CBC is getting closer to providing live digital TV and digital radio broadcasts to cell phones.

CBC recently wrapped up a successful mobile broadcast multimedia field trial using “T-DMB” technology in the Greater Montreal area. The trial broadcasted two live TV services and multiple live radio services within its existing digital radio broadcasting channel.

T-DMB is one of the technologies that permits the delivery of multimedia content to mobile and handheld devices for multiple simultaneous users using a hybrid broadcast/cellular network. A news release from CBC said the trial was “a good example of how CBC/Radio-Canada will make more efficient use of its digital radio transmitter network, frequencies and licences in the future.”

Many industry analysts believe that live multimedia represents the next growth area in mobile convergence. There are a number of systems for delivery of multimedia content to mobile users in development and CBC/Radio-Canada is carefully monitoring trials in this area, including T-DMB.

T-DMB, which is based on an extension of the “DAB” digital radio system, allows delivery of television as well as radio. Now commercially available in South Korea and Germany, T-DMB has proven to be a very efficient means of broadcasting live TV, multimedia and digital radio content to mobile users. It can significantly reduce the network congestion issues associated with some existing mobile TV services which use conventional cellular networks, and it allows an unlimited number of users at any one time to access live digital TV and digital radio via mobile and handheld devices.

The broadcasting infrastructure and frequencies for “DAB” digital radio are already in place in many countries. It is robust and reliable, and can be easily extended to deliver multimedia and video in a spectrum-efficient way. There is also the synergy of being able to deliver digital radio programs to the same receivers, which appears to be popular with users.

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	Digital Radio, Transmission