In the past year, Mobile TV watchers have double for three to currently seven millions and TV network people have great hopes for 2007. I must admit that I am surprised with these figures. One of the many Mobile TV flavors in the market is “Modeo” and they have put up a trial network in New York market and are soon expected to start in other markets as well. So far, they have not been successful in tying-up with any mobile carrier which making it a hard sell for them but I think their underlying technology is proven and cost-effective.
Modeo is based on DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcasting - Transmission System for Handheld Terminals) that is offshoot of DVB-T (DVB-T (Digital Video Broadcasting – Terrestrial). The digitization of traditional broadcast systems has made significant progress in recent years. This development could be observed recently with respect to the standard for digital terrestrial television, DVB-T, which is already in operation in many countries throughout the world. Currently, the system is being rolled out in Germany and the UK (the Freeview DTT platform). DVB-T has also started in the Netherlands and Italy and was announced to start in France in early 2005; further countries have plans to start services in the near future. In many countries, the decision to select DVB-T as the terrestrial television system was based on the exceptional features of the DVB-T standard, among them the possibility to receive broadcast services also with portable devices and even in cars.
Meanwhile the benefits of a powerful terrestrial broadcast system like DVB-T have attracted the interest of the mobile communication industry. In particular, the ability to reach mobile terminals via a wireless point-to-multipoint link, in connection with wide geographical coverage and high transmission capacity that DVB-T can offer, are features which have sparked the interest of this industry. The international DVB Project has responded to the industry interest by specifying a new transmission standard: DVB-H. DVB-H is the latest development within the set of DVB transmission standards. Work on the technical specification started in autumn 2002 and was finalized in February 2004; the DVB-H standard was finally published by ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute) as a European Norm in November 2004 [1].The DVB-H technology is a spin-off of the DVB-T standard. It is to a large extent compatible with DVB-T but takes into account the specific properties of typical terminals which are expected to be small, lightweight, portable and – very importantly – battery-powered. DVB-H can offer a downstream channel at a high data-rate which will be an enhancement to the mobile telecommunications network, accessible by most of the typical terminals. Therefore, DVB-H creates a bridge between the classical broadcast systems and the world of cellular radio networks. The broadband, high- capacity downstream channel provided by DVB-H will feature a total data-rate of several Mbit/s and may be used for audio and video streaming applications, file downloads and for many other kinds of services. The system thereby introduces new ways of distributing services to handheld terminals, offering greatly-extended possibilities for content providers and network operators.
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