S-band Video In Motion
Satellite digital multimedia broadcasting (DMB) services are just now emerging. Late last year, Tokyo-based Mobile Broadcasting Corp. (MBCO) launched its new mobile S-band service known as MOBAHO! "MOBA" means mobile and "HO!" expresses surprise in Japanese. SK Telecom and Toshiba Corp. formed a joint venture named TU Media in order to launch a similar DMB service in Korea, but with its commercial launch now delayed until May 2005, it has been proceeding at a much slower pace than MBCO.
With a monthly fee of approximately $24, MBCO is offering eight video channels as of mid-January, according to President Tetsuya Mizoguchi, using MPEG-4 Visual as its video coding method and MPEG-2 AAC for audio coding.
"Some terrestrial digital broadcasters intend to start their service for mobile around 2006 in Japan and H.264 will be adopted for this service as the video coding method. H.264 offers a well-engineered compression efficiency advantage over MPEG-4 Visual. For this reason, we are contemplating an update from MPEG-4 to H.264. However, when this update will occur is not yet determined," says Mizoguchi.
MBCO would not divulge the number of terrestrial repeaters it has deployed to increase coverage in dense urban zones, in particular where tunnels and tall buildings pose a real problem.
Toshiba and Sharp provide palm-top type receivers and MBCO and Toshiba are developing a new generation decoder IC, which will make it possible to implement the MBCO DMB tuner in a cellular telephone. Samsung Electronics has already developed a DMB mobile phone featuring a screen slight bigger than two inches.
With customers already showing a keen interest in its satellite radio, mobile video is apparently very much on the minds of Sirius Satellite Radio, which issued a joint announcement with Microsoft Corp. at CES.
"We have announced that we will be providing video programming geared towards kids and teens to the back seats of cars and SUVs. We also will be providing real-time traffic navigation," says Sirius spokesman Ron Rodrigues.
"Sirius' use of Windows Media Video 9 for its upcoming video service is another example of how the compression efficiencies of Windows Media 9 Series enable content providers to deliver more content at higher quality over existing network infrastructures whether over the air, satellite or the Internet," says Jonathan Usher, director, Windows Digital Media Division.
Video plans and ambitions aside, the growing demand for new DARS services is strong and getting stronger each month.
"Consumers have been seeking alternatives to broadcast radio due to limited format choices and a high number of commercials. The big challenge is getting people to sample the product. Once they do sample it, they get hooked and subscribe," says Rodrigues. "Our customer mix (is) changing. It is primarily male, 25-44. Those demographics are becoming more mainstream as we are getting sold in more retail outlets and getting installed in more cars. As more consumers are becoming more accustomed to the subscription model, they will feel more comfortable paying for satellite radio."
The View Ahead
VOOM, the U.S. HD provider offering 35 channels to its subscribers, has remained on our radar screen for months. While it should have been the consumer satellite HDTV headline of 2004, any signs of noteworthy progress in terms of executing a viable HDTV over satellite business plan have been mixed at best. Despite many conversations over the holidays with numerous consumers who were openly discussing pending plans to expand their home entertainment systems to include satellite HDTV, for example, VOOM was absent. In fact, blank expressions were the rule rather than the exception whenever the subject of VOOM was put before to this random pool of consumers.
But sluggish service launches are not the only industry concern. The constant threat of piracy and digital content mismanagement cannot go unmentioned.
"The biggest conditional access challenge facing DBS is the one of content protection. How does satellite offer full home networking of the highest quality digital content to a plethora of handheld devices?" asks Rubin at NDS. Among other things, NDS is a prominent player in the new Secure Video Processor Alliance, which is striving to address this problem.
During the latest round of interoperability testing by the MPEG Industry Forum (MPEGIF), MPEG-4 AVC was included so that the streams from several companies can be tested with emerging set top boxes and home media gateways. Because both SD and HD capable STB's are now coming through the development cycle, this interoperability testing represents an absolutely critical step in their progress to market. MPEGIF has set up a logo qualification program that provides a "mark" that testifies that the product underneath has been subject to a defined and rigorous level of interoperability testing.
"This year we are going to see a lot of completely new services providing video to the home mostly driven by the use of DSL bandwidth. However, some DBS operators will also start MPEG-4 deployments for their high-definition services," says David Price, vice president of the MPEG Industry Forum.
"Although it has only just been announced, 10 companies already are racing through the qualification program in order to be one of the first products sporting the MP4 Logo," adds Price.
What consumers will expect out of cable, DBS and terrestrial broadcast TV throughout the next decade is anyone's guess. It is clear that the momentum behind on-demand IPTV will not stop building. This is a distribution model, which is in its infancy involving the transfer of video over multiple platforms. Satellite certainly fits into this model and can thrive on it in the future.
Peter J. Brown is Via Satellite's Senior Multimedia & Homeland Security Editor. He also volunteers as a satellite technology and communications advisor to the Maine Emergency Management Agency.
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