 | Issue: | Asia-Pacific I 2007 |
| Article no.: | 11 | |
| Topic: | Global MDTV – the multi-standard approach | |
| Author: | Alon Ironi | |
| Title: | CEO | |
| Organisation: | Siano Mobile Silicon | |
| PDF size: | 500KB |
About author
Alon Ironi is the CEO of Siano Mobile Silicon. Mr Ironi has more than 15 years of experience in Fabless IC, including positions as the former CEO of Emblaze Semiconductor Ltd, entrepreneur in residence at Concord VC, General Manager of Zoran Israel and Vice President of Engineering at Zoran Corporation. Mr Ironi’s experience includes management, product roadmap definition and strategy, SoC architecture and design, and building and maintaining commercial relationships with Asian customers. Mr Ironi holds a BSEE Cum Laude from the Technion Institute of Technology in Israel and completed the MSEE programme Cum Laude at the Santa Clara University in Santa Clara California.
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Digital TV is expanding from the home to everywhere – to streets, cars, buses, trains, restaurants, beaches – as the TV world is changing from a stationary, satellite or tethered paradigm and the traditional group viewing experience to include a more personal viewing experience on portable wireless devices. Although mobile entertainment is still in its infancy, mobile devices have rapidly evolved from strictly communications devices into multimedia-centric infotainment devices with the integration of digital cameras, MP3 players, PDA functionality, GPS services, gaming and video capabilities. Similarly, other mass market devices, such as Apple’s iPod, are changing the habits of millions of consumers when outside of the home, and personal video and television capabilities are as close as ever to full realization. A fragmented and diversified market Television, the most basic and widely used multimedia application ever, is going through a dramatic change. New standards and technologies, led by a coalition of leading cellular operators, broadcasters, mobile phone makers, software and content providers, have set the stage for terrestrial digital television services optimized to mobile usage. However, global segmentation of the new standards – and the variety of regulated spectrum bands considered in different geographies – fragment the broadcast Mobile Digital Television market, MDTV. A variety of standards – DVB-H, DVB-T, DAB, T-DMB, DAB-IP, ISDB-T, Media FLO and DMB-T/H – are designed for deployment over multiple spectrum bands, including VHF, UHF and at least two slices of ‘L’ band. In addition to these terrestrial technologies, some satellite-based technologies are also planned, some already deployed. For the sake of the industry, it would have been simpler if there were one mobile TV standard over one spectrum band, but the reality is that there are a number of these standards throughout the world. In some cases, as in Germany and China, there is even more than one standard per country. Such a fragmented market creates a big challenge for technology vendors and component providers, and is calling for a multi-standard, multi-band solution while maintaining small size, low cost, low power, high mobility performance and a high level of integration. Flexibility for operators In a traditional cellular communications market, operators are in charge of the entire operation from A to Z – the network, the infrastructure and everything required for delivering services to the consumer. The MDTV market operates differently. Cellular operators won’t install the networks and infrastructure. Instead, MDTV will follow a TV service provider model, where companies such as Modeo and Mediaset will install the mobile TV network, including infrastructure, towers and content aggregation. Operators will then buy the service from the TV service provider to bring it to the end user as a commercial service. Because of the market structure, operators will have a presence but they still require some amount of flexibility. With the multi-standard reality, even though operators each have a preference for standards, they can have the flexibility to work with two or more different MDTV service providers to create competition and get a better deal. This also presents less of a risk than if they were only using one standard. Multi-standard phone chips Phone manufacturers want the ability to sell their phones in multiple countries or in countries where there is more than one MDTV standard – requiring a multi-standard phone supported by a multi-standard receiver chipset. For phone manufacturers, the multi-standard approach to MDTV presents an opportunity to streamline hardware and software design while reducing the overall design cycle and R&D costs. With a multi-standard chip, manufacturers can invest in one platform that will then yield several commercial models supporting different standards. A multi-standard chip also assists phone makers in managing inventory. If a model for one standard unexpectedly sells less, any excess inventory can be absorbed using the same chip in models supporting other standards where sales volumes exceeded the estimate. The handset maker does not have to bet which standard will prevail. With a simple and single design, they can leverage volume to reduce price. What to expect In five years or so, end users will have access to a collection of TV services carried over various wireless technologies: multiple-standard broadcast TV, IPTV over WiFi, streaming TV over HSDPA, and perhaps also WiMAX or LTE (the ‘3.9’ generation). For the end users, all of these technologies will be hidden behind one simple, easy-to-use application on their mobile device that will access different TV services operated by different service providers. The user will be unconcerned about which technologies are used or how they work; they will enjoy a rich user experience and fast deployment that provides convenient access to all available content. This combination of software and chipset is designed and packaged in a way that users can access all types of services anywhere they are in the world while roaming with one phone. The end user can receive his selected channel even in countries with different standards or more than one standard, providing the full mobile phone TV experience. Multi-standard challenges There are a multitude of technical challenges associated with providing a multi-standard chip and phone for MDTV. Supporting multiple standards might require more silicon, a larger chip, which increases the costs of the chip, as well as the cost of the phone and the operator’s services. The larger chip also consumes more power. The challenge to chip providers and phone manufacturers is how to still support all of the standards without using a larger chip and provide a low-cost, low-power solution. MDTV convergence The challenges of MDTV are being addressed by the creation of multi-standard chips that are smaller in size than previous solutions that support only one or two standards. The multi-standard chip has lower power consumption and maintains a high level of signal reception performance, guaranteeing good reception even with weak signal strength, such as in an elevator or garage. The multi-standard approach – which eventually will be expanded to a ‘multi-technology’ approach – is aimed at solving the challenges that all these emerging standards and technologies and spectrum bands have created. Without this approach, the enormous diversity of solutions could become such a huge obstacle that it would keep mobile DTV handsets and services from reaching the mass market. The penetration of MDTV is an evolutionary process. The industry, now, is just beginning, bringing the software and chipset together to enable end users to easily access any type and standard of TV services available no matter where they are in the world. In the future, this convergence will continue and allow end users to move their entertainment seamlessly from the home TV to the mobile phone to the laptop, enabling mass deployment and ramp-up of Mobile TV, and allowing globalization of the mobile device and its owner.
