EPA doesn’t share CTA’s enthusiasm for a just-passed Senate measure that would rescind Energy Star’s third-party certification requirement for consumer tech manufacturers that are in good standing with the program for at least 18 months (see 1604210019), an agency official told us. S-2012, which cleared the Senate Wednesday by an 85-12 vote, gives EPA authority instead to require “that test data and other product information be submitted to facilitate product listing and performance verification for a sample of products,” the legislation says.
LAS VEGAS -- The "likely" ATSC decision to be announced later this year apportioning MPEG-H as the recommended ATSC 3.0 audio codec for Korea and Dolby AC-4 for the U.S. (see 1604180080) was “obviously” the result of a “compromise” brokered within ATSC to break the months-long impasse to choose between the two competing systems, Fraunhofer’s U.S. point man told us at the NAB Show. For Fraunhofer, one of the threesome of MPEG-H Alliance companies, with Qualcomm and Technicolor, that vied aggressively to be named ATSC 3.0 audio codec for North America and stands to lose that prize to AC-4, “I would say that the nature of compromise means that no one is ever completely satisfied,” said Robert Bleidt, division general manager-audio and multimedia at Fraunhofer USA Digital Media Technologies in San Jose.
LAS VEGAS -- DirecTV’s 4K coverage of Masters golf (see 1603090060) was an “independent production” of the “main” telecast that CBS beamed in 1080i, Robert Seidel, CBS vice president-engineering and advanced technology, told an NAB Show workshop Tuesday on the future of modern video technologies like Ultra HD, high frame rates and HDR and their impact on consumers.
LAS VEGAS -- Amazon is “continuing to invest” in its high-dynamic-range streaming-video capability, Michael Paull, Amazon vice president-digital video and the company’s point man on streaming video, told us Tuesday at the NAB Show’s Online Video Conference. “We took a leadership position in HDR, and we’re going to keep going,” Paull told us, in apparent reference to Amazon’s June announcement claiming it was the first “video service” to stream HDR when it debuted Mozart in the Jungle in HDR to Amazon Prime subscribers through a limited Samsung app partnership using an unspecified HDR format (see 1506240038).
LAS VEGAS -- Disney believes the studio’s animated content in high dynamic range “isn’t necessarily” enhanced by resolutions higher than 1080p, Cynthia Slavens, director of the Disney-owned Pixar Animation Studios, told us Saturday at the NAB Show’s Future of Cinema Conference. In animated HDR content, “for us, we are very content with a 1080 image,” Slavens said.
LAS VEGAS -- ATSC “likely” will recommend adoption of Dolby AC-4 as the ATSC 3.0 audio codec for the U.S. “and perhaps North America,” by year-end, ATSC President Mark Richer told us exclusively Monday at the opening of the ATSC 3.0 Consumer Experience exhibit at the NAB Show. Dolby Labs executives were at the exhibit to showcase AC-4's immersive audio qualities through an off-the-shelf soundbar mounted next to an LG Ultra HD TV. It was there that Mathias Bendull, Dolby vice president-broadcast consumer audio, told us ATSC would announce AC-4 as its recommended ATSC 3.0 audio codec for North America by the end of 2016.
LAS VEGAS -- ATSC “likely” will recommend adoption of Dolby AC-4 as the ATSC 3.0 audio codec for the U.S. “and perhaps North America,” by year-end, ATSC President Mark Richer told us exclusively Monday at the opening of the ATSC 3.0 Consumer Experience exhibit at the NAB Show. Dolby Labs executives were at the exhibit to showcase AC-4's immersive audio qualities through an off-the-shelf soundbar mounted next to an LG Ultra HD TV. It was there that Mathias Bendull, Dolby vice president-broadcast consumer audio, told us ATSC would announce AC-4 as its recommended ATSC 3.0 audio codec for North America by the end of 2016.
The MPEG-H audio alliance of Fraunhofer, Qualcomm and Technicolor is “pleased that MPEG-H likely will be the first new audio system put on the air by broadcasters, as it now is being built into TVs and professional equipment for Korean ATSC 3.0 broadcasts that will start in 2017.” So said an MPEG-H spokesman in an email hailing the inclusion of MPEG-H as one of two audio codecs -- with Dolby AC-4 -- in ATSC’s A/342 document now out for balloting among ATSC members. Once balloting is complete in early May, A/342 with its dual audio codecs would be elevated to the status of an ATSC 3.0 candidate standard (see 1603280043).
Automotive components supplier Bosch backs a “step-by-step approach” to development and deployment of autonomous vehicles, Ana Meuwissen, director-federal government affairs, told a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration public meeting Friday. NHTSA's meeting was to gather input for the development of operational guidelines on driverless cars the agency has said it hopes to release this summer (see 1601140051).
In ATSC 3.0, Sinclair plans in a hospitality suite at the NAB Show to go “beyond what we demonstrated at CES” (see 1603220032) and showcase “some very new business opportunities” using the next-gen broadcasting standard, Mark Aitken, Sinclair vice president-advanced technology, told us. The demonstrations at NAB will be “tied to very real entities” -- companies that Sinclair is partnering with to showcase ATSC 3.0's capabilities -- the names of which most people “will know off the bat,” but won’t “typically” associate with TV broadcasting, Aitken said, not giving specifics.