The nation's capital of Washington has been selected as a product showcase market for Mobile DTV technology.

This announcement was made by the Open Mobile Video Coalition, an alliance of U.S. broadcasters dedicated to accelerating the development of Mobile Digital Television. Additionally, four television stations in Atlanta and Seattle will become model stations for technical research and development of device interoperability.

Mobile DTV brings new opportunities to broadcasters, device manufacturers, as well as consumers," said Brandon Burgess, president of the Open Mobile Video Coalition and CEO of ION Media Networks.

The Open Mobile Video Coalition's goal is to bring mobile TV to American consumers, using digital transmission over broadcast TV facilities.

In addition to the Washington consumer showcase and the Atlanta and Seattle model stations, the Coalition said that 70 TV stations have signed on to deliver live television broadcasts in 28 markets by the end of 2009.

The OMVC further announced that Dell Inc. is joining the line-up of prototype devices from LG Electronics, Samsung Electronics and Kenwood USA, with its brand new netbook, the Inspiron Mini 10.

The consumer trial in the greater Washington, D.C. metro market will go live in late summer, permitting broadcasters to showcase and test programming, services and features of the new Mobile DTV technology.

The trial will help prepare broadcasters for the full commercial deployment of services scheduled for later this year.

Fox Television Stations' WDCA-DT, Gannett Broadcasting's WUSA-DT, ION Media Networks' WPXW-DT, NBC Universal's WRC-DT, PBS' WHUT-DT and MHz Networks, Sinclair Broadcast Group's operated WNUV-DT and National Datacast are initial participants.

The coalition anticipates adding more stations to the trial in the near term.

Prominent companies such as LG, Samsung, Harris and Rohde & Schwarz have all contributed to the technology's advancement by producing a highly efficient ecosystem for broadcasting to mobile and portable devices.

These companies strive to simplify the Mobile DTV infrastructure connection points, which include acquisition content processing, encoding, multiplexing, encapsulation, modulation, network adaptation and overall system management, thus delivering services that will meet or exceed the end-user's expectations.

Additionally, a range of prototype devices - navigation units, mobile phones, DTV-ready notebook computers, handheld digital TVs, aftermarket in-vehicle video players and MP3 players - incorporating Mobile DTV technology have been created by innovative consumer electronics makers like LG, Samsung, Kenwood, Visteon and now Dell.

In November 2008, the ATSC approved the Candidate Standard for Mobile DTV.

The Candidate Standard is the result of an intense development effort involving the Open Mobile Video Coalition and participants from all over the world and across television and mobile device industries.

The final steps in the ATSC standardization process for Mobile DTV are expected to be complete in mid-2009.

"Mobile DTV's benefits include crisp picture, high-speed mobility and a wealth of live, local and national programming at pedestrian and vehicular speeds," Mr. Burgess said.

The technology will simultaneously support many different services and business models, such as linear and interactive video, as well as free ad-supported and pay services.

With content from both traditional media and Web sources, these services will be part of the Mobile DTV experience, just as they are part of consumers' experience at home.

"Mobile DTV is an exciting new platform and growth opportunity for broadcasters," Mr. Burgess said.