In the live television streaming / placeshifting realm, Sling Media is likely the first name to come to mind, but now a new competitor is gearing up to enter the market sans the use of a box. Based on the Microsoft Silverlight platform, London-based Skinkers is in the early stages of readying a new product dubbed LiveStation, which looks to provide users with live television access on their internet-connected machine via a basic P2P setup. During an interview with Matteo Berlucchi from Skinkers, he did mention that the program would remain in beta for "the next few months" as kinks were gradually worked out, but also noted that it would be Mac and PC compatible when launch day comes. Go on, hit the read link to hear it from the developers mouth.

[Via TechCrunch]

LG is prepped to do for live TV what the Rumble Pak did for game controllers. That's right, LG is partnered with MBC (think NBC, with an "M") to deliver what they've dubbed "3D broadcast technology" in S.Korea. No, we're not talking about TV mapped along the ol' X,Y, and Z axes. Instead, the duo is hawking two dimensions of image and a third D of haptic feedback. By using "control signaling technology," broadcasters can rattle your phone just as the ball is buried in the net during the latest World Cup qualifier. They can even flash LEDs in sync with the ensuing melee of drunken fisticuffs. Best of all (we think this is good news), the technology is not limited to S.Korea this time; it's patented in 20 countries and is "applicable to all mobile broadcast methods" including DMB (of course), MediaFlo, DVB-H, and presumably any annoyingly late-to-the-game version of mobile DTV the ATSC folks might spew forth.

[Via Telecoms Korea]

Hot on the heels of two other placeshifting technologies comes ACOGITO's Roaming Machine, which reportedly does quite a bit more than similar alternatives that port your television shows to wherever you may roam. In addition to being a self-proclaimed "HD set-top-box" that pulls double duty as a DVR, this dashing thin device can channel your programs to your laptop or mobile through MPEG-4 / H.264 encoding, and relies on the firm's "patented Remote Control eXtensible Mark-up Language (RCXML) technology for a set of command protocols for remote viewing." Additionally, you'll find a trio of units to handle ATSC / NTSC, DVB-S / DVB-T / PAL, and of course, an IP rendition for the unbiased set. Notably, the company also brags about its LCD HDTV (affectionately dubbed the RoamingTV) which touts a built-in placeshifter, and while pricing and availability deets aren't available for either, you can purportedly catch both of these technologies at this year's NAB event.

[Via MobileMag]

Squarely falling into the "you've got to be kidding" category, the Advanced Television Systems Committee has just announced that it will be developing its very own standard to "enable broadcasters to deliver television content and data to mobile and handheld devices via their DTV broadcast signal." In case you weren't aware, the world is quickly becoming over-saturated with hordes of other mobile television protocols, and just like the other guys, the forthcoming ATSC-M/H standard will be backwards compatible, which will allow "operation of existing ATSC services in the same RF channel without an adverse impact on existing receiving equipment." Among the services it hopes to channel are ad-supported (free to the user) television broadcasts, elusive "real-time, interactive services," subscription-based TV, downloadable content for on-demand playback, and there's even the potential for "real-time navigation" niceties in the future. Still, we're sure the standard will find a way to operate just fine, but unless a bidding war breaks out and the cost for mobile TV plummets due to all this competition, we're not really sure all these like-minded options are entirely necessary.

[Via MocoNews]

Ah, yet another technology that looks oh-so-promising from the onset, but quickly becomes dulled when wading through the technical jargon required to understand it. So is the case with digital television broadcasting, but Harris Corporation and LG Electronics don't seem to mind the complexities involved in establishing a new In-Band Mobile DTV service, as the duo has just announced the means to allow broadcasters to "create new markets and revenue streams" -- but besides all that -- give the end-user yet another option when it comes to TV on the go. Reportedly backwards compatible with A-VSB transmission and receiving equipment, the forthcoming Mobile-Pedestrian-Handheld (MPH) applications should theoretically allow DTV broadcasters to beam signals to set-top-boxes in the home and mobile devices simultaneously via the same antenna. Additionally, this technology enables HD programming to hit the couch-dwelling customers, while bandwidth-starved cellphone users will still get vanilla SD content without relying on new (read: pricey) hardware on the broadcasting end. Unfortunately, we've no idea when mass deployment of this stuff is scheduled, but you can still look forward to "field testing results" as well as mysterious "extra details" to be divulged in a few short weeks.

Considering the vast amount of WiMAX / 4G talk that's been circulating at CTIA, it's about time we saw a manufacturer stepping up and giving us one more reason to pay attention. Breaking into Sling's stomping ground, Honestech's MY-IPTV kit consists of a USB 2.0 TV tuner and a piece of software that enables your 3G smartphone or WiFi-connected handset / PDA to watch live television and change the channels remotely. Additionally, users can access their television streams on any internet-connected lappie whilst pretending to pay attention in quarterly meetings, and for devices with enough computing power (and storage space), PVR capabilities are available. As expected, the kit will play nice with Windows XP and Windows Mobile operating systems, and it should be available real soon for $99.99 to $149.99 depending on extras.