Samsung Electronics has developed a new technology for digital broadcasting to mobile devices called Advanced Vestigial Sideband (AVS) that enables TV broadcasters to offer digital programming to a wide range of portable devices, including mobile phones, laptop computers, portable media players and car video displays.
Demonstrations are now going on with content from Sinclair Broadcast Group at CES 2007 in Las Vegas. According to Reuters the South Korean electronics manufacturer said it was not yet ready to release commercial products based on the technology, but expected it to become a technical standard in the first half of this year. Standardisation efforts with the Advanced Television Systems Committee began already in December 2005.
For the technology to work, broadcasters would have to transmit a separate and unique over-the-air signal to mobile devices equipped with a Samsung chipset. The system makes use of existing transmitter infrastructure and comes on top of the regular broadcast signal. It seems to be designed specifically for the US market where broadcasters own their own transmitters rather than share capacity such as is more common in Europe.
Obviously it is not compatible with other mobile broadcast technologies such as DMB and DVB-H.
