BT Movio service; a wholesale broadcast mobile entertainment service, will launch this Summer, says BT; who welcome the approval of a revised DAB; Digital Audio Broadcasting, standard, that allows mobileTV and virtually any other content to be broadcast reliably using internet based technologiesUsing IP to run on a DAB network; as part of the revised EN 300 401 specification, the European Telecommunications Standards Institute; ETSI, has included a capability, allows audio, video and other data to be broadcast reliably and with efficiency.BT predict that the eventually there will not be a single standard or technology, but a combination of these. Mobile TV and radio will be delivered to consumers using 3G, DAB, DVB-H, WLAN and other technologies, using IP to combine. This prediction is reinforced by the approval of DAB ETSI technology.“The approval of this latest enhancement to the DAB standard supports what we’ve been saying for some time. We will see multiple standards for mobile TV and radio appearing in different markets across the globe. Those adopting a multi-standard approach will therefore emerge as the winners in this potentially lucrative market,” said Emma Lloyd, BT Movio.“Consumers want simple access to high quality TV and radio wherever they are. By using a platform based on IP, we can join different technologies and standards together to give the consumer a seamless experience to enjoy their favourite TV and radio programmes on their mobile phone.”This summer will see the commercial launch of the BT Movio service. The DAB-IP based platform has been chosen by BT Movio for three reasons: 1- DAB provides the only national broadcast capacity available in the UK today. Should DVB-H or other IP capable broadcast standards become available in the future, BT Movio could potentially integrate these to provide consumers with a further choice of TV and radio channels.2- With the DAB network, BT Movio also offers access to all the UK’s DAB digital radio stations, as well as mobile TV. One of the key findings from the recent BT Movio pilot was that whilst mobile TV was extremely popular, consumers found the digital radio aspect of the service equally attractive.3- DAB-IP is currently the only platform which is efficient enough to use the existing digital radio capacity, in the UK, to deliver several TV channels and a seven day programme guide.“We are a leading provider of DAB-IP for trials around the world and have been working closely with BT Movio on the implementation of the DAB-IP platform here in the UK. We are delighted that the technology has now been standardised by ETSI and believe that this will give greater impetus to the adoption of the multi-bearer/IP strategy in other markets.” Said John Hall, RadioScape.“We are uniquely positioned to support these multi-standard requirements as our software defined solutions are specifically designed to handle whatever standard or feature is required at the time.”
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