A distributed transmission system signal “is a broadcast TV signal by any other name,” and TV white space rules should apply, said Microsoft in a call with aides to FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel Tuesday, per a filing posted in docket 20-74 Friday. The FCC should maintain existing rules and institute an expedited waiver process for ATSC 3.0 stations that seek to allow the DTS signal to extend a minimal amount beyond their current maximum service areas, Microsoft said. The agency's DTS item has sufficient votes for approval (see 2101050063).
TCL has no current plans to make its TVs compatible for ATSC 3.0 (see 2101130068), a virtual CES event heard. The company has no plans to support the 3.0 standard in 2021, a spokesperson said Wednesday. The company will bring the TCL Home app, available in some markets now, to the U.S. this year, said Aaron Dew, TCL North America director-product development. TCL’s Android and Roku TVs will be controllable through the app, allowing them to manage the company’s smart home appliances from TVs, too. The company is also eyeing 5G (see 2101130072).
NextGenTV can “evolve over time,” said ATSC President Madeleine Noland. “It’s not something that’s so static, like today’s television system.” ATSC 3.0's framers decided to “design it for 4K right now, knowing that we can upgrade to 8K basically at any time,” she told the virtual CES Tuesday. South Korean broadcasters recently started “field trials” delivering 8K over 3.0 using the existing H.265 video codec, she said. Noland predicted consumers who adopt NextGenTV will “get addicted” to the platform's HDR and wide color gamut capabilities. Executives also discussed 8K. Fox Sports used three 8K cameras when it televised Super Bowl LIV Feb. 2, said Michael Davies, senior vice president-field and technical operations. “It paled in comparison, somewhat, to the 102 other cameras we had, yet we did do the whole thing in HDR." Davies last visited Japan just before the pandemic, “and I was embarrassed to say we were still producing shows in 720p SDR,” he said. The Japanese "weren’t even talking about 4K at that point," he said. "They were talking about 8K.”
TCL confirmed U.S. pricing for its TCL20 5G smartphone, which will sell in the U.S. for under $300. Product Marketing Manager Josefina Fuster said at a virtual CES event that the company’s goal is to deliver “affordable 5G without compromising.” The company will launch its first 5G tablet and its first foldable phone this year, Fuster said Wednesday. TCL has no current plans to make its TVs compatible for ATSC 3.0 (see 2101130070).
CTA forecasts that the consumer tech industry will ship 800,000 NextGenTV sets this year, for 167% growth from 2020's 300,000 units, Vice President-Research Steve Koenig told a live ATSC webinar. It projects 12 million ATSC 3.0-compatible sets will be shipped in 2024, for 31% of all TV unit volume, he said.
The draft ATSC 3.0 distributed transmission system order “will adversely impact the availability of television white spaces (TVWS) spectrum in rural areas and undermine the expansion of rural broadband access,” said Microsoft in a call with aides to FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington Tuesday, per a filing posted Friday in docket 20-74. “The current DTS signal spillover standard should be maintained,” and any more than “a minimum amount” should be permitted via a case-by-case waiver process, the filing said. The DTS has sufficient votes to be approved (see 2101050063).
BitRouter is entering the ATSC 3.0 consumer market with its ZapperBox set-top box, President-Founder Gopal Miglani told a Pearl TV NextGenTV media briefing virtually Thursday. The company plans a “slow ramp-up” to be sure “everything’s working” and “consumers are happy,” said Miglani. BitRouter also will sell the ZapperBox through resellers and will approach OEMs “who want to white-label the product,” he said. It also will license the software to OEMs that want to design their own boxes, he said. LG expects more 3.0 rollout this year (see 2101070061).
ATSC scheduled live virtual workshops for Tuesday, coinciding with the all-digital CES 2021 but after the show's main activities are “done for the day,” emailed a spokesperson. ATSC President Madeleine Noland moderates the first panel, “ATSC 3.0 at the Consumer’s Fingertips,” at 7 p.m. EST. Panelists are Steve Koenig, CTA vice president-research; Mark Aitken, Sinclair senior vice president-advanced technology; Alfred Chan, MediaTek vice president-TV and smart home business unit; Nick Kelsey, SiliconDust chief technical officer; and John Taylor, LG Electronics senior vice president-public affairs and communications. An 8 p.m. EST webinar on remote learning is to be moderated by Jerry Whitaker, ATSC vice president-standards development. His panelists are Lonna Thompson, America's Public Television Stations general counsel; Todd Achilles, Evoca CEO; Fred Engel, UNC-TV Public Media North Carolina chief technology officer; and Aby Alexander, Thomson Broadcast president-Americas. Koenig plans to provide some details on NextGenTV sales forecasts, the spokesperson said.
The draft order on rules for ATSC 3.0 distributed transmission systems (DTS) has three commissioner votes and is expected to be approved on circulation later this month (see 2012110052), said FCC and broadcast industry officials. The three votes are from the Republicans, and broadcast industry officials think there’s a chance Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Geoffrey Starks could vote to approve or approve in part. Starks and Rosenworcel voted "concur" last month on another 3.0 item (see 2012100071). The final order is expected to be close to what NAB requested but include concessions to Microsoft’s concerns that the new rules would interfere with unlicensed use of the TV white spaces and rural broadband.
NAB hasn’t adequately explained the rule changes it seeks in a recent petition for rulemaking on clarifying ATSC 3.0 rules (see 2012280049), and the FCC should respond with a notice of inquiry rather than an NPRM, said the American Television Alliance in comments posted Tuesday in docket 16-142. “We are not sure that we fully grasp the parameters of NAB’s proposed rulemaking,” ATVA said. “We remain uncertain as to exactly what sort of arrangements and combinations NAB is asking the FCC to bless and cannot identify the public interest justification behind any such arrangements and combinations.” The NAB proposal could be read to allow broadcast stations to get around ownership and simulcast rules with different arrangements of ATSC 1.0 and 3.0 multicast streams, ATVA said. The proposal could create “a potential sea change in broadcast regulation,” which is why an NOI is the correct next step, ATVA said.