The RVU Alliance (RVUA) is a standards body created to manage the

RVU protocol The RVU protocol (RVU, a pseudo-acronym pronounced "R-view" ) is an Application Layer protocol, that combines the pre-existing Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) standards and a new Remote User Interface (RUI) protocol, which works similar ...

standard as used by manufacturers of

consumer electronics Consumer electronics or home electronics are electronic (analog or digital) equipment intended for everyday use, typically in private homes. Consumer electronics include devices used for entertainment, communications and recreation. Usually r ...

to allow entertainment devices within the home to share their content with each other across a

home network A home network or home area network (HAN) is a type of computer network that facilitates communication among devices within the close vicinity of a home. Devices capable of participating in this network, for example, smart devices such as netwo ...

Overview

The RVU Alliance exists to further the adoption and acceptance of the

, a communications protocol, built substantially upon the pre-existing

Digital Living Network Alliance Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA; originally named Digital Home Working Group, DHWG) was founded by a group of PC and consumer electronics companies in June 2003 (with Intel in the lead role) to develop and promote a set of interoperability ...

(DLNA) standards. The

is intended to solve the problems inherent in viewing live or recorded

digital media Digital media is any communication media that operate in conjunction with various encoded machine-readable data formats. Digital media can be created, viewed, distributed, modified, listened to, and preserved on a digital electronics device. ' ...

remotely across a

Home network A home network or home area network (HAN) is a type of computer network that facilitates communication among devices within the close vicinity of a home. Devices capable of participating in this network, for example, smart devices such as netwo ...

. For example, an RVU compliant TV will be able to view music, photos & video from an RVU compliant

media server A media server is a computer appliance or an application software that stores digital media (video, audio or images) and makes it available over a network. Media servers range from servers that provide video on demand to smaller personal comput ...

. The

specifically can deal with the passing of

broadcast video Broadcasting is the distribution of audio or video content to a dispersed audience via any electronic mass communications medium, but typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum ( radio waves), in a one-to-many model. Broadcasting began ...

coming from a

Multichannel video programming distributor Multichannel television in the United States has been available since at least 1948. The United States is served by multichannel television through cable television systems, direct-broadcast satellite providers, and various other wireline video pro ...

through a

residential gateway A residential gateway is a small consumer-grade gateway which bridges network access between connected local area network (LAN) hosts to a wide area network (WAN) (such as the Internet) via a modem, or directly connects to a WAN (as in EttH), whi ...

or dedicated

to other consumer electronic devices in the home. The

includes a pixel-accurate Remote User Interface (RUI) technology that allows the

to fully control the client user experience.

Remote User Interface

The RUI concepts makes use of a server device which implements all content bitmaps and graphics functions for a number of remote client devices. In this way a server can be used to generate a user guide experience specific to a TV service providers “look and feel”, and send that experience to a client device. The client can then display this graphics data without the need for any proprietary software from that service provider. RVU technology enables a compliant client device to offer user interface interactions such as guide, trick play, and interactive applications all without the presence of a dedicated set-top box. RVU Server devices will be provided by television content providers such as satellite, cable and telco broadcasters. Client devices such as televisions, Blu-ray players and PCs need only be compliant with the requirements of the RVU Protocol to work with an RVU server.

Aims

The published aims of the RVU Alliance are to expand the use of the RVU Protocol to enable users to: *Receive the same experience at every TV through the same look and feel *Provide access to high-definition programming from any TV in the home *Record and playback high-definition programming from any TV in the home *Access to personal media content (e.g., videos and photos) from any TV in the home *Interact with weather, enhanced sports, and other interactive applications from any TV in the home *Access content available on more devices (including personal media players and PCs)

Participating companies

There are 4 founding members:

Broadcom Broadcom Inc. is an American designer, developer, manufacturer and global supplier of a wide range of semiconductor and infrastructure software products. Broadcom's product offerings serve the data center, networking, software, broadband, wirel ...

Cisco Systems Cisco Systems, Inc., commonly known as Cisco, is an American-based multinational corporation, multinational digital communications technology conglomerate (company), conglomerate corporation headquartered in San Jose, California. Cisco develo ...

DIRECTV DirecTV (trademarked as DIRECTV) is an American multichannel video programming distributor based in El Segundo, California. Originally launched on June 17, 1994, its primary service is a digital satellite service serving the United States. It ...

, and

Samsung Electronics Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (, sometimes shortened to SEC and stylized as SΛMSUNG) is a South Korean multinational corporation, multinational electronics corporation headquartered in Yeongtong-gu, Suwon, South Korea. It is the pinnacle of ...

. As of June 2013, there are: * 10 promoter members: * 13 contributor members: The RVUA is run by a board of directors consisting of the RVUA President and representatives from the founding members. The board of directors oversees the activity of the following Working Groups: *Certification Working Group (CWG), overseeing the certification program and its evolutions. *Marketing Working Group (MWG), actively promoting RVUA worldwide. *Technical Working Group (TWG), writing the RVUA technical guidelines and evolving the

specification. *Wireless Working Group (WWG), expanding the RVUA guidelines for use in a wireless environment.

History

RVUA was formed in August 2009 as the RVU Alliance.

Specification

The

specification V1.0 is currently ratified by the board and available to members for implementation. The

specification V2.0 became available on January 7, 2013. Any product with a network interface (e.g. MoCA,

Ethernet Ethernet () is a family of wired computer networking technologies commonly used in local area networks (LAN), metropolitan area networks (MAN) and wide area networks (WAN). It was commercially introduced in 1980 and first standardized in 198 ...

WiFi Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols, based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by radio waves ...

or otherwise) can become an RVU-connected device by installing RVU compatible software. The specification is in large part dependent on the

DLNA Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA; originally named Digital Home Working Group, DHWG) was founded by a group of PC and consumer electronics companies in June 2003 (with Intel in the lead role) to develop and promote a set of interoperability ...

specification. The specification uses DTCP/IP as "link protection" for copyright-protected commercial content between one device and another.http://www.dlna.org/about_us/roadmap/DLNA_Whitepaper.pdf page 4, Table 1

Certification

The RVUA certification program went live in June 2011. Certification will involve Conformance Testing and Interoperability Testing of RVU-compatible devices. Once certified, a product is granted a license to use the RVU logo.

Products supporting RVU

The first RVU-compatible consumer products were released at the end of 2011. Se
www.rvualliance.org/products
for more details.

References

External links

RVU Alliance
{{authority control Standards organizations in the United States Open standards Digital television Digital audio Consumer electronics Beaverton, Oregon 2009 establishments in Oregon