PANELLISTS
24
January 2015
LTE in the mobile media era
Building cloud-based TV footprint in Japan
Alvix Corporation , a Japanese TV broadcast equipment and software provider , has announced a strategic partnership with Amagi , aimed at creating new opportunities for Alvix ’ s clients to “ drastically reduce ” their capital expenditure for launching new TV channels . According to Alvix Corporation , Amagi ’ s cloud-based platforms are “ secure , reliable , flexible and has consistently delivered 99.9 % broadcast service-level agreements at less than half the cost of a traditional broadcasting system ”.
Samsung adds 4K content to its 4K TVs
Samsung Electronics America has signed an agreement with NanoTech Entertainment , in which the latter ’ s UltraFlix 4K streaming channel will be launched on all 2014 Samsung Ultra HD ( UHD ) TVs . With UltraFlix , Samsung UHD TV customers will have one-click access to more than 500 hours of 4K UHD pay-per-view movies , concerts , TV shows and special events , including 100 hours of free content . UltraFlix and Samsung UHD TVs will deliver 4K content with a resolution of 3840x2160 , which is said to be four times that of full HDTVs .
Next Month @ X-Platform UHD Over-the-Top Services
PANELLISTS
Mock Pak Lum
CTO StarHub
David Siah
Chairman Cloud Security Alliance Singapore
As more and more mobile subscribers demand quick access to content round-the-clock , will LTE play a major role in content distribution to multiple connected devices in the near future ? APB ’ s Kamarul Arifin A H takes a closer look …
The demands from mobile broadband subscribers for instant and spontaneous access to TV and video content , along with a high-quality experience and more convergent mobile services , are greater than before . Owing to the increasing popularity and adoption of smartphones and tablets , users are now rapidly consuming content anytime , anywhere .
Video is the “ biggest contributor to mobile traffic volume ”, with mobile subscriptions for high data consumption devices expected to reach 6.5 billion by 2018 , according to Ericsson , who also forecasted annual video traffic in mobile networks to grow by 55 % by 2019 .
This trend , Ericsson added , is occurring as terrestrial TV continues to lose market share to direct-to-home ( DTH ) TV , cable and fixed broadband . Mobile network operators ( MNOs ) face an uphill task of meeting consumer expectations while seeking a balance between the economics of their networks and creating new opportunities for revenue growth .
The global introduction of Long-Term Evolution , or commonly marketed as 4G LTE , has already prepared the ground for this explosion in video traffic . The wireless high-speed communication data specification for mobile phones and data terminals supports scalable carrier bandwidths , and reportedly provides downlink peak rates of 300Mbps and uplink peak rates of 75Mbps .
Earlier in 2013 , Ericsson unveiled its LTE Broadcast solution featuring a combination of three new standards : eMBMS , HEVC ( H . 265 ) and MPEG-DASH . The solution is aimed at addressing the growing consumer demand for media services and enables operators to efficiently launch media services over LTE to meet this demand .
Since the launch , Ericsson has conducted a series of LTE Broadcast trials spanning Europe ( the Netherlands and Poland ) and the Asia-Pacific region ( Australia and Singapore ).
Earlier in 2013 , Ericsson successfully completed a live demonstration of the LTE Broadcast solution in a stadium environment with Telstra , Australia ’ s telecommunications provider , while Singa pore ’ s telecommunications company , SingTel , raised the national benchmark
According to the November 2014 Ericsson Mobility Report , the Asia-Pacific region will make up 56 % of global LTE subscriptions and register 1.3 billion net additions by 2020 .
for mobile services with the launch of Ericsson ’ s LTE-Advanced ( LTE-A +), LTE Broadcast and Radio Dot System .
Sharing his insight on the rate of LTE adoption in Singa pore and the rest of Asia-Pacific , Warren Chaisatien , head of Marketing , Ericsson Australia & New Zealand , and Networked Society evangelist for Ericsson Southeast Asia & Oceania , predicts that “ four out of the five top markets ” will be from this region — South Korea , Singapore , Japan and Australia .
Referring to the latest edition of Ericsson Mobility Report released in November last year , he points out that the Asia-Pacific region will make up 56 % of global LTE subscriptions and register 1.3 billion net additions by 2020 . The report also notes that Singapore alone has the highest penetration of multi-mobile device ownership , and that Singa poreans are the most active viewers of TV / video content on smartphones and tablets .
“ Four out of the five top [ LTE ] markets ” will be from this region — South Korea , Singapore , Japan and Australia .
Chaisatien tells APB : “ With the introduction of LTE carrier aggregation ( LTE-Advanced ) in May last year and as more devices that support the standard become available , we expect a further boost in peak and median speeds during the next few months . Aggregation of multiple LTE bands — enabling the possibility of delivering downlink speeds of 300Mbps and beyond — will soon have a positive impact on the overall performance of Singapore ’ s networks .”
He also revealed that the LTE carrier aggregation in Australia has been available since November last year and different combinations of carriers in the 900MHz , 1800MHz and 2600MHz bands are already offered to users .
Chaisatien added : “ With the full activation of APT700 spectrum ( 700MHz ) for LTE [ projected for ] early this year and a growing device ecosystem , Australian mobile users will also benefit from LTE-Advanced through improved network speeds and capacity .”
With faster network speeds of HSPA ( High Speed Packet Access ) and LTE deployment , higher video resolutions , as well as changing consumer behaviour in video-device consumption , Chaisatien feels technological