Broadcasters Moving on Mobile Video
Broadcasters are developing mobile video distribution plans to open new business lines and compete with wireless carriers. This week, Ion said it will shepherd industrywide research & development into mobile broadcasting business and technology, for which it seeks partners (CD Feb 13 p10). And last week Harris hinted it will unveil ATSC-compatible mobile video technology at NAB 2007, making it the first competition to Samsung and Rohde & Schwartz’s A-VSB technology. “It’s already our goal to set a standard for mobile and a standard for handheld TV using the core ATSC DTV standard,” ATSC Pres. Mark Richer said: “We're really just getting started on mobile and handheld. If things move very rapidly we might see a candidate standard by the end of the year. That’s pretty aggressive.”
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Mobile video broadcasting technology could reach consumers even before undergoing ATSC standard-setting, Harris Vp-Bcst. Technology Jay Adrick, who sits on ATSC’s board, said. “There’s no reason you couldn’t launch and then back into the standards process,” he said: “We're studying the necessity of that.” Commercial deployment remains far off, Adrick and others said. A-VSB is the frontrunner, after a successful Jan. demonstration at CES. The Harris technology, the first to compete seriously with A-VSB, won’t be available widely for at least 14 months, Adrick said. Harris will test it next month on high-power UHF stations in top 30 markets, Adrick said. Ion also is looking at a “long- cycle” project, CEO Brandon Burgess said: “It’s years from now, it’s not months. This is not a quick process.”
Getting broadcasters and manufacturers to collaborate, often a challenge, will speed development and rollout of mobile video broadcasting, Burgess said: “If you all of a sudden had a nationwide enablement and had device manufacturers motivated to engineer devices to those standards, you would have a much better chance to get consumer adoption.” Bringing broadcasters together will mean more consumer friendly services, he said: “A common standard is also important to get the pipe as big as it could be… [Alone], we could probably deliver 3-5 low resolution mobile streams. But if we can partners with other stations we can deliver more.”
There’s a spotty history of technological collaboration among broadcasters, as well as broadcast partnerships with consumer electronics makers. Despite tentative NAB backing, MSTV failed to organize a “broadcast lab” after CEA told broadcasters it wouldn’t match NAB’s investment (CD April 17/2003 p7). But change is afoot, said MSTV Pres. David Donovan. “The broadcast industry is becoming more involved in with investing in new technologies,” he said: “You saw it with the [MSTV-NAB] converter box. You saw it with broadcast investments in USDTV.” Ion’s plans for an R&D shop are “another extension of the broadcast industry moving forward rapidly to develop broadcast technology,” he said. NAB supports broadcasting “on as many devices as possible, and we look forward to learning more about the ION initiative,” said NAB Exec. Vp Dennis Wharton.
Billions in revenue are at stake, a spur to industry cooperation, Burgess said, calling mobile broadcasting “a new revenue stream and a content delivery model that broadcasters are currently being shut out of. Putting our heads together is an important strategic move.”
Devising ATSC-compatible mobile broadcast technology will propel adoption of ATSC outside the U.S., Adrick said. “The reason we lost Brazil is because we didn’t have a good mobile solution,” he said: “This is a good opportunity to provide that solution.”