ATSC Needs to Be 'Laser-Focused' on 3.0's Commercial US Success, Says New Chief
Now that the suite of ATSC 3.0 standards is complete, “our goal is not to stand still, but to march thoughtfully and deliberately into the future,” ATSC President Madeleine Noland told the Next-Gen TV Conference Thursday. In her maiden policy speech before the group since taking over May 15, Noland said ATSC “in the near term” needs to be “laser-focused on the successful commercial deployment of ATSC 3.0 in the U.S.”
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“We can make all the long-term plans we want,” said Noland. But if ATSC can’t achieve the goal of U.S. commercial success, all its planning for the future would be for naught, she said. “So this is the most important thing right now.”
Standards organizations like ATSC need to “focus on the present, but simultaneously, we also need to lay the groundwork for our future,” said Noland. Leadership under now-retired President Mark Richer “had the foresight to begin work on ATSC 3.0 almost 10 years ago,” she said. “That incredible vision has given us the opportunity today to launch new technology that we hope will give us a strong future for years to come.”
ATSC’s task “to that end” will be to explore “a number of avenues for preparing for our future,” said Noland. Step one is to “continue to facilitate” usage of all of 3.0's features, she said. “In the beginning, we may have some basic features and some really cool things for consumers.” Since 3.0 is a “huge” suite of standards, “there’s all sorts of things we can do with this,” said Noland. ATSC wants to “work hard to make sure that people can implement those things,” she said. “That might include relying on upstream and downstream partners and ecosystems.”
One avenue will be to “consider new sectors for our data pipe, such as automotive,” said Noland. Planning Team 5 is “laying the groundwork for expanding into the automotive and the connected car sector,” said Noland. “The response from automakers has been extremely positive. PT5 is working to continue to develop this opportunity, including positioning any auto-specific requirements back into the standards development process. Do we have the security they require? We think so, but we need to make sure.”
ATSC needs to think “about the fact that we live in a world that includes global IP delivery networks, such as 4G, 5G and over-the-top streaming,” said Noland. “We believe that these can be complementary standards and activities with ATSC 3.0.”
New “interface technologies” may be needed to serve as the “technical glue” that enables broadcasters to “efficiently integrate with these systems,” said Noland. “There has been discussion of seamless switching between, perhaps, a 3GPP [3rd Generation Partnership Project] network and an ATSC 3.0 network.”
Imagine, asked Noland, if a routine phone call were fashioned that “seamlessly switches from your home Wi-Fi to the cellular network. How did that happen? What were the interfaces between those two delivery networks that allowed that to be synchronized? These are the kinds of things ATSC will explore.”
Though the organization has a “long and bright future” ahead of it, “we must also balance the evolution of the ATSC 3.0 system with the stability needed for successful implementation every step of the way,” said Noland. The 3.0 standards suite needs to “evolve,” but it “can’t be a completely changing thing all the time,” she said.
ATSC is working to "define" a process “for evolving the standard as market trends change, while providing the necessary stability for product development and implementation in the marketplace,” said Noland. “Think about it as establishing a rhythm for incorporating revisions, which allows the standard to evolve in response to market forces, but maintaining that stability that’s needed. That work is in process, and hopefully nearly done, and we hope it provides flexibility and stability at the same time. It’s an interesting balance to strike.”