Local channels on mobile TV: Test shows promise
November 8th, 2006Local digital TV channels might make their way to mobile phones over the broadcast spectrum, a road test of an emerging technology suggests. A variation on standard over-the-air transmission, A-VSB (Advanced-Vestigial Side-Band) is designed to compensate for a shortcoming in North America’s digital television standard:
Sinclair [Broadcast Group], which raised concerns in the late ’90s over the ATSC standard’s inability to support mobile or portable reception, is bullish on the technology.
Sinclair—an early, vocal critic of ordinary 8-VSB modulation—is on board? I’ll take that as a good sign. Tests in a car moving at up to 80 MPH, using Samsung equipment, were “pretty encouraging,” according to transmitter manufacturer Rohde & Schwarz.
Next question (premature, perhaps, but I’ll ask anyway): What kind of reception can we expect without a rooftop antenna?
Earlier:
• Mobile TV signals for free? Maybe, with A-VSB
• Handheld digital TV: U.S. market is still waiting
• Mobile TV coming to ’select’ US cities
• Link: Broadcasting & Cable