Government sets up Ottawa testbed to showcase mobile DTV to broadcast industry

Now that an international network-standards body has approved technology enabling mobile digital TV broadcasts, Industry Canada’s Communications Research Centre (CRC) plans to conduct mobile DTV tests in the Ottawa region. According to people involved in the project, the technology might change the broadcasting landscape in this country. The Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) – an international non-profit that develops standards for digital TV – approved in October the A/153 ATSC Mobile DTV Standard, defining the technical specifications broadcasters need to provide DTV via handheld devices such as Apple Inc.’s iPhone and Research In Motion Ltd.’s BlackBerry. ATSC Mobile DTV was developed to support a variety of services including free (advertiser-supported) television and interactive services delivered in real-time, subscription-based TV, and file-based content download for playback at a later time. The standard can also be used for transmission of new data broadcasting services, and on a variety of wireless devices, including mobile phones, small handheld DTVs, laptop computers and in-vehicle entertainment systems. Soon after the ATSC’s announcement, network equipment maker Rohde & Schwarz Inc. said it would work with CRC on a testbed for the new protocol. The company is providing the transmission equipment, while CRC is providing the network headend – the interconnection point between the distribution technology and the wireless transmission – as well as a wireless wide-area network (WAN) carrying encrypted test measurement information. Moseley Broadcast, the wireless communication equipment provider, offers the microwave point-to-point connectivity between the testbed’s transmission sites. “We hope to have it up before the snow falls,” say Gilles Gagnon, CRC’s research manager, TV networks and transmission, broadcast technologies research. “We have some equipment on the tops of buildings, and we wouldn’t want our people up there in the winter.” CRC is testing a single-frequency network (SFN), which employs multiple transmitters, Gagnon says. That should make it easier to transmit over the air in difficult topographies, such as “the downtown canyon,” where buildings interfere with signals. The testbed will operate as a showcase for broadcasters and regulators to see the technology at work, he says. The technology could also offer a lifeline to Canadian broadcasters struggling to turn a profit these days. DTV gives local TV stations new opportunities to reach viewers on the go with local news, emergency alerts and other community content. “They could reclaim some of the advertising revenue that they say they’ve lost to the Internet,” says Ganon, explaining that mobile DTV brings the TV channel experience to a potentially larger audience: people on the move. Dave Benco agrees. Representing Rohde & Schwarz, he notes a distinction between mobile DTV – which is like traditional television except portable – and the video streaming services already offered by some mobile network carriers. Streaming lets users pick and choose content, but it rarely offers local TV programming in the palm of the user’s hand. As a complete TV experience, mobile DTV could help broadcasters bring local content to more viewers. “That’s what’s missing in those other systems,” Benco says. The concept of mobile digital TV isn’t new. Equipment makers including Rohde & Schwartz, Axcera, and Harris Corp. have offered digital transmitters and base stations for a couple of years now, depending on the provider. But those systems were based on proprietary technology – not a standard like the one the ATSC adopted – and proprietary technologies don’t always flourish the way standardized technologies do. Nonetheless, U.S. mobile network operators AT&T and Verizon already use FLO TV Inc.’s proprietary technology, MediaFLO, for simulcast mobile TV services (AT&T’s Mobile TV and Verizon’s V CAST). The ATSC mobile DTV standard should make it easier for chipmakers, communication equipment providers and others supporting the broadcast industry to develop lower-cost solutions over time. But it could still be a while before mobile DTV becomes a common wireless application. “Until there are millions of receivers out there, it’s academic,” Benco says. He adds that portable-device manufacturers such as LG Electronics and Samsung are working on gear that can play back mobile DTV signals. Reports also say Qualcomm, which controls FLO TV, is developing a device for mobile DTV reception. Back in Ottawa, Gagnon says the CRC testbed will have four transmitters broadcasting content intermittently – sometimes all four will be up and running, while other times just one to three, to see how well the SFN set-up covers the area when one transmitter or more are out of service. The testbed will operate for three years, covering a 250 sq. km. area. “That should allow us to provide some meaningful information,” says Gagnon.

Government sets up Ottawa testbed to showcase mobile DTV to broadcast industry

Broadcast | November 16, 2009

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