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Verizon's latest LTE test streams Indy 500 in-car video to phones in pit lane
As the Indy 500's title sponsor this year, Verizon is bringing more than its name to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway -- it's augmenting the venue with LTE Multicast service. The new tech allows many viewers to stream the same video at once, something that usually chokes networks but with multicast it's more like watching a regular TV broadcast -- the stream only has to be sent once for everyone to tune in. Teams using a special app on enhanced Galaxy Note 3 smartphones or other properly equipped tablets will be able to view live in-car cameras and other angles from cameras placed around the track. Unlike Verizon's Super Bowl test, this is running on the company's commercial network and it won't be a one-time deal, either: LTE Multicast will be used at multiple IndyCar events and venues throughout the year. Here's hoping fans can get in on the action (the official IndyCar 14 app lets Verizon customers watch video over regular internet streams wherever they are) soon. [Image credit: ZUMA Press, Inc. / Alamy]
Verizon demonstrating LTE Multicast during Super Bowl XLVIII (hands-on video)
As part of its massive Super Bowl sponsorship, Verizon has taken over a good chunk of Manhattan's Bryant Park. We're at the Verizon Power House this morning, a heated oasis in the otherwise frigid city center, where reps are detailing the carrier's LTE Multicast service, which enables transmitting live content directly to a variety of VZ devices using the existing network infrastructure. Unlike basic LTE streaming, however, Multicast allows for an uninterrupted video feed regardless of the number of devices currently using the service in any particular area. We first heard about Verizon's implementation at CES 2013, and it looks like Big Red's planning to flip the switch during the first half of this year, though a pricing model, precise availability and device compatibility haven't been detailed. If you're in NYC this week, however, you'll be able to snag a sneak peek of Multicast running on a Sequans-powered tablet and a Galaxy Note 3. The service is currently live at a demo room in Verizon's Bryant Park booth.
AT&T CEO talks up plan for LTE Broadcast video network, remains light on specifics
Samsung and others have promised to deliver TV over 4G using the LTE Broadcast standard, and it looks like you can now also add AT&T to the list of those hoping to make it a reality. Speaking at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia conference today, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson confirmed that the carrier intends to use the slice 700MHz spectrum it acquired from Qualcomm back in 2011 for an LTE Broadcast network of its own designed to deliver video to LTE-enabled devices (and lighten the load on the rest of its wireless network in the process). Stephenson didn't offer too many more details than that, however, saying only that the carrier is now almost "all about architecting networks to deliver video," and that we can expect to see the technology "mature in scale within the three-year time horizon." As Fierce Wireless notes, Verizon has also said that it hopes to deploy some type of LTE Broadcast service in time for the 2014 Super Bowl, although it, too, has remained light on specifics beyond that.
Verizon CEO: I sold Jobs on LTE for iPhone 5
Tuesday at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) conference in Las Vegas, Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam spent some time touting his company's investment in its LTE network and the fact that 4G LTE makes it possible to stream video. McAdam also relayed a story, recounted on Fierce Wireless, about how he was able to convince Apple founder and CEO Steve Jobs to build LTE into the iPhone 5 To quote from the article: McAdam was trying to convince Jobs to make the iPhone 5 compatible with LTE. "I was really trying to sell him and he sat there without any reaction. Finally, he said, 'Enough. You had me at 10 Mbps. I know you can stream video at 10 Mbps.' And Apple's next phone was LTE," McAdam said. Part of the reason for McAdam's appearance at NAB was to allay the fears of broadcasters who are concerned about Verizon's plan to use LTE Broadcast technology to broadcast the 2014 Super Bowl and similar live events to its customers. McAdam reassured the crowd, saying "We don't want to get in the way of broadcasters," but noted that there are some events where Verizon could "add a dimension and it becomes better." Photo by Stuart Isett, Fortune Brainstorm TECH. CC BY 2.0
Samsung demos its take on LTE Broadcast, edges closer to TV over 4G
There must be a resurgence of mobile TV in the works at Samsung. Just hours after it brought out the TV-equipped Galaxy S Lightray 4G, the company has confirmed (through partner Anritsu) that it's successfully testing LTE Broadcast technology. As the name implies, the standard and its evolved Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (eMBMS) pipe software-independent services like TV over a 4G network's ample bandwidth rather than requiring dedicated networks and the costs that come with them -- we all know how that last strategy panned out in the US. Unsurprisingly, Samsung isn't saying what its long-term plans might be at this early stage, although we'd note that it isn't alone. Qualcomm was showing LTE Broadcast back at Mobile World Congress, for example. While it's far too soon to tell if there will be any American revival, Samsung's help puts the writing on the wall for conventional mobile TV formats like T-DMB.
