The Digital Video Broadcasting Project, an industry-led consortium of more than 250 broadcasters, manufacturers, network operators, software developers, regulatory bodies and others in more than 35 countries — is aggressively promoting DVB-H for mobile TV applications. More than 30 vendors exhibited the technology at the 3GSM trade show last week in Barcelona.
The group said extensive trials and pilot services across five continents are confirming the technical capabilities and economic advantages of DVB-H, a non-proprietary open standard. Contending the technology offers the lowest power consumption with the highest data throughput, the group said it offers four times more capacity than competitors with up to 60 channels per multiplex.
DVB-H receiver chips are available from several vendors (DiBcom, Philips, Samsung, Siano, ST, TI, Freescale, Microtone, etc.), while headend equipment is commercially available from more than 50 vendors.
In the United States, a new organization has been created to promote the growth and evolution of DVB-H. The Mobile DTV Alliance includes Intel, Modeo, Motorola, Nokia and Texas Instruments.
DVB-H is defined as a system where the information is transmitted as IP datagrams. Time-slicing technology is employed to reduce power consumption for small handheld terminals. IP datagrams are transmitted as data bursts in small time slots. The front end of the receiver switches on only for the time interval when the data burst of a selected service is on air.
For more information, visit www.dvb-h-online.org.
