Nokia Networks today announced that it has finished trialing a technology that has the potential to broadcast TV nationwide over LTE.
Accordingo to the Finnish telcommunications equipment maker, Nokia has been working with a range of partners on a field trial of wide-area TV broadcasting using a single LTE frequency within UHF spectrum. In a Single Frequency Network (SFN) all base stations use exactly the same frequency to transmit TV content, which the company says maximizes the number of simultaneous TV channels broadcast over a large geographical area in a given amount of spectrum.
Hossein Moiin, chief technology officer at Nokia Networks said in statement that his company believes LTE Broadcast is a technology well suited to distribute TV and broadcast services and will help “expand the benefits of mobile internet to everyone while evolving the TV viewing experience.”
Verizon has tested LTE Broadcast for use in beaming content to venues like stadiums. The carrier actually demonstrated the technology at the Super Bowl last year.
Nokia Networks’ trial is a little different in that it applies the technology on UHF spectrum, using part of the 700 MHz band to broadcast over a 200 km2 area.
“To maximize the efficiency of the LTE Broadcast, the SFN has been optimized for tighter synchronization of neighbor cells to increase interference robustness,” Nokia explained in a press release. “The trial aims to show that LTE could be used to complement and in the long run, even provide another option to regional digital TV distribution standards, such as DVB-T in Europe.”
The trial, which began transmissions in early July in Munich, Germany, uses evolved Multimedia Broadcast/Multicast Service (eMBMS) software running in Nokia Flexi Multiradio 10 Base Stations, which are deployed widely in many LTE networks worldwide. The Nokia LTE equipment is deployed at four sites of the Bavarian broadcast company, Bayerischer Rundfunk, in Northern Munich.
Filed Under: Devices
