14 DAY TRIAL // Qualcomm, China Network Systems (CNS) and Taiwan Television (TTV) announced they have signed an agreement to conduct a technical trial of Qialcomm's MediaFLO technology in Taipei. Scheduled for March 2007, the trial will feature four live channels of CNS content and up to three live channels of TTV content. CNS and TTV will evaluate the performances of the MediaFLO broadcasting technology, as they explore the opportunities to deliver multimedia services to mobile users in Taiwan.
"We see the trial as an excellent opportunity to expand our MediaFLO business development efforts in Asia," said Peggy Johnson, president, Qualcomm Internet Services and MediaFLO Technologies. "Taiwan is one of the key markets in the region with 84 percent pay TV penetration. We expect this trial to provide a strong validation of the value that QUALCOMM believes MediaFLO technology offers both in Asia and in other markets around the world."
The MediaFLO System is an end-to-end solution that enables broadcasting of high-quality video, audio streams, Clipcasting media and IP datacasting to mobile handsets. MediaFLO technology is intended to offer several advantages over other mobile broadcast technologies, including higher-quality video and audio, faster channel switching time, superior mobile reception, optimized power consumption and greater channel capacity. Specific performance features of MediaFLO technology in a 6 MHz channel include support for transmitting more than 20 streaming channels of QVGA-quality (320x240 pixels) video at up to 30 frames per second, 10 stereo audio channels (HE AAC+ parametric stereo) and multiple Clipcasting downloads per day (short-format video clips) and always-on IP datacasting services; and an average channel switching time of approximately two seconds.
In addition, mobile broadcasting based on MediaFLO technology will complement wireless operators' UMTS/WCDMA and CDMA2000 EV-DO cellular voice and data services, delivering content to the same cellular handsets used on these 3G networks.