Capitol Broadcasting’s WRAL-TV Raleigh, N.C., will demonstrate a mobile Emergency Alert System using the ATSC mobile DTV standard. Watch the demo here Thursday at 6 p.m. EDT: http://www.wral.com/11477194.
SAN FRANCISCO -- A review of the first wireless mobile DTV service affiliated with the Dyle group of TV stations found it was easy to set up the Samsung phone getting MetroPCS service, though there were some reception issues. The prepaid carrier Friday began selling the new Samsung smartphone, the first on the market equipped with a mobile DTV receiver capable of picking up TV station signals using the Advanced Television Systems Committee M/H standard (CD Aug 6 p17). A handful of stations in major U.S. markets are broadcasting in that format and Communications Daily purchased a phone Friday to test the service around the San Francisco-Oakland market.
The Advanced TV Systems Committee approved a new delivery standard for “non-real-time” content, it said Tuesday. The delivery of non-real-time services via the backward-compatible “A/103” standard “will now allow broadcasters to deliver file-based content, including programs and clips, information for emergency alerts and even commercial applications such as digital signage,” the ATSC said. The standard supports terrestrial transmission to fixed and mobile DTV receivers that are outfitted with “the new flexibility,” it said. The standard “gives broadcasters the capability to deliver all types of file-based content to consumers,” President Mark Richer said. “Using broadcast television, programmers will be able to send content that a viewer may watch at their convenience."
Forthcoming standards from two industry groups will more closely integrate the Internet, mobile devices and other consumer electronics with broadcast TV, executives from the Advanced Television Systems Committee and Motion Picture Experts Group predicted at the ATSC’s annual meeting. Work at the ATSC is under way on its 2.0 standard, which is backward-compatible with the existing TV standard, ATSC President Mark Richer said Tuesday. ATSC 2.0 has better video compression, and new features allow for audience measurement, digital rights management and “advanced” electronic program guides, he said. MPEG Chairman Leonardo Chiariglione summarized his group’s ongoing work (CD April 30 p12) on a variety of standards for any industry to use, including broadcasters.
Media Bureau Chief Bill Lake predicted a “healthy” broadcast industry after the voluntary incentive auction the FCC plans to hold of TV frequencies and repacking of their channels. “We expect a healthy broadcast industry to emerge from the auction and the subsequent repack -- I expect healthier than it is today,” he said Wednesday in a speech that summarized his and FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski’s remarks on spectrum to the NAB Show last week (CD April 18 p4). “The incentive auction is not for everyone,” Lake told a Media Institute luncheon, since many stations will want to keep serving viewers and see an exciting future for the industry.
Thirteen international broadcasting groups started the future of broadcast TV initiative at the NAB Show in Las Vegas, member European Broadcasting Union (EBU) said Thursday. “Participants want to facilitate the evolution of broadcasting technology to ensure its long term viability and relevance.” As in the U.S., where broadcasters have said terrestrial TV complements wireless service but won’t be replaced by it, the initiative is stressing the import of both technologies. “Neither technology alone will be able to meet future demand for wireless media,” EBU Director Lieven Vermaele said. Goals include developing standards for next-generation terrestrial broadcast systems that are “maximizing the efficient use of spectrum” and standardization of technologies such as DVB, ATSC and ARIB, EBU said (http://xrl.us/bm4hj4).
The conclusion of the mobile emergency alert system broadcast pilot project “sets the stage for the standardization by the Advanced Television Systems Committee and evaluation” by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said PBS, the Mobile 500 Alliance, LG and other supporters of the project. The project was run by PBS, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and LG (CD June 6 p11). In addition to public broadcasters, M-EAS is receiving widespread interest from commercial broadcasters, garnering support from the NAB Labs, the Mobile Content Venture and the Open Mobile Video Coalition, the supporters said. They said the project demonstrates the system’s capabilities for delivering multimedia alerts to mobile DTV-equipped cellphones, laptops, and other devices “to avoid the potential roadblocks of chronic congestion of cellular systems during emergencies.” LG demonstrated its prototype mobile phone this week at the NAB show, the company said.
LAS VEGAS -- The next-gen ATSC 3.0 over-the-air broadcast standard under development at the Advanced TV Systems Committee for terrestrial ultra-high-definition TV (UHDTV) delivery won’t be backward-compatible with existing ATSC or the coming ATSC 2.0 standards, said Jim Kutzner, senior director of advanced technology at PBS. The standard will represent a “major fundamental technology shift” from the current system, he said Sunday at the NAB Show’s Broadcast Engineering Conference. Still, ATSC 3.0 is needed to “keep broadcast television relevant” amid growing competition from other content-delivery players, Kutzner said.
Interests of cable operators and the Big Four broadcast TV networks aligned in what some called a rarity late last week. The owners of the ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC networks backed encryption of cable’s basic programming tier (CD March 2 p4) that includes signals of their affiliates by all-digital cable systems. It’s the first time cable programmers have directly weighed in on an FCC rulemaking proposing to let operators scramble basic channels to cut down on signal theft of unencrypted signals and let companies turn on and off service without technician visits to subscribers. The most vociferous consumer electronics manufacturer against encryption continued to oppose it: Boxee said broadcasters added no new reasons for the commission to act.
Operators should have an encryption “transition plan,” said a maker of consumer electronics connecting to cable systems through unencrypted clear QAM. Hauppauge Computer Works said the plan will “minimize consumer costs, minimize power consumption” and let CE companies “continue to sell ATSC and clear QAM TV products.” But the company still believes encrypting the basic-programming tier would cause “harm to the environment,” said an FCC filing from CEO Ken Plotkin posted Monday in docket 11-169 (http://xrl.us/bmw9bz). The Media Bureau is working on an order to OK scrambling channels, with some consumers to get free set-top boxes and other CE gear (CD March 2 p2) and Hauppauge among the CE companies pushing for operators to use radio-frequency traps so clear QAM works in all-digital systems. The first transition step is for the companies to “alert their customers” of the elimination of clear QAM, and then subscribers should get a digital-to-digital (DTD) converter box, Hauppauge said. “Cable operators should provide, upon request, to any customer who subscribes to any level of cable TV service, up to two ‘free of charge’ DTD boxes” and the devices shouldn’t downconvert programming, the company said. “Support the S3 power down mode, to cut power consumption to close to 0 when the DTD box is not being used. Though not as energy efficient as clear QAM cable TV (which requires no power), S3 mode brings the power consumed by the DTD box to as low a level as possible."