Mobile Digital TV Consumer Showcase
in Washington, D.C.
Representing nearly 900 commercial and public TV stations across the
country, the OMVC is conducting a four-month Mobile
Digital TV Consumer Showcase in the Nation’s Capital to
chart consumer behavior, attitudes, and expectations about Mobile DTV
as well as to accelerate consumer interest and adoption of the
technology and test various business models.
Hundreds of TV viewers in the Washington, D.C. area are now experiencing their first taste of a new broadcast technology that enables
viewing of favorite TV programs while “on the go”
and promises to keep people connected to breaking news and emergency
alerts in their communities.
For the first time, viewers will be able to watch local digital TV
broadcasts on a variety of mobile devices, including specially-equipped
cell phones, netbooks, portable media players, and a unique adapter
that can send Mobile DTV to laptops, iPhones, and iPads.
The Open
Mobile Video Coalition’s Mobile DTV Consumer Showcase began on Monday, May 3 and will continue throughout the summer in the
Nation’s Capital.
The Mobile Digital TV Consumer Showcase will demonstrate how the U.S. digital TV system,
now deployed in more than 1,600 stations across the country reaching
300 million
Americans, allows each television station to simultaneously deliver a
primary High Definition channel and multiple additional digital
multicast channels to homes as well as multiple mobile digital
television channels to “on the go” viewers.
A collaborative effort by nine Washington-area TV stations and
coordinated by the Open Mobile Video Coalition (OMVC), the transmission
of Mobile
Digital TV signals brings the best of network and cable
programming to viewers – including free over-the-air channels
and subscription premium programs.
The Mobile Digital TV Consumer Showcase will also feature unique consumer interactive voting and
polling, interactive advertising, advanced electronic service guides
for program information, and transmissions of emergency alerts and
closed captioning information.
Mobile
DTV devices to
be utilized by consumers during the Mobile Digital TV Consumer Showcase include:
• A specially modified,
non-commercial version of the Samsung Moment™ mobile phone,
which is built on Google’s Android platform, has a bright
AMOLED screen great for indoors and outdoors, and is available
exclusively from Sprint. The modified units, to be utilized by 200
consumers, are able to receive live digital TV with the built-in
Samsung receiver chip.
• Inspiron Mini 10
Entertainment prototype netbooks from Dell equipped an HD display,
Mobile DTV circuitry and reception antenna.
• Mobile
Digital TV / Portable DVD Player combos from LG Electronics,
which incorporate LG’s latest Mobile DTV receiver chip.
• Tivizen
Mobile DTV receivers from Valups, which receive over-the-air
Mobile DTV and beam it to an awaiting Wi-Fi device (allowing Mobile DTV
on products like the iPad, iPhone, laptops, and other devices.)
Starting in May, the OMVC Consumer Showcase will distribute a limited
number of Samsung Moment cell phones and Dell 10-inch netbooks.
All of the devices come
equipped with the necessary receiving and decoding capability to permit
viewing of favorite TV programs while at a Little League game, on a
commuter train, or even while bobbing on a boat on the Potomac.
Also as part of the OMVC Consumer Showcase, consumer focus groups with
the LG Mobile Digital TV/ Portable DVD Player and the Valups Tivizen
Wi-Fi adapter are planned for this summer.
Nine Stations
Transmitting More than 20 Programs
The programs to be transmitted on the new service include a wide
selection of free over-the-air local and network programs as well as
premium channels usually seen on
cable or satellite. Viewers will find:
• Local NBC programming from WRC
(NBC Universal).
• Local Fox programming from
WTTG (Fox) and local My Network programming from WDCA along with the
Fox News Channel and the Fox Business Network.
• MSNBC, CNBC, and other premium
programming to be announced on WPXW (ION Media Networks).
• Programming from Univision and
additional premium programming to be announced and sent from facilities
of WFDC (Univision)
• PBS Mobile and PBS Kids shows
from WHUT (Howard University)
• Local CBS programming and
weather radar from WUSA (Gannett Broadcasting).
• Global News and information on
MHz 1, and premium programming to be announced and sent from WNVC (MHz
Networks).
• CW network shows, and
entertainment/music shows from This TV and TheCOOLTV from WNUV
(Sinclair Broadcast Group.)
Mobile television programming will be fed to the nine stations and
controlled at a new Mobile DTV Network Operations Center (NOC) situated
at the studios of WUSA-TV. As part of the Consumer Showcase, tours of
the WUSA NOC will be available by appointment to select members of the
media.
The Mobile Digital TV Consumer Showcase is sponsored by LG Electronics and Samsung, two
companies that also supply the Mobile DTV receiving/decoding/tuning
chipsets used by a
variety of manufacturers who plan to offer Mobile
DTV products later this year.
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