We didn’t have to wait long before a company saw a window of opportunity in pushing out a Digital Multimedia Broadcast (DMB) notebook, designed to appeal to consumers who want the very latest bells and whistles in entertainment delivery .

LG International has just debuted its LG LW40 Express notebook, which it claims is the first DMB broadcast portable in the world. The notebook’s DMB features come via an Atmel ATR2740 DAB processor, controlled by an  ARM7TDMI core.

The Express notebook’s utilises Digital Advanced Broadcasting uses DMB (Digital Multimedia Broadcasting) to broadcast radio and video content, as well as data services, to new portable receivers. Features include DMB watching and recording, channel registration, broadcast-reception sense indication, and channel scanning, as well as booked recording, picture capture, and intelligent update (enabling it to automatically download software from the Internet and upgrade itself). More than enough to book up all your leisure time or keep you constantly channel flicking on a quiet night in!

Atmel’s ATR2740 DAB processor is a SoC solution with extended functionality. It provides a complete DAB solution RF front end and DAB (Eureka 147) decoding baseland IC. Its flexibility allows for additional application related features facilitated by the software architecture and the ARM core used with the processor. It can decode at the full DAB rate of 1.8 Mbit/sec, whilst still having processor power left over on the ARM controller for customer software. With DAB digital radio already making the front running in  parts of Asia, it is little surprise that it is  also in the race to deliver visual mobile multimedia services. DMB is a derivative of DAB. With technical tweaks it can use an existing DAB transmitter network to deliver video, pictures, data, as well as radio, to a mass audience.

International standardisation of the DMB application has already been initiated by WorldDAB through ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute), officially responsible for standardisation of information and communications technologies within Europe.

Late last year LG put its cards on the table regarding DMB by unveiling a mobile phone that could receive terrestrial multimedia broadcasts. Previous contenders to the crown had been bulky and had no mobile phone functionality. The LG phone enables consumers to talk and watch simultaneously.. At the time the company said it would continue to release related products in time for commercialised services of domestic terrestrial and satellite DMB. The Express laptop is further commitment to this ethos. 

LG isn’t the only company to recognise the importance of DMB. Samsung claims the Yepp YH-999 is the first PMC that is capable of receiving both standard TV broadcast signals and the future Digital Multimedia Broadcasting (DMB) signal. Powered by an Intel Xscale PXA225 CPU 400 MHz, the  YH-999 runs on Microsoft’s Portable Media Center (PMC) operating system that is designed to receive digital  broadcast signals. Recently Samsung also announced the launch of its latest satellite DMB phone (model number : SCH-B200 / SPH-B2000).

The hardware might have started appearing, but is the interest there? Vendors, operators and broadcasters have definitely been champing at the bit over the mobile TV and commercial mobile television services.

Market research company Strategy Analytics predicts that the global market for mobile video content will reach $4.6 billion by 2008, with mobile music sales reaching $2.2 billion. But the figures include both streamed and downloaded content.

But a recent report by Research and Markets points out that whilst the market may be optimistic about a rapid uptake of mobile TV, consumers will be looking closely at the cost. The majority will not be willing to pay a premium for content that they already receive free of charge.

There is no doubt that there are consumers out there that want video and live TV content on mobile devices, but whether it will ever reach the number who want music at their finger tips is a definite wait and see scenario. This time it might be a case of what the customer wants, the customer gets.