Irdeto said this week that it had just completed a trial as part of a two system conditional access trial for mobile TV in Spain, as part of a simulcrypt service offering multiple CAs.
The trial was with Abertis Telecom and the other conditional access service was not named, but we understand that the Telecom Italia Mobile and Vodafone DVB-H service run by Mediaset in Italy uses more than one conditional access system. At least they all seem to run the Nagravision mobile TV system, but with different license servers. This might be the first time that two separate systems have worked together in the mobile environment, although DVB has defined it years ago for fixed TV operators.
It’s important to run two CAs at the same time so that if more than one operator wants to elect to use a different CA, the broadcasting system can handle it.
Irdeto has been having trouble breaking into DVB-H mobile TV, having dominated S-DMb and T-DMB in Korea through its partnership with Samsung. It has been selected for the DVB-H trial in South Africa, but that’s because the system operator M-Mobile is owned by Multichoice in turn owned by Naspers, Irdeto’s parent.
Irdeto has to work in simulcrypt because most DVB-H networks have multiple operators on them, and if this ends up with them voting for their favorite CA, it will be the same as in Italy with all three suppliers choosing the dominant Nagravision, due to local broadcasters being familiar with it.
Irdeto said it has had a successful laboratory trial of the Irdeto Mobile Broadcast conditional access system with Abertis Telecom, which is evaluating the various DVB-H platforms for the implementation of Mobile TV services expected later this year.
The government in Spain will make a single 8 MHz frequency available in the national multiplex for DVB-H transmission and the trial participants are evaluating how to offer their services on such a common network, as provided by Abertis.
Other parties that have been involved in trials in Spain in the past include Telefonica’s Movistar, Amena, and Vodafone, the strongest operators, as well as telco Sogecable, and broadcasters Tele 5, Antena 3, TVE, Telemadrid, TV de Catalunya, Net TV, Telecinco, RTVA, and Veo TV.