SAN FRANCISCO -- The cable industry expects to provide more systematic access to company facilities for testing new products, with hard news possible in 2 months, CableLabs Pres. Richard Green told Communications Daily Mon. He spoke after serving on an NCTA convention panel on industry standards in which he said individual it would be useful for MSOs to allowing such field testing, beyond the lab testing and product certification that CableLabs’ offers, to ensure that new gear works. Cable firms have allowed field testing ad hoc, but lately they and CableLabs have made progress toward a more formal program, Green said.
Comments are due April 18, replies May 2, in an FCC rulemaking (05-24) on a CE industry request to speed a deadline by which all 25"-36” screen TV sets must have ATSC tuners (CED Feb 15 p1). CEA and the Consumer Electronics Retailers Coalition want a July 2006 deadline by which all 25"-36” receivers must have DTV tuners moved to March 2006. They also asked the FCC to eliminate the July 2005 date by which 50% of those sets must be ATSC- capable(CED Nov 10 p1). The groups cited unforeseen, “unduly disruptive” consequences of the Commission’s phase-in schedule, which CE itself had recommended be made part of the DTV tuner mandate.
More written arguments are required before the U.S. Appeals Court, D.C., can decide “conclusively” whether a coalition of consumer and library groups that challenged the FCC’s authority to impose broadcast flag rules have the “Article III standing” to do so, the court ruled Tues.
The FCC launched a formal rulemaking (05-24) to consider the CE industry’s request that it move up the deadline by which all TV sets with 25-36” screens must have ATSC tuners.
The CE industry’s petition to move up the deadline for all TV sets with 25"-36” screen sizes to have DTV tuners began circulating on the FCC’s 8th floor, several sources told us. In Nov., CEA and the Consumer Electronics Retailers Coalition (CERC), in a joint petition, asked the Commission that the July 2006 date by which all such receivers must have DTV tuners be moved up to March 2006 and that the July 2005 date by which 1/2 the sets must be ATSC-capable be eliminated (CD Nov 10 p8). The FCC didn’t seek comment on the petition before circulation.
Promotions at BT: Ian Livingston to BT Retail CEO, effective in Feb.; Hanif Lalani to group finance dir… Board changes at ATSC: Robert Rast, Micronas, chmn.; new members Ed Barrett, Sony, Wayne Luplow, Zenith, Mike McEwen, Canadian Digital TV, and Brian Smith, Philips.
Over-the-air interactive TV (iTV) is expected to arrive in consumers’ homes in 5 years, offering a new business to broadcasters and satellite providers, predicted Advanced TV Systems Committee (ATSC) Pres. Mark Richer. The ATSC held a seminar Tues. on the standard, the Advanced Common Application Platform (ACAP), which is expected to be completed and published in the next several months, Richer said.
The Advanced TV Systems Committee (ATSC) elevated the standard of the Programming Metadata Communications Protocol (PMCP) that powers Program & System Information Protocol (PSIP) for broadcasters. Standardization of PMCP comes at time when the FCC is mandating full implementation of PSIP standard which comes into effect Feb. 1. The PMCP will allow broadcasters’ equipment from different manufactures to interconnect systems that process PSIP and DTV metadata. Once those systems are in place, broadcasters can take advantage of features offered by satellite and cable, such as program guides, said ATSC Pres. Mark Richer.
The CE industry petitioned the FCC to move up the deadline by which all TV sets with 25"-36” screen sizes must have ATSC tuners. CEA and the Consumer Electronics Retailers Coalition (CERC), in a joint petition, asked that the July 2006 date by which all such receivers must have DTV tuners be moved up to March 2006 and that the July 2005 date by which 1/2 the sets must be ATSC-capable be eliminated. They cited unforeseen and “unduly disruptive” consequences of the Commission’s phase-in schedule.
The Advanced TV Systems Committee (ATSC) approved a new recommended practice on the design of specialized transmission facilities that use multiple transmitters to cover a station’s service area. The ATSC recommendation focuses on single frequency networks, which it said provide more uniform signal levels throughout the area being served. The single frequency also reduces interference, has fewer terrain limitations and more reliable indoor reception, ATSC executives said. The recommended practice is a companion to ATSC’s standard on the means to synchronize the emissions of multiple DTV transmitters.