‘Never miss your favorite television program, again.’ Sounds familiar! But it’s not another promotion for the latest VCR, this time it comes from those in the wireless broadcast industry who are determined to bring you live television coverage, anytime, anywhere.

Despite the naysayers who question whether consumers really want to watch television on their Palm devices, there are two companies carving out a market for mobile television: V-Star, Inc. of Los Angeles, CA, and CelVibe based in Israel. Both companies are showing great promise but are taking different paths into the world of wireless TV.

V-Star
This year the American company began posting local daily news, weather, and finance shows for wireless users in the Los Angeles area. Using its proprietary 1KTV Version 3 wireless format, which operates at only 1 kbps to 4 kbps, the company’s 1KTV wireless shows can be viewed on laptops, Palm or PocketPC devices connected by Web-enabled phones or CDPD modem cards.

According to Frank Magid Associates, an American media-consulting firm, 1KTV produces a remarkably watchable TV format at an extremely low data rate. The company says that its 1KTV’s ultra-low data rate that ensures fast and, in most cases, instant downloading without the breakup that is common to streaming video.

The broadcast of these two-minute wireless shows involves the filming of real human newscasters in HDTV and then converting the video to graphic format. Kenn Raaf with V-Star told MBizCentral that the animation allows for high quality viewing of wireless TV. All information resides on the device running the required software. A text file is served up that activates the character, and vocal file is overlain.

CelVibe
While V-Star creates its own shows, CelVibe’s technology streams high-quality live television broadcasts to wireless devices, such as smartphones, PDAs, laptops, and game consoles. The company’s CelFeed™ technology converts MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 video, used by TV broadcaster, into MPEG-4, which compresses and delivers the content to wireless devices.

"Anyone can broadcast video clips, but no one is streaming live TV or broadcast-quality video in real-time over wireless networks," said Oded Peretz, CEO, CelVibe. "Currently, broadcast television technology, which uses MPEG-2, requires large amounts of bandwidth, making it virtually impossible for transmission over wireless networks. We developed an advanced technology that converts current MPEG formats to fit mobile devices."

Earlier this year CelVibe received a vote of confidence for its wireless TV technology when it secured nearly $9-million in two rounds of funding. Recently, the company unveiled its plans to target wireless operators, mobile infrastructure manufacturers, content providers, application providers, and video server manufacturers in Asia, Europe, and North America.

For more information: http://www.v-star.com, http://www.celvibe.com