Both Honda Motor Co. Inc. and XM Satellite Radio today announced licenses for mobile data broadcasting technology from start-up Digital Fountain. Although the news is a relatively small blip on the wireless industry’s radar, the potential of such deals is far reaching.
Digital Fountain declined to discuss the details of its agreement with XM, and XM did not return requests for comment. However, Digital Fountain’s technology supports the transmission of digital information to mobile receivers and potentially could form the basis of a TiVo-style service for radio listeners. The technology even could support on-demand wireless audio and video broadcasts.
And although Digital Fountain’s deal with XM likely involves a satellite network, the company’s technology works over any packet-data technology-including wireless 2.5- and third-generation systems.
“There is now interest in supplementing the 3G network with a broadcast network service,” said Charlie Oppenheimer, Digital Fountain’s chief executive officer.
Oppenheimer said Digital Fountain is the Dolby for the communications industry. Whereas Dolby technology improves sound quality, Oppenheimer said Digital Fountain technology improves data broadcasting. The company boasts that its broadcasting technology is almost nine times more effective than standard broadcasting methods, a key factor in network environments where bandwidth is scarce and connections tenuous.
“The more challenging the network scenario, the more valuable we are,” Oppenheimer said.
And the applications for such technology are impressive. Oppenheimer said Digital Fountain’s offering could allow motorists to digitally record radio programs and play them later. Automotive companies also could update global positioning system navigation systems remotely in vehicles. Media companies could broadcast cartoons and videos to motorists’ backseat TVs. Such broadcasts could be transmitted over wide-area networks including satellite, cellular and FM subcarrier systems.
“This is a great way to recover unused data traffic,” Oppenheimer said.
Oppenheimer said standard broadcasting methods would be impractical for transmitting information to mobile objects like automobiles and wireless phones. Such receivers regularly pass in and out of coverage areas, which can disrupt the flow of data. Thus, broadcasters would have to resend the data continually, and receivers would have to repeatedly rearrange what they obtain until they could make complete files.
“We completely change the reception model,” Oppenheimer said.
Digital Fountain’s technology essentially modifies a data transmission into a series of mathematical equations called meta-packets. The meta-packets are broadcast continuously to receivers, such as wireless phones and automobiles, and the receivers only need collect the same number of meta-packets as are present in the original transmission. For example, a transmission of 100 data packets would be modified into billions of unique meta-packets, and then a receiver only would have to collect 100 of the meta-packets to recreate the original 100-packet transmission. Thus, lost packets won’t cause problems, and receivers can collect the information on different schedules. Oppenheimer said the system works like a fountain, and receivers must only fill up with enough water-rather than with specific drops of water at specific times.
“You dramatically reduce the amount of time it takes to broadcast to everyone,” he said. “All you have to do is listen for long enough.”
Oppenheimer said the system requires specialized decoding software on both the receiver and transmitter. He said the system does not support a method to guarantee the receipt of a message, so broadcasters must transmit the message for hours or days until they can be sure that most receivers have had enough time to collect the full message.
Founded in 1998, Digital Fountain counts 14 employees and total venture funding of $55 million. The company started business by selling computer products to businesses to support data transport, but during the past year decided to focus solely on technology licensing. The company refined its technology through video-on-demand services in Japan, where set-top box companies use Digital Fountain technology to deliver movies over the Internet. Now the company is entering into the mobile broadcasting space and counts XM and Honda as licensees.
Oppenheimer said the company is in discussions with various wireless carriers in Asia for wireless broadcasting products. He said the company is first focusing on satellite networks in the United States.
Interestingly, the U.S. military also uses Digital Fountain’s technology for mobile broadcasting. Troops can receive battlefield information, and airborne drones can send pictures and intelligence. Indeed, Oppenheimer said Digital Fountain’s technology played a role in the rescue of captured soldier Jessica Lynch last year, as commandos received broadcasts of maps and information on her location.
“It speaks well to the types of applications for our technology,” he said.
