Digital Terrestrial Multimedia Broadcast

"DTMB" redirects here. "DTMB" is also the ICAO code for Monastir Airport.
List of digital television broadcast standards
DVB standards (countries)
ATSC standards (countries)
ISDB standards (countries)
DTMB standards (countries)
  • DTMB (terrestrial/mobile)
    • DTMB-A
  • CMMB (handheld)
  • ABS-S (satellite)
DMB standard (countries)
Codecs
Terrestrial Frequency bands
Satellite Frequency bands

DTMB (Digital Terrestrial Multimedia Broadcast) is the digital TV standard for mobile and fixed devices, developed in the People's Republic of China. It is used there and in both of their special administrative regions (Hong Kong and Macau), and also in Cambodia, the Comoros, Cuba, East Timor, Laos, Vietnam, and Pakistan.[1] In Pakistan, as part of the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor Project, ZTE Corporation will provide Pakistan Television Corporation collaboration across several digital terrestrial television technologies, staff training, and content creation, including partnerships with Chinese multinational companies in multiple areas, such as television sets and set top boxes, as a form of "International Cooperation".[2]

Overview

Previously known as DMB-T/H (Digital Multimedia Broadcast-Terrestrial/Handheld), the DTMB is a merger of the standards ADTB-T (developed by the Shanghai Jiao Tong University), DMB-T (developed by Tsinghua University), and TiMi (Terrestrial Interactive Multiservice Infrastructure); this last one is the standard proposed by the Academy of Broadcasting Science in 2002.

At first, neither Shanghai Jiao Tong University nor Tsinghua had enough political strength to make their own technology become the unique standard, so the final decision was to opt for a double standard, merged with the TIMI 3 standard, responding to a need for backward compatibility.

The DTMB was created in 2004 and finally became an official DTT standard in 2006.

DTMB in China

  • 2005 trial[3]
  • 18/08/2006 formal adoption as a DTT standard[3]
  • 08/08/2008 analogue to digital switchover[3]
  • 30/11/2020-31/03/2021 analog switchoff[3]

DTMB channel available in China

  • National:
    • CCTV-1, 2, 4, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, CGTN English
  • Provinces:

Main channel of province TV in each province

  • High Definition Channel:
    • Varies
  • City or Local channel:
    • Varies

DTMB in Hong Kong

Main article: Television in Hong Kong § Digital television
  • 18/08/2006 formal adoption as a DTT standard[3]
  • 31/12/2007 analogue to digital switchover[3]
  • 30/11/2020 analogue switchoff[4]

DTMB in Macau

  • 18/08/2006 formal adoption as a DTT standard[3]
  • 15/07/2008 analogue to digital switchover
  • 30/06/2023 analogue switchoff [5]

DTMB elsewhere

  • DTMB started in Laos in 2007.[6]
  • Cambodia adopted the DTMB standard in 2012.[7]
  • The Comoros chose DTMB in 2013.[8]
  • Cuba adopted DTMB in 2013.[9]
  • In 2017, Pakistan and ZTE signed a contract to deploy DTMB broadcasts in the country by 2020.[10]
  • East Timor adopted DTMB, and work to implement it started in 2019.[11]

Versus CMMB

See China Multimedia Mobile Broadcasting (CMMB).

Countries and territories using DTMB

DTT broadcasting systems. Countries using DTMB are shown in purple.

Asia

Caribbean

Africa

Countries and territories are available using DTMB

Europe

Oceania

Asia

Africa

Description

Besides the basic functions of traditional television service, the DTMB allows additional services using the new television broadcasting system. DTMB system is compatible with fixed reception (indoor and outdoor) and mobile digital terrestrial television.

  • Mobile reception: is compatible with digital broadcasting TV in standard definition (SD), digital audio broadcasting, multimedia broadcasting, and data broadcasting service.
  • Fixed reception: in addition to the previous services, also supports high definition digital broadcasting (HDTV).

Modulation

The DTMB standard uses many advanced technologies to improve their performance. For example, a pseudo-random noise code (PN) as a guard interval that allows faster synchronization system and a more accurate channel estimation, Low-Density Parity Check (LDPC) for error correction, modulation Time Domain Synchronization - Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (TDS-OFDM), which allows the combination of broadcasting in SD, HD, and multimedia services, etc.

This system gives flexibility to the services offered to support the combination of single-frequency networks (SFN) and multi-frequency networks (MFN). The different modes and parameters can be chosen, depending on the type of service and network's environment.

The sequence of pseudo-random pattern is defined in time domain, and the information of the Discrete Fourier transform (DFT) is defined in the frequency domain. The two frames are multiplexed in the time domain, resulting in Time domain synchronization (TDS).

Functional scheme

This transmission system makes the conversion of the input signal to the output data of terrestrial TV signal.

The data passes through the encoder, the error protection process FEC (Forward Error Correction), through the constellation mapping process, and then the interleaving processes the information to create the data blocks. The data block and the TPS information are multiplexed, and pass through the data processor to form the body structure. It combines information from the body and the head to form the frame and this is passed through the SRRC (Square Root Raised Cosine) filter to become a signal within an 8 MHz channel bandwidth. Finally, the signal is modulated to put it in the corresponding frequency band.

Features

  • Bit-rate: from 4.813 Mbit/s to 32.486 Mbit/s
  • Combination of SD, HD, and multimedia services
  • Flexibility of services
  • Time and frequency domain of data-processing
  • Broadcasting of between 6 and 15 SD channels and 1 or 2 HD channels
  • Same quality of reception as wire broadcast

See also

References

  1. ^ "Pilot Project of Digital Terrestrial Multimedia Broadcast (DTMB) | China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) Official Website".
  2. ^ "ZTE to provide DTMB broadcasting infrastructure for Pakistan's PTV".
  3. ^ a b c d e f g DTV Status. Retrieved May 30, 2012
  4. ^ "Government to switch off analogue television services at end-November 2020". Retrieved 30 May 2019.
  5. ^ "TDM to switch off analogue television transmission system". TDM. Retrieved 26 December 2023.
  6. ^ "Media in Laos moves forward with digitalisation despite challenges | Asia News Network". Archived from the original on 2019-09-24. Retrieved 2019-09-24.
  7. ^ "China to promote digital television broadcasting in Cambodia".
  8. ^ "Comoros choose the Chinese standard for the deployment of digital terrestrial television in June 2015". en.indian-ocean-times.com. Archived from the original on 2019-09-24.
  9. ^ "Cuba adopts Chinese TV standard". 22 March 2013.
  10. ^ "ZTE and Pakistan Sign Digital Terrestrial Television Agreement - ZTE Press Release".
  11. ^ "The China-aided Digital Television Terrestrial Multimedia Broadcasting (DTMB) Demonstration Project Kicks off".
  12. ^ CNTV English Archived 2013-03-22 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved March 21, 2013

Further reading

  • Kumar, Amitabh (2007). Mobile TV: DVB-H, DMB, 3G Systems and Rich Media Applications. Focal Press Media Technology Professional Series. Focal Press. ISBN 978-0-240-80946-5.

External links