The Advanced Television Systems Committee adopted the A/153 ATSC Mobile DTV Standard last week with overwhelming support from the members of the ATSC.
The new standard defines the technical specifications broadcasters need to deliver service to mobile and handheld devices via their DTV transmissions. "Development and adoption of the ATSC Mobile DTV Standard is a major milestone in the ongoing evolution of digital television," said ATSC President Mark Richer in a press statement.
ATSC Mobile DTV is built around a robust transmission system based on VSB modulation, with enhanced error correction and other techniques to improve robustness and reduce power consumption in portable receivers.
The 800-broadcast stations strong group, Open Mobile Video Coalition, released a statement congratulating the ATSC adoption of the standard. “With adoption of the ATSC Mobile DTV Standard, small-screen versions of [broadcasters’ HD] programming and other services also will now be available over mobile devices,’ said Brandon Burgess, president of the OMVC and CEO of ION Media Networks.
According to the Association for Maximum Service Television President David Donovan. “Today marks the beginning of a new era in digital television broadcasting. Not only will this provide a new venue for watching local news and sports, it will crate a critical platform for emergency communications.’
The group also envisions a number of other features that the new technology can provide, such as live audio feeds, datacasting with traffic maps, closed-captioning, “clip-casting’ sports and news highlights that could be stored in memory on a device, “push’ VOD for future viewing, time-shifted television, mobile digital video recording.
