With 72,000 attendees from 200 countries and more than 1,700 companies exhibiting, the Mobile World Congress is a big deal for the telecommunications industry - but also for broadcasters. The fact that end users care little about how their content reaches them and the growth of convergent technical solutions have blurred the boundaries between broadcast and broadband, fixed and mobile.

Bram Tullemans, who coordinates EBU projects on broadband delivery and TV platforms, has been in Barcelona for MWC this week. In addition to viewing the UHD-1 over DVB-T2 transmissions showcased by RTVE, the EBU and industry partners, he has been blogging about other interesting demos that caught his eye.

Come a little bit closer...

Is there any need to deliver content at ultra-high quality if the viewer is so far from the screen - or the screen is so small - that much of the detail is redundant? A demo from InterDigital shows how the bitrate can be varied seamlessly according to how close the viewer is to the display. more...

Mobile control of the TV

That your smartphone can be used as a remote control for the TV is not new. The question is more whether it represents an improvement to existing controls? Demos from LG (see photo above) and Samsung show how the user experience can be improved, whether with more responsive controls or a wider set of functions. more...

LTE adds value for events, but can it scale?

A trio of industry partners conducted successful tests of the "broadcast mode" of LTE at a recent NASCAR event in Texas - the results were on show in Barcelona this week. While the added value for those attending the event is clear, serious questions remain about whether the technology can scale to an extent that would make it a realistic alternative to standard broadcast techniques. more...