The Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) has adopted DVB-H as an official standard for mobile digital television in the United States. The publication of TIA-1105, “Terrestrial Mobile Multimedia Multicast Based On Digital Video Broadcasting For Handheld Devices System,” supports the growing acceptance of the open standard by companies now implementing mobile TV services in the United States.
According to the DVB Project — a group of more than 250 broadcasters, manufacturers, network operators, software developers and regulatory bodies, among others, in more than 35 countries — commercial DVB-H services are already on-air in Italy, and services have been announced for the United States, Finland, Vietnam, France, Germany, Spain, Russia and South Africa before the end of 2007.
The DVB-H standard is defined as a system where the information is transmitted as IP datagrams. Time-slicing technology is used to reduce power consumption for small handheld terminals. IP datagrams are transmitted as data bursts in small time slots. The front end of the receiver switches on only for the time interval when the data burst of a selected service is on air. Within this short period, a high data rate is received that can be stored in a buffer. This buffer can either store the downloaded applications or play out live streams. The amount of power saved depends on the relation of the on/off-time. If there are approximately 10 or more bursted services in a DVB-H stream, the rate of the power saving for the front end could be about 90 percent.
In 2004, the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) formally adopted DVB-H (EN 302 304) as a standard. The support of network operators, broadcasters, content owners and silicon and equipment manufacturers has facilitated the commercial launch of DVB-H mobile TV services around the world. Extensive trials and pilot services across five continents have confirmed the technical capabilities and economic advantages of DVB-H over competing systems.
For more information, visit www.dvb.org.
