scope:

The present document is the sixth in a series of "S-series" specification documents produced by the TV-Anytime Forum. These documents establish the fundamental specifications for the services, systems and devices that will conform to the TV-Anytime standard, to a level of detail that is implementable for compliant products and services.

As is common practice in such standardization efforts, these specification documents were preceded by requirements documents ("R-series"), which define the requirements for the TV-Anytime services, systems, and devices.

Congruent with the structure defined in the initial TV-Anytime Call for Contributions (TV014r3), these specifications are parsed into three major areas: Metadata, Content Referencing, and Rights Management and Protection. Within these general areas, four specifications have been developed to date: TS 102 822-3 sub-parts 1 [12] and 2 [13], TS 102 822-4 [14], TS 102 822-6 sub-parts 1 [15] and 2 (the present document) and TS 102 822-7 [16]. A specification for TS 102 822-5 is still under development. See the several TV-Anytime Calls for Contributions for more detail on the derivation and background of these categories and their respective roles in the TV-Anytime standardization process.

The first two documents in the TV-Anytime S-series are intended to define the context and system architecture in which the standards in TS 102 822-3-1 [12], TS 102 822-3-2 [13], TS 102 822-4 [14], TS 102 822-6-1 [15], TS 102 822-6-2 (the present document) and TS 102 822-7 [16] are to be implemented in "Phase 1" of the TV-Anytime environment. The first document in the series (TS 102 822-1 [25]) provides benchmark business models against which the TV-Anytime system architecture is evaluated to ensure that the specification enable key business applications. The next document in the series (TS 102 822-2 [11]) presents the TV-Anytime System Architecture. These two documents are placed ahead of the other three for their obvious introductory value. (Note that TS 102 822-1 [25] and TS 102 822-2 [11] are largely informative documents, while the remainder of the S-series is normative. Also note that a "Phase 2" of the TV-Anytime process is currently underway, in which additional requirements and specifications that will build on Phase 1 are being developed. Readers are encouraged to check the TV-Anytime Forum's website at www.TV-Anytime.org for the most recent status of its specifications.)

Although each of the S-series documents is intended to stand alone, a complete and coherent sense of the TV-Anytime system standard can be gathered by reading all of the Phase 1 specification documents in numerical order.

The scope of the present document, comprises the delivery of TV-Anytime metadata and content referencing information via a bi-directional network using a PDR's return path.

The requirements for this technology are outlined in the TV-Anytime Forum's Requirement Series R-1 document [10]. The following paragraphs from those requirements give an overview of the return path's use.

"The consumer can get more information about the programme from either the content provider or from a programme information service offered by a third party. This could include programme specifications (such as source, duration, format, storage location, etc.), programme schedules, commentary, critiques, liner notes from the provider or third parties, etc." "A Return Path is a data connection from a consumer's home digital storage system (e.g. PDR) to one or more service providers.

The return path gives the consumer access to interactive content, such as the Internet and interactive television. It also allows service providers to access consumer profile/preference information in order to make business decisions regarding content that is provided to the consumer."

The present document describes a client-initiated means for requesting metadata from, and submitting user-centric data to, IP based web services. In the present document, these web services are termed "metadata services". The specification also defines a means for describing and discovering such metadata services, but does not address the unidirectional delivery of metadata over IP networks, or the delivery of content over IP networks. A more complete definition of the scope of this work, along with the system requirements, may be found in document TV150, "Requirements and scenarios for the bi-directional transport of metadata" [3].