Mobile Digital TV Cell Phone Showcase

One of the leading consumer electronics giants, LG Electronics, has showcased an Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) mobile digital television on some of its selected mobile phones at the CTIA 2009.

The CDMA leader has demonstrated mobile Digital TV with live local broadcasting on its LG Voyager CDMA phone and LG Maize GSM phone by using the ATSC standard chips in the hand held devices. The High-efficiency battery technology can bring up to four hours of mobile DTV viewing.

Dr. Woo Paik, President and Chief Technology Officer at LG Electronics, explained, “Digital TV broadcasts to mobile and hand held devices will represent new opportunities for manufacturers and carriers alike as digital TV stations deliver a wide range of exciting programming using the new standard.”

As the features, the ATSC Mobile DTV enables broadcasters to stream line their current DTV capabilities by allotting a part of the channel capacity to reach viewers on move, thus creating a new market segment for revenue.  Broadcasters have geared up to start mobile DTV services across 63 stations in 22 markets, brining nearly 35 percent of U.S. TV households.

Brandon Burgess, Chairman of the OMVC said,  “The timely introduction of a wide variety of ATSC Mobile DTV-compatible devices will be crucial to the creation of a robust mobile digital TV market,”.

He further said, “Broadcasters applaud LG’s leadership, both in the development of the standard and in deploying ATSC Mobile DTV to support our launch plans in 2009 and beyond.”

The ATSC technology will not be confined to mobile phones. It can be channelized to other devices such as hand held TVs, media players, navigation devices and laptop computers. It will also target the automotive sectors such as factory-installed, dealer-installed and after market entertainment systems and GPS systems.