Another pairing of companies has joined the fray for an advanced DTV modulation system. LG and Harris last week announced a new technology designed to extend ATSC over-the-air broadcast TV signals beyond fixed locations to mobile viewers. The new in-band mobile DTV technology, dubbed MPH, for "Mobile-Pedestrian-Handheld," will make its debut at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) convention April 14-19 in Las Vegas. The technology will be featured in two NAB exhibits: the Harris booth (N2502, Las Vegas Convention Center) and the Advanced Television Systems Committee "Hot Spot" (South Hall upper lobby). The robustness and reliability of the new system also will be showcased in live, mobile demonstrations throughout the NAB convention.

Aldo Cugnini
Analyst

In January, Samsung and Rohde & Schwarz conducted the first on-the-road public demonstration of Advanced-VSB (A-VSB), which showed rock-solid pictures in a highway speed vehicle. The A-VSB technology is now being standardized by ATSC.

"MPH is designed to deliver the Mobile-Pedestrian-Handheld applications that digital TV broadcasters are seeking," said Dr. Jong Kim, president of LG’s Zenith R&D Lab. "We believe broadcasters will appreciate both the superior performance and unparalleled flexibility of our MPH system." The U.S. facility collaborated on the development of the system with the LG DTV Lab in Seoul and with Harris Broadcast Communications Division.

Tim Thorsteinson, president of Harris Broadcast Communications said, "The results of our joint development with LG Electronics are in response to our customers’ interest in a compelling, in-band mobile solution. The versatile, robust MPH system is the first that strikes the right balance for broadcasters looking to deliver both high-definition programming to fixed receivers and standard-definition programming and datacasting to mobile and handheld devices."

According to LG and Harris, the MPH system is a multiple-stream approach, with the main service stream for existing DTV and HDTV services, and the MPH stream for one or more mobile, pedestrian and/or handheld services. Key attributes of the MPH system include:

• - Backward compatibility with the existing ATSC 8-VSB transmission and receiving equipment
• - Capability to receive broadcast signals at high (mobile) speed with a single antenna
• - Use of practical, small handheld receivers without the need for multiple antennas
• - Power savings in handheld receivers
• - Flexibility in both data rates and robustness
• - Data-rate efficiency
• - Use of advanced video and audio coding in the MPH stream.

Technical details are not yet available on the workings of the system or its payload requirements. LG, Zenith and Harris plan to disclose at NAB results of field testing under real-world conditions for mobile and handheld services. As for the financial element, royalties for the ATSC system are split between LG/Zenith and others. With the potential use of Samsung’s A-VSB, LG could see some of their revenue pot diminished, so it is in their interest to extend the life of their existing patent portfolio.

It is likely that the MPH system builds on the E-VSB (enhanced VSB) technology already developed by LG. Earlier, Richard Lewis, senior vice president of technology for Zenith, said Zenith is offering the use of E-VSB for free with any 8-VSB license. Lewis said E-VSB patents are pending, but if and when they are awarded, they would run to about 2022. When the 8-VSB patent portfolio expires in 2016, the E-VSB licensing program would then kick in. "During the life of 8-VSB," he said, "there will be no patent fees on E-VSB. After that, there would be an E-VSB program." It is not known by this analyst, how all of this applies to MPH.

Will there be another "VHS-Beta" battle on the horizon? It all depends on the numbers. Both the LG and Samsung systems require a tradeoff between main and mobile stream payloads-and the latter stream requires a disproportionate amount of overhead in order to provide increased robustness. While each system offers backward-compatibility for non-enhanced receivers, it is likely to be economically unsound to incorporate both into a new receiver-and bandwidth prohibitive to broadcast both. And since licensing can involve a combination of royalty payments and cross-licensing agreements, the actual cost to a TV manufacturer is difficult to ascertain. The chicken-and-egg situation muddies the picture of which system any broadcaster or manufacturer would wish to implement. Nonetheless, there is growing interest in providing video to handheld and mobile viewers, and that is likely to spur the rollout of one or both of these systems.