Second Round of Mobile DTV Testing Commences in Las Vegas
A second round of side-by-side tests of three mobile DTV systems being considered for adoption as an industry standard was to begin Saturday in Las Vegas. The tests, run by the Open Mobile Video Coalition on behalf of the Advanced TV Systems Committee, mark the latest phase of an aggressive schedule intended to allow broadcasters to offer mobile DTV service soon after the analog cutoff. Similar tests in San Francisco ended earlier in March. Meanwhile, engineers in Washington have been holding marathon meetings, including an eight-hour session last week at NAB’s office, a six-hour March 11 meeting at the PBS office and a 10-hour-plus March 10 meeting at Wiley Rein. ATSC’s board is to meet Tuesday at NAB.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Communications Daily is required reading for senior executives at top telecom corporations, law firms, lobbying organizations, associations and government agencies (including the FCC). Join them today!
The Las Vegas tests will include receivers developed by Thomson and Micronas that weren’t ready for the San Francisco tests, said Richard Fiore, Thomson senior director of sales in transmission and mobility. “We were late to the game,” he said. “Our receiver is now working… we're hoping to get some very positive results.” The Micronas system will be judged against A-VSB, a technology by Samsung and Rhode & Schwartz, and joint Harris-LG offering MPH. An interim report on progress in the tests, dubbed Independent Demonstration of Viability, is due Friday to OMVC’s board. OMVC will deliver a final report to ATSC May 15. “We will be providing results on all three technologies,” said the coalition’s new executive director, Anne Schelle.
OMVC officials have been working nights and weekends to make sure that testing goes smoothly and that a business plan is developed in time for deployment, Schelle said. “There’s an incredible commitment to get things done,” the wireless industry veteran said. “It reminds me a lot of digital PCS when that was launched. [Everyone] recognizes that it’s a huge opportunity and both the manufacturers and service providers realize that and they want to make the timing happen.”
Mobile DTV offers broadcasters a chance to reestablish themselves as DTV gatekeepers, a role effectively ceded to pay-TV operators such as Comcast, Verizon and Dish, said Media General Senior Vice President of Broadcasting Jim Conschafter. He made the comments at the NAB Futures Summit this month in Monterey, Calif., a copy of the presentation shows. Besides the direct viewer relationship mobile DTV affords broadcasters, it also has new public service functions, he told the group.
“Unlike broadcast TV, where our signal often goes through a cable headend or a satellite provider, we'll be going directly to the viewer,” Conschafter said in an interview. Wireless carriers will ultimately be involved, but mobile DTV devices won’t be limited to cellphones, he said: “There will have to be business partnerships developed between the carriers and the broadcasters… We're certainly optimistic those partnerships will form.”
The OMVC has had discussions with Sprint and AT&T, Conschafter’s presentation said. The group also has reached out to Motorola and other handset makers and auto makers like GM and Honda, as well as Intel, Microsoft, Texas Instruments and other companies. Planning consumer trials this summer of mobile DTV, OMVC now is selecting markets in which to run those tests, Schelle said.