by Bob Emmerson
In the red corner we have DVB- H–a standard that the EU is pushing, but several countries oppose the move, and it will be a few years before mobile video really takes off. In the blue corner we have IPTV delivered over high-speed wireless networks; i.e., WLAN and WiMAX, followed by LTE, which runs at wireline speeds. Open the envelope…and the winner is...
We’ll know in a few years, but we’ve been here before. It’s the classic “ standards versus market forces” battle. Europe needs standards because it isn’t a real common market. Right now there are 27 countries in the European Union (EU), which means that there are 27 different political agendas, so consensus is hard to achieve.
The EU Commission wants to establish Digital Video Broadcasting-Handheld (DVB-H) as the single EU standard for mobile TV broadcasting by the end of February 2008. However, while there is no problem with the standard, several EU states are opposed to plans for rapid, nationwide rollouts.
There’s no problem because DVB-H is the mobile version of the established DVB-T standard for digital terrestrial television. It allows simultaneous transmission of multi-channel television, radio, video, audio, and IP data to a range of multimedia receivers including cellular phones, PDAs, PCs, and other hand-helds. And it builds on existing DVB-T infrastructure.
Advanced video coding and band-width-efficient compression technologies are employed in order to optimize small-screen quality, but there is a business issue. Fewer frames are transmitted, which means that so-called “gap fillers” are needed. Operators therefore need to make investments, and in Europe, unlike Japan and Asia-Pacific, the market is at a
very early stage, hence the reluctance to sign up for nationwide rollouts.
Europe is switching to terrestrial digital broadcasting, and consumers are already obtaining and appreciating the benefits of digital TV. Mobile TV is therefore an evolutionary step for end users, and it makes obvious sense for content distributors like TV and cable companies; i.e., it will generate new revenue streams.
Network upgrades are needed, and the mobile devices need to incorporate a TV tuner. Tuners are part of the front-end reference; chips have been developed and devices are shipping in Japan and Taiwan. And by the time you read this article, Nokia will have demonstrated broadcast-quality TV on the N77, and other models will follow. So it’s only a question of time before broadcast-quality TV comes to European cell phones.
Mobile devices can access Internet content over cellular networks, and this scenario doesn’t need a TV tuner. The new cell phones have enough processing power to handle real-time video, but right now wide-area networks are too slow. Mobile TV needs WiMAX and long-term evolution (LTE) data rates.
End-user data rates for Mobile WiMAX will probably vary between two and 12 Mbps. LTE is a newer technology that is in field trials, and rates here should be three to four times higher. The theoretical single-user rate for WiMAX is around 50 Mbps and 170 Mbps for LTE. The former services look set to roll out in a 2009-2010 time frame–the latter will come a couple of years later. So once again, it’s only a question of time before we get high-quality, unicast video content delivered to the same devices.
Statistically multiplexing enables a higher number of channels to be employed over DVB-H, and this can be used to enable a mix of mobile TV and personalized unicast channels. The former would be heavily used; the latter would be a “long tail.” Both types of content would be delivered to the same mobile device.
This scenario is based on cooperation between broadcast and mobile network operators. And the media and frequency licensing process and timeline will vary from country to country. But the prognosis is healthy. Gartner predicts close to half a billion mobile TV subscribers by 2010. The Yankee Group estimates that the combined mobile TV and video market will hit € 11 billion (US$16 billion) by the same date.
Efficient DVB-H spectrum usage also allows information and radio services to be incorporated. This allows operators to offer rich, interactive multimedia services to individuals and communities; e.g., chatting while listening to a performance or watching TV.
DVB-H may not be the best way of delivering mobile TV, but it is in the pole position. The EU backs it and may end up making it a mandatory standard sometime this year. That would: (a) stifle the debate about the respective merits of competing technologies such as DMB-T, DAB-IP, and MediaFLO; and (b) kick-start the market. The days when the telecommunications standards bodies could take several years to achieve consensus are over. V
Bob Emmerson, our European Editor, co-authored with Jeff Pulver the book, Run Your Organization in Real Time. He can be reached at bemmerson@vonmag.com.
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