ATSC

ATSC Mobilizes

Posted by samc on June 25th, 2007

The Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) said Friday it has received 10 responses to a request for proposals for its mobile and handheld standard (ATSC-M/H) for Mobile/Handheld over-the-air digital TV reception.

The ATSC-M/H standard will enable delivery of television content and data to mobile and handheld devices via broadcast DTV signals. Features of the new system may include Free (advertiser supported) television content, mobile and handheld subscription-based TV, video-on-demand (VOD), pay-per-view (PPV) and electronic sell-through (EST) services, non-real-time content download, , Datacasting, Interactive television and Real-time navigation data for in-vehicle use

Preliminary proposals have been received from the following organizations:

• Coding Technologies
• Coherent Logix
• DTS
• LG Electronics and Harris
• Mobile DTV Alliance
• Micronas Semiconductor
• Nokia
• Samsung Electronics and Rohde & Schwarz
• Thomson
• QUALCOMM

Detailed descriptions for each are due to ATSC on July 6.

The ATSC-M/H standard is actually the third standard being proposed for mobile reception. The two other standards are A-VSB developed by Samsung Electronics and Rohde & Schwarz, and MPH proposed by Harris and LG Electronics.

ATSC uses ghost-prone 8-VSB modulation rather that COFDM, but the ATSC governing board wants to keep their royalities coming. Corporate media gets local television channels free — in exchange for “public service”. Now — apparently — pay TV is classified as a “public service”, too.

All others pay cash.

You can buy news on local CBS affiliate KOIN-TV. Their Providence sponsored health segments feature Providence doctors and experts. Now that’s public service!

No timeframe has been announced for possible availability of ATSC-based A-VSB, MPH or Mobile-Pedestrian-Handheld mobile television.

Mobile television standards are already in use, of course. Dozens of cities now broadcast mobile tv using transmitters with tens of thousands of watts for reception on cellular phones. The two largest mobile television standards are Qualcomm-backed MediaFLO and the European-developed DVB-H standard.

Actually, more than half a dozen competing systems for mobile television have been rolled out. They include:

• Qualcomm’s MediaFLO
• DVB-H (Modeo, Aloha Partners, European broadcasters)
• DVB-T (Europe’s Terrestrial DTV). The DVB Project is the demonstrating a scheme that allows a DVB-T multiplex to contain one or more DVB-H services alongside a high-definition DVB-T service in the same 6 MHz channel. The co-existence of a 13.8 Mbps high-definition television signal and a 5.5 Mbps DVB-H signal within a 19.3 Mbps stream. It uses Hierarchical Modulation, embedded as a High Priority service within a Low Priority DVB-T stream.
• IP Wireless TDtv uses 5 MHz of unused spectrum for Mobile TV.
• Mobile WiMAX TV (using modified MobiTV)
• MobiTV (Sprint & AT&T)
• Verizon’s V-Cast (cellular channels)

WiMAX is two-way. It allows WiMAX television to automatically switch from unicasting to multicasting (depending on demand). That’s more flexible than either cellular (unicast-only) or broadcast (multicast-only). Nokia plans to sell WiMAX phones by early next year.

source : dailywireless.org