The Open Mobile Video Coalition (OMVC) said will test two new mobile digital television technologies in separate consumer trials in 2008.
The technologies, MPH (Mobile-Pedestrian-Handheld) jointly developed by LG Electronics and Harris, and A-VSB developed by Samsung Electronics and Rohde & Schwarz, have performed well in preliminary technical trials conducted by OMVC members, the coalition said.
The focus of the new trials will be additional technical trials and tests of each with consumers in an effort to understand consumer acceptance, behavior and preferences regarding possible mobile television services and performance criteria.
The OMVC and the leaders of each set of trials will select several test markets. A sample of consumers will be chosen to receive and test mobile video content that will be broadcast to mobile and portable receiver devices, such as cell phones, personal media players and laptop computers.
Consumer test participants will be able to watch a selection of local and national content and access interactive services. Usage will be tracked to monitor and better understand consumer preferences. At the end of the trial, the OMVC and its partners will be able to predict consumer usage patterns and system performance to support the launch of mobile digital television services targeted for 2009.
Certain broadcasters among the 800 OMVC member stations will be selected to provide the transmission infrastructure and local content for the trials in each market. As one of the content sources for the OMVC’s consumer trials, SES AMERICOM will provide mobile broadcast network platform services and aggregate and distribute national content via its IP-PRIME service.
In MPH trial markets, Harris will provide MPH in-band digital television transmission equipment and LG Electronics will provide MPH consumer receiver devices. In A-VSB trial markets, Samsung’s partner, Rohde & Schwarz, will provide transmission equipment based on the A-VSB in-band mobile digital television system and Samsung will provide A-VSB consumer devices.
For more information, visit www.openmobilevideo.com.
