Completing ATSC 3.0's Physical Layer ‘Critical’ for FCC Action, Richer Says

A/321 -- also known as ATSC 3.0's “bootstrap” component -- “is the essential core of the new ATSC 3.0 standard and serves as the universal entry point that allows all receiver devices to process and decode information,” Sinclair said. The A/321 document, which was approved by ATSC membership Wednesday after four weeks of balloting (see 1602240064) and was posted to the ATSC website Monday, describes “the system discovery and signaling architecture for the ATSC 3.0 physical layer,” ATSC said. “Broadcasters anticipate providing multiple wireless-based services, in addition to conventional broadcast television in the future,” it said. “Such services may be time-multiplexed together within a single RF channel. The bootstrap provides a universal entry point into a broadcast waveform.”

Richer expects ATSC at Technology Group 3 meetings this week in Arlington, Virginia, to authorize the ballot that would elevate the second component of ATSC 3.0's physical layer, A/322, to the status of proposed standard, he said. “So it’s not far behind” approval of A/321, he said. Richer can’t estimate when the third and final piece of the physical layer will be ready for ballot, he said. “That particular work is focused on a return link within the broadcast channel,” he said. “That work is mostly taking place with our colleagues in China, where they’re a little bit more interested in that kind of approach.” In all, ATSC remains “on track” to finish work by Q1 2017 on the nearly two dozen elements that will make up the “suite” of ATSC 3.0 standards, Richer said.

From a “technology standpoint,” approval of A/321 means ATSC 3.0 “will have flexibility in the future,” Richer said when asked about the impact of the milestone. That flexibility means ATSC 3.0 will be capable of being adapted to “applications and usages that maybe are not thought of today,” he said. “The physical layer specifies the transmission attributes of the next-gen system, he said. That “helps determine the spectrum usage, the interference issues, the channel assignments -- all the things the FCC has to deal with in terms of RF performance,” he said. “So getting the physical layer done is critical” to moving the regulatory process forward, he said. “It makes sense also from a systems engineering standpoint because the physical layer is the bottom layer that you build on.”

With A/321's approval as a backdrop, Richer hopes demonstrations at the NAB Show will “provide a clear vision of the technologies and capabilities of ATSC 3.0 and what it can mean to the long-term future and health of terrestrial broadcasting,” he said. The NAB Show's Broadcast Engineering Conference, where many ATSC 3.0 papers will be delivered, opens April 16, and show exhibits open two days later. “We hope that broadcasters and others will not just be excited from a technological standpoint, but really start to understand what the technologies and capabilities of ATSC 3.0 will mean to the business of broadcasting,” he said. The ATSC 3.0 Broadcast Pavilion, part of the NAB Show’s Futures Park in the Las Vegas Convention Center’s South Hall, will showcase broadcast equipment and “broadcast solutions, and how they fit together,” he said. The ATSC 3.0 Consumer Experience component at the upper-level entrance to South Hall will showcase possible ATSC 3.0 “consumer applications and products,” he said.

ATSC expects at least six companies to participate in the ATSC 3.0 Consumer Experience, “exhibiting all manners of ATSC 3.0 functionality,” ATSC spokesman Dave Arland said. Exhibits will range from those of “different audio systems to new types of gateway receivers,” including the emergency alerting capabilities of ATSC 3.0, interactive advertising and VOD, he said. “This whole area is designed to say, looking forward, once the standard is deployed, which is not too far away, what are some of the things that a consumer can expect, and also to show that it is coming very quickly, and it’s real.”

After considerable delay, work on ATSC 3.0's audio codec is “moving forward,” Richer said. “I expect at this week’s meeting a ballot that will be authorized to elevate the audio specifications to candidate standard,” he said Monday of the upcoming TG3 meetings in Arlington. “That is good progress,” he said. Audio “has taken a little longer than we had hoped,” he conceded. “Audio is always complex when there are competing technologies, so sorting all that out can be challenging.” With Dolby AC-4 and the MPEG-H consortium of Fraunhofer, Qualcomm and Technicolor vying to be named the ATSC 3.0 audio codec, Richer thinks “it’s likely there will be two systems documented as ATSC 3.0,” with the “recommendation that only one should be used in a given region,” such as in an individual country or continent, he said.

Richer’s “sense” among the ATSC membership is that there’s “strong consensus building in the industry” for the approach of seeking FCC authorization only of ATSC 3.0's physical layer, but leaving ATSC 3.0's other layers for industry to implement and figure out, he said. It’s “not likely” ATSC as a body would “petition” the FCC for that to happen, because outside of filing comments at the FCC, ATSC customarily has shunned taking on a regulatory role, Richer said. “We would let industry do that,” he said. “It’s industry as our members that would go to the FCC to ask for authorization” of the physical layer, he said. “Broadcasters and consumer electronics manufacturers, I expect to take the lead, and I’m quite optimistic it will be a unified approach. This will not be a controversial issue, I don’t believe.” Long term, “it’s better, we think, for the government and for industry to keep things simple, and be able to advance the technologies on an ongoing basis, without having to go to unnecessary regulatory discussions,” he said.