docomo Newsletter Mobility 32
Gearing Up for ISDB-Tmm Mobile Multimedia Broadcasting
February. 21, 2011
NTT DOCOMO, Japan’s largest mobile communications operator and a major provider of services based on advanced mobile technologies, together with television broadcasters, ad agencies and other companies, is now preparing for Japan’s next generation of mobile broadcasting, Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting Terrestrial for Mobile Multimedia Broadcasting (ISDB-Tmm), which will be launched by the joint-venture company Multimedia Broadcasting,Inc. in April 2012.
Service coverage, which will reach about 60% of the household at launch time, is expected to exceed 90% by March 2016. Some 50 million compatible handsets will likely be in use within the first five years.
Building on a Trend
Digital terrestrial video and data broadcasting services are already quite popular among Japanese mobile users. Relayed broadcasts of regular TV to mobile phones via the “One-Seg” system began in April 2006 and have expanded steadily. Today, more than 32.9 million DOCOMO customers are using handsets compatible with One-Seg, which is based on the ISDB-T standard for digital terrestrial television.
DOCOMO customers also enjoy BeeTV operated by DOCOMO and Avex Group, Japan’s biggest entertainment company for movies and music. The service offers a wide range of programming, much of which is developed for viewing on mobile-size screens. Episodes of some dramas, for example, last barely five minutes to accommodate the viewing habits of people on the go. BeeTV currently has in excess of 1.5 million subscribers.
The Next Big Step
Now that the market for mobile broadcasting services has been established in Japan, DOCOMO is excited about taking the next with advanced mobile-broadcasting services based on ISDB-Tmm.
The new technology will open up a whole new range of possibilities for mobile movies, music, news, e-books and more. Like One-Seg, ISDB-Tmm can stream content to handsets in real time, but it also enables file-casting, or large files of multimedia content delivered automatically to the user’s handset, often in non-peak hours, such as late at night.
ISDB-Tmm will enable content to be provided in high-resolution VGA+ (720 x 480), a full step up from QVGA (320 x 240) available currently with One-Seg.
ISDB-Tmm combines the advantages of broadcasting and mobile communication as a system capable of broadcasting rich, high-quality content while simultaneously distributing less network-taxing content via IP/packet communication. Moreover, it will be accessible via not only mobile handsets, but many other types of portable devices equipped with a tuner to receive multimedia broadcasting, including compatible Wi-Fi routers.
Technical Advantages of ISDB-Tmm
ISDB-Tmm technology is highly compatible with ISDB-T. To date, it is in 12 countries of Asia and South America, including nations such as Japan, the Philippines, Thailand (under assessment), Brazil, Argentina and Chile. In Japan, compatible TVs were in about 90% of all households as of September 2010, and more than 95 million handsets compatible with One-Seg, which is based on ISDB-T, had been sold as of November 2010.
ISDB-Tmm systems will be able to share receivers with ISDB-T systems and achieve lower transmission costs, two compelling reasons why it is the most practical multimedia broadcast system for many countries in South America and Asia.
ISDB-Tmm can be used flexibly on the 6, 7 or 8 MHz bandwidths. This is possible because transmissions combine blocks of the approx. 5.6MHz 13-segment and 429 kHz one-segment bands. A maximum of 33 segments (about 14.2 MHz) can be handled.
The technology also enables terminal scalability, from low-priced models that only use the 429 kHz segment to high-end terminals capable of 13-segment reception.
Another advantage of ISDB-Tmm is the power savings it achieves by receiving radio frequency bands selectively by segmentation.
As an open technology, ISDB-Tmm is sure to populate the market with makers of various handsets and other portable devices, allowing consumers to benefit from a wide choice of low -cost products.
Diverse, High-quality Services
When ISDB-Tmm launches commercially in Japan next year, mobile users will have access to an unprecedented range of services via the file-casting and streaming formats.
With file casting, users will download content files whenever convenient—including automatically while sleeping—and then enjoy the content later by accessing files saved in their handset or other portable device. Streamed content will be provided in real time, similar to conventional TV broadcasts of time-sensitive content, such as news and sports.
Content also will include e-publications such as magazines and newspapers, full-length movies, TV-style dramas, variety shows with viewer-participation, animation, education, shopping, games, weather and emergency alerts, data services, email, and more!
Services such as these are likely to be offered for a basic monthly fee. Premium services, such as crucial sporting matches, the season’s biggest concerts and just-released movies, could be charged separately.
ISDB-Tmm also will allow mobile phone functions to be combined with services, meaning that users could, for example, search for information about actors during a movie, use SNS and blogs to communicate with others while watching a live event, or use a map to find a store appearing in a travelogue, and perhaps even purchase an item from the store!
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