Mobile TV Development: How to drive it

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Mobile TV DevelopmentHow to drive it ?

• John Yip
• Chief Engineer
• Radio Television Hong Kong
• 10 March, 2008

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Mobile TV

• A natural extension of services on the ubiquitous
  mobile phone its video_at_interactive.anywhere

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Delivery Systems
Frequency Bands
VHF, UHF, L-band, S-band
ISDB-T, DVB-T/H/T2, ATSC-M/H, CMMB, S/T-DMB,
MediaFLO
Broadcast Systems
Cellular Systems
3G, MBMS/ Tdtv, 3.5G/ HSDPA, WiMax, LTE and UMB
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Delivery and handsets

• In-band systems offer economic benefits common
  network resource sharing.
• Dual-band handsets for both terrestrial UHF
  (urban areas) and satellite S-band (rural areas)
  eg DVB-SH and CMMB.
• Multi-standard handsets also add flexibility.
• Single 65nm SoC IC available soon, supporting
  multiple worldwide Mobile TV standards (ISDB-T,
  DVB-H, T-DMB etc.) in VHF, UHF and L bands.

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Generic Growth Equation

• Generic growth equation for digital broadcast
  technology was introduced (in ABU DTV2007)

Driving Force (DF) Function (soft and
hard factors) M (r, p, m, o) H (G, g)
Regulatory (r) Pricing (p) Marketing (m) Others
(o)
Macroeconomic (G) Geo-physical (g)
Driving Force
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Generic Growth Equation

• For Mobile TV in a city, Driving Force
• DFm Mm (r, p, m, o) GDP/capita T
• where T, Terrain Factor (0
• is a retarding factor. For comparing cities,
  
• GDP/capita could be in PPP.

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Generic Growth Equation Soft factors
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Generic Growth Equation
Technology, as reflected in pricing, device
attributes and quality, is not explicitly
expressed. Consumers do not care about technology
per se.
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Metrics

• Example using the concept of a 5-point scale for
  assessment (from ITU-R BS.1284-1)

Applying metrics to IPTV in a hypothetical
city r 5, p 4, m 5, o
3.9 (o being the geometric mean of the 4
sub-factors Content 5, Consumer habits 3,
Device attributes 4, Quality 4)
So, geometric mean of the 4 soft factors (r, p,
m, o) 4.4
(Any one bad factor or sub-factor ruins the
growth zero point is allowed and one zero
reduces DF to zero. )
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Growth of IPTV in Hong Kong (as an example where
the Driving Force is high)
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Drive it - for Sustainable Growth

• Rapid penetration does not translate directly to
  fast revenue generation.
• Churn rate can be high in Mobile TV.
• Generate a critical mass with penetration pricing
  plus heavy promotion, followed by affordable and
  smart bundling of high-tier content. High-tier
  content must be attractive, exclusive.
• Value-added services are necessary.

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Government / Broadcaster / Telecom Operator a
tri-partie relation

• In digital broadcast development, a triangle
  may be found among the government, broadcaster
  and telco.
• This tri-partie relation could be translated
  into regulatory frame-work, content services and
  network / terminal services.

Government
Broadcaster
Telco
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Government / Broadcaster / Telco

• A government is often pivotal in the successful
  rollout of new digital broadcasts in a country

DAB and DTT
UK
S. Korea
T-DMB
ATSC
USA
Japan
ISDB-T
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Further example

• China has a high HDTV affordability index (AI) at
  country level, despite a relatively modest
  GDP/capita.
• CCTV has introduced in Jan. 2008 a free national
  / general HDTV channel, prior to Olympics 2008,
  this easing consumers entry to HDTV.

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Government

• A government could foster digital TV development
  by minimizing regulatory barriers and licence
  fees. One may recall the Coase Theorem (ABU
  DTV2007).
• If development is slow, the government may push
  it, subjected to social cost-benefits.
• The catch under a weak business model, services
  collapse when the subsidy subsides.
• The government could orchestrate
  consumer-education and provide support.

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Broadcaster ? Telecom Operator

• Telco is a key player in some TV technologies eg
  IPTV, Mobile TV.
• Cooperation is beneficial cellular network for
  return path and for generating revenue.
• Poor cooperation leads to one party going it
  alone, eg telco taking over content network/
  terminal services, or broadcaster taking over
  content distribution services.
• The new digital era of triple/quad play places
  new demands on cooperation.

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Terrain Factor

• The Terrain factor (T) for a city has been
  difficult to evaluate.
• Signal path-loss models exist eg Okumura-Hata
  model, empirical COST-Walfisch-Ikegami model,
  etc. they are mathematically complex and do not
  provide a simple index.
• A heuristic approach based on Buildings is hence
  proposed, for a simple index.
• T is assumed to be a function of building density
  and building heights.

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Terrain Factor
T (city) Function (D, H)
Function of v(DH) ie using
geometric mean

• D is the building density (Buildings/A), where
• A area (sq. km) available for
  construction,
• H non-linear grading point for buildings/A.
• (Skyline ranking www.emporis.com/en/bu/sk/s
  t/sr
• Points are given to buildings of 12 floors
  or more,
• with a max. of 600 points for a builidng
  of 100 floors.)

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Terrain Factor

• The nth root of v(DH) is taken to be T, to
  reflect its weight in the generic equation.
• Sample results are shown in Table 1,
• for n 10. Changing n does not alter the
  ranking.
• In Table 1, Hong Kong ranks highest with T
  0.53, whilst for Beijing T 1 (the reference).
• For comparison, the same band eg UHF applies.

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Table 1 Terrain factor (T), for buildings
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Mobile Reception Tests (HK)

• Hong Kong is a densely built-up city, with a
  population density ranking third in the world, at
  6,350/ sq. km (average), reaching over 50,000/sq.
  km in some areas.
• Its building density (D), based on available
  construction area, is one of the highest in the
  world.
• Mobile reception tests have been conducted (Ref.
  OFTA,
• www.ofta.gov.hk/en/report-paper-guide/report/tech
  nical.html)

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Mobile Reception Tests (HK)

• First 3 sets of mobile test results
• (i) Satisfactory outdoors (VHF 11B, SFN, 384
  kbps DAB video)
• (ii) Satisfactory outdoors (UHF Ch. 47,
• DVB-H, QPSK, code rate ½), for 90 locations.
  Indoor reception extra 16 dB mean loss at 14
  locations and reception failed at 50 locations,
  at distances 5m from the first wall of
  building, near ground levels

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Mobile Reception Tests (HK)

• (iii) Satisfactory outdoors (using similar
  parameters), but indoor reception requiring
  extra 16 dB signal could not be assured in the
  vicinity of the test routes.
• (Additional results have been released in
  March, 2008)
• Hence, reception in open areas seems satisfactory
  but indoor reception is major issue to be tackled.

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Indoor Reception

• The law of diminishing returns applies to
  investment in improving indoor coverage.
• Cellular streaming on 3G/ 3.5G could supplement.
  Stop-gap measures WiFi (802.11) indoor
  repeaters.
• In future, WiMax, LTE and UMB, using OFDM and
  MIMO on cellular wireless, could enhance indoor
  TV viewing on mobile devices eg using femtocells
  (low power home base stations) on 3G or Mobile
  WiMax.
• Consumer habits need to be studied to assess
  subscriber demand, delivery alternatives and the
  business case.

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Mainland China

• Over 520M mobile subscribers and 80M high-end
  mobile phones.
• Dazzling potential for Mobile TV.
• Broadcast mode has advantages over cellular mode,
  ie without network-speed bottlenecks.
• Standardization is evolving as systems are being
  assessed.

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Hong Kong

• DTT with HDTV was rolled out, from Dec. 31, 2007.
• Uses the Chinese National Standard GB 20600-2006.
• An extension of the synergy to Mobile TV could
  help improve the economies of scale in
  implementation and also in Mobile TV roaming.

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Summary

• Mobile TV offers mobility and interactivity for
  personal viewing a natural service extension.
• Broadcast Mobile TV technologies can provide
  economical multi-channel services to an unlimited
  number of viewers without bottlenecks as in
  cellular networks.
• A successful business model for sustained growth
  is likely to involve the telco for generating
  revenue from interactivity.
• Techno-economic issues and the Terrain factor
  have been elaborated and exemplified.

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Drive your mobile TV hard and make it
fly .... Thank you.
IPTV Development HDTV Development Digital TV
Development Searchable on Google, etc.
(Use slide show and ? to animate.)