Thomson's Mobile TV solutions chosen by 3 Italia for Europe's largest DVB-H service

The Italian mobile operator, 3 Italia, has built a new operation centre for the mobile television services La3 TV, based on an integrated solution from Thomson the worldwide leader in video solutions. 3 Italia operates Europe's largest DVB-H service with over 850,000 subscribers in Italy. The new Thomson mobile video headend allows 3 Italia to manage encoding and delivery in house, with the capability to broadcast up to 20 channels over DVB-H, with superior picture quality.

The solution is based on Thomson's ViBE Mobile TV encoder to achieve the highest possible quality of MPEG-4 compression, optimizing the bandwidth available for mobile television.

Thomson engineers provided systems design, integration, commissioning and training services for the whole implementation. The installation was completed in a record-timeframe, and handed over in July 2008.

"We have been selected for Europe's largest mobile TV services, and Thomson's mobile TV solutions are at the heart of some of the most important deployments worldwide" said Patrick Montliaud, Senior Vice President of Thomson's Networks and Integration Solutions within the Systems division. "We look forward to accompanying 3 Italia with our scalable solutions as their user base grows even further."

Thomson is unique in supporting the entire media chain from high-definition content creation to multi-play services for home consumption.

Qatar readies for world’s first commercial Mobile TV service based on DVB-H and OMA BCast Smart Card Profile technology

Qatar Telecom (Qtel), the leading telecommunications service provider, and Nokia Siemens Networks have signed the world’s first commercial Mobile TV deployment contract based on DVB-H and OMA BCast Smart Card Profile technology.

Nokia Siemens Networks will supply Qtel with state-of-the-art Digital Video Broadcasting Handheld (DVB-H) solution providing their subscribers enhanced TV viewing experiences on their mobile phones with the added flexibility of selecting their preferred subscription payment model.

A strategic partner for operators looking to deploy Mobile TV solutions, Nokia Siemens Networks will roll out a DVB-H solution with OMA BCast Smart Card Profile (SCP) for Qtel. With OMA BCast SCP, mobile operators are able to integrate the management rights for Mobile TV broadcast content, provided via DVB-H, into their existing infrastructure. This comprehensive mobile TV solution includes software, hardware, consulting & integration, network design and implementation services. For the authentication of mobile TV subscribers, Nokia Siemens Networks is providing its One-BSF solution, forming a key part of Qtel's Unified Subscriber Database strategy for creating a common subscriber profile to be used for both mobile and DVB-H service.

From http://www.albawaba.com

Polish DVB-H tender nears

The long-awaited Polish mobile TV tender may finally be announced next week, according to Anna Strezynska, the president of the Office of Electronic Communications (UKE).

Quoted in Wirtualne Media, she added that that the UKE, along with the other industry regulator KRRiT (National Broadcasting Council), have agreed that 66% of the DVB-H multiplex will be allocated to audiovisual services and the remainder to multimedia ones.

The winner of the DVB-H contest will be awarded a licence valid until 2023. The service they launch will initially be available in 31 towns and cities and only rolled out nationally following ASO, which – it is hoped – will take place in 2012 but could be delayed to 2014