Mobile DTV Is Hot Item at NAB Show

By Doug Lung
published

The National Association of Broadcasters said Tuesday that more than 300 exhibitors are expected to show mobile DTV technology, applications and content at the NAB Show in Las Vegas later this month. These include Harris Corp. AT&T, Verizon Wireless, mmi Broadcasting, V4x, Mobiclip, TVU Networks, Teamcast, Inc. and Qualcomm/MediaFLO.

Also look for mobile DTV transmission products from Acrodyne Industries, Axcera, Grass Valley (previously known as Thomson, Thales, Thomcast and Comark), Harris and Rohde and Schwarz. At least some of this equipment will be on the air in Las Vegas during NAB. Manufacturers will also show encoding, multiplexing and other non-RF equipment required for ATSC Mobile DTV broadcasting.

There will be many opportunities to learn about ATSC Mobile DTV at NAB. The Open Mobile Video Coalition will have a booth in the Central Hall and will host a breakfast session on Mobile DTV emceed by Fox Business News Anchor Liz Claman on Monday, April 20. The ATSC Mobile DTV Pavilion in the Content Center area of the exhibit hall will highlight technology from Axcera, Pixtree, DTV Innovations, ETRI, Expway, Zenith/LG, Linear Acoustic, Rohde and Schwarz., RRD USA, Sarnoff, Sencore, Sinclair Broadcast Group and Triveni Digital.

The NAB broadcast engineering conference has several sessions devoted to mobile DTV. Saturday morning, the IEEE-BTS Technology Tutorial will cover the ATSC Mobile DTV Candidate Standard. Additional papers will be presented on Saturday afternoon at the SBE Ennes Workshop covering mobile DTV transmission specifically or discussing topics related to mobile DTV transmission. A two-part mobile television technology session runs from 9:30 am to 3:00 PM Sunday. Wednesday's Towers & Transmission Systems session includes papers on distributed transmission systems (DTS). This technology will be required for uninterrupted full coverage mobile DTV service in many markets.

The NAB Broadcast Engineering Conference web page has the complete session schedule. The NAB announcement has more information on the non-technical Mobile DTV presentations and sessions.

Doug Lung
Doug Lung

Doug Lung is one of America's foremost authorities on broadcast RF technology. As vice president of Broadcast Technology for NBCUniversal Local, H. Douglas Lung leads NBC and Telemundo-owned stations’ RF and transmission affairs, including microwave, radars, satellite uplinks, and FCC technical filings. Beginning his career in 1976 at KSCI in Los Angeles, Lung has nearly 50 years of experience in broadcast television engineering. Beginning in 1985, he led the engineering department for what was to become the Telemundo network and station group, assisting in the design, construction and installation of the company’s broadcast and cable facilities. Other projects include work on the launch of Hawaii’s first UHF TV station, the rollout and testing of the ATSC mobile-handheld standard, and software development related to the incentive auction TV spectrum repack.
A longtime columnist for TV Technology, Doug is also a regular contributor to IEEE Broadcast Technology. He is the recipient of the 2023 NAB Television Engineering Award. He also received a Tech Leadership Award from TV Tech publisher Future plc in 2021 and is a member of the IEEE Broadcast Technology Society and the Society of Broadcast Engineers.