CES: Mobile TV products take the limelight

Mobile TV is likely to take center stage at the Consumer Electronics Show this year, as both service providers begin ramping up their networks for launch later this year and vendors release their first TV-capable handsets.

After nearly a year without a peep, Crown Castle is lifting the veil of secrecy surrounding its mobile TV trial, announcing it will brand the new service Modeo and will expand its initial Pittsburgh tests to a commercial launch in 30 U.S. markets. The rollout will begin in 2006 in select cities, culminating in 2007, but Crown Castle did not reveal which markets beyond Pittsburgh would be targeted. Crown’s network utilizes Digital Broadcast Television-Handheld technology, a standard based on current digital TV technologies, promising multiple channels of multicast streamed content at 30 frames per second at quarter-VGA (QVGA) resolution.

Crown will be out in force at CES, a show that normally doesn’t highlight the technologies of tower companies, demonstrating the Modeo service with handset and technology partners, Nokia, Motorola, Philips, Intel and Kenwood. While numerous DVB-H trials are underway in Europe, Crown’s Modeo network is the first announced in the U.S. giving those aforementioned vendors their first opportunity to demonstrate their handset and silicon wares in the U.S.

Though not on Crown Castle’s list, Texas Instruments is also expected to make DVB-H noise. Today, TI announced it has begun shipping its Hollywood chipset to its handset partners, releasing one of the first volume system-on-chip solutions for mobile video. TI said the solution is the first that integrates both the digital tuner and demodulator onto a single piece of silicon, allowing vendors to cut down on manufacturing costs and power requirements. TI expects the first handsets integrated with Hollywood to debut in late 2006.

Competitor Qualcomm, however, won’t be outdone. It is championing its own mobile TV technology based on orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) called FLO or Forward Link Only. Qualcomm is also in the unique position of being both the technologies key architect and its first service provider, launching a multicast streaming network nationwide in 2006 and 2007 through its MediaFLO USA subsidiary. Qualcomm is bringing in its partners at CES also. Both Samsung and LG Electronics will be on hand with new FLO-enabled handsets embedded with Qualcomm chipsets.