Your browser is out-of-date!

Update your browser to view this website correctly. Update my browser now

×

Mobile DTV Redux Gets NAB Airing

Las Vegas – The

Open Mobile Video Coalition (OMVC)

will once
again use the NAB Show to present the latest development in the nascent
broadcast technology for handheld TVs.

This time around,
the association charged with promoting products and services using the ATSC
A/153 Mobile DTV Standard — the updated over-the-air ATSC-M/H broadcast system
that adjoins the ATSC digital television broadcasts system for in-home uses — will
showcase products and services that employ two-way back-channel support to
enable, among other things, premium TV programming, and potentially
glasses-free 3D content transmissions and interactive feedback.

Two groups of
broadcasters will also join the OMVC in a special Mobile TV Pavilion at the
trade show to present their own nuances to system, delivering different
approaches to device authentication for audience measurement and gate keeping.

These include the Mobile
Content Venture (MCV) and the Mobile500 Alliance.

 “With more than 120 stations now on the air
with Mobile DTV signals and two new business groups ramping up for launch, now
is the time to see the new products and services that will make Mobile DTV an
indispensable service,” stated Vince Sadusky, OMVC president and LIN Media CEO.
“A new range of Mobile DTV receivers will be bringing mobile viewing
innovations to viewers across the country, making local news, weather, sports,
entertainment and emergency alerts immediately available to people no matter
where they are located.”

New receiving
devices based on the ATSC A/153 standard will also be presented in a variety of
different platforms, from receivers for the car, portable TV products, iPad
accessory receivers and other mobile products designed to bring the convenience
of Mobile DTV services to viewers wherever they go. 

The MCV, currently
representing 12 major broadcast groups, will showcase its Dyle Mobile TV system
and service that will launch later this year on a range of devices, including
smartphones.

Dyle-compatible
devices will launch in 2012 across 32 U.S. markets, reaching 50 percent of the
population. Consumers will be able to watch live broadcast programming at
launch, and there are plans for additional network programming and hardware to
be added in the future.   

The Mobile500
Alliance, which is comprised of 50 member companies representing 437 TV stations,
will demonstrate its next-generation end-to-end solution for monetizing mobile
DTV. This incorporates live TV and recording of live TV, video on demand, social-media
integration, closed captioning and interactive advertising, the group said.

Audience
Measurement and Conditional Access will be introduced with soft launches
scheduled in coming months.

As for device
manufacturers, LG Electronics, in cooperation with PBS and the Corporation for
Public Broadcasting, will demonstrate the Mobile Emergency Alert System
(M-EAS).

LG is the supplier
of Mobile DTV receiving chips for many products and M-EAS is a developing
broadcast system for delivering multimedia alerts that utilize video, audio,
text and graphics to mobile DTV-equipped cellphones, tablets, laptops, netbooks
and in-car navigation systems.

The OMVC is
releasing at the show results of a viewership study it commissioned through
Rentrak showing families with children to be among the heaviest users of early
forms of Mobile TV devices. The heaviest Mobile DTV viewers (top 33 percent)
had the highest percentage of children living at home, while the lightest
viewers (bottom 33 percent) had the lowest percentage, the OMVC said.

In addition, a
2011 survey of tablet users by Google AdMob showed that 82 percent of
respondents said they primarily used their tablet while at home.  With the majority of tablet sales consisting
of Wi-Fi-only devices, Mobile DTV has the potential to extend the connectivity
and functionality of tablets outside of Wi-Fi hot spots, the OMVC said.

Supporters of
using broadcast spectrum to deliver TV content to handhelds instead of cell
transmissions, said that their approach “avoids the potential roadblocks of
chronic congestion of cellular networks during emergencies.”

Meanwhile,

Siano

,
a provider of Mobile DTV broadcast DTV solutions and receiver chips, will be
exhibiting cellphone devices outfitted with its Mobile DTV receiver chips and
middleware.

Crest Technology

will
show Mobile DTV-compliant hardware and software solutions that can be adapted
for portable receivers such as tablet computers, car navigation equipment, and
USB adapters. These include Mobile DTV-ready front-end module embedded with RF
and baseband IC’s with software A/V codec on various portable product platforms
such as tablet PC.

DTVinteractive

will show head-end solutions for broadcasters, including a multiplexer module,
a demodulator module ideal for signal repeaters and a server-client monitoring
system.

Featured

Close