Jørgen Sundgot does a double-take at the CeBIT showfloor when faced with Siemens' DVB-H concept communicator; he wants it - but can't have it.
Regular infoSync World readers will know I rarely lavish praise on products that have yet to come to market - but every now and then, something turns up which has the potential for greatness. Such is the case with Siemens' DVB-H concept, a communicator device shown here at CeBIT which merges mobile functionality with a DVB-H digital TV receiver atop a Linux platform.
Roughly the size of a Nokia 7710 communicator device, which requires a rather cumbersome attachment to allow for reception of DVB-H transmissions, the hardware of Siemens' concept device was in a state that appeared to allow for immediate production and shipping. A sleek, almost button-less device with a VGA resolution screen and dual stereo speakers, the interface consisted of an emulation of the Siemens S65 telephony software in combination with a separately developed tuner interface - all powered by Linux.
 | | Siemens DVB-H Concept |
For those unfamiliar with DVB-H, this standard will enable terrestrial digital TV transmissions in Europe over the course of the next few years, and is closely related to DVB-S which is already in use for satellite transmissions. Compared to analog terrestrial transmissions, DVB-H yields improved picture quality and also the ability to carry a far greater number of channels - as demonstrated by Siemens at CeBIT.
Running at the Siemens stand, a server transcoded a live DVB-S feed into DVB-H, which was then rebroadcast with a delay of approximately 5 seconds; picture quality was impeccable, and only rarely did transcoding or compression artifacts appear. Based on the H.264 codec, video could run either in a window or full screen, and the device appeared able to handle this and other tasks with ease.
 | | Siemens DVB-H Concept |
Impressively, the device would also allow users to record live broadcasts either courtesy of the 128 MB of built-in memory, or alternatively by means of MMC expansion cards.
The tuner interface provided by Siemens also held other features, such as an interactivity concept not unlike that of Nokia's Visual Radio, which allows users to send messages to broadcasters. Relying on either SMS or GPRS for communication, one concept demonstrated was the familiar one of voting for a music video channel's playlist.
In addition, the device also offered telephony through running the software of Siemens' first Megapixel camera phone, the popular S65, in an emulator. As with DVB-H reception, telephony features also proved to be of high quality, and as a Linux-powered device the concept would have great potential as a more fully developed communicator device with a complete suite of PIM applications and web browsing capabilities - particularly when considering the size as compared to Nokia's 7710.
 | | Siemens DVB-H Concept |
During my discussion with Søren Haubold from Siemens' Mobile Terminals Technology & Innovation division, it was confirmed that the device holds potential for more features than what was shown at CeBIT. According to Haubold, obvious feature additions would include MP3 playback, as well as placing more of an emphasis on video playback due to the already existing capabilities of the device.
Despite the production-quality state the device appeared to be in, Haubold said Siemens has no immediate plans to market the device in its particular state. However, the company aims to bring DVB-H technology to market in time to coincide with the launch of such services in the German market, which is currently slated for 2006.
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