RadioScape, a world leader in digital multimedia head-end and receiver technology, is launching the latest version of its Professional Broadcast System at IBC 2006 on stand 353 in hall 8. RadioScapes market-leading, broadcast solution for DAB and Mobile TV (MTV) has been installed around the world with over 75 live systems and has been used in numerous broadcast trials. Version 5.1 has a new suite of functionality to directly address the latest Mobile TV and advanced data transmission requirements enabling DAB technologies to form the basis for new and exciting business opportunities, capitalising on the availability of suitable spectrum in many countries.
Powering new Mobile TV and Digital Radio broadcasts in Beijing
On the 6th of September 2006, Beijing Radio Stations and its affiliated company, Beijing Jolon Media Broadcasting Co., Ltd. officially launched full digital multi-media broadcasting services powered by RadioScapes Professional Broadcast System. This provides digital audio and video programs for mobile devices such as cellular phones, PDAs, and MP4s (advanced video players). The station has been offering DAB (Digital Audio Broadcast) from April 2006 and now adds multimedia information on government affairs, daily life, the city and real-time traffic news and weather.
China is becoming a real success story for RadioScape, said John Hall, RadioScapes CEO. The broadcasters want to have systems in place and working for the 2008 Olympic Games and so we have been working closely with them for the past three years to achieve this. To date, we have thirteen installations up and running in China covering all the major conurbations. We are working closely with other broadcasters and industry partners to support the adoption of this technology in China.
The success of Mobile TV in China is, in part, due to the adoption of Digital Multimedia Broadcasting (DMB) as a delivery technology. This uses the well-proven, Eureka 147 Digital Audio Broadcast (DAB) standard with additional forward error correction to ensure robust video reception in both fixed and mobile environments. One of key advantages of DMB is that the required spectrum is already available in many countries unlike other systems that have spectrum allocation issues that may take several years to resolve. This technology enables both digital audio and Mobile TV to be received on the same mobile device, which has proved a very popular feature according to users in trials.
New features of RadioScapes Professional Broadcast System Version 5.1
These include Enhanced Packet Mode data used to deliver DAB-IP services, the enabling of integration of third-party Conditional Access systems, advanced Electronic Programme Guide (EPG) features and the ability to support Asian language labels, DLS and data carousels.
Nick Banks, Product Manager for Digital Broadcasting Infrastructure, added, We have worked very closely with customers to ensure that we are first to deliver support for all of the functionality that they need to deliver when rolling-out the next-generation of Mobile TV services. In particular, the inclusion of support for secure Conditional Access to content has been identified as a key requirement for viable and successful business models. Naturally, we have also included features to enhance the user experience such as support for multi-byte character sets and EPGs. The result is a state-of-the-art Mobile TV broadcasting using technologies that have already been proven in the worlds largest DAB network in the UK and is being successfully deployed using existing, available spectrum.
Live Mobile TV demos
RadioScape will be showing Mobile TV broadcasts using DAB IP (Enhanced Packet mode) to BT Movio terminals and DMB to portable DMB devices. The flexibility of RadioScapes new Integra family of single-box solutions for DAB/DMB broadcasting can be clearly seen as one unit will be used for both broadcasts simultaneously.