Mobile TV suppliers face a difficult problem in bringing real-time digital TV, comparable to the perceived quality of home television sets, to mobile devices.

The interference of the television signal from the environment can result in poor reception, disappointing viewers who expect quality TV pictures even on a small mobile display screen. Broadcast TV stations, cellular transmissions and automotive ignition systems can clutter the airwaves, causing blocky TV pictures, artifacts and lost signals. The primary cause of interference, however, is the power amplifier within the mobile device, located only millimeters away from the television tuner chip. The tuner is the one small, but critical, component that is responsible for receiving and cleaning-up the quality of the TV signal.

Microtune, Inc., the inventor of the silicon tuner chip and developer of top-performing, multi-standard tuners for HDTV, cable TV and automotive TV, has attacked the interference problem. Its line of Mobile MicroTuners, which contains its patent-pending ClearTune technology, is engineered to suppress interference. It brings clear, sharp, stable pictures to consumers, even across overpopulated, hostile airwaves, and reduces the threat of interference from the power amplifier.

Attendees at this year's 3GSM World Congress will be able to test Microtune's claims of tuner superiority by taking the 'ClearTune Challenge'. Microtune will emulate a DVB-H transmission environment and attendees can try to disrupt the TV signal of a ClearTune-based mobile TV phone with their GSM mobile phones.

Mobile TV products and prototypes featuring Microtune's tuners are also expected to be showcased at the show by multiple manufacturers. Microtune recently announced that its Mobile MicroTuner technology will be incorporated into LG Electronics' second-generation mobile TV phones targeted for a European DVB-H-based mobile TV commercial rollout.