Brian's Brain

DVB-H (digital video broadcasting for handhelds) advocates were, judging from the amount of 'hate email' I subsequently received, quite dismayed at my analysis of the technology's current status and future fortunes in part 1 of a two-part mobile television article series published back in February:

Even though DVB-H now has the EU’s blessing, it remains questionable whether DVB-H can achieve widespread adoption. DVB-H employs unique broadcast spectrum and unique protocols, and today’s comparably pervasive DVB-T-only equipment cannot, therefore, tune in DVB-H. Its feature advancements over DVB-T include time slicing for power reduction. IP (Internet Protocol) datagrams transmit in small-time-slot data bursts as large as 2 Mbits, and the DVB-H receiver is correspondingly in fully on mode only during these time slots. Over the several years that it took to develop DVB-H, however, its DVB-T predecessor achieved power-consumption improvements of its own by virtue of evolutionary circuit-design optimizations and Moore’s Law-fueled lithography reductions. Do DVB-H’s lingering power benefits justify its survival in the face of the DVB-T juggernaut? That’s a question that only market dynamics can address.

I admit, therefore, to some degree of self-satisfied validation when I see writeups coming through my RSS reader such as the following from earlier this month:

• Prospects for DVB-H mobile TV dimming even with EU mandate
• Norway shuns DVB-H for DMB, European mobile TV drama deepens
• European solidarity crumbling on digital mobile TV

DVB-H backers that I spoke with when researching my writeups smugly assumed that the EU's blessing of the technology would, as with GSM in years past, inevitably lead to its widespread adoption. But back when GSM was being developed, no other seriously contending digital cellular approach existed. The rules of the game, therefore its likely outcome, are different this time around, with both DVB-T (now that its power consumption is down to battery-compatible levels) and DAB-derived T-DMB (which I also discussed back in February) in play, too. Engadget's report says that Qualcomm's MediaFLO is even garnering some momentum, at least in the UK!

Although consumer demand for television reception on handhelds remains nebulous at best, it's probably more feasible 'across the Pond' versus here in the 'Colonies', by virtue of a comparatively extensive pan-Europe embrace of public transit. The mobile service providers and their hardware partners are also hungry for any enticing new feature that'll motivate consumers to renew and upgrade their plans and equipment. As such, the motivation to implement now versus later was quite strong…and DVB-H development just took way too long…thereby opening the door to technology alternatives and resultant fragmentation.

p.s...meanwhile, back Stateside...where's that mobile ATSC that I've been writing so much about?