The BBC have given a sneak view of the Project Canvas Internet tv standard, and its looking good. Erik Huggers, the BBC Future Media & Technology director showed a demo to the C21Media conference in London today.

The demo showed a the new IPTV standard in all its interactive, cross-platform glory and showed how the Beijing Olympics would look on Canvas. Viewers would be able to watch instant highlights, send to friends, check out the Twitters, look at previous archives at the touch of a button and use commercial third party applications and services.

Also announced was the relaunch of the iPlayer with social content-sharing features, a newly developed Nintendo Wii player app and an intuitive multimedia search facility for bbc.co.uk.

Of course the future of Canvas is still in doubt, despite the flashy demo as the BBC Trust considers whether to back the project or scrap it. Huggers gave an impassioned plea for the industry and regulators to get behind the project: “Unless we succeed in getting Canvas through, that whole market will be fragmented—you would have multiple ways of achieving the same thing.” If Canvas fails, he argues, broadcasters would shoulder additional costs of reformatting new devices. “There could be a horizontal level playing field for everyone and I think that’s worth fighting for.” Update: The BBC contacted us to point out that this is only a demo of what people could expect from a Canvas product and is by no means the finished article.

Canvas looks great and whether it continues in its present incarnation or not, the technology will live on in other forms.

Read the full Project Canvas demo story – http://www.broadbandgenie.co.uk/broadband-news/BBC-relaunches-improved-iplayer-channel-on-the-wii

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