Thursday, April 27, 2006

Feedback on the Mobile TV Blog

I would be happy to hear from you any comments, questions and thoughts regarding this blog or mobile TV topics in general. You can either send me an email or post a comment to the blog itself. My email address is my first name at gamdala.com

Bye,

Dror.

Tuesday, April 25, 2006

HiWire To Offer Commercial DVB-H Service in the US

HiWire, a new subsidiary of Aloha Networks, announced yesterday that it plans to offer a commercial mobile TV service using DVB-H technology in the US. HiWire plans to use the 700 MHz spectrum acquired by its parent company in the last few years (UHF channels 54 and 59), which covers 60% of the US population. HiWire will compete with Crown Castle's Modeo, which plans to offer nationwide DVB-H services in the L-band 1700 MHz spectrum, and with Qualcomm's MediaFlo, which will also offer mobile TV services in the 700 MHz spectrum using its own technology.

HiWire is partnering with satellite services provider SES AMERICOM, who will provide the satellite and distribution platforms for the service. The two companies plan a trial in the Las Vegas area later this year.

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

Mobile TV Chip Roundup

The CTIA Wireless show this week has prompted a series of announcements regarding mobile TV products, including several updates on the chip front. TI has demonstrated their "Holywood" DTV-1000 single-chip demodulator/tuner on Modeo's DVB-H network, coupled with the OMAP 2420 application processor running PacketVideo's Windows Media codecs and DRM, and S3's DVB-H protocol stack. Philips introduced the rival BGT216 DVB-H module, which measures just 7x7 mm and will be available in early 2007. ADI announced a few T-DMB design wins in Korea, running the T-DMB demodulation processing on a Blackfin DSP. And mobile TV chip vendor Siano Mobile Silicon announced the completion of its $23M financing round, lead by Bessemer Venture Partners .

Modeo Demonstrates Custom DVB-H Handset at CTIA Wireless

US mobile TV service provider Modeo is demonstrating its DVB-H technology at CTIA Wireless this week using a Windows Mobile 5.0 Smartphone, which was custom-designed for the company by Taiwanese ODM HTC. The handset includes a TI OMAP 850 integrated baseband/application processor, an NVIDIA Go-Force 5500 multimedia and graphics processor, a DibCom DVB-H demodulator and a Microtune MT220 DVB-H tuner. The handset receives DVB-H broadcasts using the Windows Media Video and Windows Media Audio codecs, and utilizes Microsoft's DRM.

Monday, April 03, 2006

Japan Launches Commercial Mobile TV Service

As promised, Japan has launched its commercial mobile TV service on April 1st, using the local ISDB-T technology. The mobile TV service is called "OneSeg", since it uses one segment out of the 13 available segments in the ISDB-T terrestrial digital TV services in Japan. Initially the broadcast is identical to the regular analog TV broadcast, and is offered for free, but the operators plan to expand it in the future with mobile-specific content and interactive services.