As broadcasters continue the roll out of Mobile DTV this year, the NAB Show offers the ultimate showcase for the equipment and consumer products the industry needs to continue its successful growth.
The NAB Show gets right down to business this morning with the Super Session "A Breakfast Invitation: Mobile DTV: Revving the Engines and Ready to Go!," 7:30 a.m.. The breakfast is hosted by the Open Mobile Video Coalition (OMVC), and sponsored by Axcera, Harris, LG, Samsung Mobile, Rohde & Schwartz and Roundbox.
Panelists include Brandon Burgess, chairman and CEO, ION Media Networks; Dave Lougee, president, Gannett Broadcasting, John Thode, vice president, Small Screen Devices, Communication Solutions, Dell Inc.
With both technical and consumer testing being done over the past year, and consumer electronics companies ready with more than 20 new mobile DTV receiver products for retail introduction, OMVC Executive Director Anne Schelle said: "It'll be exciting. I think we'll have things to say that are new and additive to the overall mobile DTV composition."
One stage passed successfully over the past couple of years was technical testing that has been taking place with real call-letter television stations putting real mobile DTV streams in their DTV channel bandwidth.
This testing has allowed consumer electronic mobile DTV receiver device makers to test prototype devices in typical markets with varying topography. Those tests also tell broadcasters about the system signal performance itself.
"We're pleased with the quality of service and the reception," said Schelle. "Now our goal really is to pull together the whole end-to-end eco-system. We're working more on the integration of the middleware, the applications and services that will be provided on top of the typical linear simulcast DTV, applications including interactivity and audience measurement."
There also have been consumer tests going on, and they'll continue into May. Schelle said it's too early to release results of those tests at this point, but that the report is due this summer.
Mobile DTV-interested broadcasters got a look at a Magid Media Labs study at the end of 2009 that concluded the live, local programming will drive demand for mobile TV, "with nearly 90 percent of mobile device owners expressing interest in watching live news and weather programming on-the-go."
Another study to be detailed at the breakfast, this one by wireless research firm IDC, predicts that from the 45 current stations on the air with mobile DTV streams in their digital spectrum, approximately 150 can be expected by year end. And in three years, several hundred more stations, and as many as 100 markets, will provide mobile DTV service.
Over the past few years, broadcasters have had to assume that if they invested in deploying a mobile DTV infrastructure, the consumer electronics industry would develop and market devices to receive mobile DTV. Attendees will find those mobile devices on display in the Mobile DTV Marketplace in the Main Lobby of the Las Vegas Convention Center.
To get consumers in each individual market to part with their hard-earned cash to buy mobile DTV-enabled devices, broadcasters in those markets will need to subscribe to that "Field of Dreams" mantra: If you build it, they will come. "Dell, Best Buy, Radio Shack; the retailers require mobile DTV content in order to give demonstrations, to sell mobile DTV devices to consumers," Schelle said. "But with that happening, I think you'll see an explosion of new devices."
NAB has partnered with OMVC and Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) to offer convention-goers the latest consumer devices and broadcast services that allow viewers to watch their favorite programs on the go with the new Mobile DTV Pavilion in the South Upper Hall.
The pavilion, with 16 exhibitors, is a showcase of transmission technologies, data services and other mobile DTV infrastructure products.
Besides ATSC and OMVC, exhibitors include Axcera, Axel Technologies Oy, Expway, Grass Valley, LG, Linear Acoustic Inc., I-Movee, Mobitv Inc., Pixtree Inc., Roundbox, Samsung Electronics Co., Triveni Digital and Valups.
Of particular note, mobile DTV-bound broadcasters may want to take a look at the booths of electronic service guide suppliers, who will demonstrate how best to take advantage of Mobile DTV's unique, two-way capability..
Exhibitors at the pavilion will also feature prototype netbooks and mobile phones, accessory receivers for Wi-Fi phones and laptops, in-vehicle devices, DVD players, and USB receivers for laptops that are equipped with Mobile DTV reception capability.
Also in the South Upper Hall attendees will find the ATSC TechZone in which member companies will be demonstrating standards-related technologies such as audio loudness and non-real time.
Counting almost 200, ATSC member organizations represent the broadcast, broadcast equipment, motion picture, consumer electronics, computer, cable, satellite and semiconductor industries.