Posts Tagged valups

LAS VEGAS—Streaming video on your mobile phone is often a less-than-satisfying experience, with fuzzy pictures and interruptions for buffering. But 2010 International CES offered a glimpse of how we may soon be watching local television stations on our cell phones and laptop computers.

I’m departing a bit from Practical Travel Gear’s usual format of hands-on testing of gear that’s available today so we can take a look into the future. Broadcasters, programmers and technology companies are working together in hopes of making Mobile Digital Television a reality. Some of the products are expected to hit the market later this year.

USB adapters could turn laptops and netbooks into digital TV receivers. Small, standalone receivers are also planned. The quality of the video demonstrated at CES is impressive.

Compelling content is something often lacking in streaming video that’s available now. But if local broadcasters jump on the standard, mobile DTV receivers will be able to pick up local and network programming, local news and emergency broadcasts.

The Tivit mobile TV viewer from Valups won several innovation awards at CES. Tivit is a small, portable receiver—about the size of a credit card—that picks up digital TV signals and sends them via Wi-Fi to an iPhone, iPod Touch, Blackberry phone or laptop.

About 30 stations are already on the air with the mobile digital signals. Local broadcasters see it as one opportunity to stay relevant—they can either lose audience to mobile devices, or offer their own signals in hopes of holding on to or expanding their audiences.

There’s still some work underway to gauge consumer demand for Mobile Digital Television. A showcase is planned later this year in the Washington, DC area, with local residents getting a chance to sample up to 20 channels of programming.

Brandon Burgess, chairman of the Open Mobile Video Coalition, believes the new gadgets will lead to a “new era in over-the-air TV broacasting.”

How would you like to see local television channels on your mobile phone or other portable devices? The technology works. But it will only be successful if there’s an audience.