ATSC Group to Analyze Data Prompting LG-Samsung Partnership
A report by a broadcasters’ coalition recommending the most viable mobile DTV transmission system among three being reviewed will factor heavily into Advanced TV Systems Committee deliberations on setting a U.S. standard for mobile and handheld DTV broadcasting, ATSC President Mark Richer said in an interview Thursday. “The report makes some significant findings and recommendations that if they're confirmed by our specialist group will have a significant impact on our work on decision making,” he said, declining to discuss details. The report, delivered May 15 to ATSC, is said to have named LG and Harris’ Mobile Pedestrian Handheld system the best, prompting Samsung to offer elements of A- VSB, a competing system it devised with Rohde and Schwarz, to LG (CD May 15 p2) or (CED May 15 p1).
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The ATSC subgroup studying the transmission standard, also referred to as the physical layer, meets Tuesday to go over the test results. The tests were run in San Francisco and Las Vegas by MSTV for the Open Mobile Video Coalition. “Over the coming weeks… they'll hopefully finalize the basics of the physical layer,” Richer said. “Documenting the details of that into a standard is not an overnight thing. And of course the group has the higher level layers to make decisions on.”
The LG-Samsung combination leaves Samsung’s other partners in the A-VSB initiative weighing options. All parties to the ATSC mobile standard process expect that development to benefit broadcasters, they said. The Nokia- backed Mobile DTV Alliance, which initially endorsed A-VSB, recently changed strategy on mobile DTV to focus on an open, interoperable common service layer to speed availability of live services, a spokesman said. “The MDTVA is actively seeking a common service layer that can be harmonized across all bearer technologies and works with other organizations to help facilitate the common layer,” the spokesman said. Nokia was to have a device at the MPH booth at last month’s NAB convention but didn’t, an industry source said. “They didn’t show up with it but they made it clear that while the A-VSB initiative was showing them as strong supporters, they were in fact neutral,” the source said.
Rohde and Schwarz plans to build mobile broadcast gear to the standard ATSC selects, Program Manager Dave Benco said. “Our customers will be able to turn to us for ATSC Mobile/Handheld equipment in time to deploy the services for next year,” he said. “That won’t be an issue.” Thomson, which with Micronas developed a third mobile DTV system, still hopes to see aspects of its technology included in the final standard, said Richard Fiore, Thomson senior director of sales for transmission and mobility. “Thomson stands ready to work with all companies to introduce feature sets of our system that would enhance the combined efforts of LG and Samsung,” he said.
Increased activity around Mobile DTV at ATSC has prompted more broadcasters to join the group, Richer said. The full ATSC membership, which includes companies and trade groups as varied as NCTA, Microsoft and Kenwood, must approve the standard by a two-thirds majority. In the past month at least 9 broadcast groups have joined ATSC, Richer said. “Many of them at the executive level see this as the key to their future,” he said. “To make it all work, I think the broadcasters realize they need a standard that is ubiquitous, just as that was important to HDTV.”