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17 January 2007, 15:59  

Samsung aims to put digital TV in cars.




Samsung is coming to the rescue of an endangered species: the portable TV.



The South Korean electronics giant revealed a technology on Sunday at the Consumer Electronics Show here that will let local TV stations broadcast digital programs to phones or car TVs.

Samsung A-VSB

Mobility, that’s the big news this year. All of the manufactures are hawking devices and technologies to allow consumers to access whatever they want wherever they want it. And one of the most talked about technologies was announced by at an event by Samsung yesterday. It was so packed that people were turned away. Samsung introduced what is called as A-VSB, which one executive said would obliterate the couch potato. And what it is a combination of a chip in various devices and an extra signal that can be sent out by television stations. And it will allow viewers to watch television on a laptop, maybe on their cell phone, and even in a moving car or train. It is completely new. It is not connected to cell technology or the Internet. It is what Samsung hopes will be the new standard for broadcast digital TV

A-VSB, which stands for advanced vestigal side band, essentially insulates digital broadcasting streams from interference from buildings, people on the sidewalk and other obstructions.

To me, mobility is the next step in the natural progression of technological developments. You see signs of it everywhere: 219.4 million people in the US own mobile phones (this includes my non-tech friendly father), Google offers users spreadsheet and document applications over the internet (anytime, anyplace, any computer), and seeing someone watching Desperate Housewives on their iPod is not too uncommon on the train in the morning.

A-VSB broadcasts are delivered on the same frequencies as regular digital broadcasting in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, said John Godfrey, vice president of government affairs at Samsung.

Currently, car passengers can receive analog TV broadcasts on a portable TV. In the United States, however, analog TV broadcasting will end in 2009. A-VSB thus will allow couch potatoes to continue to watch shows on the go after digital broadcasting kicks in. Otherwise, it would be puppet shows for them.

Samsung A-VSB

Lets face it, people are on the go more; We just don’t have time to sit in one place and do one thing at a time, so of course our technology will reflect that.

The key to A-VSB is that the signal uses the same frequency as regular digital broadcasts, which means it should be relatively cheap to adopt, according to Samsung.

Here, a Samsung representative holds a mobile device playing A-VSB enhanced digital television. The other, larger screens show what he sees.

A-VSB essentially allows broadcasters to send digital signals to mobile TVs. There are still some tweaks to be worked out, but Samsung said products that use the standard could hit the market in 2008.

Broadcasters will have to buy some new equipment and "turbocode" the mobile signal so that it can better lock onto moving objects.

A-VSB uses extra space in the spectrum to enhance current digital TV signals, keeping it more stable and preventing interference by moving objects near the set.

Broadcasters will also have to tweak the digital signal for mobile and add items like encryption, but they will be able to leverage the infrastructure they have already installed. In a sense, the A-VSB signal is a hardened, but largely duplicative, signal of the existing digital broadcast.

"Broadcasters can use their current equipment and spectrum," Godfrey said.

In South Korea, digital broadcasters send their mobile programming out on a different signal, said Godfrey. There, watching TV on a phone has become more popular after a slow start.

It also can be used to broadcast digital TV to portable gadgets such as laptops and cell phones.

In some ways, A-VSB will be a limited market. You can't get ESPN through A-VSB, noted Godfrey. It is for local broadcasts. And some people who took a tour on a bus here rigged with A-VSB said that the TV picture occasionally hung. Still, something had to be done. Otherwise civilization will lose the limo TV.

Samsung will submit the technology to a standards body in the first half of this year and hopes for products to come out in 2008.

Source

Samsung Advanced Vestigial Sideband Debut at CES: TV on your car navigation system, cellphones.

It's not a cellular technology; rather it's a way of getting TV broadcasting picked up on mobile devices. Make sense? No? Just watch the damn video.

Samsung Electronics has developed a way to broadcast digital television signals to car screens as well as to devices like DVDs, video games, and music players. The technology was demonstrated for the first time at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada, this month.

Don't look for this any time soon, as TV stations need to start actually broadcasting A-VSB signals and then products that can pick 'em up need to be released, which won't happen 'til 2008 at the earliest. Kind of far off, but a cool thing to look forward to.

Samsung said that the new technology, known as Advanced Vestigial Sideband, can also potentially work on cell phones.

The company began trying to make the technology standard in December 2005 and hopes to try again in the first half of 2007. Our take? We hope there are ways to "shield" car screens from the technology. We can just imagine navigating to a party and suddenly one's 5 year old decides to put the latest Barney over a tricky turnoff.
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