Mobile & Wireless

Dilithium Crystallises its 3G Video Message

Vendor Outlines Multimedia Proposition

by Ken Wieland

Dilithium Networks may have taken its name from the fabled Dilithium Crystals that propel the Star Trek Enterprise to warp drive, but that was no guarantee it would move fast in its chosen specialist area -- 3G video transmission. Yet, according to feedback from its mobile operators customers (parts of which it has released this week to flesh out its 3G multimedia value proposition to the media) -- the company would appear to be at least picking up speed.

“Mobile operators are getting a 6-9 months ROI payback time using our multimedia gateway,” says Mitch Lewis, Dilithium’s vice president for marketing and product management, adding that the company now has 125 ‘major accounts’ in 50 countries. “We have a good lead over our competitors,” continues Lewis. “This year, we think that half of all video calls [over mobile networks] worldwide will go over one of our products.”

This is not bad progress for a company that was incorporated in 2001. And pushing Dilithium forward is its flagship product, the DTG2000 multimedia gateway (compliant with 324M standard ratified by 3GPP for delivering video over mobile networks). Integrated with the mobile operator’s MSC, the DTG2000 has what Lewis calls ‘unique capabilities’ that enable it to improve the end-user’s mobile video experience and to generate greater cost-efficiencies for the mobile operator itself.

These functions are ‘unicoding’, AnswerFast Plus and Video Refresh. Unicoding is designed to tackle delays and poor quality of service that can happen when ‘traditional coding’ methods are used when connecting one device with another to deliver video services over different networks and protocols. With tandem video transcoding (the traditional way), delays are introduced due to the presence of intermediary protocols to translate one codec into another. Dilithium’s patented ‘unicoding’ method is direct and so reduces the power needed and increases the capacity. In fact, Dilithium claims that its gateway can use up to 60 per cent less energy and floor space compared with gateways using transcoding.

The AnswerFast Plus function is capable of setting up a video call in less than one second compared with over five seconds, and sometimes as much as 12 seconds in conventional networks, says Lewis. With Video Refresh, Dilithium claims that it can also prevent corruption of video streaming sessions. Taking these two attributes together, Dilithium goes on to claim that mobile operators using its kit can experience up to 25 per cent less churn than those operators who don’t. Moreover, due to longer video calls (due to better quality) Dilithium says that mobile operators can increase ‘advanced service revenue’ by up to 30 per cent.

While Lewis argues that the technology barriers to mobile video are coming down, he still feels that video calling tariffs have been ‘running too high’ in Europe with charges of up to US$1.00 per minute.

The M2M Switch - turning the wireless business model upside down -- September 1, 2010

Vivendi raises 2010 goals after strong first-half results -- September 1, 2010

FCC cuts off free nationwide broadband potential indefinitely -- September 1, 2010

Shipments of Bluetooth, NFC, UWB, 802.15.4 and Wi-Fi ICs will increase 20% in 2010 -- September 1, 2010

3PAR claims widespread uptake for VMware 'vSphere' service -- August 31, 2010

Related articles:

The M2M Switch - turning the wireless business model upside down -- September 1, 2010
While global telecom operators, systems integrators, and enterprises wrestle with Machine-to-Machine, they may struggle to contain a tide that has only just begun to rise. The power of supply chain automation, ubiquitous connectivity, and pervasive computing are so strong, we may already have traversed a threshold into a radically new paradigm in the communications industry, one in which waves of innovation, new economies of scale, and sheer business logic will prevail. While no crystal ball can show us the future of network evolution, we can revisit milestones of technological progress and shed light on the path ahead.

Vivendi raises 2010 goals after strong first-half results -- September 1, 2010
Europe's largest telecom and entertainment group, Vivendi, raised its profit targets on the back of forecast-beating first-half results and reassured investors on its acquisition strategy, lifting its flagging stock.

Shipments of Bluetooth, NFC, UWB, 802.15.4 and Wi-Fi ICs will increase 20% in 2010 -- September 1, 2010
The market for short range wireless ICs is forecast to expand this year; total shipments of Bluetooth, NFC, UWB, 802.15.4 and Wi-Fi ICs will increase approximately 20% compared to 2009. “Bluetooth ICs still lead the short-range wireless IC market,” says ABI Research industry analyst Celia Bo. “Unit shipments are expected to exceed 58% of the total short-range wireless IC shipments in 2010.

3PAR claims widespread uptake for VMware 'vSphere' service -- August 31, 2010
Today at VMworld 2010, 3PAR announced that cloud computing market leaders in the Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) segments have combined the 3PAR InServ Storage Server with VMware vSphere to build cloud infrastructures for their shared, virtualized "utility" service offerings.

Keep up with the latest in Machine-to-Machine Communications:

Read M2M Newsdesk
News, research, show coverage and more, covering the M2M industry.

Visit the M2M Zone
M2M Zone Seminars offer the latest information, directly from industry leaders and experts. The M2M Zone is a fixture at top-shelf trade shows including CeBIT and CTIA Wireless. Learn more about what the M2M Zone offers.

©2010 Telecommunications Online & Horizon House Publications®.

All rights reserved. Privacy Policy.