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Mobile television

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Mobile TV is a name used to describe a service to subscribers via mobile telecommunications networks, most probably the mobile phone carriers. South Korea is at the forefront of this developing sector and BT in the United Kingdom was the first company outside Korea to implement Mobile TV. Top service providers include MobileTV.net and MobiTV (formerly named Idetic, Inc.).

Mobile TV involves bringing TV services to the mobile phones. It combines the services of a mobile phone with television content and represents a logical step both for consumers and operators and content providers. Mobile TV over cellular networks allows viewers to enjoy personalized, interactive TV with content specifically adapted to the mobile medium. The services and viewing experience of mobile TV over cellular networks differs in a variety of ways from traditional TV viewing. In addition to mobility, mobile TV delivers a variety of services including video-on-demand, traditional/linear and live TV programs. Another exciting opportunity for users is Mobile TV pod casts, where content is delivered to a user’s mobile on demand or by subscriptions. Stored locally on the handset, this content can then be viewed even when there’s no network connection. And a service provider can schedule the delivery to “off-peak” hours, for example during the night.

Technically, there are currently two main ways of delivering mobile TV. The first is via a two-way cellular network and the second is through a one-way dedicated broadcast network. These include digital video broadcasting-handheld (DVB-H), digital multimedia broadcasting (DMB), TDtv (based on TD-CDMA technology from [IPWireless]), 1seg (based on Japan's ISDB-T), DAB and MediaFLO. None is ideal as all have drawbacks of one kind or another: spectral frequencies used or needed, signal strength required, new antennas and towers, network capacity required, or business model.

Using the existing 3G (WCDMA/HSPA) network is the fastest and easiest way to get Mobile TV off the ground. It allows for the quick start an operator needs to grab the initiative and develop relationships with both customers and content providers. There is more than enough capacity in 3G networks to scale up for a mass market of Mobile TV services, particularly if an operator has HSPA as this will provide for several steps of capacity increases. And MBMS (Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service), which means broadcast over 3G networks, will soon allow a traffic channel to be shared by all the users that are simultaneously watching the same program in the same area. MBMS complements HSPA to support higher loads in dense areas and ensure efficient network utilization.

However out of the 120 plus commercially launched mobile TV services worldwide, more than 90% of these are based on existing two-way cellular networks, using unicast. With unicast, content is transmitted separately from a single source to a single destination, like from a server to a mobile handset. And that is how each individual can get the content they want. With broadcast, the same content is delivered to a very large number of mobile handsets in a single transmission.

By using a combination of unicast and broadcast, network capacity and investments can be optimized. Broadcast bearers can be used for the most popular programs, and an unlimited number of additional programs and on-demand content can continue to be delivered efficiently using unicast. In the combined unicast–broadcast scenario, the user will not notice any difference in how content is delivered. The user will have a single user interface (TV client) in the terminal to access all content. This combination unicast and broadcast provides the best way to meet personalization and mass market.

Challenges

Device Manufacturer’s challenges

1. High Power Consumption

2. Memory: To support the high buffer requirements of the mobile TV. Current memory capabilities will not be suited for long hours of mobile TV viewing. Furthermore, potential future applications like peer to peer video sharing in mobile phones and consumer broadcasting would definitely add to the increasing memory requirements.

3. User Interface Design: A large number of mobile phones do not support mobile TV; users have to purchase new handsets with improved LCD display and user interface that support mobile TV. This new design has to appeal to the end-users and increase the clarity of images without making the handset very bulky.

4. Processing Power: Device manufacturers should improve the processing power significantly to support a MIPS intensive application like mobile TV.

Content Provider’s challenges

The mobile TV industry opens up a new market for the content specifically tailored for mobile TVs. These could include making new mobisodes –mobile episodes of popular shows which are relatively shorter in length (3 to 5 minutes), modifying the content to suit mobile TV. Providers need to think of innovative ways of editing content, increasing close-up shots for clarity on small screen, etc

Trademark

Cellivision is a registered trademark of WHDC LLC, USPTO Registration #3099426 in the class of goods and services Streaming of video material on the Internet. Similar variants of the registered trademark (e.g. Cellevision) may also be subject to restricted use.

See also

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