April 15, 2004
Technology in Focus features analysis of recent technology news articles, by the consultants in Technology Group, IDA. This is the top pick of the month from a list of 10-20 news analysis compiled monthly.
Nokia, Philips, Universal, Vodafone in Video Partnership, 17 Mar 04
by Steven Ong, ENAT Consultant
Status quo
During the last decade, the digitalization of content has made tremendous impact on the broadcasting landscape around the world. Digital broadcast technologies, such as the European Digital Video Broadcasting Terrestrial (DVB-T) standard, American Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) standard and the Japanese Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting - Terrestrial transmission (ISDB-T) standard, moved TV broadcast into the digital age.
A key advantage of the DVB system is the ability for transmitters to operate on the same frequency. The TV Mobile system that is widely used on the public buses as well as the MRT system in Singapore makes use of Digital Video Broadcasting Terrestrial (DVB-T) which is also the adopted Standard for Singapore's digital television. The DVB-T network consists of a main transmitting tower and a few filler sites strategically placed around Singapore to achieve perfect island wide coverage. Buses plying along their route receive TV signals from these transmitters and with overlapping coverage; signal is received from one or more transmitters. This ensure un-interrupted signal reception which is essential for heavily built up areas such as the city central in Singapore where high-rise buildings create multiple reflections and signal blockage.
Digital TV signal being less susceptible to ambience interference as compared to analogue signal used by current TV system in Singapore, clearly is more suitable for TV program reception in fast moving vehicles such as buses, trains and cars. The use of a Single Frequency Network (SFN) solution as supported by DVB-T therefore becomes the only practical option to achieve perfect coverage.
Evolution
Taking the DVB concept one step further is the emerging IP Datacast technology, an enabler for the broadcast of digital content, such as TV, to mobile receivers. The technology is based on a combination of the emerging digital video broadcasting for handheld devices (DVB-H) standard and Internet Protocol technology (IP), and is optimized for mobile content distribution and reception. The DVB-H standard is being developed by the DVB Organization and was approved in February by the DVB Technical Module. This marked the last stage before DVB member companies can proceed to devise products and services that exploit the standard.
Similar to digital content distributed on the Internet, IP Datacast delivered its content in the form of IP data packets. The advantage in this being all IP-based digital content, in addition to traditional TV content is available for broadcast. As a result, the consumer can experience the best combination of broadcast and multimedia content with their mobile handset. Bandwidth wise, for a 20 minute broadcast, (identified as the optimum time for viewing) transmission via a standard TV broadcast over DVB-T would take 3.5mbps but over IP datacasting just 380kbps. An IP datacasting specification is being developed by the DVB, with the first draft expected by the end of 2004.
Other than being an optimized broadcasting technology for constrained devices, an integral part of the mobile IP Datacast concept is the availability of an interactive or return channel to take mobile TV viewing beyond passive consumption. The broadcast content would be delivered via the broadcast channel, but the possible interactivity, such as content purchasing or viewing additional info, would take place over a return channel over the cellular network (e.g GPRS/EDGE/WCDMA). The broadcast and cellular networks complement each other and can be used to create a wide range of new content and services for consumers, starting with mobile phone TV.
Trials
Among the biggest of DVB-H pilot projects already under way is the "Pan European Instinct Project", which started with a bang on Jan 1 with a guarantee of 96 million euros in matching funds from the European Union (EU). Instinct includes more than 20 companies and several universities in most of the EU countries, plus the United States and Brazil. Projects like Instinct, a similar trial called FinPilot run by the French TDF Group in Finland, and the Broadcast Mobile Convergence (BMCO) effort in Berlin, all have a similar aim - to extend the reach of broadcast video and audio into mobile devices - beginning with mobile phones. As it is, the Nokia 7700 complemented by the Nokia streamer SU-6 accessory is already capable of receiving DVB-H content.
Many in the industry have expressed optimism in the emerging DVB-H market, and according to Jukka Henriksson, chairman of DVB's DVB-H project, market studies have shown that "The public would be very keen to have TV on their mobile phones". However, as with all emerging technologies such expectation should not be over hyped. In any case, broadcast licensing in addition to data connection charges still needs to be reasonably low before we can expect mass consumer acceptance for such services.
Some words about the writer
Steven Ong is a consultant with the Technology Group, tasked with the responsibility of identifying, tracking and exploring leading edge enabler technologies in the mobile wireless arena. He is currently looking at areas such as Digital Rights Management, wireless security as well as smartphone application platforms.
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