These trials involved a combination of technical and commercial testing.

The technical trials ran in several distinct phases:
- Phase 1 – July 2005 to July 2006 – Nokia Headend and Handsets
- Phase 2 – August 2006 to January 2007 - – Nokia Headend and Handsets
- Melbourne Commonwealth Games Showcase – March 2006 – Cardinal headend and handset client, Windows Media Encoders, ETEN M600 handsets with Dibcom SDIO tuners
- Phase 3 – May to August 2007 – Thomson Grass Valley Headend, Irdeto CA, and Samsung P930 Handsets

The commercial trial (run during Phase 1) involving 375 users found that;
- 80% of users were pleased with the service - a "significant majority" expressed an interest in subscribing to a similar commercial service;
- increased total TV viewing on weekdays;
- the average viewing session was 25 minutes, with 1-2 viewing sessions per day;
- variations from traditional peak viewing times, with peaks at morning, lunch and evenings, as well as Sunday afternoons;
- the service was most popular with non-PayTV subscribers and with commuters;
- sports programming was particularly popular at lunchtime and on Saturday evenings;
- overall the most popular content was general entertainment, news and documentaries.

Sydney, Australia (except Melbourne Commonwealth Games showcase)

Broadcast Australia, The Bridge Networks (a subsidiary of Broadcast Australia), Telstra, Foxtel, Turner Broadcasting Systems, SKY Channel, ABC, SBS, Nine Network Australia, Seven, Nokia, RFS, Harris, 3 Australia, MTV, Thomson Grass Valley, Irdeto, and Samsung

Martin Farrimond
e-mail : martin.farrimond@broadcastaustralia.com.au
phone : +61 434 070 361

19 July 2005 to 31 August 2007 (in different phases as detailed above)

To prove the technical and commercial feasibility of mobile TV based on DVB-H.

Subscription based services.

375

10 Foxtel channels (Channel V, E!, Fox Football, Fox Sports News, Nickelodeon, Sky News, Sky News Business, The History Channel, The Lifestyle Channel and The Weather Channel), along with ABC, SBS, Channel Nine, Channel Seven, CNN, Sky Racing, MTV, 3 Australia, and Boomerang.

One 3.5kW transmitter, 80kw ERP, covering all of Greater Sydney

UHF Channel 29, 536.625 MHz, 7 MHz bandwidth.

1st phase 8k, no-mpe fec, ½ FEC, QPSK, 1/8 GI, 200 ms bursts with 4 second cycle time.

Then various during phases 2 but based on 4k, no MPE-FEC, ½ FEC, QPSK, 1/8 GI. Experiments with 2/3 FEC, and ¾ MPE-FEC. About 170 ms bursts with 1.7 second cycle time.

During phase 3 a few modes used including 4k, ¾ MPE FEC with 512 rows, ½ FEC, 1/8 GI. Statistical encoding used on 5 services and dynamic timeslicing/statistical multiplexing employed.

Video services running bitrates of around 350kbps, 25fps and both AAC LC and AAC plus V2 audio used at around 32kbps. QPSK, ½ FEC, 1/8 GI, no MPE FEC with video services running around 200kbps also used.

All DVB-H - no heirarchical modulation

H.263 for Phase 1, then H.264 at about 192kbps, 12.5 fps, QPVA, 32kbps AAC audio

In phase 2, limited experiments with Nokia MBS 3.0 interactivity

Nokia OMA based system in phase 1, no CA during phase 2, Irdeto OSF CA in phase 3.

Nokia IPDC 2.2 in phase 1, then Nokia MBS 3.0 in phase 2 and Thomson Grass Valley in Phase 3

Nokia 7710 for phase 1, Nokia N92 for phase 2, and Samsung SGH-P930 for phase 3

Information correct as of 10/04/2008