Some ‘take aways’: will Hybrid Broadband/Broadband break up familes? Will Brussels ever listen?

Phil Laven suggested a few reflections on some of the issues at DVB World as a wrap up…..

- Can Hybrid Broadcast/Broadband work when there is more than one person viewing the TV?    Or will screens that combine pictures with multimedia overlay actually just irritate when there are many viewers of the same set?

- Will the Commission ever  understand the potential for interference and limits to services  caused unless spectrum is well managed?  How can we bring the message to them?

Phil added more concerns.

-Getting nations to choose the same set of options for their new digital television services is obviously difficult. What can we do?

- Does the DVB ‘toolbox’ /consensus approach itself encourage fragmentation?

And suggested that next year we may be wondering about ’stereoscopic TV’……

Please please, let’s stop the plurality virus!

Stefan Krueger from Media Broadcast  explained the DVB-H model used in Austria.  In passing he explained that the situation in Germany for DVB-H is that there are no services currently on air.

The company  MB responded to the national invitation to tender for mobile broadcasting for  Austria and won, beating the local broadcaster ORF.  The business model is that there are three mobile operators,  who ‘broadcast’ the service package.   The channel providers take care of the rights issues for the mobile versions of their own channels.   There are 15 TV and 5 radio programmes in the offer – all operators have the same package.     52% of the Austrian population is covered, and 33% of the geographical area.

The DVB-H multiplex is IP based.    A managed DVB-H service is sent to the operators in Austria.   Providing a DVB-H service to multiple network providers, as in Austria, is complex because each operator has their own unique application layer for the DVB-H service.

Stefan echoed the sentiment that world we have created, with a multitude of standards and options, really is a ‘headache’.    Furthermore, we are tripping over ourselves with new standards before old standards have been implemented.

He really cuts to the core problem, doesn’t he?

Why has DVB-H been less successful than hoped?

Alex Mestre from Abertis Telecom spoke about ’smart mobile TV coverage’.  What is that, you ask?   Does it have something to do with the Marx Brothers?  Alex argued that, in so far as as their movie ‘Night at the Opera’ was about squeezing too many people into the same room, yes it does.

Objectively, it has to be said that European DVB-H has not been the success that Korean and Japanese broadcast to mobile systems have been.   A variety of reasons can be found.   One is that 3G provides the same kind of service and still has spare capacity.   Another is the only services successful in the world have been the ‘free to air’ broadcast to mobile services in Japan and Korea.  Subscription just may not not work.  Another argument is that satellite coverage could work better….the hybrid DVB-SH system for example.

Alex put forward a plan for using a combination of 3G and DVB-H and DVB-SH, depending on city type and user situation.  Interesting idea, and worth getting Alex presentation to read it. This is ’smart mobile TV’.   A mobile handset that ‘does ‘em all’.

But is it practical?  Would all the actors ever cooperate in the way needed?    What do you think?   And what about ‘MediaFLO’?

Hello to George and Aleksandar, DVB World Pioneers

During our conference, shall we say ‘hello’ to George Waters and Aleksandar Todorovic who led the organsiation of DVB World for so many years.   The DVB World conference was often held in Dublin.  Remember the vists to the Old Jameson Distillery?  Remember the dog race track?   The DVB project Office has picked up the baton of the organisation now – reflecting the enthusiasm and spirt of Gearge and Aleksandar, the ‘pioneers’.  So from Berlin, we say ‘hello’ and ‘thank you for everything’ to them….

Better SFNs – answer to a prayer?

Lauraent Roul, of ENENSYS, is from Rennes (where COFDM was ‘invented’ at the CCETT, but by whom? ).   By 2008,  DVB-T is used in 35 countries. Every year 2-3 new services start.   It is a great success story.

DVB-T2 is designed to make SFNs, one of the most useful features,  even easier than with DVB-T.    SFNs have obvious advantages in spectrum efficiency and transmitter power reduction.     In an SFN network, transmitters all use the same broadcast frequency, and they are ’synchronised’ by a common time signal received from GPS.    There are approaches for Regional SFNs and national SFNs.

SFNs  are a great feature for national broadcasting, though making regional SFNs can be tricky.    DVB-T2 brings the use of SFNs on an important step.

Comment:  So, I find myself asking if France should wait for DVB-T2.  What do you think?

Vive la différence!

Jean-Pierre Lacotte,  Thomson,  who is ‘Monsieur HDTV’ in France explained the French plan for HDTV (praised in the Panel Session yesterday for its clarity).   In France there has been  a fantastic coming together of all parts of the media industry as a kind of ‘France Inc’ to make  HDTV a success.  Jean Pierre Chairs the French HDTV platform.

But in France – sacre bleu – they will not use DVB-T2 as in the UK, by jove, but keep with DVB-T for their DTT HDTV.  The reason is because they want/need to introduce it now rather than wait for an unknown time for DVB-T2 receivers.

In France, all new DTT STBs and TVsets have MPEG4 and HDTV capability.   The migration has already started.  HDTV is already available on satellite and  IPTV.  The HD DTT multiplexes will normally have 3 HDTV channels.    Audio will be (only) DD+ from this summer.

Is it a coincidence that the countries moving the fastest with HDTV, like France and UK, have the strongest national HDTV inter-company coordination groups?

Many congratulations to them!

P.S  Jean Pierre, I will tell no one  that you were heavily involved in HD MAC too.

Next generation toys?

The title comes from Ulrich Reimers, not me.

In the second presentation , Cheryl Sloan from the UK DTT club of FTA broadcasters, Freeview, explained why HDTV is seen as a ‘compelling proposition’  (I love business-speak, don’t you?) for DTT in the UK .   The BBC currently broadcasts about 8 hours a day in HDTV by satellite today.   It seems that the main UK networks all have the capacity to provide HDTV programmes, and there should be finally  4 HDTV channels on DTT.    They think this will succeed with the public because the content available will be the best,  and probably most expensive to make  ( ah, so this is a ‘compelling proposition’).    Can DTT HDTV compete in the ‘HDTV broadcast space’?   Yes, very much so, Cheryl believed, the public is eagerly awaiting this, and will migrate ‘over time’.     STB will be a hundred pounds.    You have to be careful to ‘educate’ consumers, so they are not confused by HDTV.

So, if you give people a wide choice of HDTV programmes that are expensive to make, on receivers that cost very little, they will like it……

Do you agree?  Would you like to become a management consultant?

I also liked Cheryls point that ‘Full HD’ TV sets are now widely sold, but there is absolutely no ‘Full HD (1080p/50) broadcasting.  Is this entirely fair to the public.

Plumb new systems for the UK

Graham Plumb BBC (another red tie person) explained that one current DVB-T multiplex will be ‘cleared’ and some reorganisation will be done to allow DVB-T2 multiplexes, which will include 8Mbit/s HDTV services.  Do the people who have already bought DVB-T DTT sets know and mind? .  Existing DVB-T sets will, it seems, be able to receive all the programmes they do at the moment, so perhaps not.   For further channels, you will need a DVB-T2  receiver.   Transmitters after switch off will be higher powered-  and so there is a job to be done in the transmitter network.  A new UK ‘D-book’ has been agreed in the DTG group (useful to get hold of that from Simon Gauntlett?).    Is 1080p/50 broadcasting possible?   Yes, but not in the timescale  (what a pity, this will be the last chance for at least a decade, n’est pas?).

Has the UK made ’sensible’ decision?  What do you think?

The Earthbound day…

Ulrich Reimers opened the third day of DVB World 2009……..welcome to Germany where portable phone DVB-T sets are available for 300 Euros…did you know that DVB-H is used in the Philippines?……..did you know that DVB-T2 has been tested and will be used in the UK for DTT?

Watch out for this today!

Day three sessions include a host of interesting presentations.

Here’s some of the things I am hoping to learn.  How about you?

I’ll be comparing the DTT in the UK and France in presentations 1 and 3 , where they have taken different paths about DTT  (DVB-T in one case, DVB-T2 in the other).  Why did they do it differently?   Is the a right way and a wrong way?

I’ll be listening carefully to presentations 4 and 6, about DVB-H.   Is the Austrian DVB-H bisniness model one that could be used accross Europe?   What do you think?  I am a bit worried because we heard earlier in the conference that DVB-H technology may now be ‘out of date’?    And why isn’t DVB-H used in Germany and else where?  Anyone know?