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Mobile DTV success hinges on delivering adequate signal strength, says Whiteside

May 20, 2009 4:10 PM, By Phil Kurz

             

Andy Whiteside, VP of engineering at Acrodyne, says a key to Mobile DTV success will be delivering adequate signal strength.

Andy Whiteside, VP of engineering at Acrodyne, is bullish on Mobile DTV and the opportunity it offers broadcasters to reclaim over-the-air audience, which has been diminishing for years.

At this early stage of Mobile DTV implementation, broadcasters must wrestle with a host of issues, the most of important of which may be providing adequate signal strength in all the places people use handheld devices.

A variety of approaches must be considered. According to Whiteside, it has been demonstrated several times that a big-stick high-power plant can deliver a high-quality mobile signal to a large area. However, if coverage is not what’s expected and a station is not maximized, that station should consider applying for maximization and antenna improvements. Beyond that are other options including adding vertical polarization, deploying a single frequency network, and on-channel repeaters, he says.

This week, Andy Whiteside discusses these and other RF-related issues related to deploying Mobile DTV.

This week’s Sound Off is presented as a podcast.

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