DTV Alliance Promises Mobile TV
Get Ready for DVB-H Mobile TV
Great news for mobile media enthusiasts across North America just came from Las Vegas on 23 January 2006. A powerful consortium featuring the biggest names in electronics was formed, dubbed the DTV Alliance. Its members are Intel, Modeo, Motorola, Nokia USA, and Texas Instruments. This fellowship of handheld devices is committed to the promotion of the DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcasting – Handheld) standards across North America, where mobile technologies are slow to flourish compared to their European and Asian counterparts.
DVB-H represents a globally accepted series of open standards and procedures for broadcasting digital television to mobile devices. The DTV Alliance believes by solidifying DVB-H across this continent, it will not only close the handheld technology gap with Europe and Asia, but it will pay dividends that will be felt across all wireless markets. The DTV Alliance sees an opportunity to provide more choices and add real value to the North American handheld consumer market.
David Linsalata is Research Analyst of Mobile Markets at IDC, and he says that the deployments in mobile TV will be accelerated over the next 12-18 months. He believes that the support of DTV Alliance promoting DVB-H standards will significantly aid mobile TV deployment across North America.
Mobile devices that are DVB-H compatible will allow you to receive live TV broadcasts on your handheld device. This offers significant opportunity to cell phones, Smartphones, and possibly a new breed of portable wireless device with an LCD screen. It could be a convenient feature to make wireless TV truly wireless. DVB-H has potential to bring new heights to the ever popular iPod Video franchise.
DVB-H is truly an international standard. At the time of writing this piece, DVB-H network trials have been taking place all over the world, including countries like the United States, Australia, and across Europe. The DTV Alliance predicts active DVB-H networks all across North America by 2007. It’s refreshing to see so much industry support for a single standard. Competing standards and a hesitation to invest in wireless digital networks has hampered the development of wireless devices long enough. We’re going to see tremendous growth in this industry over the next couple of years.