Broadcasters Begin Judging ATSC Mobile-Handheld Systems in San Francisco
A group of broadcasters began a field test of three competing mobile DTV technologies being considered for an industry standard. The Open Mobile Video Coalition is doing the test in San Francisco this week for the Advanced TV Systems Committee, which will set the standard. Another round of field and lab tests will occur soon in Las Vegas, with a preliminary report due March 15 to ATSC, ATSC President Mark Richer said during a BIA Financial webinar. The coalition is confident its participation will help yield a standard for commercial deployment soon after the February 2009 DTV switch, said Dan Hsieh, a consultant to the group.
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Three San Francisco stations are involved in the tests this week, Hsieh said. The idea is to evaluate side by side a technology by Samsung, Rohde & Schwarz and Nokia against entries from Harris and LG, and Micronas and Thomson, he said. The tests are for reliability and power use, among other factors. A full report on the results won’t be prepared until May, after the NAB convention, he said.
Marketing of mobile DTV already has begun. Harris and LG have been running ads in the broadcast trade press touting their Mobile Handheld Pedestrian system. But less than 30 percent of broadcasters plan to offer mobile service after the DTV transition, a Harris survey found. (See separate report in this issue.)
Whatever technology ATSC chooses, it probably will be a building block, with features added later, Richer said. “It’s likely to support basic functions such as real time linear programming,” he said. Other features, such as datacasting, pay-per-view and VoD, may not be in the first version, he said. Broadcasters want more than a bare-bones standard to start, he said. “There’s a lot of input from broadcasters that version 1.0 needs to have certain functionality such as audience measurement capabilities. Some think digital rights management should be included. Those are decisions that are different than the basic technology choices” and shouldn’t interfere with narrowing the field so ATSC can do its work on schedule.
Coalition research picks conventional linear programming as the most popular on mobile devices, Hsieh said. “Consumers like what they get at home right now,” he said. “That’s what they respond to best. They like what they're used to.” BIA expects local TV stations to see ad sales grow $1.1 billion yearly 2012 if introduction of a mobile DTV service goes smoothly (CD Feb 1 p5).