LAS VEGAS -- Beginning late summer, over-the-air field trials are planned by broadcasters in four markets of “Futurecast,” the technology that LG, Zenith Labs and GatesAir submitted to the ATSC as their proposal for next-gen ATSC 3.0’s physical layer, executives with those companies said Tuesday at the NAB Show.
LAS VEGAS -- The Media Bureau will recommend the FCC issue a rulemaking on the effects of the incentive auction on low-power TV after the auction report and order is issued this spring, bureau Chief Bill Lake told low-power broadcasters at an information session Monday at the 2014 NAB Show. The proposed rulemaking notice is designed to answer questions about the impact of the auction on LPTV that the bureau can’t, Lake said. It would consider extending DTV transition deadlines for LPTV, propose authorizing voluntary LP-channel sharing, seek comment on creating digital replacement translators for full-power stations affected by the auction, and discuss offering LP stations the chance to use the FCC’s repacking software to find new channels, Lake said.
LAS VEGAS -- The Advanced TV Systems Committee’s “S34” specialist group, assigned to fashion the “applications and presentations” of the next-generation ATSC 3.0 DTV system, thinks it’s “not in scope” to include 8K resolution in the proposed “candidate standard” that’s expected next April, the group’s chairwoman said in an “ATSC 3.0 Update” panel Sunday at the NAB Show’s Broadcast Engineering Conference. “We are looking at a very flexible service model, with the idea being that you as broadcasters can choose different aspects of services that you want to deliver, but also allowing wide flexibility on the consumer side,” said S34 Chairwoman Madeleine Noland, an LG consultant. S34 also is to pick ATSC 3.0’s audio and video codecs, and is responsible for its closed-captioning, personalization and interactivity, she said: “If you see it on the screen, that’s what we do.”
Channel sharing on both a physical and virtual level can be done, said a technical report on a Los Angeles TV channel sharing project. The report, released Friday by CTIA and Los Angeles TV stations KLCS and KJLA, shared technical achievements and limitations of channel sharing. The report is a result of a pilot project to determine whether channel sharing can help free up spectrum in the TV incentive auction (CD Jan 29 p4). The stations have provided real world evidence that channel sharing presents a significant opportunity “for broadcasters to continue their existing business on shared spectrum and take home a check for spectrum they voluntarily relinquish in the incentive auction,” FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said in a statement (http://bit.ly/1gz5GdL). He said he hopes broadcasters will closely study the report. The report also found that all the TVs and tuners tested were able to receive and correctly parse all the required information, and that it’s technically feasible “for two 720p high definition streams to be combined into a single Advanced Television System Committee [ATSC] channel,” it said (http://bit.ly/1h0VciA). The report cautioned that careful thought must be put into the radio frequency transition, “whether for repacking or sharing, by the FCC and broadcasters to find a solution that will minimize viewer complaints,” it said. Because broadcasters have no control over the final display format at home, “it makes sense to use the most efficient encoding structure for final distribution over the air,” it said. The stations compared PBS Newshour episodes in the 720p and 1080i HD formats. In 720p, “we found a surprisingly better DMOS [Differential Mean Opinion Score] at approximately 50 percent of the bitrate of 1080i,” it said. With ATSC 3.0, the use of High Efficiency Video Coding codec is envisioned, it said. What isn’t known today is the bitrates that 4K and 8K will require in the future, it said. It also isn’t known whether 4K and 8K will be a viable business opportunity for a broadcaster “or will be delivered through alternate paths,” it said. Many technical issues identified in the report are very familiar to broadcasters “as part of the industry’s extensive experience with multicasting,” NAB said in a press release (http://bit.ly/1o8Gujr). NAB noted in a blog post that while Wheeler “is making a big channel sharing push,” he also is working to eliminate sharing arrangements through joint sales agreements (http://bit.ly/1h3JwLX). Wheeler is essentially saying he wants to see broadcasters share facilities “because that is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, but that broadcasters must unwind agreements they voluntarily entered, with commission approval, regarding sharing other resources, because that’s bad,” it said. The FCC is scheduled to vote Monday on an order that is expected to make JSAs attributable for ownership cap purposes (CD March 28 p1).
The path to 4K and Ultra HD TV will be paved by the Digital Video Broadcasting-Satellite 2 and High Efficiency Video Coding standards, said experts in the satellite broadcast distribution industry. The standards will bring more mobility services, high-quality content and they will take the direct-to-home market to the next level, they said at the Satellite 2014 conference in Washington.
The FCC should release information on how it will score participants in the spectrum incentive auction “early in the process” to “ensure transparency’ and “cultivate certainty,” said LIN media in an ex parte filing last week. A recent FCC release of information about the TVStudy software proposed for use in the repacking didn’t contain information about scoring, and that information is required for a “thorough analysis by affected industries.” To perform that sort of analysis, broadcasters need answers to pricing questions, information about the auction design and clarity on the timing of the ATSC standard, LIN said. The auction and repacking should take long-term costs like leases into account, LIN said, and “ownership relief” could be used as an incentive to promote channel sharing after the auction. In another ex parte filing, LIN weighed in on the commission’s media ownership proceeding. Sharing arrangements help struggling stations provide content to viewers and “take advantage of the 24-hour news cycle,” LIN said. The broadcaster contrasted its industry with cable and satellite, where FCC ownership regulations aren’t as restrictive. Multichannel video programming distributors “face less competition than broadcasters,” LIN said. Some MVPDs “use their size and competitive position” to raise retransmission consent issues “where no problem exists,” LIN said. “When politics becomes involved in the retransmission consent negotiations, it favors MVPDs with more resources and creates a diversion form negotiations,” LIN said.
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s decision to push the incentive auction back to 2015 doesn’t address industry concerns about how broadcasters will be affected by the repacking process, engineers, attorneys and broadcasters told us in interviews. The extra time before the auction doesn’t equate to extra preparation time for the various changes in channel assignments that repacking would be required by equipment manufacturers, broadcast stations, and engineers, because “we don’t know what to get ready for,” said Don Everist, president of broadcast engineering firm Cohen, Dippel.
Chris Nelson, South Dakota Public Utilities Commission, becomes chair of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners Telecommunications Committee, succeeding John Burke, Vermont Public Service Board … at Wiley Rein: Robert Benton named partner in Corporate, Election Law & Government Ethics and Satellite practices; Maureen Thorson becomes partner in International Trade Practice; Colleen King becomes of counsel in Communications Practice; Brendan Morrissey becomes of counsel in Litigation, Appellate, Communications and Food & Drug Law practices; Kimberly Sikora Panza becomes of counsel in Franchise, Intellectual Property and Privacy practices … Wilkinson Barker attorney Neil Chilson joins staff of Federal Trade Commissioner Maureen Ohlhausen as attorney-adviser … Richard Chernock, Triveni Digital, becomes chairman of ATSC’s Technology Group 3, the standards development group working on the ATSC 3.0 next-generation broadcast standard, succeeding Jim Kutzner, who announced his Feb. 1 retirement from PBS … euNetworks Group names Neil Hobbs of Terrepact to its board … Huawei names Bill Gerski, ex-Dish Network and National Rural Telecom Coop, vice president-sales for Huawei Technologies USA … ZTE organizational changes: ZTE Mobile Devices to be headed by Zeng Xuezhong, executive vice president of ZTE; He Shiyou, former head of terminals, to remain as an executive director of ZTE; Pang Shengqing named head of ZTE’s enterprise business; Zhao Xianming promoted to chief technology officer of ZTE.
The FCC should grant time extensions to stations that need to buy new equipment to comply with the commission’s proposed procedural update to the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act rules, said NAB in comments filed in response to the commission’s November FNPRM on the proposed update (http://bit.ly/1aaVmBV). The proposed changes are prompted by changes in March to the Advanced Television Systems Committee algorithm used to calculate loudness (CD Nov 5 p18). Because the CALM Act legislation references the old standard, the commission proposal would update the language with the new standard. NAB supports the proposed change, and said most stations should be able to follow the proposed new standard with “relatively low-cost software upgrades” within the proposed one-year deadline. However, some stations may need to buy additional equipment, and may need time to do it, since most 2014 budgets have already been finalized, NAB said. The commission should “clarify that it will look favorably on requests for waivers for extensions of time” to comply with the proposed new standards, NAB said.
Comments on the FCC’s proposed procedural updates to the CALM Act’s method for calculating the loudness of commercials are due Dec. 27, replies Jan. 13, said Wednesday’s Federal Register (http://1.usa.gov/1dBuzWh). The proposal is based on changes in March to the Advanced Television Systems Committee’s (ATSC) recommended practices, which updated the algorithm used to calculate loudness, said an FNPRM requesting comments. Because the old standard is referenced in the CALM Act legislation, the commission is proposing to update it with the new standard.