Samsung and Nokia to Collaborate on Mobile TV and DRM Standard

To encourage greater adoption of broadcast mobileTV services and accelerate service deployment, Samsung and Nokiatoday announced they will work to achieve interoperability among theirDVB-H (Digital Video Broadcast - Handheld) enabled mobile devices and theopen standards based Nokia network services system.

The handsetmanufacturers will work together to support solutions based on the open OMABCAST standard available for operator partners interested in deployingmulti-vendor mobile TV services and trials in 2007 and onward. "Within DVB-H technology, Samsung has already commercialized handsetsbased on the CBMS OSF standard, and will develop the OMA BCAST standardbased mobile TV handset. Its inclusion in our product portfolios willenhance our customers' flexibility in choosing suitable standards based ontheir business models," says Kwang Suk Hyun, Senior Vice President ofAlliance Team of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.

"Nokia warmly welcomes the collaboration in accelerating the adoptionof DVB-H based mobile TV services to the market. We see that the OMA BCASTstandard is essential in launching mobile TV services on a global scale,"says Harri Mannisto, Director, Multimedia, Nokia. "Further, thewell-defined service and content protection profiles within the OMA BCASTstandard such as the already now available OMA DRM, provides the ideal pathtowards standardized solutions enabling a coherent and open market forsuccessful worldwide mobile TV deployments." The deployment of mobile TV services will offer new businessopportunities for companies across the value chain, including content andbroadcast companies, mobile service providers, infrastructure and handsetmanufacturers, and technology providers.

The availability of interoperableDVB-H enabled devices and services is a key factor in further opening upthe market. DVB-H is an effective technology for deploying broadcast mobile TVamong the many digital technologies available to deliver mobile TVservices. DVB-H technology offers high service level quality, low batteryconsumption and offers the end-user the ability to simultaneously receivebroadcasts while using other mobile services such as telephony and internetaccess on their device.

In parallel to supporting mobile operators launching mobile TV servicesbased on existing technologies in their networks, Samsung and Nokia areboth active in ongoing standardization and technology development tooptimize the broadcast mobile TV experience. The companies will work oninteroperability efforts using the open OMA standard while continuing toparticipate in industry-wide interoperability efforts within the relatedstandardization bodies.

Skyworks Supports First European Mobile TV Slider Phone

Skyworks Solutions announced that Samsung is leveraging its ultra-compact and high efficiency front-end modules (FEMs) for open-loop EDGE, and power amplifiers (PAs) for WCDMA and HSDPA across more than 10 innovative universal mobile telecommunications system (UMTS) models. In particular, Skyworks is supporting their first mobile TV slider phone for Europe.
At a slim 16.7 millimeters (mm), the P960 supports both European mobile TV technology standards – digital video broadcast-handheld (DVB-H), and the new open mobile alliance mobile broadcast service enabler suite (OMA-BCAST). The handset features optimized viewing with a large 2.6 inch quarter video graphics array (QVGA) thin film transistor (TFT) screen, and Bang & Olufsen ICEPower technology for top-notch audio. The device also offers a 3-megapixel camera with power LED, music player, and FM radio with RDS for 24/7 news.
“Skyworks congratulates Samsung on achieving the milestone launch of Europe’s first DVB-H handset, and is pleased to support their family of compelling mobile TV platforms,” said Liam K. Griffin, Skyworks’ senior vice president of sales and marketing. “Our participation in their P960 design reflects our multimode design-win momentum and UMTS market share gains at Samsung and other OEMs.”
The SKY77519 FEM incorporated by Samsung is the industry’s smallest solution for open-polar EDGE architectures, enabling OEMs to raise the mobile bar with an optimized power usage solution (OPUS) and delivering maximum performance that can help increase talk times by 10 percent, improve power savings by 30 percent, and expand battery capacity by 10 percent. As a result, the P960 promises battery life of up to five hours of TV watching time.
In addition, the small and efficient SKY77170 PA packs full 1920-1980 megahertz (MHz) bandwidth coverage into a single compact package. A directional coupler is integrated into the module, thus eliminating the need for any external coupler. The single gallium arsenide (GaAs) monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) contains all active circuitry in the module.

Rugby World Cup 2007: live on DVB-H receivers

ENENSYS, in partnership with TF1, French major service provider, is currently enabling live transmission of 2007 sport event, the Rugby World Cup! At TF1 premises, games starring the French Team, but also 1/4 finals, 1/2 finals and final, are watchable on latest generation DVB-H receivers (Samsung, Sagem).

ENENSYS was selected as the official supplier of transmission equipment: DVB-H Head End, TS over IP distribution solution and DVB-H transmission means. ENENSYS makes DVB-H transmission secure and fully ready for 2008 deployments. ” It is ideal for us to have French local partners working at the leading edge of DVB-H technologies, such as ENENSYS, and to run a live demo. All our guests were delighted to find out what DVB-H looks like and were very enthusiastic about images quality...» says Thomas Jacques, Director of Strategy and Technical Innovation at TF1 Group.

Samsung Demonstrates The Future Of Mobile TV

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd, is once again breaking new ground. At the IFA in Berlin (August 31 through September 5, 2007) and at the IBC broadcasting trade show in Amsterdam (September 7 through 11, 2007), the world's leading provider of mobile phones and telecommunication systems will treat visitors to a peek into the future of interactive mobile TV in Germany.

For the first time, Samsung mobiles now also support the reliable, open OMA BCAST standard. In Berlin, live demonstrations of TV broadcasts using the new DVB-H-based standard will be staged on Samsung's own booth and on the booth of T Systems .

Mobile phone manufacturers and telecoms carriers alike see TV offerings as value-added services that will generate substantial revenue streams. A recent "Screen Digest" study, for example, predicts a bright future for mobile TV. According to this study, the sale of mobile TV offerings should be netting global revenues of EUR 4.7 billion as early as 2011.

Since DVB-H was recommended as the standard for television services on mobile phones, interactive TV on the move has begun to roll up the German market too. Handset manufacturers such as Samsung are supporting this development to ensure that customers can take advantage of offerings provided on the basis of DVB-H BCAST.

The new standard enables interactive elements that facilitate direct product purchases or participation in fee-paying surveys and competitions, for example, to be built into mobile TV and video-on-demand offerings. BCAST works as a kind of "add-on" and can 'like DVB-H' be used with any and every IP-based transmission technology.

"We are working flat out to enable mobile TV offerings that comply with the DVB-H-based BCAST standard to be rolled out in Germany. We are aligning our handsets with the needs of this market," stresses Dr. Anthony Park, Director Business Development, Samsung Telecommunication Europe. "Samsung mobiles will also support all other relevant standards, such as DVB-H CBMS in Italy, T-DMB in Germany, MediaFlo in the USA and T/S-DMB in South Korea."

Philippines DVB-H Mobile TV Services for Commercial Broadcast with PMSI and UDcast

UDcast and Philippine Multi-media System, Inc. (PMSI) announced today that test broadcasts of mobile TV services in the Philippines using the DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcasting-Handheld) standard have been successful and will be commercially launched in 2007.
PMSI is currently showing eight channels on Samsung DVB-H compatible handsets, with additional handsets and unique programming to be available soon. The commercial service will initially launch in Manila and extend to other major cities.
"There are currently more than 42 million mobile phone subscribers in the Philippines, and consumer research confirms the appeal for mobile TV services today, with further strong growth potential in the future," said Mr. Cesar G. Reyes, CEO, PMSI. "UDcast provided PMSI with IP encapsulators that are powerful, flexible and stable, allowing us to implement various options that are critical to our future plans."

DVB-H mobile TV (Samsung & Nokia)

Samsung and Nokia have announced that they will work to achieve interoperability in their DVB-H mobile TV devices. The handset manufacturers will work together 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 beyond; the eminently sensible aim is to promote more and faster take-up for broadcast mobile TV.