Ten Groups Submit Mobile TV Pitches to ATSC
Nine companies and an industry consortium sent ATSC mobile DTV pitches of varying detail, as it begins work on a standard U.S. broadcasters will use to transmit their digital signals to handheld and mobile devices. Submissions came from a wide range of players. Known candidates like Samsung with Rohde & Schwarz, LG with Harris, and Micronas all sent drafts. So did Nokia, Qualcomm, Thomson, DTS Inc., Coherent Logix, Coding Technologies and the Mobile DTV Alliance.
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All the proposals are solid, but some need fleshing out, ATSC President Mark Richer said: “Some [candidates] have provided a significant level of detail at this stage, others have given just kind of an overview. They all will have to provide more detail so that our specialist group can assess these proposals.” ATSC’s request for proposals surfaced last month (CD May 21 p8), asking companies to pitch a “complete system” for offering mobile DTV within a broadcaster’s digital spectrum, but acknowledged openness to details of system components as well. It got what it sought, Richer said. Some proposals describe complete systems, others focus only on aspects of offering mobile DTV, he said without saying which. The deadline for detailed proposal descriptions is July 6.
Some proposals are notable for originating at companies with competing modulation schemes. Nokia has been rolling out DVB-H systems overseas and the Mobile DTV Alliance is pushing for broader adoption of DVB-H, a standard not now compatible with ATSC broadcasts. Likewise, Qualcomm’s MediaFLO signals cannot be read by ATSC receivers. Nokia got involved because it wants a say about the types of technologies going into its handsets, a spokesman said: “It’s important for us to have input on those standards. We're trying to make ATSC compatible and interoperable with DVB-H.”
A-VSB technology, from Samsung and Rohde & Schwarz, and Mobile Pedestrian Handheld (MPH), from Harris and LG, seem to be the most fully realized. Both alliances have demonstrated their approaches at trade shows in Las Vegas, and broadcasters are testing A-VSB mobile applications in Manhattan (CD May 25 p6). A-VSB has undergone some vetting in separate standards work at ATSC, a helpful head start, said John Godfrey, Samsung vice president of government and public affairs. “Our physical system has already gone through a lot of evaluation to prove it’s backward-compatible [with legacy ATSC receivers.]” Last week, a group of broadcasters asked the technology industry to go public with whatever technology they had, so it could be part of the process. That may have helped ATSC bag so varied a haul of proposals, Richer said.
LG and Harris Friday published some information on their joint proposal. MPH will let broadcasters adjust mobile broadcasts’ bandwidth, they said. Bitrates can vary from 200 kbps for audio or data transmissions to multiple Mbps for standard-definition video streams. And the system will let broadcasters offer multiple programming services within the mobile stream. “There is no hard limit on the number of MPH streams allowed. There is only a total data rate limitation,” they said, answering the RFP. A-VSB shares those hallmarks, Godfrey said.
The National Association of Broadcasters will help ATSC devise the new standard, it said. ATSC has to work quickly to meet broadcasters’ competitive need to offer mobile media services, NAB President David Rehr said in a release: “NAB will proactively work with ATSC at all levels to expedite the completion of the standards process.” NAB also joined the Open Mobile Video Coalition, after that group made a pitch at its recent board meeting.