We have been a little worried about the ATSC M/H mobile TV broadcast system in the US, which supporters continually say is ready to go prime time. Here is an opportunity of a lifetime to re-invent broadcast media in the US, and the recession, technical cross talk and a complete lack of anything to play TV on, could all still scupper the service.
ION Media Networks, a company that has staunchly supported ATSC M/H issued a release this week which said it had launched service ahead of the crowd in both New York City and Washington, and despite no-one manning the phones to answer simple questions like ‘How many channels’ and ‘What are you expecting customers to play these on?’ That’s not too surprising as it is going through its own Chapter XI proceedings, to try to eliminate debt, but it should have been at least a little bit awake.
The coordinating organization OMVC (Open Mobile Video Coalition) which leads the broadcaster push there into mobile TV, gave us a quick update instead.
Most importantly OMVC told us that LG had delivered volume silicon as promised throughout June, and that Samsung may soon join it and that Broadcom is also working towards silicon sometime soon. Siano is unofficially planning something as well.
OMVC also said that both Pixtree and DTV Interactive (both Korean affiliates of LG) have products available in the US market, effectively PC dongles, and that there were a number of devices still being worked on which could converted signals to wi-fi for consumption on existing smart phones ‘ such as the iPhone, and that Packet video was expected to be one of these, but was not out there with a product yet.
Dell has not yet delivered the device that it showed at NAB, a laptop with built in ATSC M/H chip, but this is coming. We speculated that the chip inside this was a Siano chip, the global mobile TV chip leader due to its presence in both the Chinese and Japanese markets, but that has not been confirmed.
‘We are putting a commercial trial in place in Washington,’ said the OMVC spokeswoman, ‘which will run for a year. But we are expecting commercial services to be live before the end of that trial,’ she said, but confirmed that most products would not be out until 2010.
At NAB ION Media said that the greater Washington DC area, including Baltimore, would be the first US metro region to get free mobile TV. So the fact that it’s now live there, and in New York, is perhaps not really news, but it’s a relief that it’s on schedule.
Unfortunately ION garbled its story by claiming this was a triple play. As if real triple plays aren’t confusing enough, the headline writer invented another. It should be broadband, voice and TV. We’ve heard cellular operators call it mobile and fixed voice as well as mobile data, but we’ve never heard of the triple play as standard definition, HDTV and mobile video. So much for clarity.
But ION Media is broadcasting multiple resolutions in ATSC in these two territories and is sending the M/H mobile signal in readiness for when there are battery power devices such as mobile phones. At NAB ION was going on about ATSC, but only had one area upgraded at the time, and had only shown it working on a single device on one bus. It made a song and dance about it, and tried to make out that there was momentum building up behind ATSC, like Hurricane Katrina behind the New Orleans levee. At least now it has upgraded a few more transmitters and reminded the world that it is on track.
The disturbing thing is that there is still no sign of a partnership with US cellular operators, and although the spokeswoman for OMVC had to be careful not to pre-announce any negotiations, she made it clear that discussions with cellular operators were ongoing and positive.
In a way it is far seeing by ION to take the lead and make the transition to give other broadcasters the confidence to do the same. At NAB some 70 broadcasters committed to put ATSC on the map. Talking of maps, there is a map on the OMVC web site which shows the entire Eastern Seaboard virtually full end to end of mobile TV broadcasting, with the magic number of 39% of TV markets under it, showing all the areas that OMVC partners either are covering or are planning to cover, probably by the end of August/early September, when more news should be heard from other groups.
The noises at NAB suggested that there will be handsets from LG itself, as well as from Samsung (probably using its own chips), and in-car devices, PC dongles and potentially handset dongles to convert signals and they would all need a chip with ATSC M/H demodulation. So volume chip shipments should have been screamed at the top of the OMVC lungs, not squirreled quietly away, but at least they have happened.
At NAB ION said that it would just be the first of six DC TV stations, to begin broadcasting there, and that by late summer, which we take to be August, consumers can sign up to receive test hardware. This presumably is the commercial trial OMVC is talking about.
‘The launch of ION’s Mobile DTV signals in NYC and DC is a pay off from the industry’s efforts to create a unifying technology standard,’ said Brett Jenkins, ION’s Vice President of Technology. ‘The Mobile DTV eco system has now developed to the point that broadcasters are able to launch beta services, and we’re beginning to think through consumer and business implementations. The work of the Open Mobile Video Coalition and its broadcast members have made this implementation possible, and we look forward to working with the industry to capitalize on its potential.’ Let’s hope so.