(9 February 2008 2:00 pm)

MUMBAI: Thomson is supplying a complete head-end solution to ATV, a part of the pan-Latin American media group Albavision, to power a trial mobile television service in Lima, Peru and Guatemala.

The service, the first of its kind in Latin America, will roll out to the commercial market in June 2008.

The service at present features four live television channels, transmitted using the DVB-H broadcast standard. At the head-end, Thomson ViBE Mobile TV encoders compress the incoming video streams, which are then encapsulated into a single transport stream using the Thomson Opal DVB-H encapsulator. The electronic service guide is also created by Thomson.

Thomson’s Network and Integration Solutions business GM Patrick Montliaud says, “The idea of mobile television is exciting consumers in markets globally. The system we have delivered to ATV in Lima allows Albavision to build a market with minimum capital expenditure, knowing that they can expand through additional services, increased functionality and interactivity when they need to."

Albavision CEO Angel Gonzalez says, "We see Mobile TV broadcasting as an important part of our growth in the future. That is why it was important to get our service in Peru on air as quickly as possible. We knew Thomson as a very reliable supplier which could give us a complete, proven solution, and we are very pleased with the progress so far."

ATV CTO Juan Pablo Alviz says, "We are examining the possibility of expanding this solution to other countries in Latin America."