HDVSL

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HDVSL stands for High Definition Video over Subscriber Line. HDVSL is an Indian standard which has been specifically developed to address the need for a terminal free computing experience on television type display devices such as cathode ray tube based televisions and LCD televisions. The Technology Development Board of the Government of India conferred the National Technology Day Award on 11th of May 2008 on the inventor for developing and commercialising the HDVSL standard - marking the first official recognition of the Indian Government to the new standard for interactive video. The standard uses ITU's H.264 compression codec and is likely to be G.HN compatible when the G.HN standard is officially announced.

The HDVSL technology stack is very similar to a standard DSL stack with a dslam at the telco end and a DSL modem at the home end. However it is also deployable over legacy coaxial cable and electricity networks. The HDVSL modem does not require any kind of terminal in the home such as a PC or set top box. The modem connects to a display and input device directly. At the HDVSL Dslam end - the stack requires an application server which provides a remote computing interface for standard computing applications and interactive video services. The HDVSL Dslam generates and transports a "push video" stream to the home. The HDVSL stack is currently based on Microsoft standards compliant products - and an open source option is likely to be available soon.

India has over 2.5 million DSL subscribers, 80% of which are on the ADSL2+ standard. Indian DSL penetration has been limited by the absence of personal computers in Indian homes. Only an estimated 3 million of the 200 million Indian homes own a computer. Most Government plans to increase PC penetration in recent years have failed. Reasons for failure include the cost of a PC, language, computer illiteracy etc.

HDVSL is an Indian DSL standard, which successfully addresses this problem. The HDVSL standard operates a 36 Mbit/s duplex ethernet link - and the HDVSL modem has a direct connection to a display eliminating the need for a terminal or client altogether in the home. The HDVSL modem also acts as a set top box and DSL modem substitute for home internet connectivity on a television screen. HDVSL has an estimated 250K homes under deployment in India and China - mostly over a fourth wire - the intercom wire which is used for in-building security systems. The HDVSL standard is likely to see large scale commercialisation in 2008. In addition, there have been several startups which attempt to provide thin client and remote computing based solutions. HDVSL developers like Cheekotel have integrated the HDVSL stack into their remote computing and interactive video solutions. Cheekotel's HDVSL compliant network can do things like get a remote operator to find something for you on the internet and then transfer the page to your PC or television, thus significantly easing the process to find relevant rich media information on the internet. This approach however has raised fears that operators like Cheekotel will build and maintain proprietary search engines which will finally have to be paid for.

HDVSL stands for High Definition Video over Subscriber Line. HDVSL is an Indian standard which has been specifically developed to address the need for a terminal free computing experience on television type display devices such as cathode ray tube based televisions and LCD televisions. The HDVSL technology stack is very similar to a standard DSL stack with a Dslam at the telco end and a DSL modem at the home end. The HDVSL modem however does not require any kind of terminal in the home such as a PC or set top box. The modem connects to a display and input device directly. At the HDVSL Dslam end - the stack requires an application server which provides a remote computing interface for standard computing applications and interactive video services. The HDVSL stack is currently based on Microsoft standards compliant products - and an open source option is likely to be available soon.