiver - important milestone reached

tl_files/modern_blue/tara/hbbtv_logo.png

In July 2010, TARA has announced the development of its new HbbTV Receiver, a stand-alone component, which enhances DVB middleware stacks for HbbTV reception and works with a CE-HTML compliant web browser. Since that, the HbbTV feature has gained an enormous level of awareness in the industry, public and press, especially during the IFA and IBC fairs. TARA Systems also has received many customer requests for its HbbTV Receiver and now has decided to enhance it for HbbTV PVR Profile. For details, please see:

Inaris DVB Middleware with Freeview+ HD support

Freeview+ HD LogoTARA Systems has extended its Inaris DVB Middleware with support for Freeview+ HD, in order to provide a flexible and robust DVB solution for manufacturers of HD DVB recorders for the UK market. The extensions enable features like CRID-based series recording, SD/HD simulcast, split events, alternatives, recommendations and conflict management.

Besides the Inaris DVB Middleware, TARA has also extended its DiVi test tools with Freeview / Freeview HD support.

TARA Systems presents an open-standards, browser-agnostic HbbTV Receiver solution as stand-alone component or integrated with its Inaris DVB Core.

In spring 2010 TARA Systems has joined the group of official HbbTV supporters and now has started developments for its new HbbTV Receiver. It enhances existing DVB software solutions with full support for HbbTV applications, services and portals. The HbbTV Receiver will be available in Q1/2011 as extension for TARA's own Inaris DVB Core or as stand-alone component for third-party or customer-specific DVB middleware solutions. A first implementation will be exhibited at IBC, Amsterdam in September 2010.

TARA Systems' browser-agnostic receiver solution is designed to work with CE-HTML compatible web browsers, e.g. WebKit, Opera or ANT Galio. As reference implementation and starting point for customers, a framework with WebKit support will be available. Thus the solution is tailor-made for manufacturers, which plan to add HbbTV functionality to their products with minimal costs of integration, development and licensing.

Based on TARA's modular software architecture, the HbbTV Receiver consists of the following three modules: The Application Manager handles the signaling and lifecycle management for HbbTV applications. The Object Carousel Receiver is responsible for the retrieval of the HbbTV content. The HbbTV adaptation layer provides the interface for a CE-HTML capable web browser. All modules, including the Object Carousel Receiver are own implementations by TARA Systems, optimized for embedded systems and verified with automated unit tests.

TARA plans to enhance their DiVi Test Tools for HbbTV support, e.g. to enable analyzing and generation of DVB transport streams with HbbTV specific SI data. This provides manufacturers with the ability to test their HbbTV Receiver integration and implementation e.g. in system and unit tests, in laboratories and factories.

New Embedded Wizard Website: Find facts, demos and help easier!

July, 2010: TARA's GUI development tool Embedded Wizard has grown over the past years in functionality, versatility and available resources, like documentation, examples and demos. Now, TARA has launched an own, specialized Embedded Wizard products website to make all tool related information available easily in one place. The new website www.embedded-wizard.de also reflects the many different industries - besides Consumer Electronics - in which Embedded Wizard can be deployed, e.g. industrial and home automation or automotive appliances. Especially for Embedded Wizard users, the website provides a new Help & Support section, including a helpful collection of frequently asked questions (FAQ). Find out more at:

New "DiVi ToolsDiVi Analyzer": The small & fast TS to XML converter for DVB-SI data analysis

July, 2010: As part of its DiVi Tools for DVB data testing, TARA Systems has released the DiVi Analyzer: a useful, fast and small analysing tool for DVB service information (DVB-SI). With a single mouse-click, it extracts the SI data from a DVB transport streams (DVB-TS) and converts it into a readable, well-structured XML file. Now, developers and testers of DVB receiver hardware/software can check SI data faster and find inconsistencies easier.

DiVi Analyzer supports many different SI data tables and especially enables the automatic decoding of the Huffman-encrypted SI data in BBC's Freeview HD (DVB-T2) broadcast. DiVi Analyzer is also part of the DiVi Software Tools, a package of encoders and decoders, which besides the SI data analysis also enables the generation of own DVB transport stream files.

New "DiVi Software Tools V2.0" for Freeview HD Receiver Test

April, 19th. 2010: TARA has now released the new V2.0 of its DiVi Software Tools, in order to enable testing and quality assurance for DVB-T2 receivers. The new version supports e.g. the decoding and analyzis of service information (SI & PSI) in Freeview HD streams, encoded with specialized BBC Huffman tables. This facilitates the detection of SI related issues, e.g. erroneous data in EPG, program lists and recording lists, enormously. Besides that, new DiVi Software Tools V2.0 support the analyzis and generation of all relevant descriptors and tables as specified in D-Book 6.1.

If you are interested in the new DiVi Software Tools V2.0, there are three ways to obtain them, depending on your purchase of a previous version of DiVi Software Tools:

  • New Customers: If you purchase DiVi Software Tools for the first time, we offer the full version for 2.780 Euro excluding VAT.
  • Existing Customers, purchase before April, 1st. 2009: If you own a previous version of DiVi Software Tools, we offer an upgrade version for 695 Euro excluding VAT.
  • Existing Customers, purchase after April, 1st. 2009: For customers, which have purchased DiVi Software Tools within the last year, we offer a free upgrade via our download center: DiVi Download Center (Registration required)

Inaris DVB Solution for Freeview HD Receiver Products

April, 19th. 2010: With its Inaris DVB Core, TARA now offers a flexible and well-tested software stack for Freeview HD reception. It has passed the relevant test cases for SI and PSI data in DTG's Freeview HD test suite. The testing with the Evora Test Suites especially for UK and France are currently ongoing. Furthermore TARA plans the extension of Inaris DVB Core and the Inaris PVR Extension towards Freeview+ HD support.

The Inaris DVB Core is an integrated package of modular, well-tested DVB components, including DVB service management, extended Electronic Program Guide (EPG), Teletext (L1.5/L2.5) and DVB Subtitles. It provides a ready-to-use software fundament for products with DVB reception, but also a flexible framework for innovative extensions to manufacturers, which are looking for differentiation. The Inaris DVB Core has also been prepared for hybrid DVB & IP environments.

Embedded Wizard enables attractive User Interface designs on Toshiba TX09 Platforms

Embedded Wizard on Toshiba TX09Embedded Systems with LCDs and touch screens are becoming more and more attractive for a large number of products in industrial automation, home appliances and related areas. Especially for manufacturers, which have to deal with graphical user interface development for the first time ever, it is very important to choose the right tool right from the beginning, in order to create attractive GUIs with a managable effort. TARA Systems will offer its GUI development tool "Embedded Wizard" also for these markets in the future and now introduces a port for the Toshiba TX09 chip family. Thus, a professional tools, which has been successfully established amongst manufacturers of TV sets and Set-Top Boxes, is now available also for graphical applications in other fields.