Hantro and Freescale Bring Mobile TV to Life

US : Delivering the high quality TV viewing experience that consumers have come to expect from their mobile entertainment devices, Hantro, the leading provider of video enabling technology for mobile devices, demonstrated with Freescale Semiconductor a mobile solution capable of playing DVB-H broadcasted TV signals.

Mobile multimedia entertainment represents a huge opportunity for the wireless semiconductor industry. Hantro and Freescale solution enables high quality mobile TV viewing on 2G or 3G phones, portable media players, mobile gaming consoles and other wireless handhelds.

“Freescale has actively supported the DVB-H standard from the beginning, and is focused on delivering complete platform solutions that drive what we see as a highly compelling application." said Berardino Baratta, Freescale’s director of strategy for the wireless and mobile systems group. “We’re excited to combine our applications processor capability with Hantro’s software expertise to enable mobile TV in handsets and other mobile entertainment devices.”

The H.264 multimedia solution from Hantro is fully compliant with the DVB-H standard, and meets IP-IRD capability level A as specified for UMTS phones. Freescale's i.MX21 multimedia applications processor brings easy scalability to QVGA resolution and power management necessary for a low power, high quality, real-time viewing experience.

"This application demonstrates the powerful multimedia capabilities of the i.MX21 processor together with optimized software like our h.264 software decoder and mobile TV player" said Eero Kaikkonen, President and CEO, Hantro.

About Mobile TV
Various “regional flavors” of mobile videocasting are already being established in large North American, European and Asian markets. In addition to DVB-H, current standards include terrestrial DVB (DVB-T), satellite DVB (DVB-S), cable DVB (DVB-C), Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting - Terrestrial (ISDB-T) in Japan, Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB), Qualcomm’s MediaFlo, Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) and Multimedia Home Platform (MHP). Connectivity and mobile multimedia markets are expected to grow by leaps and bounds, and as more handsets become mobile TV-enabled, DVB-H is expected to be the leading standard. Players in the new mobile TV value chain, from network operators to broadcasters to advertisers, are all likely to benefit from the possibility of new, diversified revenue streams.
Formally adopted as a European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) standard in November 2004, DVB-H is an open, non-proprietary standard for digital mobile television that will promote growth throughout the mobile entertainment market, allowing mobile TV handsets and services to reach the mass market faster and at a lower cost to consumers. As an extension to the existing DVB-T standard, DVB-H provides new tools for mobile and handheld reception and delivers improvements on battery life, mobility with high transmission data rates, improved noise tolerance and seamless handovers. Broadcast digital TV for mobile phones is a large opportunity for operators, broadcasters, handset manufacturers and silicon providers as it opens up new opportunities and provides additional users and revenue-generating services for digital TV services.