Motion Pictures: Video has long been seen as the 'killer app' for 3G mobile networks, but a number of rival technologies have joined the race to supply moving pictures to a cellphone near you

摘要

Broadcasters and telecom operators alike want to add mobile video to their armoury but far less obvious is how to do so. Convergence of the two throws up all sorts of issues, such as how the two industries should co-operate, who owns the customer or content, and what type of network and transmission should be used. Mobile operators have already spent time and money investing in UMTS (3G), the killer application for which was supposed to be video, and in backing the 3GPP's (Third Generation Project Partnership) Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (MBMS) standard, which will allow them to broadcast over the mobile network without the need to utilise broadcast infrastructure. Orange, for instance, contracted Packet video Networks to supply its global footprint with its PV Server and PV Author MBMS-compliant video streaming software in November last year for the migration of services from GPRS to UMTS services for the next three years.