[opendtv] Re: News: DTS May Hold The Key To Mobile DTV
- From: Bob Miller <robmxa@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 26 Feb 2010 10:42:02 -0500
Ridiculous, didn't cost anywhere near that to connect sites with DVB-T
and with DVB-T2 it would be the same or less with some years having
passed.
Bob Miller
On Fri, Feb 26, 2010 at 8:28 AM, Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> http://www.tvnewscheck.com/articles/2010/02/24/daily.17/
>
> TECH SPOTLIGHT
> DTS May Hold The Key To Mobile DTV
> By Jim Barthold
> TVNewsCheck, Feb 25 2010, 9:41 AM ET
>
> Distributed transmission systems, the cellphone approach to broadcasting,
> could give a boost to mobile DTV as broadcasters attempt to reach on-the-go
> viewers with rock-solid signals.
>
> "DTS is just going to be required [for mobile DTV]," says David Neff,
> president of Axcera, a Pittsburgh-based transmitter manufacturer. "It's not
> going to work any other way."
> Story continues after the ad
>
> Mobile requires "a good, reliable over-the-air signal that has to be
> ubiquitous," he says. "If you want to have reliable coverage you really are
> more compelled to do a service that broadcasts from multiple sites and
> multiple transmitters."
>
> DTS, otherwise known as single frequency networks, was conceived nearly a
> decade ago as an alternative the tall tower approach that broadcasters have
> been using for the past 90 years.
> DTS comprises a network of transmission sites - antennas on relatively short
> towers driven by low-power transmitters and interconnected via microwave,
> landline or satellite.
>
> With the advent of digital TV receiver technology, such networks can make
> use of a single frequency to cover a market just like conventional big-stick
> broadcasting.
>
> The FCC authorized use of DTS in February 2009 and 17 stations have filed
> applications to build systems, including a few that had been experimenting
> with the technology for years.
>
> However, DTS pioneers are finding that DTS is not practical for conventional
> broadcasting.
> "It still costs way too much to implement," says Russell Rockwell, chief
> engineer of Penn State's noncommercial WPSU State Colleage, Pa., the first
> experimental DTS in the country.
>
> Rockwell is using DTS to feed to fill in coverage in the challenging Nittany
> Valley terrain around State College, conceding that some viewers who could
> see WPSU's analog signal cannot see its digital one.
>
> But he shelved the idea of using DTS to cover the Altoona market 45 miles
> from the main transmitter site because it would cost about $500,000 to link
> the transmitter sites.
>
> "The promise is there but I believe the manufacturers need to reach a point
> where they can put up a distributed transmission site for the cost of a
> translator - $20,000-$25,000," he says.
>
> Costs are such a concern that many broadcasters won't even consider DTS,
> says an engineer with a national broadcast firm speaking on background.
>
> "There's not a willingness to go out on a limb and try this technology in
> places other than where you have mountain ridges between transmitters," he
> says.
>
> Still, in spite of the costs, many see DTS as the key to mobile DTV where
> having blanket coverage is critical since viewers will not tolerate having
> their pictures fizzle as they walk down the street or ride along in a car.
>
> "You need very high field strengths over your entire service area to attain
> reliable network service," says Merrill Weiss, president of Merrill Weiss
> Group, and a longtime DTS proponent and patent holder. "If anything, mobile
> will be the driver for using single-frequency networks."
>
> Tom Long, director of engineering for Long Communications' WHKY Hickory,
> N.C., received FCC approval for his DTS last May and plans to deploy the
> service in the fall. He hopes it will improve reception of the main signal,
> but his real goal is to lay down a ubiquitous mobile DTV signal.
>
> "We think the technology is going to go handheld," he says. "We want to
> cover the entire Charlotte market on a single frequency and have 90 dB or
> more on most signal levels."
>
> Long acknowledges that deploying DTS is "not the cheap way to go." A 47-mile
> microwave link cost $100,000 and brought the cost of a single DTS site to
> about $250,000, he says. That's why Long whittled back his original plan
> from four sites to two and also why he'd like some other Charlotte stations
> to join him in building and sharing a system.
>
> "This is the way everybody will eventually have to go," he says. "If
> somebody wants to buy space on my microwave, I'll offer to lease space."
>
> Because it is expensive and because mobile DTV can be initially deployed
> without it, DTS may continue to sit on the technological back burner for a
> little longer.
>
> But it should finally have its day.
>
> Says Jay Adrick, VP of broadcast technology at Harris: "When mobile comes
> along and there are receivers out there, there will be quite a few stations
> that end up deploying DTS."
>
>
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