DLA Piper hires from KPMG Ronald Plesco as partner, Intellectual Property and Technology practice ... With Public Media Venture Group working with Convergence Services Inc. on ATSC 3.0 for PMVG’s noncommercial stations, CSI President John Lawson named adviser, PMVG; he's also executive director, Advanced Warning and Response Network Alliance ... Federal Acquisition Service Deputy Commissioner and Director-Technology Transformation Services Anil Cheriyan "returning to the private sector for a new career opportunity," General Services Administration says.
Four Utah stations went live with ATSC 3.0 broadcasts, Sinclair announced Wednesday. Sinclair owns KUTV Salt Lake City and KJZZ-TV Salt Lake City; Nexstar owns KTVX Salt Lake City and KUCW Ogden. The stations join other recent 3.0 ones in Las Vegas, Pittsburgh and Nashville.
Borrowing a model-year approach from the automotive world, Vizio announced a 2021 lineup Tuesday, which “shipped a little bit late,” a spokesperson told us. The sets don’t support ATSC 3.0; the company is "always evaluating new technologies like ATSC 3.0 that might bring value to our customers,” he said, and has no immediate announcements on support. There's much other tech, however, in the products. Vizio is launching its first OLED TVs this fall, it said, along with a matched sound bar with adaptive height speakers that automatically rotate up when Atmos or DTS:X content is detected, said Chief Technology Officer Bill Baxter. It has Bluetooth and a voice assistant input. The company is pushing advanced features for gamers to coincide with releases of the latest PlayStation and Xbox game systems. Vizio’s ProGaming engine has a variable refresh rate and syncs a game's changing frame rate and the TV's refresh rate, said Philip Kim, associate product marketing manager on a call last week. The engine's faster response time and lower input lag let users respond more precisely, he said. Carlos Angulo, director-product marketing, called its HDR10+ strategy part of ensuring consumers don’t have to “degrade their viewing experience because they don’t have a particular format,” just like the company does with voice assistants. Faster processor performance improves the new lineup’s SmartCast streaming platform experience, said Amanda Cross, senior manager-product marketing. Users can navigate more quickly between apps and scroll faster to discover new content, she said. A recent software performance boost is backward compatible and available for all SmartCast TVs back to 2016. SmartCast users can control their TVs with a smartphone app and by voice using Alexa, Google Assistant and Siri, said Cross. Apple AirPlay 2 and Chromecast built-in users can stream entertainment from a phone, tablet or laptop to the TV.
Entities seeking FCC approval for rule changes on FM translators and boosters disagree whether their proposals are related, in dueling emailed statements from GeoBroadcast Solutions and Broadcasters for Limited Program Origination. The broadcast group’s petition (see 2006240061) to originate programming on FM translators is “fundamentally different” from GBS’ petition (see 2006040024) that would allow stations to localize programming with synchronized boosters and isn’t “driven by technology innovation,” the company said. The broadcaster group disagrees the requests are so different, and said GBS is overselling the complexity of its tech. GBS’ comparison of its tech to ATSC 3.0 “displays a troublesome chutzpa,” said the broadcaster group. The broadcasters said the FCC should act on their proposal at the same time as the GBS one, while GBS sought to distance itself from the translator origination proposal. “Each offering must stand on its own for its merit and market potential, and not create the misrepresentation that they should be connected in some way,” said GeoBroadcast. “If FM booster stations are allowed a regulatory easing on content choice for limited portions of the broadcast day, then so also should FM translator stations be equally allowed to choose whatever programming their licensees best think would serve their listening audience,” said the broadcasters. “Proposals to use non-fill-in translators to transmit a week's worth of key programming would skew this proceeding in an entirely different direction,” said GBS.
Five Nashville stations began broadcasting in ATSC 3.0 Tuesday, Sinclair announced. Sinclair owns WZTV, WUXP-TV and WNAB, E.W. Scripps owns WTVF and Nexstar, WKRN-TV. WZTV, WUXP and WKRN will be “charter participants” in the launch of spectrum consortium BitPath’s data broadcasting network, said BitPath CEO John Hane. Stations have also gone live with 3.0 in Pittsburgh and Las Vegas (see 2006170061).
Three Pittsburgh stations went live in ATSC 3.0, said Sinclair Tuesday: Sinclair’s WPGH-TV, WPNT and Hearst’s WTAE-TV. “The participating stations have cooperated to ensure that all existing programming remains available to all viewers,” including on pay TV, said Sinclair. “Pittsburgh is just the second city in which different broadcasters have cooperated to launch full time commercial ATSC 3.0 service,” blogged BitPath President John Hane. “WPNT and WPGH-TV will soon be important links in the BitPath network.”
The FCC issued the order wrapping up dangling aspects of ATSC 3.0 rules, as expected (see 2006050054). Stations with fewer than three potential simulcasting partners would be eligible to receive simulcast waivers, if they commit to taking reasonable efforts to provide ATSC 1.0 service during the transition. That could be by providing consumers with converters, but the order said the agency would consider other ideas. Waiver applications that include providing free converters to consumers will be looked upon “favorably,” the order said. The order doesn’t grant a blanket waiver to noncommercial educational or low-power TV stations, as some commenters sought. The order also doesn’t allow broadcasters to use vacant channels for the transition, and rejects reconsideration petitions of the 3.0 order from the American Television Alliance and NCTA. “If warranted by market conditions in the future, we may revisit the need for permitting broadcasters to use vacant channels as transition channels,” the order said. Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Geoffrey Starks dissented in part, raising concerns about the costs passed on to consumers and the order’s lack of requirements that 3.0 patents be licensed on a reasonable and nondiscriminatory basis. That’s inconsistent with past policy, and in this case, “a single broadcaster holds the essential ATSC 3.0 patents and thus can set pricing and terms for any other broadcaster seeking to transition,” said Starks. Sinclair and affiliates are said to hold several 3.0 patents. “By failing to follow history here, FCC is conferring special status on those who hold key patents without requiring fair terms in exchange,” Rosenworcel said. Commissioner Mike O’Rielly voted to approve but said broadcasters should be able to self-certify they can’t find sharing partners. O’Rielly and both Democrats said they agreed with the decision to keep transitioning broadcasters off vacant channels. “This is clearly a premature matter that can be examined later, if absolutely necessary,” he said. The order said stations’ significantly viewed status doesn’t change while their 1.0 channel is being hosted by another broadcaster.
Microsoft, public interest groups and some broadcasters disagree with NAB, America’s Public Television Stations, larger broadcasters such as Meredith and Tegna, and both the BitPath (formerly SpectrumCo) and PearlTV ATSC 3.0 consortiums on whether proposed changes to the rules on TV distributed transmission systems would lead to stations with vastly expanded reach. “The intent of the proposed rule change is not to have broadcasters reach viewers beyond their authorized service area,” said Pearl TV in comments filed by Friday’s deadline in docket 20-74, urging the FCC to “stay focused.” The FCC shouldn’t be “spawning monstrous megastations that are largely divorced from any real connection to the ‘communities’ that they are licensed to serve,” said TV broadcaster PMCM.
A new coalition of developers and manufacturers aims to speed the transition to ATSC 3.0. The NextGen Video Information Systems Alliance includes BitRouter, Digital Alert Systems, Hitachi-Comark, Triveni Digital and Verance, the group said Thursday. “The Alliance's initial objective is to ensure the successful deployment of enhanced emergency information solutions across the ATSC 3.0 ecosystem,” the release said. "This is a time of significant transformation, and forward-thinking companies are exploring how to leverage new technology areas like ATSC 3.0," said alliance Chairman Edward Czarnecki, senior director-strategy and government affairs for Monroe Electronics, which is affiliated with Digital Alert Systems.
The FCC approved clarity on wireless siting rules to speed the collocation of wireless infrastructure on existing cell towers 3-2, over dissents by Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Geoffrey Starks. They objected, as some expected (see 2006030057), after the agency declined to delay a vote to give state and local governments more time to respond due to the demands because of the COVID-19 pandemic and protests. Republicans said change is needed as companies struggle to build out 5G networks. The ruling takes effect upon release.