Nokia Networks is partnering with a range of firms, including Bavarian broadcast company, Bayerischer Rundfunk in Northern Munich to conduct a field trial on wide area TV broadcasting over a single LTE frequency within the UHF spectrum.
The trial which began transmissions in early July this year in Munich, Germany, uses evolved Multimedia Broadcast/Multicast Service (eMBMS) software running in Nokia Flexi Multiradio 10 Base Stations. Nokia added that in a Single Frequency Network (SFN), all base stations use exactly the same frequency to transmit TV content, which maximizes the number of simultaneous TV channels broadcast over a large geographical area in a given amount of spectrum.
Nokia said that the trial aims to show that the LTE technology could be used to complement and in the long run, even provide another option to regional digital TV distribution standards, such as DVB-T in Europe.
The LTE broadcast technology enables mobile subscribers with eMBMS capable devices to watch TV on their devices without connecting the data network, allowing them to watch free-to-air or pay-TV service.
“Today, when watching videos over a mobile network, the content is individually streamed to each user. With LTE Broadcast, the same signal is received by many users at the same time, resulting in more efficient capacity and spectrum use. Spectrum doesn’t need to be dedicated to either broadcast or broadband, but can be used flexibly for both according to users’ needs. We believe that LTE Broadcast is a technology well suited to distribute TV and broadcast services and will help us expand the benefits of mobile internet to everyone while evolving the TV viewing experience.”
- Hossein Moiin, CTO, Nokia Networks
