ATSC approves DASE standard

[Gregg Lengling]

Digital-TV and high-definition-TV over-the-air broadcasts took another step toward offering interactive content when the Advanced Television Systems Committee approved the "DTV Application Software Environment, or "DASE," standard.

"Broadcasters will be able to offer interactive-television services and know that consumer-electronics equipment will be able to receive and process the interactive content correctly," ATSC president Mark Richer said. "That's important for any medium, but especially for broadcasters because they want to be sure the content will run correctly on TV sets from all different manufacturers."

Receivers and set-top boxes that are DASE-capable still need to be designed and manufactured, but Samsung Electronics America Inc. and LG Electronics demonstrated prototypes during the World Cup in Korea. TV receivers will need to be DASE-compatible in order to receive the content, so it will be another differentiator in DTV and HDTV manufacturing.