MediaFLO technology for TV broadcast

Qualcomm has teamed up with China Network Systems (CNS) and Taiwan Television Enterprise, (TTV), to conduct a technical trial of Qualcomm's MediaFLO technology in Taipei.

Qualcomm has teamed up with China Network Systems (CNS) and Taiwan Television Enterprise, (TTV), to conduct a technical trial of Qualcomm's MediaFLO technology in Taipei.

Expected to begin in March 2007, the technical trial will feature four live channels of CNS content and up to three live channels of TTV content.

The trial is intended to allow CNS and TTV to closely evaluate the performance capabilities of MediaFLO technology - an open, cellular network-agnostic, wireless broadcasting technology - as they explore opportunities to deliver multimedia services to mobile devices in Taiwan.

FLO technology, a broadcast innovation and key component of the MediaFLO system, is an air-interface technology designed to increase capacity and coverage, as well as reduce cost for multimedia content delivery to mobile handsets.

"Taiwan is at the forefront of new technology deployments and mobile TV is no exception", says Daniel Cheung, Chief Operating Office of CNS.

"We are excited about MediaFLO and the opportunity for delivering advanced video services to our customers in Taiwan".

"We will use the trial to evaluate our business model for building a mobile broadcasting platform in Taiwan and to better understand how to migrate the platform to a commercial service".

"Mobile is a dynamic new platform for television content, and we are keen to offer our customers the widest variety of choices to access TTV content", says York Chiou, Vice President of business development at TTV.

"We are very excited to participate in the MediaFLO trial because the MediaFLO mobile TV standard provides consumers access to a wide selection of content and services".

"We feel MediaFLO is the most advanced and cost-effective method for mobile TV broadcasting".

"We see the trial as an excellent opportunity to expand our MediaFLO business development efforts in Asia", comments Peggy Johnson, President, Qualcomm Internet Services and MediaFLO Technologies".

"Taiwan is one of the key markets in the region with 84% pay TV penetration".

"We expect this trial to provide a strong validation of the value that Qualcomm believes MediaFLO technology offers both in Asia and other markets around the world".

Engineered specifically for the mobile environment, MediaFLO technology is intended to offer several advantages over other mobile broadcast technologies, including higher-quality video and audio, faster channel switching time, superior mobile reception, optimised power consumption and greater channel capacity.

Specific performance features of MediaFLO technology in a 6MHz channel include: Support for transmitting more than 20 streaming channels of QVGA-quality (320 x 240 pixels) video at 30frame/s, 10 stereo audio channels (HE AAC+ parametric stereo) and multiple Clipcasting downloads per day (short-format video clips) and always-on IP datacasting services; An average channel switching time of approximately two seconds In addition, mobile broadcasting based on MediaFLO technology will complement wireless operators' UMTS/WCDMA and CDMA2000 EV-DO cellular voice and data services, delivering content to the same cellular handsets used on these 3G networks.

The MediaFLO system is an end-to-end solution that enables broadcasting of high-quality video, audio streams, Clipcasting media and IP datacasting to mobile handsets.

The MediaFLO system is a manageable, scalable, subscription-based distribution system and an efficient over-the-air network solution that provides wireless operators a way to cost-effectively deliver the high-quality audio and video content that their subscribers desire.

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