Ofcom announces Whitespace trial

Ofcom the super regulator is planning to hold a Whitespace trial later in the year. Whitespace is just spectrum that is not used in certain areas as it may interfere with other services in neighbouring areas (such as TV station broadcasts, the country is divided into areas such that neighbouring TV broadcasting transmitters don't use the same frequencies as their neighbours).

The unused spectrum is therefore 'wasted', but with careful management, can be used for localised services such as wireless broadband.

Neul is a technology leader based out of Cambridge (spun out of Cambridge Silicon Radio or CSR, now owned by Samsung) and already have systems available to use whitespace frequencies. Neul even have a chipset available for end-user devices.

There are (and have been) several whitespace trials, but these have been limited to localised technology trials.

One of the features that is required for whitespace to work is a centralised database of locations, frequencies and power levels. Generally there will be a central base station which will have to contact the database and report its position and it can then use that information to select the frequencies and power levels to use. End-user devices will just scan the whitespace bands and look for a carrier and can just use that as a base, from which it can then retrieve information about what other frequencies to use.

A quirk of the system is that Ofcom has mandated a kill switch so that if interference with commercial TV or other is found, all devices using whitespace can be shut-off in an area.

Ofcom has not specified how the database should be implemented, just the queries and responses that should be supported, it will be up to the market to decide how to implement. Database operators will be able to charge for running the service (again not specified, but it may be based on queries of the database).

This trial will again test the technology but also database implementations etc.

Ofcom's statement is on-line and any interested party wishing to take place in the trial can email TV.WhiteSpaces@ofcom.org.uk

Ofcom says LTE800 operators have to fix Digital TV

Ofcom will be auctioning the 800MHz band and it's expected that licensees will use the spectrum for LTE (Long YTerm Evolution)/4G services.

Unfortunately there may be interference issues with terrestrial digital TV broadcasts which may affect around 3% of the population which is around 760,000 homes.

Many interference issues will be resolved with the simple fitting of an RF filter between the aerial and the digital TV receiver, however around 0.1% of viewers will still have issues and Ofcom want those effected to have digital satellite receivers installed. It's expected that the LTE licensees will be burdened with the cost of the filters of digital satellite equipment which could cost around £100m on top of any spectrum auction fees.

Ofcom are now going to hold a consultation to see the real extent of the problem.

Twitter goes mainstream

You know when a website has gone mainstream when it appears in a TV series. Well Twitter is now featured in an episode of CSI (Crime Scene Investigation set in Las Vegas).

The whole point of blogging on Twitter is not about privacy but the value of openness (as per the program dialogue).

Here's the YouTube clip.

Sandisk V-Mate

The Sandisk V-Mate arrived today, it's a little unit with external plug-PSU that connects to a video source and TV.

It only supports composite video, so quality will never be amazing, but as it's designed to work with portable players (like Sandisk's Sansa range or Sony's PSP) that should be too important.

It records to multiple memory card formats (Memory Stick Duo, SD Card, MicroSD etc) in various video codecs and formats: -

Codecs: MPEG-4 Simple Profile, H.263
Formats: MP4, 3GP, 3G2
Resolution: Up to 640x480 pixels
Frame Rate: Up to 30fps
TV Formats: NTSC & PAL

Depending on the which format and resolution is chosen it can store up to 3.5hours of video per GB.

It also has an IR emitter which can be used to change channel on a set-top-box or other video source.

It's a quirky thing but with the flood of video compatible portable players it could have a relatively big market - allowing users to watch programs they've missed on their daily commute.

US pricing is $129, so about £100 over in the UK.