Geneva – 14th February 2007 – The DVB Steering Board has approved the DVB-SH (Satellite services to Handhelds) specification. At the 53rd meeting of the DVB Steering Board, the main executive body of the DVB Project, two documents specifying DVB-SH were approved: a waveform specification and a description of the system. The specification was developed by the DVB Technical Module's TM-SSP working group.

DVB-SH is defined as a system which is able to deliver IP based media content and data to handheld terminals like mobile phones and PDAs via satellite. Whenever a line of sight between terminal and satellite does not exist terrestrial gap fillers are employed to provide the missing coverage. The DVB-SH system has been designed for frequencies below 3 GHz, typically in the S-band. It complements the existing DVB-H physical layer standard and like its sister specification (DVB-H) uses the DVB IP Datacast (IPDC) set of content delivery, electronic service guide and service purchase and protection standards.

DVB-SH includes features such as turbo coding for forward error correction and a highly flexible interleaver in an advanced system designed to cope with the hybrid satellite/terrestrial network topology. Satellite transmission ensures wide area coverage, with a terrestrial component assuring coverage where the satellite signal cannot be received, as may be the case in built-up areas. DVB-SH in fact specifies two operational modes. SH-A specifies the use of COFDM on both satellite and terrestrial links with the possibility of running both links in SFN mode. SH-B uses a Time Division Multiplex (TDM) on satellite with COFDM on the terrestrial link. A comprehensive set of guidelines for the implementation of the standard will follow.

Peter MacAvock, Executive Director stated "DVB-SH enhances the range of DVB standards in the area of mobile digital television. At a time when frequency availability is at a premium, it's important to ensure that those wishing to deploy mobile TV in the S-Band can benefit from DVB's proven record in producing successful open standards."

The DVB-SH specifications will now be published by the DVB Project and forwarded for formal standardisation at the European Telecommunications Standards Institute by its Joint Technical Committee Broadcast.

Download this press release here.