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.
Sinclair formed a subsidiary, One Media 3.0, to develop “business opportunities, products and services” for the ATSC 3.0 platform, the company said in a Thursday announcement. The subsidiary’s initial priorities will include building out a “national footprint” of local ATSC 3.0 single frequency networks (SFNs) to foster “virtualized coast-to-coast data services,” Sinclair said. “The optimization and development of shared facilities will foster quick, affordable adoption and implementation strategies by broadcasters,” it said. Sinclair launched the first-ever ATSC 3.0-based SFN last month in Baltimore and Washington under special temporary authority from the FCC, saying then that it expects the Baltimore-Washington SFN will be the first of “hundreds” it and other broadcasters will roll out in adopting ATSC 3.0 (see 1603220032).The subsidiary also will design, develop and deploy “a coordinated, intelligent network infrastructure” that will connect markets nationally, using ATSC 3.0's Internet protocol backbone, it said. A third priority will be buildout of “an integrated system” to collect and measure “viewer analytics and user habits on Next Gen enabled devices that will allow broadcasters to develop personalized content,” it said. Sinclair’s launching of One Media 3.0 “signals that we are ready to take the next steps to build the operating infrastructure and network necessary for the television broadcast industry to launch business models, compete on a level playing field, and bring new and exciting products to the consumer,” CEO David Smith said.
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).
The FCC is considered likely to grant a petition from broadcasters and tech companies to authorize the physical layer of the next generation ATSC 3.0 broadcast standard (see 1404090027), broadcast attorneys told us Wednesday and Thursday. The gradual, industry-driven transition plan is seen as asking relatively little from the commission, and shouldn't be “a heavy lift,” a broadcast lawyer said. That is in keeping with recent forecasts from ATSC President Mark Richer that broadcasters and tech companies would "take the lead" at the FCC in "a unified approach" that won't be "controversial" (see 1603280043).
Trade groups representing broadcasters, tech companies and others jointly filed a petition for rulemaking Wednesday asking the FCC to allow broadcasters to begin using the new ATSC 3.0 broadcast standard. “This enhanced digital IP-based standard will create the bedrock for continuing innovation by the television industry for decades to come,” said the petition filed by America's Public Television Stations (APTS), CTA, NAB and a group of broadcasters and electronics companies called the Advanced Warning and Response Network (AWARN) Alliance, which was officially formed Tuesday (see 1604120069).
Broadcasting groups focused on transitioning to the ATSC 3.0 standard joined with consumer electronics companies to form a group focused on using the new standard for advanced emergency alerting. Called the AWARN Alliance after the proposed Advanced Warning and Response Network, the new entity will support “rapid deployment” of the AWARN system, which can deliver “rich media” such as graphics or video containing emergency information to consumer devices, the group said in a Tuesday announcement. The alliance includes ATSC advocates Pearl TV; Pilot, the former NAB Labs; LG Electronics and Sinclair. The AWARN Alliance will officially launch at the 2016 NAB Show, the group said. The group said it will be headed by John Lawson, formerly of America’s Public Television Stations and an architect of AWARN.
The incentive auction and ensuing repacking are expected to dominate next week's NAB Show, but the auction's seeming-inevitability and strict anti-collusion rules will likely change the tone of those conversations, compared with past years, said industry representatives in recent interviews. Broadcasters who attend the convention with the incentive auction technically in progress are likely to be mostly those planning to continue broadcasting, a lawyer noted. That makes attendees more likely to be focused on post-auction strategizing and equipment and resources conducive to a smooth repacking, the attorney said.
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.
ATSC 3.0, based as it is on Internet protocol, “will enable new business models, giving broadcasters a competitive edge that they haven’t had since leading the HDTV revolution 15 years ago,” ATSC President Mark Richer said Monday in his President's Memo in the April issue of ATSC’s monthly newsletter, The Standard. “But fully exploiting the benefits of next-generation television will require bold plans,” Richer said. “As they sharpen those bold strategies, it’s important for senior broadcasting executives to understand that the major elements of the ATSC 3.0 suite of standards are essentially completed.” At this month’s NAB Show, broadcasting executives who have been hearing about ATSC 3.0 from their chief engineers for a while now “will see first-hand the amazing possibilities enabled by next-gen broadcasting,” he said. In particular, the ATSC 3.0 Consumer Experience exhibit that ATSC is sponsoring with CTA and NAB will showcase “how to monetize next-gen broadcasting with targeted ad insertion, how to enhance their viewers’ experience with high-dynamic range programming (even with 2K broadcasting), how to reach more consumers during emergencies with advanced emergency alerting, and more,” he said. Meanwhile, the theme for the ATSC’s annual Broadcast TV Conference May 11 in Washington is “Countdown to Launch,” to reflect “where things stand on the ATSC 3.0 standard, the spectrum auction and repack plan,” Richer said. For 2016, he said, ATSC also has restructured its ATSC 3.0 Boot Camp conference May 10 and instead will host a daylong “implementation tutorial” titled "Ready-Set-Go! Planning Your ATSC 3.0 Rollout."
ATSC’s Technology Group 3 at meetings last week in Arlington, Virginia, voted 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, ATSC President Mark Richer emailed us Friday through a spokesman. A/322 is one of two ingredients of ATSC 3.0's physical layer that remain to be elevated to final standards now that the A/321 document on system discovery and signaling architecture for the physical layer has cleared ATSC membership balloting as a full standard (see 1603280043). The A/322 candidate standard document describes the RF transmission system of a “physical layer waveform,” said a description accompanying the actual document, now posted at the ATSC website. “This waveform enables flexible configurations of physical layer resources to target a variety of operating modes. The intent is to signal the applied technologies and allow for future technology adaptation.” TG3 also voted to authorize the ballot to elevate A/342 to the status of candidate standard for ATSC 3.0 audio, Richer said. Assuming the balloting approves A/342 in about five weeks’ time, that document will be posted as a candidate standard on the ATSC website, Richer said. 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 has said.