CES: Mobile TV hits the road

LAS VEGAS – The ATSC wasn’t the only standard getting play time at the Consumer Electronics Show. ICO Global Communications and Alcatel-Lucent demonstrated the power of the complementary DVB-SH ecosystem for the first time in the United States this week. In preparation for a commercial launch next year, ICO hosted live in-car demos of its fully integrated satellite and terrestrial broadcasting system, ICO mim, which broadcasts up to 15 channels via small antennas on the vehicle.

The CES demos marked the beginning of ICO’s consumer trials, which will take place in Las Vegas and Raleigh, N.C. The demo used several in-car monitors, both in the back seat as well as a dual-view screen plus mobile DTV capability for receiving local broadcast content in the front. The dual view allows the front-seat passenger to watch TV, while the driver can only access navigation, communication and command instructions. On display was live TV programming from NBC Universal, Discovery Channel, Cartoon Network and Comedy Central, as well as interactive features including navigation, instant messaging and emergency tracking.

“We are really a service provider,” said Tom Conklin, product manager of applications at ICO. “Our model is, we’ll provide these services, and we’ll provide a gateway for the end user much like a black box that Sirius and XM use for the vehicle. And the vehicles themselves will be outfitted with a means to talk to that gateway.”

Car manufacturers can build the black box in and use ICO as a conduit for interactive services and broadcast, Conklin added. DVB-SH, or Digital Video Broadcast- Satellite services to Handhelds, relies on ICO’s G1 satellite, the largest commercial satellite in orbit, combined with a terrestrial network to deliver high-quality signals even in dense urban areas. The DVB-SH satellite, owned and operated by Craig McCaw, was launched into orbit last April, and the technology was developed by Alcatel-Lucent using the DVB-SH standard, a derivation of DVB-H that relies on the same S-band 2-GHz spectrum. Alcatel-Lucent is also ICO’s network integrator to support the construction of terrestrial networks in both of the test markets.

DVB-H was made the mobile TV standard in Europe last year but has not yet made traction in the US, where several standards compete and Qualcomm’s MediaFLO had the first-mover advantage. Unlike other mobile TV standards, DVB-SH is optimized for a larger screen than a wireless phone. Ideal for the sizable market of portable and in-car devices, the satellite interactivity also gives users a touch screen to text and email, access real-time weather, traffic and landmarks or place voice-over IP calls. ICO only has two towers in the Las Vegas region, which are able to cover the whole region, making for a cheap build out, Conklin said.