Cox Taps Triveni Digital For Mobile DTV Rollout

Deploys metadata system at five stations

By Glen Dickson -- Broadcasting & Cable, 3/31/2010 9:52:44 AM

Cox Media Group has deployed Triveni Digital's GuideBuilder Mobile metadata platform at its first five stations to launch mobile DTV services, including CBS affiliate KIRO Seattle; Fox affiliate KTVU Oakland/San Francisco; and ABC affiliates WSB Atlanta, WFTV Orlando, Fla., and WSOC Charlotte, N.C.

The Cox stations were previously customers of Triveni Digital's GuideBuilder product for inserting PSIP (Program and System Information Protocol) into ATSC digital TV broadcasts. GuideBuilder Mobile is an extension of that software system which share the same user interface but generates the ESG (Electronic Service Guide) data that is required under the new A/153 mobile DTV standard.

"It's kind of like PSIP for mobile," says Sterling Davis, CMG's VP of technical operations.

The five Cox stations have been broadcasting mobile DTV on-and-off since last fall, using a preliminary version of the mobile DTV standard, and used the Triveni Digital system to upgrade to the final mobile DTV specification in the past few weeks, says Davis. The stations also invested in Harris multiplexers, encoders and exciters to launch mobile DTV, as well as software from Roundbox that enables interactive applications, which Cox plans to test later this year.

The stations are mostly simulcasting normal programming on their mobile DTV streams, says Davis. In markets like Orlando, San Francisco and Charlotte, where Cox has duopolies, they are carrying mobile streams from both stations.

Cox, which owns 15 stations in 11 markets, doesn't have any plans to launch mobile DTV at other stations this year, though more launches in 2011 are likely. Davis wouldn't disclose how much of Cox spent launching mobile DTV at the five current stations, but indicated it wasn't a trivial investment.

"That was a pretty big bite," says Davis. "No other group did five."

For now, the mobile DTV broadcasts are basically an experiment, as there are no mobile DTV receivers in the market, says Davis. But he expects that to change in the near term, and predicts that there will more mobile DTV receivers shown at NAB than at last January's CES show.