The Korea Herald

지나쌤

SKT, Samsung develop real-time mobile streaming

By Park Hyung-ki

Published : Oct. 8, 2014 - 20:49

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SK Telecom said Wednesday that together with Samsung Electronics it has developed a technology enabling real-time mobile broadcast streaming, and has successfully demonstrated it on Long Term Evolution networks for the first time ever.

South Korea’s largest mobile carrier and the tech giant applied the next-generation MPEG media transport, which has emerged as the standard video data transfer technology, to develop the so-called True Real Time Mobile Streaming.

“The True Real Time Mobile Streaming Technology resolves the technical challenges of providing high-quality live video streaming over mobile networks without latency,” said Park Jin-hyo, senior vice president and head of SK Telecom’s network research and development center.

“SK Telecom will put more efforts into strengthening its mobile network service quality by developing innovative and advanced technologies.”

Consumers have often faced inconveniences in watching broadcasting, especially sports events, on devices such as smartphones or tablet PCs as mobile networks have not been able to transfer data and broadcast content in real time.

The existing networks provide content for mobile devices that lags 15 seconds behind television or Internet Protocol TV.

For instance, users of mobile streaming were only able to watch a soccer player score a goal during a World Cup match 15 seconds after it was broadcast live on terrestrial TV or IPTV.

SK Telecom and Samsung Electronics have reduced the 15-second latency time by some 20 percent to less than 3 seconds through a test of the two companies’ mobile streaming technology via LTE networks.

The two companies aim to commercialize the technology by applying it to their mobile services next year, and to further conduct joint R&D on real-time mobile data transfer to increase broadcasting efficiency and convenience, SK Telecom said.

They will also seek to standardize the technology globally through industry associations such as the 3rd Generation Partnership Project and Moving Picture Experts Group.

By Park Hyong-ki (hkp@heraldcorp.com)