Playing LIVE on a mobile phone near you

Thought I would touch on a technology that I was remotely watching for around 2 years now. Mobile TV. Looking through my lowest resolution, smallest , monochrome screen, cheapest available Nokia, initially I was not impressed of the idea of watching KrishiDarsan on the mobile TV. Until I saw a real one at Samsung Korea.

I think the mobile TV, if the current interest and pace are to be believed, will be a reality in India too soon. Well, let it come. How is this going to change our life? So many technologies come and go. This could be just one of them. May be. May be not. I was just trying to visualise the way TV has changed the world we lived.

I was around 10 when I had the first chance to see a Television. When I went to Madras, there was a B&W TV broadcast there. It was interesting to watch the news with video clips. It took another 5 years to have a TV in Kerala. Local language still had to wait. It was interesting to watch LA Olympics on the mini screen. We used to go to the basket ball ground where Stalwarts Club had put up a TV. Or to the Children's Park where HMT had put up TV for the dwellers of the colony.

Down the years, there was a huge transform. KrishiDarsans moved away to accommodate more and more Serials and Mega Serials. I think TV serial is probably one large factor in Kerala culture now. I used to avoid visiting someone on Sunday evenings, when the Malayalam movie was scheduled on Doordarsan. They will talk to you staring on the TV. Same was true for Sunday 11AM during Ramayana. You were not supposed to press calling bells during that time. With more and more channels now, I am not sure if there is any timeslot for people visiting. More and more local channels meant more and more serials, more and more "serial actors/ actresses" - not to rhyme with "serial killers". Mini screen is affecting the culture in a mega way. For many retired people, acting in serial is an income earned in leisure. For many new aspirants, it is probably like the silver screen entry, but much more wider and apparently easier. How many recent rapes/prostitutions are being linked to these "serial" aspirations?

Now the mobile TV could be a second stage of screen revolution. From mini-screens to micro screens. Looking just at the current broadcast technology, possible changes are not huge. In many of the available technologies, it is either the same digital TV transmission or only a reformatted transmission to fit the micro-screen. Things of interest are going to be a huge shift in prime time and another milestone into converting advertisements into enquiries. As people drive to office, or like in Japan ride trains to office, they could now be watching TV. Ladies travelling to office in Trivandrum by Kannur Exp could be watching "Sthree" on the mobile. The evening 7-9 prime time will now extend to include 8-10 in the morning too. Then again 4-6 in the evening. More serials, more serial actresses, more aspirants, more Kiliroors and more Vithuras. When Mamukka comes up on the Paragon Chappal ad, a small hyperlink will appear on the screen. Click on that, buy your chappal and wear it the next day.

So far it looks good. But I think there is more to this. The current mobile TV is viewed as an independant technology. Other than the user clicks (and user subscription authentications in some standards) this has no relation with the mobile "phone" or with the other features on the phone. The new phones to come up will be having a high quality video camera that can record BluRay formats at DVD quality. The blog revolution could bring in a new video jouranlism and new video blog streaming services. The broadcasting corporations might give way for new amateur broadcasters cooperations. Like we have free blog hosting services now, there could be free mobile broadcastings, with ads or adsense. And the boradcast might quickly adapt to internet too. Which could mean virtually uncontrolled "mobile TV" producers and stations? This is what I am trying to visualise. I do not think this is too far a future. This might well happen.

Those of you interested in the real technology behind mDTV - there are multiple standards across the world now. DMB in Korea (Digital Media Broadcast. There is one for Terrestrial and one for Satellite T-DMB and S-DMB as they are called), ISDB-T in Japan (Integrated Services Digital Broadcast-Terrestrial. This one is common for normal digital terr TV and mobile phones) DVB-H in Europe and parts of US (Digital Video Broadcast-Handheld) and the Qualcomm proprietary MediaFlo. Japanese and Korean standards uses MPEG2-TS streams and DVB-H employs IP datagrams in transport.

Have a good week and make sure your mobile phone is under control...