It’s hard to keep up with today’s cell-phone functionality, with voice calls, text messaging, e-mail, Web surfing, GPS navigation, cameras, FM radios, and MP3 music. Now television has jumped headlong into the mix. A few carriers already offer TV programming over their networks, and new broadcast services have come online. Expect an even bigger push for mobile TV later this year and next year.
BIG CONTENT, LITTLE SCREENS
Nearly everyone watches their favorite programs and movies on a typical television screen, regardless of size or format. And broadband has more and more consumers checking out video on their computer monitors. So how can cell phones and their 1- and 2-in. screens hope to compete? Can you even read a movie’s credits on a handset? Probably not.
Even so, the viewing experience isn’t impossible. The screen’s tilt may present some problems, but new mobile TV content should be able to work around it. There’s also increasing demand for larger cell-phone screens. Look no further than the Apple iPhone, which is already establishing a trend with its 3.5-in. screen.
Do we need mobile TV? Did we ask for it? No and no. So why are we getting it? Because we can. More importantly, though, because it’s a new revenue source for carriers—and a new advertising outlet for sponsors. It won’t be for everyone, but many consumers will clamor for this “latest and greatest” technology.
It’s anybody’s guess on how many future cell phones will carry this capability. Most research firms see it as a very successful new handset venture, despite the lower-quality TV viewability.
HARDWARE/SOFTWARE ENABLERS
The technology and new broadband spectrum are driving mobile TV. Some mobile TV is available through the cell-phone networks, but it requires lots of high-speed data capability in the handset—a capability that’s already there. But if network mobile TV gets popular, the carriers will quickly run out of bandwidth and backhaul capacity. Potentially, this could hurt their ability to handle other broadband services like texting and e-mail, not to mention restricting expansion of their voice service. YouTube and Facebook already are taking their toll on cellular networks.
Thus, the move to broadcast mobile TV. A new network of broadcast stations in major markets will mainly supply cell-phone TV. These stations will send multiple channels of video to a separate receiver chip in the cell phone. With this setup, mobile TV can turn into a very successful reality. In fact, it’s already happening with services from both AT&T, called Mobile TV, and Verizon, known as V Cast.
So while the physical implementation problem has been solved, the greatest factor in its success will be content. Some existing TV shows, movies, and videos can be repurposed for mobile TV, but a whole new content industry is emerging. The goal is to create content especially for the small screen (see “Expected Mobile TV Content,” below).
Music videos should do well in mobile TV. But TV shows like sitcoms are too long, and movies even more so—a single film could spell the early death of a handset’s battery. Currently, the largest and most lucrative Internet video market is adult content. While such content for cell phones would be similarly successful, it’s doubtful the carriers would allow it. Besides, phones with Internet access could get that content anyway.
Video on demand (VOD) will be very desirable. So will podcasts, which could be used to provide educational content. Cell phones with mobile TV probably will have a flash-memory slot for pre-loaded content as well. Games may use video, but they won’t play a role in the mobile TV market.
So once you have your mobile TV, where and when will you watch it (see “Top 10 Places To Watch Cell-Phone TV,” p. 68)? Most of our viewing will likely take place when we’re in waiting mode, say at the train station or in the doctor’s lobby. But its convenience may tempt us to watch TV when we can least afford the distraction. How many people have you seen sending text messages while they drive? And mobile TV at work could hurt productivity more than the Internet and e-mail combined.
MOBILE TV TECHNOLOGY
Like any new wireless service, mobile TV is moving ahead quickly because of the currently available hardware and software, and multiple standards already exist. All of the standards use a coded orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) with quadrature phase-shift keying (QPSK) and quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) as the basic modulation choices.
There doesn’t seem to be any method more spectrally efficient, especially with the robustness in a multipath environment with moving receivers. Also, all of the standards use the same video-compression method that provides a streaming data rate in the 256- to 300-kbit/s range.
The most common screen size, QVGA, has a basic pixel resolution of 320 by 240. Other sizes and formats are possible, but this is a good fit for screens in the 2- to 4-in. range with video rates of 256 to 300 kbits/s and a screen refresh rate of 15 or 30 frames/s. Other video formats supported include CIF (common intermediate format) with a 352- by 288-pixel count and a quarter-size version (QCIF) with a 176- by 144-pixel resolution.
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