Briefs - Sydney's Mobile TV Trial

17 Mar 2009

Broadcast Australia continues to develop its knowledge of and expertise in new technologies and platforms. Broadcast Australia recently took the key role of providing transmission services to a new broadcast Mobile TV trial coordinated by Australian Industry Group’s Australian Digital Suppliers Industry Forum (ADSIF).

The trial which included Optus, Nokia, Nokia Siemens Networks, LG Electronics, Broadcast Australia and Australian Digital Testing, was available across the Sydney metropolitan area between 1 December 2008 and 28 February 2009, and aimed to: 

• demonstrate the current capabilities of mobile TV;
• raise the awareness of the technology;
• demonstrate interoperability of handsets; and
• assess transmission coverage of mobile TV broadcasts.

Broadcast Australia provided overall systems integration expertise for the complete end-to-end solution and transmitted nine services to mobile TV capable DVB-H handsets from its Gore Hill transmission facility.

Around 200 existing Optus customers with Nokia N96 handsets took part in the trial.  This was the first time in the world that a trial was conducted using "Mobile TV ready" phones already available to the public.  This assisted the trial to overcome the problem encountered in previous trials of asking participants to use handsets that would not be their preferred choice.

During the trial, participants held a constructive information session with the Federal Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Stephen Conroy, to demonstrate the technology's capabilities and discuss the potential for future licensing.

Why is Mobile TV technology such as DVB-H different from 3G

Broadcast Mobile TV (such as DVB-H) is terrestrially broadcast to mobile phones that are capable of receiving the signal.  Currently, many 3G mobile phone users can download content; however the quality of these services and capacity of networks delivering them is limited.  Broadcast Mobile TV technology provides much higher quality "live" TV without any restrictions on the number of viewers.

 

 

Nokia's N96 Handset