LAS VEGAS: More mobile DTV receivers are being unveiled today for use in a Seattle beta test later this year. That’s the word from the Mobile500 Alliance, which is demonstrating the new gear at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week. The debutante receiver is a dongle adapter for the iPad.
The adapter, powered by a Siano chip and middleware from Expway, will run on a TV app from Elgato. Expway’s Electronic Service Guide delivery server powers the MDTV head-end and provides audience metrics for local TV stations. The audience measurement part of the receiver equation was imperative for Mobile500 member stations to monetize the new service. The group said subscription, pay-per-view, and targeted and interactive ads also will be part of the eventual offering as the Mobile500 solution is deployed.
The Mobile500 exhibit also will include Opanga Networks and its NetRover Mobile content distribution platform, which utilizes the consumer’s 3G/4G/Wi-Fi connection to pre-position movie and TV content into mobile device memory. Mobile500 will be working during the beta launch in Seattle to integrate Opanga’s functionality into the consumer offering from stations. Fisher Communications will lead the Seattle launch. Sinclair Broadcasting, which has TV stations in Las Vegas, will provide the signals for the CES demonstrations.
The Mobile500, comprising 47 station groups and 427 stations, is one of two organizations actively pursuing launching commercialized mobile digital television. The other, Mobile Content Venture, recently announced a deal with MetroPCS and Samsung to get receiver-enabled mobile phones into the market. (See“TV-Tuning Phones To Hit With MetroPCS-Dyle Deal.”) The membership of the two groups is mutually exclusive, but station groups in both belong to the Open Mobile Video Coalition, which ushered in a standard for over-the-air mobile DTV.
The Mobile500 Alliance is at booth No. 13447 in the Mobile DTV TechZone in Central Hall.
~McAdams
