Currently, China Mobile’s GPRS network has rich content and applications, including online information browsing, downloading, entertainment games, shopping, ticket booking, etc. After the official operation, China Mobile users using color-screen mobile phones will have more mobile application experiences in addition to making calls and sending and receiving text messages. It has laid a good foundation for the development of mobile communications in the direction of data services. However, with the launch of a large number of smart phones at home and abroad in recent years, wireless value-added services based on smart phones have better terminal platforms. With the advancement of technology, some applications that were previously impossible to imagine have become possible on the mobile phone platform. come out.
1. The smartphone business should focus on video entertainment.
After the launch of GPRS smartphones, how to attract users in terms of business model and content and create higher value-added service profits is a topic of common concern to China Mobile and the majority of SPs and content providers. According to the Korean 3G mobile phone application survey report, in terms of data business for Korean 3G mobile phone users, in addition to games, mobile video services are the main business. Among them, real-time TV programs are the most exciting. With a 3G mobile phone, there is no need to rush home to catch up on TV series. Real-time news clips and soap opera clips are also very popular among 3G users. In addition, according to a survey on the Monternet website, among the top 10 most popular contents on smartphone portals in November, Qianlong Film and Television, which introduces short films, ranked first. From another aspect, we can see the love of mobile users for video entertainment applications. As the CPU processing power of smartphones becomes stronger and stronger, the operating system becomes more standardized, and the battery capacity of mobile phones is also increasing day by day, mobile TV and mobile imaging entertainment are about to move to the forefront of mobile phone value-added services.
2. Carrying out GPRS live TV services on 2.5G smartphones requires a new generation of high-intensity image coding and decoding technology.
The average download bandwidth of China Mobile's GSM/GPRS network is 25Kbps. In such a low bandwidth environment, it is very difficult to transmit a full frame rate digital image in QCIF format in real time. A new generation of image coding and decoding technology should be used to provide clear low frame rate TV images as much as possible while ensuring smooth audio.
H.264 is a new technology developed by the joint video team (JVT: joint video team) of ITU-T's VCEG (Video Coding Experts Group) and ISO/IEC's MPEG (Moving Picture Coding Experts Group). The digital video coding standard is both ITU-T's H.264 and ISO/IEC's MPEG-4 Part 10. Draft collection began in January 1998, and the first draft was completed in September 1999. Its test mode TML-8 was formulated in May 2001. The 5th JVT meeting in June 2002 passed the H.264 FCD board. , officially finalized in March 2003.
H.264, like previous standards, is also a hybrid coding mode of DPCM plus transform coding. However, it adopts a simple "back to basics" design without numerous options, and achieves much better compression performance than H.263++; it strengthens its adaptability to various channels, and adopts a "network-friendly" structure and syntax. It is conducive to the processing of bit errors and packet loss; the application target range is wide to meet the needs of different rates, different resolutions and different transmission (storage) occasions; its basic system is open and no copyright is required for use.
Technically, there are many shining points in the H.264 standard, such as unified VLC symbol encoding, high-precision, multi-mode displacement estimation, integer transformation and layering based on 4×4 blocks. Coding syntax, etc. These measures make the H.264 algorithm have very high coding efficiency, and can save about 50% of the bit rate than H.263 (MPEG-4) under the same reconstructed image quality. H.264's code stream structure has strong network adaptability, increases error recovery capabilities, and can well adapt to IP and wireless network applications.
It can be said that H.264 is the international video compression standard with the highest compression rate at present, and will also be the mobile video compression standard to be adopted by 3GPP.
Based on years of development, production and sales of H.264 real-time monitoring systems, Guangzhou Funian Electronic Technology Co., Ltd. has developed an H.264 mobile streaming system based on GSM/GPRS network, which can be used on Real-time video playback, VOD on-demand and other value-added services on GPRS smartphones have realized the dream of trialling 3G services on the 2.5G network. At present, Hangzhou Fuxin Company has used this technology to trial the GPRS mobile live TV service. Interested readers can download the relevant mobile software on the www.funvio.con website and experience real-time live TV viewing on their mobile phones.
3. Selection of live TV programs:
Based on the current reality of GPRS network bandwidth and the fact that the target consumer users are white-collar workers who can afford smart phones, after several months of market research According to the survey, real-time news and MTV songs are more suitable as information sources for live TV on smartphones.
The TV programs currently being broadcast on trial include:
1. Real-time news: Phoenix Satellite TV Chinese Channel
"Xiao Li Watches Current Affairs", "A Appointment with Lu Yu", "Qiang" "Qiang Three People's Journey" is a program that white-collar workers like to watch. Phoenix TV's "Phoenix Express", "Current Affairs Talk" and "Financial Today" are also very time-sensitive programs. 48 hours of continuous rolling news coverage of the 9.11 incident in the United States. Phoenix TV has become one of the important news TV stations in China.
2. MTV Global Music Television
One of the most important contents of mobile video entertainment is MTV TV. There is currently no professional MTV television station in China. After years of hard work, Viacom, a company headquartered in the United States, established the MTV Global Music Television Station, which was approved by the Chinese government in April this year and launched in Guangdong Cable as the first international brand. TV station. The target audience is the age group of 25-34 years old, and MTV programs are broadcast 24 hours a day.
Fuxin will continue to launch and adjust more TV channels to meet the diverse needs of mobile users.
4. Experiments on real-time live TV on corporate websites:
The trial of mobile real-time live TV on corporate websites began in early October last year. After two months of trial operation, the test terminals were tested in Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Shanghai, Beijing, Hangzhou, Hong Kong and other places. The results were the best with the GPRS network conditions in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Shenzhen. The system performance is stable, the sound is beautiful, and the image is clear (two frames per second).
There are two major categories of operating system smartphones that have completed debugging of mobile phone playback software:
1. Based on Packet PC operating system: ET180, Dopod 686
2. Based on symbian operating system: Nokia7650, 3650, 6600, Sony Ericsson P802, P900 series, Siemens SX1. Users of the above mobile phones can also download the player software through the following WAP website: WAP Fundoplayer.
A player for smartphones based on Linux operating system is under development. (The player software for the Korean Samsung i519 CDMA (Linux) smartphone has been completed)
V. Conclusion:
With the advancement of software technology and the continuous launch of new generations of smartphones , developing real-time live video services on mobile phones has become an irresistible trend. It can maximize people's ability to obtain the latest multimedia information in a real-time, mobile and convenient state, thus changing the quality of people's learning and life. As China's largest mobile operator, China Mobile Communications Company took the lead in launching this type of mobile video service business before my country's 3G licenses were issued. It will definitely gain good social and economic benefits, and will also provide opportunities for future 3G business. We have accumulated valuable experience in our operations. It can also further promote the development of the domestic smartphone industry and break the monopoly of certain foreign companies on mobile phone system software. Make mobile value-added services with Chinese characteristics more colorful and richer than relying solely on SMS services. At the same time, it will also improve the efficiency and traffic of the GPRS network and promote new development of mobile services.