The Service List Registry supports the DASH open international standard for streaming media.
DASH, Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP, is an open international standard for delivering audiovisual media online. It enables adaptive bitrate streaming, allowing playback to adjust to network conditions in real time for a consistent viewing experience.
DASH was developed by the MPEG working group and was first standardised in 2012 through the International Standards Organisation as ISO/IEC 23009-1. It is recognised by the International Telecommunications Union for use in international broadcasting and streaming systems.
As a published standard, DASH is suitable for interoperable deployment in regulated markets and is used by many public broadcasters for this reason. DASH is also widely adopted by global online video platforms, including YouTube and Netflix, and is supported by many consumer devices and smart televisions.
DASH is a media packaging standard that defines how audiovisual media is segmented, described, and delivered online. It is compatible with widely supported video compression schemes, including AVC (H.264) and HEVC (H.265), along with audio codecs such as AAC and Dolby AC-4.
DASH supports optional digital rights management and is compatible with multiple systems such as Widevine, PlayReady, and FairPlay, using MPEG-CENC Common Encryption and the Common Media Application Format, CMAF. This allows encrypted content to be securely delivered across different platforms.
The DASH Industry Forum, DASH-IF, an industry initiative formed to promote adoption and interoperability, continues to support the development and deployment of DASH-based services.
DVB-I supports a specific profile of this standard known as DVB-DASH, defined by the DVB Project in ETSI TS 103 285, which was first published in 2014. This ensures interoperability with compatible receivers and consistent behaviour across services that follow the DVB-I specification. It has formal provision for access services, including subtitles and audio description.
While DVB-I assumes support for DASH, other proprietary formats such HLS or HTTP Live Streaming, developed by Apple, may be needed for broad compatibility. DVB-I allows for such extensions to ensure services remain accessible across a broad range of devices. The SLR Unified Service Platform fully supports these extensions.
In practice, it may be necessary to support HLS in addition to DASH, particularly if there is a requirement to reach Apple devices, which do not provide native support for DASH.
Media can be encoded once and packaged for DASH and HLS delivery using a common segment format. When using CMAF, shared media segments can be referenced by separate manifest formats, enabling efficient multi-platform distribution.