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Oct. 18, 2009

Late Friday afternoon, the Open Mobile Video Coalition says it has finally adopted the broadcast standard for mobile digital TV after more than 3 years of close collaboration with broadcasters and television appliance and set top manufacturers.

Overall adoption of this new mobile TV standard will pave the way for U.S. broadcasters to roll out digital program services on devices already ranging from in-car screens to portable DVD players and mobile phones.

The new standard was created by Mark Richer, president of the Advanced Television Systems Committee.

Richer said "to meet the technological challenges of sending digital television services to mobile and handheld devices within the existing DTV transmission was an impressive achievement made possible by industry cooperation."

Devices embedded with an ATSC receiver can display programs from DTV broadcasters. Mobile digital television uses the same spectrum that local television stations use to broadcast high-definition programming.

Trial television broadcasts are expected to begin by December, with the goal of preparing for formal broadcasting tests in North America beginning in February 2010.

One company has already come out with an ATSC-compatible chipset.

Samsung Electronics has applied "significant resources to ATSC standardization" beginning in 2005, and today announced a chip compatible with the new standard.

The overall adoption of the new TV standard allows small-screen versions of that programming to be displayed on MIDs (mobile internet devices).

Other services eventually will become available, including live emergency alerts and interactive programming.

In the next coming weeks, it will be interesting to see at which rate the new standard will be adopted by various television manufacturers and large-screen makers.

The new standard certainly holds a lot of promise and is more in tune with today's modern and faster hardware.

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Source: The Open Mobile Video Coalition.