September 29, 2006
The second pilot of Icareus’ mobile TV project took place at the i2010 conference held in Espoo, Finland on 28th September. The purpose of the pilot was to develop, implement and test different kinds of services targeted to international conference guests. The piloted package contained services linked to both the conference and the Otaniemi area.
All the services piloted at i2010 were available through OSSG™ (Operator Specific Service Guide). OSSG™ is a concept where all TV and mobile services, regardless of the network used, are offered seamlessly through one user interface. The video services of the pilot included live video broadcasts, interviews and other video material from the conference, broadcasted through a local DVB-H network built for the event. Participants were able to view one live channel and two prerecorded channels broadcasting key note speakers up-to-date interviews, feelings and background information. All the interviews, presentations and other conference related material were also available on video-on-demand over the 3G mobile network. In addition to video broadcasts, the visitors were offered a variety of mobile services, such as background information about the seminar topics, speakers and companies participating to the event and seminar agendas.
The pilot at i2010 was a part of the Icareus’ DVB-H Event 2006 project which includes testing the new Mobile TV and filecasting platform and relating service concepts in various kinds of public events in Finland. The first pilot was conducted at Ilosaarirock festival in July 2006. The project is to last until the end of the year.
Until now, the project has particularly revealed the importance of enabling the use of different services through a clear and user friendly interface. This is probably going to get even more emphasis in the future, when WiFi or WiMAX will be added to DVB-H and 3G services.
Services at the i2010 conference were offered by Icareus together with the University of Turku, Lumi Interactive. and other partnering organizations such as TeliaSonera Finland, Digita, ICT-Turku, Tietokartano, BSMG and Axel Technologies. The DVB-H Event 2006 project is a part of the Tekes Giga Technology Program and the Forum Virium Helsinki’s Finnish Mobile TV project series.
