Broadcasters Offer Open Letter for Open Standards
Technology companies working on mobile broadcasting systems should submit their work to ATSC by Thursday, a group of broadcasters urged in an open letter. The Open Mobile Video Coalition, whose members include Fox, NBC, Tribune, Sinclair, Ion and others, is hoping to avoid another “AM Stereo debacle,” it said in the letter. “One of the major threats to the successful and timely introduction and adoption of new mobile video products and services is a marketplace ‘format war’ among incompatible approaches,” the group said. Timing is critical and the industry can’t afford to wait any longer to develop mobile video, it said: “Technologies that miss the deadlines of the ATSC process are unlikely to be looked upon favorably by Coalition members.” Initial responses to ATSC’s request for proposals (RFP) on developing a standard for mobile and handheld broadcasting within stations’ digital spectrum are due Thursday. Detailed proposals are due July 6.
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ATSC will probably receive “several” proposals this week, President Mark Richer said: “Some of the responses are likely to be for complete systems, and some will be for components of a system.” The RFP called for companies to submit complete systems. So far, Samsung and Rohde & Schwarz said they will submit the A-VSB system to ATSC. Harris and LG have been coy about plans for their Mobile Pedestrian Handheld technology, but we're told the group will likely participate as well. “I was assured they will,” said David Glenn, Ion engineering president. Other candidates may also participate, he said without elaborating.
Some of the plans submitted to ATSC this week will likely be placeholders and meet only the bare minimum requirements of the RFP, Glenn said. ATSC is not expecting much in the way of detail, Richer said: “It’s not a lot of deep technical information. It gives us an idea of what’s coming through the door.”
CEA also supports bringing more technologies through ATSC, though the group is largely staying on the sidelines for now, said Brian Markwalter, CEA s vice president for technology and standards. “Nobody ever controls what companies do, as we've seen with various format wars,” he said: “What’s nice in this case is that there is a venue to hash this out. There’s an alternative to simply having it out in the marketplace.”