DVB hopes T2-Lite will answer terrestrial critics

The recently introduced T2-Lite version of the DVB-T2 terrestrial standard for transmission in Europe and some other countries is supposed to cover several angles. The DVB has pitched it partly as a solution to address fringe areas at the edge of transmitter ranges by allowing simulcasting two versions of a given service at different frequencies and most importantly with varying levels of signal protection. The idea then is the receivers in those fringe areas would get a signal from at least the version with the higher level of protection, although perhaps at lower quality.

However, DVB-T2-Lite is also designed for mobile broadcasting for transmission to devices that could be moving fast in trains or cars, which requires optimizing for small, low-cost receivers that must capable of dealing with varying signal conditions. To achieve this, the T2-Lite profile is based on a limited subset of the whole DVB-T2 base profile, avoiding more complex modes that consume more memory and need larger receivers.

There are doubts though over how successful T2-Lite will be for mobile broadcasters after the failure of the earlier DVB-H (Handheld) standard, which gained little traction among mobile broadcasters. This may have been partly became it came too soon before tablet devices such as the iPad generated much greater interest in wireless video reception, but also reflected costs of deploying a new dedicated infrastructure by mobile operators. It looks more likely now that mobile operators in Europe at least will deploy the Integrated Mobile Broadcast (IMB), which is part of the 3rd Generation Partnership Project standards, and allows mobile TV services to be delivered via an unused part of the existing 3G spectrum.