Deutsche TV-Plattform and the Digital Television Group have opened their 2026 Plugfest at Fraunhofer FOKUS in Berlin. The working event runs from 12 to 14 October, followed at the same venue by the HbbTV Association Testing Event from 14 to 16 October.
Participants bring hardware, software, content or implementations that are close to market readiness and test them directly against systems from other manufacturers. This year's scope covers HbbTV, streaming, immersive audio, DVB-I and UHD-HDR operation over HDMI.
The format matters because hybrid television failures often appear at the boundaries between service discovery, applications, receivers, streaming components, audio formats and display signalling. Slot-based cross-vendor testing can expose those integration problems before devices or platform changes reach viewers. The HbbTV-only portion will also validate the next HbbTV Test Suite.
The organisers have not identified participating products or published test results. Attendance is restricted to active participants, the work is covered by a participant agreement and HbbTV findings will be shared with the association only in anonymised form. The event therefore confirms the test scope and process, not that any named device has passed or that interoperability issues have been resolved.
