Sony landed a U.S. patent Tuesday for a “method and apparatus for transmitting a-priori information in a communication system,” Patent and Trademark Office records show. A-priori information is that which is based on scientific deduction rather than observed, empirical data. The patent (9,326,295) is based on a December 2014 application and lists as its inventor Luke Fay, senior staff engineer at Sony Electronics in San Diego. Fay is chairman of ATSC’s S-32 specialist group that framed ATSC 3.0's physical layer, which is now before the FCC as an authorization petition (see 1604130065). Fay also is vice chairman of ATSC’s Technology Group 3, which is supervising development of the overall ATSC 3.0 standard. “During the last decade, terrestrial broadcasting has evolved from analog to digital,” Fay’s patent says. “There exist several wideband digital communication techniques depending on a broadcasting standard used,” including OFDM, which is “a method of encoding digital data on multiple carrier frequencies and is used in applications such as digital television and audio broadcasting, DSL Internet access, wireless networks, power line networks, and 4G mobile communications,” the patent says. Though the patent doesn’t say so, OFDM is the modulation system used in ATSC 3.0 and has been used for years by Europe’s DVB consortium. “Current digital broadcasting systems use fixed knowledge of a channel bandwidth at a receiver,” the patent says. “In addition to the specific information about the communications technology used, the receiver needs the channel bandwidth or a sampling frequency to demodulate received signals. Due to technical advancements, the channel bandwidth and the sampling frequency may change over the years. As recognized by the present inventor, there is a need to facilitate changes in channel bandwidth and/or sampling frequency.”
The FCC Media Bureau as expected issued a public notice Tuesday seeking comment on the multi-industry petition for authorization of the physical layer of ATSC 3.0 (see 1604200051). The petition asks the FCC to approve ATSC 3.0 as an “optional standard” for broadcasting and approve rule changes to allow simulcasting during the deployment of ATSC 3.0. Broadcasters told us at the NAB Show that the commission's seeking swift comment on the petition is a positive sign but not a guarantee of further FCC action. Comments are due May 26, replies June 27, said the Tuesday notice in Docket 16-142.
The FCC Media Bureau has put together a draft order that would let the National Cable TV Cooperative (NCTC) file complaints, American Cable Association President Matt Polka told us Monday as the FCC hosted the second of two workshops on the state of the video market. ACA had sought such an order (see 1507020018) to help small multichannel video programming distributors gain some leverage in negotiations with major programmers. The workshops, plus the FCC's now-closed notice of inquiry into the challenges for independent and diverse programmers, could help push the agency on such issues before it as a buying group rule change and its current NPRM looking at changes to retransmission consent rules, Polka said. The FCC didn't comment.
LAS VEGAS -- ATSC 3.0 may have been the belle of the ball at the NAB Show (see 1604200051), but some large broadcasters and networks, most notably CBS, had reservations about the new standard and NAB's support of a petition for FCC authorization of ATSC 3.0's physical layer (see 1604130065), broadcasters, attorneys and other industry officials said in interviews last week. Those misgivings are believed to stem from the uncertainty of the undertaking, the expense and its possible effects on the network/affiliate dynamic, they said. They are part of the reasoning behind ATSC 3.0's voluntary transition plan, they said.
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 -- ATSC 3.0 will be put out for comment before the end of the month, and incentive auction watchers “should expect” that it could take multiple auction stages to complete the auction, said FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler during Q&A at the NAB Show Wednesday. Broadcasters and broadcast attorneys watching the speech called Wheeler's remarks on the new standard (see 1604180058) encouraging. Attendees interpreted his comments on the auction many different ways, from being a signal that a high clearing target is likely, to a warning to manage expectations. “This is not a one and done activity,” Wheeler said of the auction. "We will do it again and again for as long as it takes for the market to work."
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 -- NAB doesn't expect opposition at the FCC to the joint petition for approval of the ATSC 3.0 next-generation broadcasting standard, NAB CEO Gordon Smith told us at the NAB Show after his keynote Monday. "We have no reason to believe they are opposed in any way." The FCC "has a choice before it," Smith said during the speech, praising the standard's voluntary transition plan. "It is our job as your association to make sure you have choices for the future," Smith told the NAB Show crowd. "It is not our job to make those choices."
Pilot, formerly NAB Labs, will use the NAB Show to demo the industry's first prototype ATSC 3.0 receiver and “home gateway” that showcases the “breadth” of HTML-5-based “interactive environment” functionality enabled by the ATSC 3.0 standard, NAB said in a Friday announcement. The home gateway Pilot will demonstrate in Las Vegas this week combines an over-the-air TV tuner with Internet access, Wi-Fi connectivity and a “software environment that enables new types of user engagement,” it said. For the demo, among other content, Fox Sports will provide interactive “multi-view” programming clips, and Akamai will contribute “on-demand” content that’s “pre-loaded and stored for instant gateway access,” it said. Pilot itself will fashion a dedicated channel featuring the NHL’s Washington Capitals “that showcases zoned and targeted advertising as well as advanced emergency alerting capabilities,” it said. The NAB Show demonstration represents “early and important work that begins to show the promise” of ATSC 3.0, NAB Chief Technology Officer Sam Matheny said in a statement. “We’d like to get to a place where we can share our prototype and SDK with other developers and content providers to build out additional and even more compelling use cases,” he said of Pilot’s software development kit. “I hope you’ll see something like that happen as we proceed.”