NAB 2009

NAB 2009

Posted by Sam Churchill on April 20th, 2009

At the 2009 National Association of Broadcasters convention in Las Vegas this week, manufacturers are showing off the latest in mobile television, IPTV, and 3-D television. Over the past 80 years, the NAB Show has evolved from a small, broadcast-centric show into a wide ranging assemblage of industries.

About 90,000 attendees and 1,500 exhibitors are expected at this year’s NAB. Some 16 special pavilions will be spread across the entire Las Vegas Convention Center, occupying more than 800,000 square feet of exhibit space.

The Advanced Television Systems Committee (ASTC) has approved the Candidate Standard for mobile tv, which provides television broadcasters a technical scheme to deliver TV content and data to mobile and handheld devices utilizing a small portion of their 6 MHz DTV channel. LG and Harris are the primary developers .

The emerging ATSC Mobile DTV Standard is expected to be formally ratified by early third quarter with the initial release by 31 December 2009. It supports over-the-air delivery of digital broadcast content to cell phones, laptop computers, netbooks, handheld PDAs, portable media players and gaming devices. It would (probably) be “free”, and allow broadcasters to stream one or two channels from their local transmitters.

It would compete with subscription-based FLO TV (formerly MediaFLO) using UHF Ch 55, and MobiTV, using cellular networks. Broadcasters hope to launch mobile DTV on over 60 stations in 22 cities, covering about 35 percent of US television households by the end of this year.

Washington DC was announced today as the first city to get Mobile TV, although WRAL, the CBS affiliate in Raleigh, N.C., has already started mobile DTV broadcasts (see Dailywireless: Bus TV in Raleigh).

The consumer trial in the greater Washington, D.C. market, encompassing the ninth U.S. media market, will go live in late summer. Fox Television Stations’ WDCA-DT, Gannett Broadcasting’s WUSA-DT, ION Media Networks’ WPXW-DT, NBC Universal’s WRC-DT, PBS’ WHUT-DT and MHz Networks, Sinclair Broadcast Group’s operated WNUV-DT and National Datacast are initial participants. The coalition anticipates adding more stations to the trial in the near term.

Mobile TV vendors smelled heat with lots of streaming media announcements.

• MobiTV announced a new service called MixTV which combines free over-the-air DTV broadcasts with on-demand content using the WiMAX network. MobiTV may work with content from PBS and the CW networks, paired with a seven-day on-demand window via mobile WiMax.
• Expway says it powers more than 12 Mobile DTV booths at NAB’09 with its FastESG ATSC-MH Service Guide solution. FastESG is the first Mobile TV Service Guide and allows delivery of a Program Guide and Logos, as well as pay services, Music & Video Clip downloads, Weather forecasts, News reports and Sport statistics.
• The 4Caster C4 encoder and M2 mobile encoder, from Envivio, support the proposed ATSC Mobile DTV candidate standard for mobile television broadcast in the U.S.
• Axcera will demonstrate its complete end-to-end ATSC Mobile DTV transmission solution at NAB 2009. The solution comprises the company’s ATSC Mobile DTV Pre-Processor/Multiplexer for combining terrestrial and mobile content along with an electronic service guide (ESG) into a single transport stream, feeding an ATSC broadcast transmitter
• UDcast introduced an ATSC Mobile solution is a continuation of their efforts in DVB-H and DVB-SH. UDcast is a pioneer in the creation of mobile TV standards that have enabled the development of mobile TV ecosystems through partnerships with major telecom and broadcast infrastructure providers.

The first-wave list of Mobile TV broadcasters includes at least one broadcaster in seven of the top 10 markets, including the largest, New York City (WPXN-TV). Not included is Los Angeles (DMA no. 2). The smallest market on the early-rollout list is Toledo, Ohio (DMA no. 73) and the market with the most commercial commitments so far is Columbus, Ohio (DMA no. 32)—with its ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC and CW affiliates on board.

National Datacast isn’t mobile television, but operates in a similar manner. It uses DTV to multicast data over the PBS television network. It’s a commercial subsidiary of the Public Broadcasting Service.In deciding how to allocate their 19.4 Mbps DTV bitstream, TV stations will have a variety of content mixes that include HDTV, mobile and SD broadcasts, and datacasting.

Broadcast group owners think they should have exclusive and indefeasible free access to the public airwaves at no cost to them. Meanwhile they propagate falsehoods about white spaces proposals. Broadcasters generally define “public service” as what makes them the most money. Period.

The 3D pavillion features software, editing and display solutions to create cutting-edge 3D content. Exhibitors include 3ality Digital, 3DTV and Electronics & Telcom. Research Institute (ETRI).

European broadcaster Sky has already begun testing over-the-air transmissions of a 3D TV service and various manufacturers, including Mitsubishi, have produced 3D-capable sets.

Next3D, that follows the H.264 specification, today announced the first 3D Movie players for Sony PS3 game consoles and Apple computers. The free downloadable player software, combined with Next3D’s content delivery service, will allow consumers to download and play full 1080p theatrical 3D high-definition movies and other 3D content on PS3’s, Mac computers and, as previously announced, XBOX 360’s. It uses shutter glasses.

In IPTV, Yahoo is also offering widget technology for TVs, which it co-developed with Intel. The Yahoo Widget Channel provides access to Flickr, Yahoo News, Yahoo Weather and Yahoo Finance, USA Today, YouTube, eBay and Showtime Networks, among others. Motorola, Samsung, and Toshiba are all planning to add Yahoo Widgets on some of their new TVs.

Adobe announced today its latest version of its Flash for Internet connected TVs as well as set-top boxes, Blu-ray players, and other digital home devices. The main purpose of the TV and consumer electronics optimized Flash is to allow viewers to see high-definition video, interactive applications and new user interfaces right on their TVs. Adobe executives said they believe that the technology will be available by the holiday 2009 season within the U.S., and will be first installed directly into televisions.

As part of the announcement, the company revealed a number of partners that plan to use the technology, including, Intel, Comcast, Disney Interactive, Netflix, Atlantic Records, and the New York Times Company.

In other news, MotoSAT, debuted its Messenger series of auto pointing Ku-band antennas. Messenger supports high definition broadcasting (MPEG-4), satellite newsgathering (SNG), and video conferencing using a 1.2 Meter or .98 Meter reflectors.

The Television Bureau of Advertising says ad revenue at the US’s largest stations has slid 9.3% decline for the fourth quarter of 2008.

Mark Shubin explains, “This much is known about the future: It’s unpredictable”.

source : dailywireless.org