LAS VEGAS -- On the eve of CES, which opens Thursday, broadcasters and TV makers began to lay out their plans for mobile DTV in 2011. The Open Mobile Video Coalition, which has been helping coordinate broadcasters’ technology efforts around mobile DTV admitted four manufacturer members, marking the first time it opened its doors formally to anyone other than TV broadcasters. Dell, Harris, LG Electronics and Samsung Mobile are the charter members of OMVC’s new Mobile DTV Forum, OMVC said. The move will allow broadcasters and device and equipment makers to work together more easily, said Anne Schelle, executive director of OMVC.
Low-power TV stations on channels 52-59 should have to move or stop operations by the end of 2011, if not sooner, AT&T and Verizon Wireless said in FCC comments filed separately. The agency is considering rules for managing the LPTV transition to digital broadcasting, a switch some operators of the stations said last week shouldn’t happen until the agency sets UHF spectrum policy (CD Dec 20 p5). “LPTV stations have been on notice for more than a decade that the 700 MHz band was being reallocated,” AT&T said. The commission’s proposed Dec. 31, 2011, deadline for those stations to stop operating on those channels will give them plenty of time to find other channels to relocate to, AT&T said.
Telford “Trey” Forgety, ex-Department of Homeland Security, becomes National Emergency Number Association’s director-government affairs … Ruth Pritchard-Kelly, ex-consultant and Swidler Berlin, becomes SES World Skies’ director-regulatory affairs … Richard Bates, Disney, joins Media Institute board … NPR hires Bob Kempf, ex-Boston.com, as vice president of Public Interactive, public-media app-services provider … Linzhen Xie, Peking University, joins UTStarcom board … SeaChange names Peter Feld, Ramius LLC, to board … Nickelodeon promotes Marc Epstein to vice president of new business for integrated marketing … Joseph Flaherty, CBS, named member emeritus, ATSC board.
Broadcasters can use transmission technology other than the government-mandated ATSC system, Sinclair told the FCC. An executive met with Office of Engineering and Technology Chief Julius Knapp and other officials from OET and the Media Bureau. The company said they discussed “perceived technical and regulatory constraints that inhibit innovation within the broadcast band, and the potential to develop ‘Generation 2’ digital broadcasting technologies, complimentary to existing broadcast technologies, that could expand the number, quality and usability of broadcasting services” in a way that won’t interfere with the existing broadcast service. They include HDTV, standard-definition TV and mobile DTV.
The bankruptcies of S-band licensees DBSD and TerreStar and potential FCC action opening the spectrum to increased terrestrial service could mean several S-band satellites will be for sale in coming years. Currently, the two companies have a total of three satellites. Each has one geosynchronous in-orbit satellite and TerreStar has another nearly completed satellite on the ground. While much depends on how the FCC decides to handle the spectrum, TerreStar’s grounded satellite is likely more valuable than the in-orbit ones, officials said. The FCC isn’t expected to decide on the 2 GHz band spectrum for at least a year (CD Oct 27 p9). ProtoStar, which auctioned its two in-orbit satellites to Intelsat and SES as part of its bankruptcy last year, was able to raise some $395 million for its satellites, though the satellites had much broader uses.
Low-power TV operators are fighting for their existence, Greg Herman, president of Spectrum Evolution, told other LPTV owners and advocates on a teleconference Friday. Herman, also president of LPTV operator WatchTV, is lobbying the FCC for flexibility in the use of LPTV spectrum by current licensees. The ATSC standard for TV broadcasting is “far from state-of-the-art and far from being the envy of the world,” Herman said. LPTV stations should be allowed to provide “exactly what people want with the best services that are available today,” and not be “shackled to a 20-year-old technology,” he said. Spectrum Evolution is developing talking points for LPTV owners to use at their local congressional offices during the holidays, said Amy Brown, its executive director. Spectrum Evolution was recently formed and Brown, Herman and other officials used to work for the Community Broadcasters Association of LPTV stations (CD Nov 2 p7) before it shuttered in 2009.
The FCC should approve TV white spaces rules that offer certainty and guarantee “assured access to adequate spectrum … on a long term basis” for the band to be commercially viable, the Communications Finance Association (CFA) said in an FCC filing. Numerous industry groups and companies trooped to the agency to make their final arguments on the order, before it was placed on the sunshine agenda Thursday night for the Sept. 23 meeting, cutting off further lobbying. Various parties made a total of more than 150 ex parte filings in 04-186, the main white spaces docket, last week alone.
Iberium Communications developed a Mobile DTV demodulator core based on the ATSC mobile/handheld standard, it said. It’s working with “interested parties on customization and silicon implementation of the core."
The Dominican Republic adopted the ATSC standard as its DTV technology and plans to switch to digital broadcasts in September 2015, the Advanced Television Systems Committee said.
The FCC should exempt all DTV receivers from an NTSC requirement so manufacturers can sell ATSC-only products that can’t get analog broadcasts, Elgato Systems said in a filing posted Thursday to docket 10-111. A Media Bureau order exempting all mobile DTV tuners from a requirement they get analog signals affirms (CD July 16 p6) an NTSC requirement that predated U.S. full-power stations’ digital transition and “granted only a very limited waiver,” the company said. It asked the commission to review and expand the bureau’s ruling to say NTSC tuner requirements of Section 15.117 of the agency’s rules don’t apply because of the analog cutoff. “The rule is no longer necessary to ensure that customers can receive all full-power local television stations and the rule does not mention analog stations” such as low-power ones, Elgato said. “Even if the Commission still believes the NTSC tuner requirement continues to serve the public interest, there is ample basis for waiving the rule for devices like Elgato’s computer peripheral DTV receivers. Elgato’s request for an expanded waiver was unopposed and would affect a relatively small number of devices and consumers.” Approving the company’s expanded waiver request, it said, “would be another step forward toward the final transition to digital broadcasting, discontinuance of analog broadcasting, and the clearing of valuable spectrum for wireless and other high-value uses."