China Multimedia Mobile Broadcasting

Last updated

China Mobile Multimedia Broadcasting (CMMB) is a mobile television and multimedia standard developed and specified in China by the State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television (SARFT). [1] It is based on the Satellite and Terrestrial Interactive Multiservice Infrastructure (STiMi), developed by TiMiTech, a company formed by the Chinese Academy of Broadcasting Science. [2] [3] Announced in October 2006, [1] it has been described as being similar to Europe's DVB-SH standard for digital video broadcast from both satellites and terrestrial repeaters to handheld devices. [3]

Contents

It specifies usage of the S-band/U-band and occupies 25 MHz bandwidth within which it provides 25 video and 30 radio channels with some additional data channels. [3] Multiple companies have chips that support CMMB standard - Innofidei who was the first with a solution 28 March 2007. [4] [5]

Other manufacturers, such as Unique Broadband Systems, were quick to enter the race and grab a share of the handheld broadcasting market with their hardware platform supporting both CMMB and DTMB (as well as others) standard waveforms.

RF Details

CMMB uses frequencies in the range 2635 - 2660 MHz (S-band) for satellite and "gap-filler" terrestrial broadcast, with additional terrestrial broadcast in the UHF band 470 – 862 MHz. [6] [7] The channel bandwidth can be either 2 or 8 MHz, depending on data rate. [8]

Coverage

China Satellite Mobile Broadcasting Corporation (CSMBC), as of 2 June 2010, had completed CMMB network coverage in 317 prefecture-level cities. [9]

Versus DTMB

See also

Related Research Articles

Digital television Television transmission using digital encoding

Digital television (DTV) is the transmission of television signals using digital encoding, in contrast to the earlier analog television technology which used analog signals. At the time of its development it was considered an innovative advancement and represented the first significant evolution in television technology since color television in the 1950s. Modern digital television is transmitted in high-definition television (HDTV) with greater resolution than analog TV. It typically uses a widescreen aspect ratio in contrast to the narrower format of analog TV. It makes more economical use of scarce radio spectrum space; it can transmit up to seven channels in the same bandwidth as a single analog channel, and provides many new features that analog television cannot. A transition from analog to digital broadcasting began around 2000. Different digital television broadcasting standards have been adopted in different parts of the world; below are the more widely used standards:

Digital Video Broadcasting Open standard for digital television broadcasting

Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) is a set of international open standards for digital television. DVB standards are maintained by the DVB Project, an international industry consortium, and are published by a Joint Technical Committee (JTC) of the European Telecommunications Standardisé Institute (ETSI), European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization (CENELEC) and European Broadcasting Union (EBU).

Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting is a Japanese broadcasting standard for digital television (DTV) and digital radio.

Digital radio is the use of digital technology to transmit or receive across the radio spectrum. Digital transmission by radio waves includes digital broadcasting, and especially digital audio radio services.

Television in Hong Kong is primarily in Cantonese and English. It is delivered through analogue and digital terrestrial, cable, IPTV, and the Internet. Satellite TV is not common, although many housing estates have dishes and re-distribute a limited number of free channels through coaxial cables. The dominant broadcaster is TVB and ViuTV.

Broadcast television systems are the encoding or formatting standards for the transmission and reception of terrestrial television signals.

Datacasting is the broadcasting of data over a wide area via radio waves. It most often refers to supplemental information sent by television stations along with digital terrestrial television, but may also be applied to digital signals on analog TV or radio. It generally does not apply to data which is inherent to the medium, such as PSIP data which defines virtual channels for DTT or direct broadcast satellite systems; or to things like cable modem or satellite modem, which use a completely separate channel for data.

DVB-H is one of three prevalent mobile TV formats. It is a technical specification for bringing broadcast services to mobile handsets. DVB-H was formally adopted as ETSI standard EN 302 304 in November 2004. The DVB-H specification can be downloaded from the official DVB-H website. From March 2008, DVB-H is officially endorsed by the European Union as the "preferred technology for terrestrial mobile broadcasting". The major competitors of this technology are Qualcomm's MediaFLO system, the 3G cellular system based MBMS mobile-TV standard, and the ATSC-M/H format in the U.S. DVB-SH now and DVB-NGH in the future are possible enhancements to DVB-H, providing improved spectral efficiency and better modulation flexibility. DVB-H has been a commercial failure, and the service is no longer on-air. Ukraine was the last country with a nationwide broadcast in DVB-H, which began transitioning to DVB-T2 during 2019.

The National Radio and Television Administration (NRTA) is a ministry-level executive agency controlled by the Publicity Department of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Its main task is the administration and supervision of state-owned enterprises engaged in the television and radio industries.

S-DMB (Satellite-DMB) was a hybrid version of the Digital Multimedia Broadcasting. The S-DMB used the S band (2170-2200 MHz) of IMT-2000. and delivered around 18 channels at 128 kbit/s in 15 MHz. It incorporated a high power geostationary satellite, the MBSat 1. For outdoor and light indoor coverage is integrated with a terrestrial repeater network for indoor coverage in urban areas.

Mobile television Television for handheld or mobile device

Mobile television is television watched on a small handheld or mobile device. It includes service delivered via mobile phone networks, received free-to-air via terrestrial television stations, or via satellite broadcast. Regular broadcast standards or special mobile TV transmission formats can be used. Additional features include downloading TV programs and podcasts from the Internet and storing programming for later viewing.

Xiamen Media Group

Xiamen Media Group, is a television and radio broadcasting network in Xiamen, China owned by local government. XMG is joined from former media entities in Xiamen, i.e. Xiamen Television and People's Radio Station of Xiamen.

DTMB is the digital TV standard for mobile and fixed devices, developed in the People's Republic of China. It is used there and in both of their special administrative regions, and also in Cambodia, the Comoros, Cuba, East Timor, Laos and Pakistan. In Pakistan, as part of the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor Project, ZTE Corporation will provide Pakistan Television Corporation collaboration across several digital terrestrial television technologies, staff training and content creation including partnerships with Chinese multinational companies in multiple areas including television sets and set top boxes as a form of "International Cooperation".

DVB-SH is a physical layer standard for delivering IP based media content and data to handheld terminals such as mobile phones or PDAs, based on a hybrid satellite/terrestrial downlink and for example a GPRS uplink. The DVB Project published the DVB-SH standard in February 2007.

ETSI Satellite Digital Radio describes a standard of satellite digital radio. It is an activity of the European standardisation organisation ETSI.

In Malaysia, digital television broadcasts, DTV or DHD, can be received via cable, internet, satellite, or via free over-the-air (OTA) digital terrestrial television - much like analogue television broadcasts have been. It began in the mid-1990s with the introduction of the Astro satellite television service, now followed by new paid television services in the 2000s, as well as the digitalisation of over-the-air TV which was expected to be complete by the mid-2010s before being shelved. This article discusses various platforms where DTV is applied in Malaysia, including Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) and Internet Protocol Television (IPTV). Following its successful nationwide digital transition on 31 October 2019, the country became the third in Southeast Asia with digital broadcasts after neighbouring Brunei and Singapore.

Digital terrestrial television in the Philippines are in development by the Philippine major broadcasting companies.

Digital television transition Global switchover to digital television

The digital television transition, also called the digital switchover (DSO), the analogue switch/sign-off (ASO), the digital migration, or the analogue shutdown, is the process in which older analogue television broadcasting technology is converted to and replaced by digital television. Conducted by individual nations on different schedules, this primarily involves the conversion of analogue terrestrial television broadcasting infrastructure to digital terrestrial (DTT), a major benefit being extra frequencies on the radio spectrum and lower broadcasting costs, as well as improved viewing qualities for consumers.

Digital multimedia broadcasting South Korean digital TV standard

Digital multimedia broadcasting (DMB) is a digital radio transmission technology developed in South Korea as part of the national IT project for sending multimedia such as TV, radio and datacasting to mobile devices such as mobile phones, laptops and GPS navigation systems. This technology, sometimes known as mobile TV, should not be confused with Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) which was developed as a research project for the European Union.

References

  1. 1 2 "China releases mobile TV industrial standard" (Press release). Interfax China. 2006-10-25. Retrieved 2007-04-14.
  2. "TiMi Technologies Co. Ltd". Academy of Broadcasting Science. 2008-01-31. Archived from the original on 2009-02-25. Retrieved 2008-06-08.
  3. 1 2 3 Mike Clendenin (2006-12-18). "China's mobile-TV spec similar to Europe's". EETimes. Retrieved 2007-04-14.
  4. "China releases first mobile TV chip based on CMMB standard - SARFT official" (Press release). Interfax China. 2007-03-28. Retrieved 2007-04-14.
  5. Cai Yan (2007-03-29). "Chip supports China's CMMB mobile TV". EETimes. Retrieved 2007-04-14.
  6. Rohde & Schwarz. "CMMB Information" . Retrieved 2010-01-29.
  7. Siano. "SMS1186" (PDF). Retrieved 2010-01-29.
  8. Rohde & Schwarz. "Test signals for the new CMMB and DVB-SH mobile TV systems" (PDF). Retrieved 2010-01-29.
  9. "开通CMMB的317个城市及频道列表 — 中广互联 - SARFT.net | 中国广电第一门户 | 数字电视行业第一门户". Archived from the original on 2010-06-14. Retrieved 2010-06-21.