Nokia & Samsung team to push DVB-H mobile TV

Stuart Corner
Tuesday, 17 April 2007 02:27

Business IT - Technology

Samsung and Nokia say they plan to work together to achieve interoperability between their DVB-H (digital video broadcast - handheld) enabled mobile devices and the open standards based Nokia network services system in a bid to encourage greater adoption of broadcast mobile TV services and accelerate service deployment.

They will work to support solutions based on the open OMA BCAST standard available for operator partners interested in deploying multi-vendor mobile TV services and trials in 2007 and onward. According to Harri Mannisto, director, multimedia at Nokia, the standard is "essential in launching mobile TV services on a global scale." In September 2006 Nokia announced a similar collaboration with Motorola.

"Samsung has already commercialised handsets based on the CBMS OSF standard, and will develop the OMA BCAST standard based mobile TV handset. Its inclusion in our product portfolios will enhance our customers' flexibility in choosing suitable standards based on their business models," said Kwang Suk Hyun, senior vice president of alliance team of Samsung Electronics Co.

Mannisto added: "the well-defined service and content protection profiles within the OMA BCAST standard such as the already now available OMA DRM, provides the ideal path towards standardised solutions enabling a coherent and open market for successful worldwide mobile TV deployments...The deployment of mobile TV services will offer new business opportunities for companies across the value chain, including content and broadcast companies, mobile service providers, infrastructure and handset manufacturers, and technology providers."

DVB-H technology is closely related to the terrestrial DVB-T technology deployed in Australia to deliver digital television: it uses the same frequency ranges, the same transmitters and is received on handsets with an added-on digital TV receiver. A single DVB-T channel can deliver up to 50 DVB-H channels.

DVB-H technology has been trialled in Australia, in Sydney by Nokia, The Bridge Network and Telstra and, most recently, in Melbourne by Telstra for coverage of the Commonwealth Games in March 2006