Major players from the DVB-SH field joined forces at the 2008 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona to deliver the first demonstration of live Mobile TV in S-Band based on DVB-SH.
The demo, which covered the whole FIRA premises in Barcelona, used DVB-SH ready “SAGEM myMobileTV” handsets from Sagem Mobiles, empowered by DiBcom’s DVB-SH receiver prototypes.
The S-band signal was made available by Alcatel-Lucent throughout the FIRA, thanks to a terrestrial repeater network using technological elements from TeamCast (DVB-SH modulators) and UDcast (DVB-SH IP encapsulators). Abertis provided support for the installation of repeaters, cables and antennas and to access the content.
Eutelsat Communications provided the satellite capacity for the distribution to the DVB-SH terrestrial repeater network of various live Mobile TV channels including CNBC, La Sexta, Canal 300, Nickelodeon, 40 Latino, 24h TVE, Teledeporte, and Telecinco Sport.
The DVB-SH standard (Digital Video Broadcasting - Satellite services to Handhelds) is an evolution of the DVB-H standard that proponents say offers three key benefits: a much greater choice in terms of spectrum (up to 3GHz); a better spectrum efficiency, directly translating into significant cost savings; a possible hybrid satellite/terrestrial operation, to extend mobile broadcast reach all across a territory. Its technical specifications were announced by the DVB Project just one year ago during the 2007 3GSM World Congress.
In Europe, DVB-SH will use the S-Band, a frequency band at 2.2GHz available across many European countries, and Europe’s first S-Band space segment owned by a joint venture company of Eutelsat and SES Astra will be launched in the first quarter of 2009. The S-Band enables the use of the DVB-SH standard and is adjacent to the UMTS band, thus allowing reuse of existing cellular sites, towers and antennas.
In the US, the first DVB-SH operation will also be based on a hybrid system at 2.2GHz with an S-Band satellite to be launched by ICO Global Communications in March, this year.
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