The Open IPTV Forum (OIPF) has successfully concluded its first Interoperability Event, in which participants could conduct detailed interoperability testing between consumer terminal equipment and IMS-based IPTV middleware and gateways.

Participants in the event, which was held in Berlin on November 16th-20th, included OIPF members such as Ericsson, Fraunhofer FOKUS, Motorola and Sharp.  Other members of the Open IPTV Forum in attendance to observe the proceedings included Fastweb, France Telecom, Telefónica, Telecom Italia, Allion, Amino, LGE, Pirelli Broadband Solutions and Samsung.

“This is a major milestone for the Forum to move within two years from specifications to implementations," said Yun Chao Hu, President of the OIPF.  "I hope that the enthusiasm of the participants will infect everyone to continue to participate in future events and add to the portfolio of OIPF-based interoperable implementations.  With the availability of test specifications scheduled for mid-2010 and a certification program that is in the process of being defined, we expect service providers to feel confident about moving towards OIPF-based deployments."

The Open IPTV Forum is a pan-industry initiative formed with the purpose of producing end-to-end specifications for IPTV that will take the next generation of IPTV to the mass market.