SBS-LG Collaboration on ATSC 3.0 Typifies Koreans' Preparation To Beam 2018 Winter Olympics in 4K
The announcement Monday that Korean terrestrial broadcaster SBS teamed with LG to conduct Korea’s first “test transmission” this month of ATSC 3.0 typifies the preparations Korean broadcasters have said would take place as a prelude to beaming the February 2018 Winter Olympics live in 4K from within Pyeongchang, South Korea (see 1310020035). LG also has collaborated closely in the past with SBS, including when the companies teamed at the 2010 NAB Show to hold the first public demonstrations of ATSC 2.0-compatible broadcasts and reception (see 1004150102).
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As for the ATSC 3.0 trials, SBS and LG “successfully demonstrated transmission and reception of 4K UHD and HD mobile signals simultaneously in a single 6-MHz channel,” the companies said in the announcement. “LG also demonstrated capability to receive HD mobile signals in a fast-moving vehicle using the robust technology” that is expected to form part of ATSC 3.0's physical layer, it said.
Balloting began early September on the “main elements” that will compose ATSC 3.0's physical transmission system, the ATSC has said (see 1509030001). If approved, as expected, those elements will be elevated in October to the status of a candidate standard, it has said. That is significant because within a month, ATSC will have a complete physical layer that manufacturers can start building to, with the expectation that perhaps as early as the January CES, the industry will have prototype physical devices for ATSC 3.0's transmission system available to the market.
The Korean field trials follow field tests conducted in Madison, Wisconsin, and Cleveland by LG, Zenith and GatesAir in support of their Futurecast proposal for ATSC 3.0, the Monday announcement said, without referring to Futurecast by name. Their innovations “are expected to be used in the majority” of the baseline physical layer transmission system, the announcement said.
Many of the elements in Futurecast’s physical layer are expected to be included in the ATSC 3.0 physical layer candidate standard, Zenith executive Wayne Luplow said at the Cleveland field trials in July (see 1507130007). Zenith was comfortable making those statements because of the 16 “blocks” that will comprise ATSC 3.0's physical layer, LG and Futurecast have at least some involvement in at least 10 of those blocks, he said.