On September 22, the Open Mobile Video Coalition (OMVC) released a set of comprehensive Device Profile guidelines to assist consumer electronics manufacturers in developing robust Mobile DTV products. The profiles are baseline technical guidelines that give manufacturers details about how broadcasters will implement new services and the details needed to build consumer products that receive Mobile DTV.

The Mobile DTV Device Profiles were developed jointly by the OMVC's Mobile DTV Forum, which represents consumer device and broadcast equipment manufacturers and software and middleware providers, and the OMVC's Technology Advisory Group, which is made up of broadcasters from member companies.

The Device Profile guidelines address elements that the OMVC believes are crucial to Mobile DTV success and highlights three "new" capabilities: the addition of conditional access, service/audience measurement and Internet Protocol (IP) connectivity.

Conditional Access. The ATSC A/153 Mobile DTV standard incorporates a conditional access system that is based on the OMA-DRM standard. Because it is anticipated that some Mobile DTV services will use service protection, both profiles require support for conditional access. In both cases, registration with a Mobile DTV trust authority is required so that unique digital certificates can be issued to each Mobile DTV receiver. Details about the Mobile DTV Trust Authority can be found here. Short term keys are sent over the broadcast channel. In order to provide a Mobile DTV system that can effectively handle a large volume of users, OMVC believes the Mobile DTV service protection system must incorporate the use of an interaction channel.

Service/Audience Measurement. To date, broadcasters have only been able to make decisions using audience estimates based on sampling techniques. Mobile DTV's new service and audience measurement tools will enable broadcasters to identify which channels are viewed, the duration and time of viewing, and channel changing and video download activity from every viewer who agrees to share such information. This data allows broadcasters to provide a more effective advertising-supported Mobile DTV service.

IP Connectivity. To facilitate the operation of the conditional access system and the transmission of service and audience data, the Mobile DTV receiver must offer IP connectivity at least once every seven days using, for example, an Internet, Wi-Fi, 2G, 3G, 4G, USB, or Bluetooth connection.

The ATSC Standard defines use of Scalable Video Coding at Level 3.1 for some higher resolution video formats; but both profiles show that the main video stream will be encoded using Main Profile and Level 3.1 when sending those formats.

The Device Profile guidelines also provide two product scenarios. The first profile represents a basic Mobile DTV receiver that can receive broadcast transmissions and is interoperable with real-time linear Mobile DTV broadcast services received by mobile devices. The second profile is more advanced, with an enhanced Mobile DTV receiver that includes all the basic elements plus many of the advanced features and functionalities that consumers are expected to embrace.

Later this fall the OMVC will begin operating a Mobile DTV Conditional Access System in the Washington, D.C. market to help electronics companies test their receiver implementations to properly receive, decode and display Mobile DTV broadcast signals. Conditional Access is an essential element in Mobile DTV to facilitate both audience measurement and the deployment of paid programming.

The Mobile DTV Device Profile guidelines are available on the OMVC Web site.