Global Mobile TV: A Multi-standard Tutorial

By Alon Ironi

December 18, 2006

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Digital TV is expanding from home to everywhereýthe street, cars, buses, trains, restaurants, the beachýas the TV world is changing from a stationary, satellite or tethered paradigm and a typical group viewing experience to include a more personal viewing experience on portable wireless devices.

Although mobile entertainment is still in its infancy, mobile devices have rapidly evolved from strictly communications devices into multimedia-centric infotainment devices with the integration of digital cameras, MP3 players, PDA functionality, GPS services, gaming and video capabilities.

Similarly, other mass market devices, such as Apple's iPod, are changing the habits of millions of consumers when outside of the home, and personal video and television capabilities are as close as ever to full realization.

A Fragmented and Diversified Mobile TV Market

Television, the most basic and widely used multimedia application ever, is going through a dramatic change. New standards and technologies, led by a coalition of leading cellular operators, broadcasters, mobile phone makers, software and content providers, have set the stage for terrestrial digital television services optimized to mobile usage.

However, global segmentation of the new standards and the variety of regulated spectrum bands considered in different geographies impose a fragmented market of broadcast Mobile Digital Television (MDTV).

DVB-H, DVB-T, DAB, T-DMB, DAB-IP, ISDB-T, Media FLO and DMB-T/H are to be deployed over multiple spectrum bandsýVHF, UHF and at least two slices of "L" band. In addition to these terrestrial technologies, some satellite-based technologies are also planned, some already deployed.

For the sake of the industry, it would have been simpler if there were one mobile TV standard over one spectrum band, but the reality is that there are a number of these standards throughout the world.

In some cases, as in Germany and China, there is even more than one standard per country. Such a market introduces a big challenge for technology vendors and component providers, and is calling for a multi-standard, multi-band solution while maintaining small size, low cost, low power, high mobility performance and high level of integration.

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