We already knew that Broadcast Australia had renewed local belief that DVB-H was the right technology for the country, with news of a new mobile TV trial there, back in June to add to the one it ran in 2006.
At the time technical details were a bit hazy and although Irdeto announced that it was handling DRM for the trial, it was only this week that Thomson said that it was providing the bulk of the technology including its Smartvision Mobile TV service platform.
The trial offers a five-channel service across greater Sydney using a Thomson encoder, and the ability to offer the service through multiple operators using simulcast DRM. Thomson handles the statistical multiplexing and the EPG server. No news yet about which handset platform is used, and although Thomson provides an EPG client, it has often been used with the EXPway EPG software on the client.
Back in August last year Australian incumbent Telstra, which had been involved with the first DVB-H trial, pulled out saying that it didn’t think DVB-H was the right way to go, and that it would not bid for DVB-H but would look at a multicast service using MBMS from Ericsson. Details of a trial using this technology emerged last week, but from 3 Australia rather than Telstra.