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Broadcast Australia hosts new DVB-H trial

28 May 2007

Sydney- Broadcast transmission services provider Broadcast Australia is hosting a new trial of digital video broadcasting to handheld (DVB-H) mobile TV services at its Gore Hill site in Sydney. The three-month trial which began May 7 is a collaboration between Broadcast Australia, digital video solutions group Thomson Grass Valley and digital content protection specialist Irdeto, the trial license-holder.
Broadcast Australia provides the RF transmission infrastructure for the trial broadcast on UHF channel 29, as well as systems integration, multiplexing and network operations expertise. The DVB-H head-end is from Thomson Grass Valley, and Irdeto supplies an OSF-compliant digital security system to provide digital content and access protection. The three companies integrated the system which is managed via Broadcast Australia's Network Operations Centre (NOC).
Currently, participants in the trial have access to five mobile TV channels: Australian public service channels ABC, ABC2, and SBS, plus CNN and Boomerang. Scheduled to end on July 31, the trial's offerings are subjected to changes.
According to Martin Farrimond, Broadcast Australia General Manager, Mobile TV, one objective of the trial is to improve understanding of various technology platforms available for DVB-H, with Grass Valley's and Irdeto's technologies being alternatives to the 18C based platform
used in earlier trials. Statistical multiplexing, a technique to allow more services to be distributed in any given bandwidth, will also be tested.
Farrimond notes that part of the system development has involved integration of the mobile TV service with cellular mobile network services, and that it is proving a greater challenge than previous trials as the security technology has advanced over the past year. Broadcast Australia's team will be at BroadcastAsia 2007 in Singapore to discuss the business of digital broadcasting at Singapore Expo Halls, Hall 8, Stand 8J3-10, on June 19-22, 2007.