ION Media Networks, owner and operator of a broadcast TV station group and an industry developer of mobile digital television (DTV), announced two successful mobile DTV field trial demonstrations using WCPX, its station serving the Chicago market and KPXC, its station serving the Denver market.
The real-world field trials use new mobile DTV technology that will enable television broadcasters to deliver live, over-the-air digital television to next-generation mobile devices, including battery-powered digital televisions, cell phones, laptops and personal media players. Mobile DTV will allow users to watch their favorite programs - as well as local news, weather and traffic information - on the go, either at pedestrian or vehicular speeds.
"Mobile DTV promises to deliver benefits to television broadcasters and viewers alike," said Brandon Burgess, Chairman and CEO, ION Media Networks. "The collaboration of the Open Mobile Video Coalition, its members, and partners like LG and Samsung represent a unique unified commitment toward accelerating mobile DTV into a marketplace reality."
WCPX, transmitting from atop the Sears Tower, and KPXC, reaching Denver from a Fort Lupton-based tower, are both broadcasting two mobile DTV programs simultaneously, in addition to the multicast of four programs already transmitted, within their 6-MHz channel. ION Media is using handheld mobile phones, laptops fitted with USB receivers, and screens installed in traveling test vans throughout the downtown area, surrounding suburbs and rural regions. The trials have demonstrated program reception in pedestrian locations as well as at highway speeds in the nation's third and eighteenth largest media markets.
"Our local station field trials in Chicago and Denver prove that multiple channels of premium-quality video broadcast television can be reliably delivered to users anywhere they want to access content, all using the existing digital television broadcast infrastructure," said Brett Jenkins, Director of Technology Strategy and Development, ION Media Networks.