Liberate Climbs the ‘OnRamp to OCAP’

Liberate Technologies said Tuesday that it is teaming up with several hardware vendors, broadcasters and content developers on the initial cable services for the "OnRamp to OCAP" specification.

OnRamp to OCAP is an initiative by the Java Community Process Expert Group to develop a new Java-technology-based digital-television application-program-interface standard.

Liberate said it is demonstrating applications from The Weather Channel, Buzztime Entertainment Inc. and MetaTV Inc. running unchanged on both Motorola Inc. “DCT-2000” and Scientific-Atlanta Inc. “Explorer 2000-class” set-tops, as well as on forward-looking OpenCable Applications Platform-compliant boxes from Pioneer Cable and Communications Group and Advanced Digital Broadcast.

The company added that its “TV Navigator 5” provides the industry's first implementation of the OnRamp to OCAP (JSR 242) specification, which allows cable operators to embrace the OCAP standard on set-tops they have already deployed.

Content developers can now author applications that will run unchanged on any existing North American set-top, as well as on next-generation OCAP devices, Liberate said.