Introduction
In this second part of the blog I will focus on the discussion of Mobile TV broadcast standards in Europe, trying to cover the following issues: technologies, markets, and regulatory action. The reason I decide to focus on the broadcast issue is because broadcast remains the foreseeable future the most efficient way for the large-scale provision of TV service, and is still an “open” issue.
The broadcast technologies that have allowed us to watch TV in our homes, have been modified and adapted to allow mobile handsets to receive the same programs. Broadcast standards are poised to enable mobile TV for the mass market, in the same way to what high definition (digital TV) is doing for the home TV market.
Standards / Technologies
In this first part of the second part of the blog I will discuss about the broadcast technologies. Mobile TV broadcast concerns the simultaneous broadcast (delivery) of multimedia content to a big number of consumer with handset devices. So it is necessary a bearer technology to allow the TV services. This bearer technology relates to the physical and transport layer aspects, including de/modularion and transmission, content formats (audio and video), security and service description. The bearer technology is responsible for the quality of service that the consumer experiences. The following diagram shows the different layers: (TNO-ICT, 2007)
In this first part of the second part of the blog I will discuss about the broadcast technologies. Mobile TV broadcast concerns the simultaneous broadcast (delivery) of multimedia content to a big number of consumer with handset devices. So it is necessary a bearer technology to allow the TV services. This bearer technology relates to the physical and transport layer aspects, including de/modularion and transmission, content formats (audio and video), security and service description. The bearer technology is responsible for the quality of service that the consumer experiences. The following diagram shows the different layers: (TNO-ICT, 2007)
The broadcasts involve multiple technologies for mobile TV, such as digital video broadcasting for handhelds (DVB-H), digital multimedia broadcasting for TV (DMB-T), DVB-T, and analog TV, in simultaneous transmissions.
According to several news I have read on Internet (News1, News2) the European Commission (EC) is attempting to settle on a single standard for mobile TV broadcast across the European Union (EU), and it looks like DVB-H may come out on top. But the industry represented by the European Mobile Broadcasting Council (EMBC), argues that EC position is favoring a technology standard over others.
According to the study “Mobile TV” (TNO-ICT, 2007), requested by the “Policy Department Economic and Scientific Policy” of the UE, the four technologies that currently dominate the Mobile TV landscape are Digital Audio Broadcasting-Internet Protocol (DAB-IP), Forward Link Only (FLO), Terrestrial Digital Multimedia Broadcasting (T-DMB) and Digital Video Broadcast- Handheld (DVB-H). All four technologies are fully capable of supporting mobile TV.
In the next 4 entries I will discuss each of this 4 technologies that are currently dominating the market (in the UE).
References:
TNO-ICT. (2007, 10). Study: Mobile TV. Retrieved 6 31, 2009, from Study: Mobile TV: http://www.dvb-h.org/PDF/M3-3_01-07_Mobile-TV-Study.pdf
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