Harris and LG Electronics late last week announced that their MPH in-band mobile digital television (DTV) system is ready to be deployed by U.S. broadcasters.
Harris is showcasing the features of MPH at this week’s NAB Show, while LG Electronics by early next year expects to introduce a full range of devices, including handheld digital TVs, mobile phones, DTV-ready notebook computers and in-car DTV systems, capable of receiving and displaying MPH mobile DTV.
First announced in early 2007, MPH provides over-the-air DTV signals to mobile, pedestrian and handheld devices, providing local programming and other types of content to consumers. It allows broadcasters to dedicate a small portion of their FCC-mandated digital bandwidth allocation to distributing signals to mobile devices, meaning they can transmit the content in the signal stream as SD and HD programming. Such an “in-band” technology means broadcasters would be able to repurpose content they own for mobile viewing, without the need to piggyback over a mobile operator’s network.
A competing system, A-VSB, co-developed by Rohde & Schwartz and Samsung, is also being showcased at NAB this week. Both A-VSB and MPH are being considered by the ATSC as potential standards.
For more information, visit www.broadcast.harris.com and www.lgusa.com.
