The results are in for Singapore Digital’s 18-month TV2GO mobile TV trial, designed to gain technical experience in delivering high-quality DVB-H services as well as road testing a range of interactive services. It’s also garnered some useful market feedback on mobile TV applications, content and viewing habits.
“We have conducted extensive field-testing in regions surrounding apartment blocks and shopping centers to gain insight into the degree of signal penetration by the outdoor network,” said Giulio Dorrucci, CEO of Singapore Digital.
“The unique layout of HDB apartment blocks [the massive, high-rise apartment buildings where most Singaporeans live] poses special challenges for reception on mobile devices. We’re very interested in what consumers will be expecting from a commercial service. A high proportion of mobile TV content is viewed indoors, so it’s going to be critical to design commercial networks that provide high-quality reception on handsets inside buildings and on public transport.”
Currently free to anyone in Singapore with a DVB-H enabled handset, the TV2GO service trialed a variety of content and interactive functionality from providers including CNBC, Bloomberg, Disney, ESPN and WOWTV by Kamera. Viewers could also partake in experience interactive chat-room services, on-demand videos and Web links, teletext-to-mobile and real-time voting on reality TV shows.
Now that’s the trial’s over, when will Singaporeans get the real deal? Singapore Digital reports, “Soon.”
For more information, visit http://tv2go.sg/home.html.
