The FCC is considered likely to grant a petition from broadcasters and tech companies to authorize the physical layer of the next generation ATSC 3.0 broadcast standard (see 1404090027), broadcast attorneys told us Wednesday and Thursday. The gradual, industry-driven transition plan is seen as asking relatively little from the commission, and shouldn't be “a heavy lift,” a broadcast lawyer said. That is in keeping with recent forecasts from ATSC President Mark Richer that broadcasters and tech companies would "take the lead" at the FCC in "a unified approach" that won't be "controversial" (see 1603280043).
Trade groups representing broadcasters, tech companies and others jointly filed a petition for rulemaking Wednesday asking the FCC to allow broadcasters to begin using the new ATSC 3.0 broadcast standard. “This enhanced digital IP-based standard will create the bedrock for continuing innovation by the television industry for decades to come,” said the petition filed by America's Public Television Stations (APTS), CTA, NAB and a group of broadcasters and electronics companies called the Advanced Warning and Response Network (AWARN) Alliance, which was officially formed Tuesday (see 1604120069).
Broadcasting groups focused on transitioning to the ATSC 3.0 standard joined with consumer electronics companies to form a group focused on using the new standard for advanced emergency alerting. Called the AWARN Alliance after the proposed Advanced Warning and Response Network, the new entity will support “rapid deployment” of the AWARN system, which can deliver “rich media” such as graphics or video containing emergency information to consumer devices, the group said in a Tuesday announcement. The alliance includes ATSC advocates Pearl TV; Pilot, the former NAB Labs; LG Electronics and Sinclair. The AWARN Alliance will officially launch at the 2016 NAB Show, the group said. The group said it will be headed by John Lawson, formerly of America’s Public Television Stations and an architect of AWARN.
The incentive auction and ensuing repacking are expected to dominate next week's NAB Show, but the auction's seeming-inevitability and strict anti-collusion rules will likely change the tone of those conversations, compared with past years, said industry representatives in recent interviews. Broadcasters who attend the convention with the incentive auction technically in progress are likely to be mostly those planning to continue broadcasting, a lawyer noted. That makes attendees more likely to be focused on post-auction strategizing and equipment and resources conducive to a smooth repacking, the attorney said.
In ATSC 3.0, Sinclair plans in a hospitality suite at the NAB Show to go “beyond what we demonstrated at CES” (see 1603220032) and showcase “some very new business opportunities” using the next-gen broadcasting standard, Mark Aitken, Sinclair vice president-advanced technology, told us. The demonstrations at NAB will be “tied to very real entities” -- companies that Sinclair is partnering with to showcase ATSC 3.0's capabilities -- the names of which most people “will know off the bat,” but won’t “typically” associate with TV broadcasting, Aitken said, not giving specifics.
ATSC 3.0, based as it is on Internet protocol, “will enable new business models, giving broadcasters a competitive edge that they haven’t had since leading the HDTV revolution 15 years ago,” ATSC President Mark Richer said Monday in his President's Memo in the April issue of ATSC’s monthly newsletter, The Standard. “But fully exploiting the benefits of next-generation television will require bold plans,” Richer said. “As they sharpen those bold strategies, it’s important for senior broadcasting executives to understand that the major elements of the ATSC 3.0 suite of standards are essentially completed.” At this month’s NAB Show, broadcasting executives who have been hearing about ATSC 3.0 from their chief engineers for a while now “will see first-hand the amazing possibilities enabled by next-gen broadcasting,” he said. In particular, the ATSC 3.0 Consumer Experience exhibit that ATSC is sponsoring with CTA and NAB will showcase “how to monetize next-gen broadcasting with targeted ad insertion, how to enhance their viewers’ experience with high-dynamic range programming (even with 2K broadcasting), how to reach more consumers during emergencies with advanced emergency alerting, and more,” he said. Meanwhile, the theme for the ATSC’s annual Broadcast TV Conference May 11 in Washington is “Countdown to Launch,” to reflect “where things stand on the ATSC 3.0 standard, the spectrum auction and repack plan,” Richer said. For 2016, he said, ATSC also has restructured its ATSC 3.0 Boot Camp conference May 10 and instead will host a daylong “implementation tutorial” titled "Ready-Set-Go! Planning Your ATSC 3.0 Rollout."
ATSC’s Technology Group 3 at meetings last week in Arlington, Virginia, voted to authorize the ballot that would elevate the second component of ATSC 3.0's physical layer, A/322, to the status of proposed standard, ATSC President Mark Richer emailed us Friday through a spokesman. A/322 is one of two ingredients of ATSC 3.0's physical layer that remain to be elevated to final standards now that the A/321 document on system discovery and signaling architecture for the physical layer has cleared ATSC membership balloting as a full standard (see 1603280043). The A/322 candidate standard document describes the RF transmission system of a “physical layer waveform,” said a description accompanying the actual document, now posted at the ATSC website. “This waveform enables flexible configurations of physical layer resources to target a variety of operating modes. The intent is to signal the applied technologies and allow for future technology adaptation.” TG3 also voted to authorize the ballot to elevate A/342 to the status of candidate standard for ATSC 3.0 audio, Richer said. Assuming the balloting approves A/342 in about five weeks’ time, that document will be posted as a candidate standard on the ATSC website, Richer said. With Dolby AC-4 and the MPEG-H consortium of Fraunhofer, Qualcomm and Technicolor vying to be named the ATSC 3.0 audio codec, Richer thinks “it’s likely there will be two systems documented as ATSC 3.0,” with the “recommendation that only one should be used in a given region,” such as in an individual country or continent, he has said.
Two more ingredients of ATSC 3.0's physical layer remain to be elevated to final standards now that the A/321 document on system discovery and signaling architecture for the physical layer has cleared ATSC membership balloting as a full standard, ATSC President Mark Richer told us Monday. Though Sinclair scooped ATSC in releasing the news in a Monday morning announcement that A/321 had been approved, “we’re all good,” Richer told us.
The first-ever ATSC 3.0-based single frequency network began broadcasting Monday in Baltimore and Washington under special temporary authority from the FCC, Sinclair said in a Tuesday announcement. Launching the SFN “validates, in a real world environment, the operation and performance of new and innovative concepts relative to an ATSC 3.0 SFN deployment” that will include a “full range” of services, including “fixed, portable and mobile capabilities,” said Sinclair. It worked with its One Media subsidiary and with broadcast equipment supplier TeamCast on the deployment.
Online abstracts are due April 22 for papers to be presented at the Society of Motion Picture and TV Engineers annual technical conference and exhibition Oct. 24-28 in Hollywood, California, SMPTE said Friday in a call for proposals. Proposed papers “must be informational and must address technical theory, research, innovation, application, or practice specific to any of the evolving technologies associated with the media technology industry,” SMPTE said. Suggested topics include Ultra HD, “color and dynamic range management,” new distribution methods such as ATSC 3.0 and content security, it said.