UK company first with truly mobile TV

New platform first to support multiple standards, including mobile satellite TV

BRISTOL, England — The first devices able to receive mobile TV in a mixture of broadcasts standards will be available later this year in the world’s first truly mobile TV receivers. Bristol-based Ocean Blue Software is to release its Azure TV software, running on STMicroelectronics’ Nomadik platform, with hybrid support for DVB-H, DVB-T and DVB-SH.

Not only is the Azure-Nomadik platform the first to support multiple standards in one solution, it will be able to receive DVB-SH broadcasts, the new DVB standard for satellite broadcast to handheld devices. DVB-SH will allow satellite TV to be received on the move, without the need for a dish, overcoming the bandwidth and country border restrictions associated with terrestrial broadcast.

The development will mean that portable TV devices, such as mobile phones, will no longer be tied to a single country or technology, says Ocean Blue. People will now be able to take their mobile devices to any country operating digital TV and be able to view TV, whether it be from DVB-H, -T and, when available, -SH transmission.

“A universal media receiver in a portable device makes complete sense,” commented Ken Helps, CEO of Ocean Blue Software. “Owners will be able to enjoy mobile TV no matter where they are. Previous systems have simply stopped working at country borders, meaning mobile TV hasn’t really been portable before. The introduction of mobile satellite TV will hopefully do away with the other mixture of standards: until then this multi-standard system will pick up all broadcasts.”

“Ocean Blue products are the perfect partner for Nomadik, handling all digital TV standards as well as legacy analogue broadcasts. We look forward to working with consumer electronic manufacturers to deliver exciting new product quickly to market.”

The Ocean Blue Azure / Nomadik combination will be available to designers for fast development of new generations of multimedia applications for portable media players, smart phones, wireless PDAs, internet appliances and car entertainment systems.

The STn8815 application processor enables devices to play back web content, capture high resolution pictures and record HD video clips, and receive mobile-TV and to play vivid 3D immersive games. Based on ST’s distributed-processing architecture with smart multimedia accelerators, the Nomadik processors enable compelling multimedia applications with ultra-low power consumption.