As the video industry evolves, HTML5 is increasingly ascendant when it comes to service innovation. At the annual TV Connect Awards, to be held in London next week, the technology will be represented by the ARRIS DreamGallery Software application, as the winner is announced from the nominees for Best Multiscreen TV Solution.

ARRIS’ technology allows operators to personalize subscribers’ viewing experiences, on the set-top box (STB), or across multiple screens in the home. DreamGallery uses HTML5 and is cloud-based, so pay-TV providers can offer a consistent look and feel across platforms, all from a centralized, cloud-based server in the network.

But there’s also a strong monetization piece: Using DreamGallery, operators can introduce new merchandising and advertising opportunities that weren’t possible in the old EPG world. With DreamGallery’s Portal Generator, customers can define a level of on-going customization, theme, or other variables for marketing purposes, allowing them to plug in HTML5 applications and hot-deploy new applications.

And critically, DreamGallery also comes with a fully extensible software development kit (SDK) to craft—developers can leverage HTML5 to create a wealth of client-side applications and customized GUIs for the increasingly wide range of video-capable connected devices.

One of the biggest obstacles to the development of the digital video market is fragmentation in terms of devices and operating systems. Developing content for Web-based devices beyond the traditional STB requires writing for different formats for each type of endpoint, resulting in a complex, expensive process that leaves content and media companies and their app developer partners facing tough decisions as to where to put their development dollars.

HTML5 is thus emerging as the new standard for Web and video content and digital advertising because it’s more flexible than the de facto video enabler on the current Web – Flash – because it’s supported on every browser and device. That helps bridge many of the issues presented by device fragmentation.

In a recent Google (News – Alert) study, 88 percent of advertising professionals said that they believe HTML5 will have a positive impact on the advertising industry because it can act as a universal platform that lets them create content that can be synced across browsers and devices.

“HTML5 not only provides the benefit of device-agnostic creative; it also offers a platform for designing beautiful and interactive creative that can run on all screens,” Google said. “We’re seeing the move from standard banners to rich media ads on desktop already, as interactive ads provide more compelling user experiences. HTML5 allows us to continue that movement toward engaging formats for smartphones and tablets as well.”

The study found that the use of HTML5 for smartphone and tablet rich-media content development is already on par with Flash. The next step to pushing HTML5 to a tipping point requires knowledge-building however, because outsourced mobile production is an issue. About 60 percent of respondents admitted that their expertise in producing HTML5 fare is limited to non-existent.

Meanwhile, the ecosystem has good reason to light a fire under HTML. Mobile consumption of video is driving usage of TV apps, with 55 percent of U.S. smartphone owners and 61 percent of tablet owners using a TV-related app at least once a month. The number of global TV app users on smartphones will reach 1.29 billion by 2018, according to Parks Associates (News – Alert).

HTML5-based TV apps can sync across PCs, tablets, smartphones, and TVs as well, so they drive the consumption of media in new ways.

"TV app usage is altering the use cases for multiple connected devices; currently 57 percent of connected game console owners are using the device to watch TV shows," said Stuart Sikes, president at Parks Associates. "We are also seeing new revenue opportunities emerge through in-app solutions in the smart home and Internet of Things.”

Other nominees for Best Multiscreen TV Solution at TV Connect include Adobe (News – Alert) Primetime, which gives programmers and operators modular capabilities to stream, protect, analyze and monetize video across desktops and devices. It also offers the capacity to profitably broadcast live, linear, and video-on-demand programming everywhere.

The Huawei (News – Alert) Smart Video Solution meanwhile uses intelligent bit rate monitoring technology to provide smooth HD video. It also uses a smart video congregation engine, which congregates vast quantities of video content and enables users to quickly find the video they like.

The Tvinci OTT 2.0 back-end management system platform is available for use across tablets, connected TVs, set-top-boxes, PCs/Macs, and game consoles. It also has a user experience management system.

And the VCAS for Internet TV by Verimatrix (News – Alert) offers security convergence with a proactive revenue security and enhancement approach, targeted at digital TV operators with IPTV, hybrid, DVB, or mobile network architectures. VCAS integrates protection techniques for these managed networks with standards-based security for Internet TV delivery, using adaptive bitrate streaming protocols, to PCs and Macs, smart phones and tablets, as well as smart TVs/STBs.

And finally, Viaccess-Orca’s TV Everywhere Solution is a content discovery engine that allows TV viewers to find things to watch across a wide range of devices — including TVs, PCs, smartphones, and tablets.