India’s public broadcaster Prasar Bharati has held a conclave on ‘Direct to Mobile – 5G Broadband Convergence Roadmap’, in collaboration with India’s premier Technology Institute, the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur, and the Telecommunications Standards Development Society, India (TSDSI).

The conclave in New Delhi demonstrated for the first time NextGen Broadcast technology on smart phones and other smart devices, apart from releasing a joint white paper on Direct to Mobile Broadcasting by IIT Kanpur, TSDSI and Prasar Bharati.

Prasar Bharati CEO Shashi Shekhar Vempati spoke of the need for global cooperation and global adoption of D2M, citing the example of how WIFI became a ubiquitous experience after a consortium and industry bodies got together to achieve it.

There is a need to create similar ubiquity of experience and standards for Direct to Mobile broadcasting, he said.

The white paper released at the conclave envisions realising Direct to Mobile Broadcasting capabilities by convergence of Direct to Mobile and 5G Broadband and makes recommendations for various stakeholders to act on to achieve this.

The Principal Researcher at the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) Sung-Ik Park mentioned how earlier this year, Korean broadcasters and the Korean government got together and discussed how to implement Direct to Mobile broadcasting in Korea.

He also listed the reasons why Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) 3.0 technology is most suitable for Direct-to-Mobile broadcasting.

The President of One Media, Mark A. Aitken, said D2M was the ultimate level of integration in the broadcast and broadband world. He underscored the importance of the view that what was being done in India should become the model for the world.

The White Paper on Direct-to-Mobile Broadcasting can be downloaded here.