[opendtv] Re: Mobile TV at the NAB Show: An Update, by Peter Caranicas
- From: "Dale Kelly" <dalekelly@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 04 Mar 2008 15:27:33 -0800
Mark,
I agree that mobile is very important to Broadcasters and, FWIW, I fully
support the effort. However we must recognize that there are others who also
wish to dominate this service and who have historically erected barricades
to our DTTV aspirations.
Of course, selecting the Zenith/LG system might significantly reduce such
opposition.
Dale
-----Original Message-----
From: opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]On
Behalf Of Mark A. Aitken
Sent: Tuesday, March 04, 2008 2:15 PM
To: OpenDTV
Subject: [opendtv] Mobile TV at the NAB Show: An Update, by Peter
Caranicas
<http://nab.tvtechnology.com/pages/s.0123/t.11421.html>
MAA - Lots of hard work underway. Q1 2009 is an important time for many
reasons, and an ability for Broadcasters to make an announcement (with
confidence) about the new Mobile/Handheld services about to be offered by
local TV Broadcasters is needed to "beat the competition" to a market that
local TV Broadcasters can dominate.
***************************************************
Technology in Focus
Mobile TV at the NAB Show: An Update
by Peter Caranicas, February 26, 2008
TV TECHNOLOGY
At last year?s NAB convention, nine of the largest broadcast groups
representing 281 TV stations formally announced the formation of the Open
Mobile Video Coalition (OMVC) as an industry alliance to promote the
development of mobile digital broadcast television in close partnership with
ATSC and NAB.
The organization lost no time in conveying a sense of urgency. A
month later OMVC wrote a letter to ATSC president Mark Richer requesting
?that you place... the highest priority on the development and ratification
of an open ATSC-M/H standard.?
Spurred by the possiblity of generating extra revenue in a
challenging and rapidly changing broadcast landscape, an additional 19
station groups had joined OMVC by July, 2007, boosting its representation to
422 stations. The coalition was also joined by APTS, which represents an
additional 361 public stations.
Just how much revenue? In January of this year a report commissioned
and released by NAB declared that ?broadcast television could reap an
additional $2 billion in annual revenue by 2012 delivering content to mobile
and handheld devices if an industry standard is adopted and technology
deployed quickly.? This assumes that an industry-accepted ATSC standard for
mobile DTV is released by early 2009 ? right around the time of the analog
shutoff ? and that ?delaying the adoption of a standard will dramatically
impact the revenue potential for both local and network broadcasters in a
negative way.?
So the pressure is on, and several manufacturers are vying to
develop systems that will be adopted as the standard. The many contenders
developing them have coalesced into three groups: a partnership between LG
and Harris is pushing its MPH (mobile-pedestrian-handheld) technology; a
similar alliance between Samsung and Rohde & Schwarz is promoting the system
known as A-VSB (advanced-vestigial Sideband); and a third contender for a
mobile DTV standard is formed by Thomson and Micronas.
At January?s CES show, OMVC announced a series of consumer trials
for later this year to determine viewer behavior and preferences with regard
to mobile video use. Prior to those trials, OMVC began its independent
demonstrations of viability (IDOV) on February 18.
IDOV?s purpose is ?to set a high bar that will make it clear to ATSC
that the technologies in all liklihood could be commercialized in time for
deployment,? explains Mark Aitken, director of advanced technology, Sinclair
Broadcast Group, and chairman of ATSC?s Mobile/Handheld Standardization
Group, ?and to establish a concensus that this isn?t just something that
looks good specification-wise, but rather that it is reliable and deployable
as hardware, and performs as expected in the field.?
Just before or during the NAB Show, ATSC expects to report those
activities? preliminary findings, says Aitken. However, that doesn?t mean
the results will be complete, as some of the laboratory testing may continue
beyond that date.
?The detailed, full report won?t be made to the OMVC board, and then
passed thru the OMVC board to ATSC, until mid-May,? says Aitken. He cautions
that the word ?test? should be avoided in describing the ongoing work
because it means something very specific within the engineering community.
?Let?s call it ?demonstration activities,?? he says. ?The real testing of
the mobile system will happen inside of ATSC toward the third quarter of
this year.?
Aitken further notes that the IDOV activity ? which is now taking
place in San Francisco, but will later shift to Las Vegas ? will help answer
some questions relating to the transmitter power needed for mobile DTV.
?This process will enable the collection of data that will give the
beginnnings of a firm understanding of the amount of power a broadcaster
needs to reach mobile and handheld devices with a viable service,? says
Aitken. ?Many stations are operating at the low-end limits of their power
authorization,? he notes, because to hit 80 percent of their audience all
they need to do is reach cable and satellite headends. ?In the case of
wireless, that low-power approach doesn?t necessarily translate to easy
delivery to small antennas in portable devices.?
As for the consumer trials, no fixed date has been set, but Aitken
believes they?ll begin in the third quarter of this year. ?Those trials are
dependent on consumer devices, and those are just beginning to show up, with
second-generation chips from Samsung and first-generation chips from LG,?
Aitken explains.
Manufacturers are hardly waiting. Harris, for example, has announced
it plans to demonstrate an MPH-ready exciter at the NAB convention that will
enable broadcasters to deliver video content to mobile devices in addition
to standard and HD digital content to home TV receivers. The new exciter,
says Harris, will allow local broadcasters to multiplex all over-the-air TV
services into a single transport stream.
--
Regards,
Mark A. Aitken
Director, Advanced Technology
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