Mobile TV with China's DTV standard is easier than in U.S. and Europe

Table 1: Digital conversion around the world

While these terrestrial DTV standards are designed to provide high definition television (HDTV) services with fixed antenna reception, most are not well-suited to meet the stringent low-power requirements of mobile and portable devices. As a result, broadcasters continue to face challenges in determining which technology and broadcast mechanism can be used to reach the fast growing market of mobile and portable users.

The one exception is the standard developed in China. The China Digital Television Terrestrial Broadcasting (DTTB) System Standard, also known as GB20600-2006, became the mandatory national DTTB standard in August 2007.

GB20600-2006 was designed to deliver a consistent, high-quality digital TV viewing experience no matter where consumers are sitting: in their living room watching television or on a high-speed train watching shows on their cell phones. The technology can broadcast audio and video at transmission rates of greater than 24 Mbps to consumer devices. Because the mobile reception capability is inherently built into the standard, these consumer devices now have a mobile TV feature that works not only when stationary, but even while traveling at speeds greater than 200 km per hour.

The China television market is in the midst of a broadcast revolution because of this new free-to-air terrestrial DTV standard. GB20600-2006 is spurring station owners to broadcast HDTV signals to TVs and set-top boxes, creating a market opportunity that is larger than any other in the world. With 380 million television households, China is home to more televisions than any other country in the world. And nearly 70 percent of those households receive their programming via roof-top antenna.

At the same time, the GB20600-2006 standard is creating a significant new market for mobile TV services. There are more than 600 million cell phone subscribers in China and nearly seven million new mobile phones are purchased each month. Now that the free-to-air HDTV broadcast signal has become a reality, manufacturers of cell phones and other handheld mobile devices are rushing to incorporate mobile TV reception into their products.

What makes the China GB20600-2006 terrestrial DTV standard suitable for mobile services? In this article we answer this question in two ways. First, we review the basic GB20600-2006 air interface standard and highlight the features of the standard that were designed for mobile capabilities.

Second, we provide a detailed overview of a television service provider's broadcast system using the GB20600-2006 standard and discuss the suitability of such a system for mobile services when a multi-protocol encapsulation (MPE) service is overlaid on top of it. Additionally, MPE with GB20600-2006 will enable many of the existing and new receiver designers to develop solutions that provide reception of added programs along with free-to-air programs without added complexity. An MPE-based GB20600-2006 system is capable of broadcasting 20 to 30 mobile DTTB programs in an 8MHz channel.

Next: GB20600-2006 broadcast to mobile devices