TV Technology Guide to ATSC 3.0 - 2019

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GUIDE TO

ATSC 3.0 Sponsored by

NEXT GEN TV: READY FOR ITS CLOSEUP

By Tom Butts, Content Director, TV Technology

The year 2020 will be a landmark year for broadcasters in the United States as ATSC 3.0 (aka Next Gen TV) marks its first year of deployment. By year’s end, our industry is expected to begin delivering ATSC 3.0 to the top 40 markets in the country, with new sets supporting the standard scheduled to go on sale by the 2020 holiday season.

Station groups involved in the deployment include Cox Media, Fox Television Stations, NBCUniversal Owned Television Stations, Univision, Sinclair, Gray Television, E.W. Scripps, Hubbard Broadcasting, Capitol Broadcasting and members of the Pearl TV Group, a coalition of broadcasters and manufacturers testing ATSC 3.0 in the Phoenix Model Market.

These station groups are committed to the new standard because they know the value of staying relevant in a world where streaming is increasingly dominating the way viewers get their news and entertainment. They are well aware of the impact of cord-cutting and how consumers are now adopting new platforms and streaming

Check out our recent webcast:

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services. While the recent launch of Disney+ and the launch of additional new streaming services in 2020 is expected to be the dominant theme of the television industry in the coming year, overthe-air continues to be an important part of the overall mix of television platforms.

Much of the public is still unaware of the Next Gen TV standard but that’s expected to change as stations deploy the format and compatible sets and receivers hit the retail floor.

Next Gen TV is just over the horizon and its success will depend on customer awareness and the industry’s enthusiasm and desire to tap new revenue opportunities.

TV Technology has been at the forefront of covering the development and deployment of ATSC 3.0. In our latest ebook, we provide an update and new insight on the standard’s progress as well as take a look back at how testing impacted the development.

For all the latest news on ATSC 3.0, be sure to visit our microsite at tvtechnology.com/atsc3.

INSIDE:

NAB-CTA Test Station Winding Down................................4 ATSC 3.0: Prepare for New Test Gear, Procedures..........9 Next Gen TV Innovation Lab Running At Michigan State’s WKAR................................. 12 When It Comes To Next Gen TV, You’ve Got To Sell The Sizzle............................................ 16 Next Gen TV, 5G Take Center Stage At BTS Symposium................................................................ 17

ON THE COVER Photo credit Getty Images/Cavan Images

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Rack configuration for ATSC 3.0 equipment in 2018.

NAB-CTA TEST STATION WINDING DOWN We’ll always have Cleveland…

By Lynn Claudy, NAB Senior Vice President, ATSC 2019 Board Chairman CLEVELAND—Having provided useful information and practical insights over the past five years, activities at the NAB-CTA ATSC 3.0 test station in Cleveland are winding down. As Next Gen TV continues to transition from the development phase to the implementation phase, the need for an over-the-air test station sponsored and operated by the television industry as a neutral test facility has now become less critical. In addition, the FCC’s TV channel repacking plan has made the broadcast test station shutdown in Cleveland somewhat inevitable.

But that’s getting ahead a bit. Let’s start at the beginning and take a look at the successes through the years produced by this industry-led collaborative project.

THE ORIGIN During the DTV transition, analog channel 8 Tribune station WJW operated on channel 31 for its transitional

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DTV channel. At the conclusion of the digital transition in June 2009, WJW opted to return to its original channel 8 NTSC allocation for its digital operation and left the channel 31 transmission facility in place but dormant at its transmission facility in Parma, Ohio, about 10 miles south of Cleveland. This was a ready-made RF transmission facility for ATSC 3.0 experimental broadcasting on an interference-free FCC-allocated TV channel, and WJW owner (then Tribune Broadcasting) was generously willing to have the facility used for the benefit of the industry.

In January 2016, just in advance of the start of the FCC’s “reverse” auction in the incentive auction program, the Cleveland station was used to test ATSC 3.0 transmission on VHF Channel 9, using WJW’s channel 8 backup antenna being operated off-channel on channel 9, fed by a GatesAir transmitter and Dielectric mask

filter loaned to the station. These were in fact the first industry-led field tests of the ATSC 3.0 physical layer. Overall, the tests showed that the system worked well in the real world and found no “red flags” for operation in high VHF spectrum, which was helpful for broadcasters bidding in the auction to move to VHF.

HISTORIC 2016 WORLD SERIES BROADCAST

of the experimental broadcast.

Field testing of four different modulation/coding combinations of the ATSC 3.0 physical layer was conducted in February/March 2018. The field tests demonstrated how the robust and flexible nature of the ATSC 3.0 standard can facilitate tailoring service applications throughout a major metropolitan area.

With measurements taken at two antenna heights for each of the 100 total measurement sites, 800 data sets were gathered, making this the most comprehensive field test to date for assessing ATSC 3.0 coverage of a real market using a variety of transmission parameters.

Support from manufacturers for populating the test station began to grow, and a full broadcast chain conforming to ATSC 3.0 was put in place. With a little help (well, a lot of help) from the Fox network and many others, Game LABORATORY RECEIVER TESTS Winter field testing in 2 of the 2016 World Series (when the In March and April of 2018, the facility Northern Ohio can sometimes Cleveland Indians hosted the Chicago was used for laboratory testing of availbe challenging.

Cubs) was successfully broadcast on able ATSC 3.0 receivers. Impairment and channel 31 using the ATSC 3.0 test station. The prisinterference tests were conducted on two prototype 3.0 tine signal was received on a prototype LG TV located receivers, one being a prototype consumer television in the Fox Sports Broadcast Compound outside the receiver and the other being a commercial reference stadium in downtown Cleveland. The small audience receiver. Results from the comprehensive tests were notwithstanding, this represented the first live ATSC encouraging, even though the sets were prototypes and 3.0 broadcast of a major professional sporting event. not intended to be evaluated as commercial products.

Historic in a few ways: A win for the industry, and the At the 2018 NAB Show, the Cleveland test station Cubs went on to win the World Series. was featured in the ATSC “Road to ATSC 3.0” exhibit.

In February 2018, in cooperation with NBC and SES, At the Cleveland station, an ETRI professional receiver the 4K UHD TV satellite feed of the Winter Olympic was used to receive the station’s live over-the-air transGames in Korea was received, re-encoded in ATSC 3.0 mission. The diagnostic and monitoring display from format and broadcast from the Cleveland test station the ETRI unit was then sent as live video to Las Vegas and successfully received on a number of prototype via the internet and shown on a large monitor in the ATSC 3.0 TV sets. Cleveland winter weather and practiATSC exhibit along with digital signage explaining the cal issues of re-conditioning old satellite dish systems details of the Cleveland station and the real-time recepdelayed success until the latter part of the Olympics, tion performance of the broadcast signal. but all problems were eventually solved in time for men’s ice hockey and the closing ceremonies to be part LAYER DIVISION MULTIPLEXING TESTS A field test program exercising the Layer Division Multiplexing feature of the ATSC 3.0 physical layer was conducted in November 2018, assessing coverage throughout the Cleveland market for the core and enhancement layers with varied injection levels. The results showed that the LDM feature provided great promise for implementing configurations such as scalable video coding, including the use of mobile reception for the robust core layer.

The 2016 World Series ATSC 3.0 broadcast being received over the air.

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UHDTV TESTS COMBINING SHVC, LDM & HDR In May 2019, Technicolor, in partnership with ETRI and Kai Media, conducted demonstrations at the Cleveland facility highlighting the transmission of an LDM HD base layer supplemented by a UHD enhancement layer using SHVC scalable video coding coupled with Technicolor’s SL-HDR1 HDR technology.

Receivers placed in downtown Cleveland proved that these tools, which can open up new innovative business models for broadcasters, also function well in challenging urban reception conditions.

A multi-day “interop” event was held in midSeptember 2019 at the Cleveland test station to bring together vendors across the ATSC 3.0 ecosystem to help facilitate the interoperability of their respec-

generated at the Cleveland test station exercising the capabilities of the ATSC 3.0 system are included in the official conformance test suite for logo certification.

The test station has been utilized for various verification testing of equipment and services, including Dolby AC-4 audio, advanced emergency information, closed captioning, program guides and watermark tests. All along, a variety of interested visitors from the industry have been welcomed at the test station for tours and meetings, including an all-day meeting of NAB’s TV Technology Committee in May 2019.

WINDING DOWN

As part of the FCC channel repacking plan associated with the incentive auction process, a TV station in not-too-far-away Youngstown, Ohio, was reassigned to channel 31 and began operation on that frequency in early August 2019. To avoid any interference to the Youngstown station, transmissions from the Cleveland facility on Channel 31 were discontinued at that time.

This experimental broadcast station has provided a wealth of information and insight. Arguably, it has largely served its purpose at this point, as we will start to see commercial stations going on the air in the coming year. While closed circuit testing and evaluations have continued at the station in recent months, activities are winding down in Cleveland. Eventually, much of the equipment in Cleveland will be relocated MSW staff show the 2018 Winter Olympics closing ceremonies in 4K via ATSC 3.0. to NAB’s new headquarters and technology center at 1 M St SE in Washington, D.C. after NAB moves to its new building in early 2020 and tive products and the performance of pre-production re-purposed for a D.C.-based ATSC 3.0 demonstration consumer television receiving devices. More than 20 facility. companies and over 50 people attended the Cleveland event. Many issues were solved through collaboration and networking and all left the event with more insight THANKS TO PARTICIPANTS and knowledge about ATSC 3.0.

The test station has been sponsored by NAB and CTA in partnership with WJW (a former Tribune station, now owned by Nexstar) and engineering services provided by CONFORMANCE TESTING ROLE Meintel, Sgrignoli & Wallace and Osborn Engineering. A The most recent major activity taking place at the non-exhaustive list of companies supplying equipment Cleveland test station is related to the conformance for the station on a loan or reduced cost basis include testing program for ATSC 3.0 receiver manufacturers Any Future Technologies, Ateme, CleverLogic, Comark seeking to use the consumer-facing NEXTGEN TV logo Communications, DekTec, Dielectric, DigiCAP, Dolby, announced by CTA in September 2019. In coordination DSBroadcast, ENENSYS, Ericsson, ETRI, GatesAir, with CTA and consumer electronics manufacturers, the Harmonic, Hitachi Kokusai Electric Comark, Kai Media, Cleveland test station has been producing bit streams LG Electronics, Linear Acoustic, Monroe Electronics, in PCAP format of various operating scenarios. The Nielsen, Samsung, Sony, TeamCast, TitanTV, Triveni recorded PCAP files are available on the cloud-based Digital, Unisoft, Verance and Zenith. file repository maintained by CTA through which Thanks to all—it’s been a great ride! receiver manufacturers can test their products and subsequently apply for certification to use the NEXTGEN TV logo on those products. Several dozen PCAP files Reprinted by permission from ATSC.

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ATSC 3.0: PREPARE FOR NEW TEST GEAR, PROCEDURES The new standard is nothing like the old standard—and that includes testing

By Bob Kovacs ALEXANDRIA, Va.—Now that broadcasters are delivering over-the-air programming (or soon plan to) with ATSC 3.0 encoding, there needs to be test equipment and procedures to ensure accurate transmission.

Manufacturers are working to develop gear that will measure the new parameters that are important to maintaining a clear ATSC 3.0 signal.

One feature of ATSC 3.0 that pushes the limits to measure reliably is its layer-division multiplexing (LDM), one of a few techniques to pack as much data into the standard as possible. However, being a stateof-the-art standard makes ATSC 3.0 a state-of-the-art measurement challenge.

“ATSC 3.0 is a very practical standard that gathers the most recent coding techniques and experiences of its predecessors,” said Vladimir Anishchenko, president and chief technology officer for Ontario, Canadabased Avateq Corp., manufacturer of the AVQ1022 RF signal analyzer. “That is why the challenge is not in a particular measurement but rather in a number of measurements creating a whole picture of the signal quality.”

Anishchenko noted the difficulty that ATSC 3.0’s LDM technology adds to the mix.

“Compared to MER/SNR measurements in the DVB/ASTC 1.0 standard not using the LDM technique, physical layer pipe [PLP] MER measurement is not a trivial task for ATSC 3.0,” he said. “In ATSC 3.0, actually two PLP MERs exist in a case of LDM: a) MER of PLP calculated over a superimposed core and enhanced PLPs, and b) MER calculated for LDM ‘decomposed’ PLPs, i.e., for each LDM super-positioned PLP.” Although there has been digital broadcasting around the world for nearly a couple of decades, ATSC 3.0 is something of a departure from older

digital standards. That has an effect on the way it is tested and measured.

“ATSC 3.0 is really designed to be the NextGen TV that includes UHD and HDR support with immersive audio, allowing both indoor and mobile reception for multiple devices,” said JeanPierre Thomas, test and monitoring director for France-based ENENSYS, a Jean-Pierre Thomas, test manufacturer of ATSC 3.0 and monitoring director gateways and SFN syn- for ENENSYS chronization systems. “It is a whole new standard compared to ATSC 1.0, which was much more linear.

“ATSC 3.0 is at the meeting point of broadcast and broadband, more tailored to viewers’ needs but much more challenging for the operators,” Thomas continued. “Permitting both indoor and mobile reception for the same TV channel implies configuring an LDM-based transmission, meaning the combination of a basic and robust QPSK with a complex but highquality NUC 256QAM. The other main topic such as multi-PLP is something DVB-T2 operators are already familiar with, but is now adapted to ATSC 3.0.”

THE CHALLENGE OF BOTH IP & ATSC 3.0 Broadcast engineers have seen a shift to IP technology for years, and ATSC 3.0 continues that trend.

Components that used to be discrete blocks of hardware are disappearing in the IP world, and that has Continued on page 10 ❱

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“In order to ensure the accuracy of a device under test, Eurofins Digital Testing has built an ATSC 3.0 broadcast environment allowing tests to be created in a real-world and reproducible way,” Craeybeckx said. “When there is a particular challenge to measure, Eurofins Digital Testing has designed specific hardware to make measurements, such as a hardware device that measures the accuracy of audio-to-video synchronization at frame-accurate levels. This reduces the time and costs associated with validation and conformance to ATSC 3.0 standards.”

implications on test and measurement.

“The move to an all-IP infrastructure is also a challenge, with software-based and virtualized major components such as a gateway (scheduler) or even a modulator,” Thomas said. “With ATSC 3.0, it only uses hardware parts when necessary, such as when dealing with analog signals.”

As for measuring ATSC 3.0 signals, the experts have some tips.

“First you need to know whether you are receiving a good-quality signal, therefore you need to measure the usual ONGOING ACCURACY RF parameters,” Thomas said.

An ongoing concern for test sys“[That includes] the signal level tems is their accuracy over time. With of course, but also the MER ATSC 3.0 needing novel and highly and BER values, which should precise measurements, what is the be measured for every PLP probability that test equipment will received, as they provide the remain calibrated and continue to quality of the modulation. produce accurate results?

“If not, when a frequency Johan Craeybeckx, business line director at “I am not sure if the reference is to interleaver is used these values Eurofins Digital Testing International the crystal in the RF card or clock on can be estimated based on the L1 the analyzer,” said Ralph Bachofen, (basic/detailed), as the pilots are spread over the specvice president for sales and marketing for Princeton, trum,” Thomas added. “These measurements should be N.J.-based Triveni Digital. “As for the clock on the done in the field, as seen by a common receiver. The analyzer, it can be configured as PTP or NTP on operators can then generate coverage quality maps, Linux, or NTP on Windows. The crystals on the RF logging RF measurements with GPS location.” receiver cards are highly accurate and don’t really ATSC 3.0 is a very dynamic environment which puts need recalibration these days.” complex demands on a test environment, said Johan Not all manufacturers suggest a hands-off approach.

Craeybeckx, business line director at Eurofins Digital “Although our gear is thoroughly calibrated at the Testing International, a manufacturer based in Belgium. factory to provide reasonably accurate power and time-related measurements, the accuracy might degrade mainly due to the gear component aging and parameter variations,” said Avateq’s Anishchenko. “We would recommend recalibration each year.”

Software measurement tools depend on the timing of the devices they run on, which in turn are connected to networks that use precision timing systems.

“A lot of solutions will actually be softwarebased, or virtualized,” Enensys’ Thomas said. “The gear will then rely on standard or professional-grade servers provided by third-parties. As for the RF measuring gear, after purchasing the equipment, it Avateq AVQ1022 RF is usually standard to consider signal analyzer recalibrating the device once with an ATSC 3.0 spectrum plot every other year, in order to

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from analog.

“ATSC 1.0 is an MPEG transport stream over 8-VSB, so that is a completely different standard compared SIMULTANEOUS TESTING to ATSC 3.0,” he said. “DVB has some The transition from ATSC 1.0 to similarities as part of the physical ATSC 3.0 is moving slowly, with layer based on COFDM. However, just a handful of stations commiteverything else in ATSC 3.0 is differted to the new standard. Triveni ent and fortunately IP based.”

Digital’s Bachofen recommends This means that there will be simultaneous testing of both stannew testing gear and procedures, dards to keep the broadcast neighand it may take a little time for the borhood clean. best practices to sort themselves “In the early deployment phasout. In the meantime, some familiar es, it is important to analyze all companies and some less-familiar demarcation points in the broadcast Ralph Bachofen, vice president for sales ones are making the gear needed to chain to minimize anomalies and and marketing for Triveni Digital ensure that ATSC 3.0 transmissions issues that might arise,” he said. are delivering pristine signals to viewers.

“We believe that during the simulcast timeframe, it is As we near the 75th anniversary of television imperative to analyze both the ATSC 3.0 and ATSC 1.0 broadcasting in the U.S., it’s still about keeping the standards simultaneously, and possibly on DMA-wide viewers happy. Happy viewers still means happy scale, as channel sharing is required in most scenarios.” broadcasters, and transmitting clean signals is an As Triveni Digital’s Bachofen points out, ATSC 3.0 important variable in that equation. is about as different from ATSC 1.0 as ATSC 1.0 was prevent time and weather-induced artifacts on the main components.”

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NEXT GEN TV INNOVATION LAB RUNNING AT MICHIGAN STATE’S WKAR Station exploring applications for ATSC 3.0

By Michael Balderston EAST LANSING, Mich.—Michigan State University has hopped on the Next Gen TV train, opening a Media Innovation Lab that will experiment with different applications of the ATSC 3.0 broadcasting standard. The lab is hosted at the WKAR Public Media station.

WKAR was granted an experimental license in 2018 by the FCC to broadcast in ATSC 3.0, which resulted in the construction of of the NextGen Media Innovation Lab at MSU’s College of Communications Arts and Sciences.

“This innovative space serves as a colMSU’s College of Communications Arts and Sciences announced the opening of its laborative hub where students, faculty NextGen Media Innovation lab in September. and researchers will explore the future of television and other applications affordcasting, as the first public television licensee in the ed by the emerging ATSC 3.0 digital standard,” said country to be granted an ATSC 3 license from the Susi Elkins, director of broadcasting and general manFederal Communications Commission. ager of WKAR. “The demonstrations at the new lab—showcasing “The new standard integrates broadcast with public safety emergency alerting and innovations in broadband, and features heightened mobility and a education, virtual reality and gaming—are a promismore efficient use of the broadcast spectrum,” Elkins ing glimpse of an exciting future for every public continued. “These attributes allow numerous opportutelevision station in America, as the Next Gen ATSC nities for multidisciplinary research on customization 3 broadcast standard is adopted in other markets,” and interactivity.”

Thompson added. “WKAR is continuing the long Lonna Thompson, executive vice president, chief public television tradition of experimentation and operating officer and general counsel of America’s innovation, and we couldn’t be prouder of their comPublic Television Stations (APTS), added her plaudits. mitment to finding creative ways to serve the people “America’s Public Television Stations congratulate of Michigan and their fellow Americans with the highWKAR Public Media and Michigan State University on est and best services that Next Gen TV offers. the official launch of their extraordinary new Next Michigan State officially opened the NextGen Gen Media Innovation Lab,” Thompson said. “WKAR Media Innovation Lab on Sept. 19. and MSU are true pioneers in this new age of broad-

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Getty Images/LauriPatterson

WHEN IT COMES TO NEXT GEN TV, YOU’VE GOT TO SELL THE SIZZLE Broadcasters can’t be shy about television’s future

By Phil Kurz Did you happen to see T-Mobile’s commercial for its 600 MHz wireless network a couple of months ago?

“T-Mobile knows nobody buys this,” the announcer intones as the video shows a smartphone. Then he says, “for that,” and the picture changes to a cell tower.

“You buy it for this,” he says, with the video showing a young woman dolled up with Animoji ears, nose and tongue; “this,” with a video of a guy and his barber enjoying a baseball game on a phone; “this,” a picture of an online purchase of a horse head mask and the recipient wearing it as he sits on his couch; “and this,” as the picture shows a smartphone displaying “Your Food Is Arriving,” cutting to a delivery car pulling up.

Imagine that. A company actually promoting its 600 MHz wireless network, or more accurately all of the great things that 600 MHz 5G-ready network can make happen for people. In other words, not selling the “steak” but the “sizzle” of its new wireless network.

How did the previous occupants of that same spectrum promote the sizzle of its 600 MHz product?

On the whole, pretty well. Who can’t recall promos for NFL and MLB games and championships, the Olympics, political debates and conventions, syndicated game shows, network dramas and comedies, local news teams and stories? The list goes on and on.

However, with the dawn of Next Gen TV, the game has changed. No longer will it be enough to promote upcoming programming; it will soon become as important, if not more so, to sell the benefits of the 3.0 wireless network—in other words “the sizzle.”

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It’s easy to visualize a promo touting the wakeup feature of Next Gen TV alerting a sleeping family to life-threatening weather event. Or, a senior citizen customizing his TV’s audio so he can better hear dialog. Or, an immigrant family accessing dialog in its native tongue (not Spanish because that’s already commonly done on SAP channels today).

These only scratch the surface of 3.0 sizzles with so many other possibilities, including interactivity, personalized content and portable/mobile reception, left to explore.

Some might say it’s too soon to begin selling the sizzle of Next Gen TV. Perhaps, but being early isn’t stopping T-Mobile from promoting its 5G service.

According to the company’s own website, it’s not waiting for 100% market coverage to begin selling 5G. For the rollout this month, the company is only covering 60% of the U.S. population with its 5G network. And even if it is early, it’s not too soon to get serious about planning how best to sell the 3.0 sizzle.

The television industry can’t leave promoting the sizzle to the Antenna Man on YouTube. (Nice job Antenna Man on your Nov. 12 video.) Nor, can the industry leave it to the Advanced Television Systems Committee with its ATSC 3.0 Next Generation Broadcasting animation. Two-minute stories on the noon news won’t cut it, and neither will leaving selling the sizzle to set manufacturers.

If the public is to get excited about Next Gen TV, it will be up to TV broadcasters—on a group-wide or industry-wide basis and the professionals they hire to help—to sell its sizzle.

NEXT GEN TV, 5G TAKE CENTER STAGE AT BTS SYMPOSIUM Updates provided on tests, cable compatibility

By James O’Neal

HARTFORD, Conn.—Television was again center stage at this year’s IEEE Broadcast Technology Society Broadcast Symposium, with nearly two-thirds of the presentations involving video. ATSC 3.0 (aka Next Gen TV) was in the limelight, with the final day of the Oct. 1-3 conference set aside for 3.0.

Michael E. Bouchard, vice president of technology strategy for ONE Media at Sinclair Broadcast Group, discussed how Next Gen TV and 5G could work together.

“OTT is on the rise and 82% of internet traffic will eventually be video,” said Bouchard. “The consumer’s

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Some 120 broadcast engineers, equipment manufacturers, academics and students traveled from as far away as Japan and South Korea to attend this year’s BTS Symposium.

and cutting system buildout costs, according to use of video on the internet is driving this exponenBouchard. tial growth, and there’s nothing to indicate that this “With the millimeter wave technology [that’s prowill end anytime soon. More and more broadcasters posed for 5G], you need a tower every 200 to 300 are moving their broadcasting to over-the-top. We’re feet,” said Bouchard. “How are you going to do that loading these networks as they’ve never been loaded for Interstate 90 that goes from Boston to Seattle? Or before. But we’re also becoming more and more better yet, how are you going to do that where I live dependent on a network that we don’t control, and in Hunt Valley, Md., where it’s horse country and mobile networks are becoming choked. Coverage is every house has 40 acres?” also poor in rural areas.”

He views a plan where broadcasters could “rent Bouchard noted that while 5G may offer a lot of out” some of their ATSC 3.0 bits to telcos as being a advantages not present in current wireless broadband “win-win” for both. systems, it may not be the universal panacea that “It would reinvent, extend and reinvigorate DTT many are promising, as under certain high-demand broadcast TV, better enable telcom ecosystems, content viewing conditions, its unicast delivery mode increase use of DTT spectrum can saturate. He suggested that and increase overall throughput if 5G and broadcast joined forces efficiencies,” said Bouchard, notthis would allow traffic to be ing that experimentation on such offloaded for over-the-air deliva converged ATSC 3.0/5G system ery to phones equipped with are taking place in New Jersey 3.0 chips. and South Korea. “[Such a] 5G converged network utilizes the superior features of IP-based terrestrial PHOENIX CONTINUES transmissions [and] it utilizes the TO RISE unicast mode networks that are Dave Folsom, consultant to already in place,” said Bouchard.

Pearl TV’s Phoenix 3.0 model “It delivers data seamlessly market project, noted that there across different technologies.” are now 12 stations and several Such a converged network television station groups particiwould also benefit wireless pating in Phoenix, as well as a broadband providers by extendnumber of broadcast and coning their reach into rural areas Dave Folsom, consultant to Pearl TV Group sumer equipment manufacturers.

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“A whole host of companies are providing enabling technologies behind the scene,” said Folsom. “Part of the mission is to evangelize… to ensure that all manufacturers of transmission and receiving equipment believe that the standard is going to be implemented.

We have to come up with use cases, and test those use cases to show that there is consumer receiver demand.

“Manufacturers need a little bit of incentive that there will be a market; that broadcasters will be broadcasting in major markets,” Folsom added. “We don’t want to just replicate ATSC 1.0; otherwise there’s not a lot of incentive for viewers or receiver manufacturers.”

Other goals include demonstrating secure delivery of content and ensuring that the viewing audience served by MVPDs can access 3.0 signals.

“We’ve had a lot of discussions with MVPDs about moving forward, and hope to do testing with Phoenix MVPDs soon,” he said.

Folsom said that a professional ATSC 3.0 IRD is now available and that three television set manufacturers, and possibly more, should be making 3.0 sets available in the United States in 2020.

“Manufacturers need a little bit of incentive that there will be a market; that broadcasters will be broadcasting in major markets.”

—Dave Folsom, Pearl TV Group

9000

ing increased separation between dialog and background audio, and immersive audio provides an increased number of audio channels that people will have to deal with.”

Watkins noted that such choices could be bewildering to some cable customers when difficulties arise, and asked “Who will be there to field questions and complaints?”

Steve Watkins, executive director of Strategic In the area of processing, Technology Policy at Cox Communications Watkins said that 3.0 implemenATSC 3.0 FROM AN tation will require new encodMVPD’S VIEWPOINT ing and multiplexing schemes, a rework of failover/ As U.S. broadcasters move closer to a widespread redundancy solutions to maintain continuity of operaATSC 3.0 rollout, providers of cable and satellite tions in the event of a signal loss on primary feeds systems are also laying plans to accommodate the from broadcasters, and even new slate generators. new signals and services. Steve Watkins, execu“Who converts the ATSC 3.0 service to provide tive director of Strategic Technology Policy at Cox ATSC 1.0?” he mused. “Where will it be done—at the Communications, described some of the challenges broadcaster’s facility, or at the cable facility? Also, the cable industry faces by accommodating broadcastdoes the cable operator participate in the zoning or ers’ ATSC 3.0 services. geotargeting that 3.0 enables? Cable systems typically “There’s a lot that has to happen when ATSC 3.0 are not equipped for this.” is received by cable and satellite operators,” said Watkins noted that even though mandatory carWatkins, observing that 3.0 carriage will require riage of Next Gen signals will not be required “for at restructuring and changes in multiple areas, includleast another seven years, if the broadcasters come up ing reception of program streams from broadcasters, with something that’s compelling and our customers signal processing, distribution to customers, set-top want it, we want to be able to deliver it.” boxes and more. Watkins also foresaw difficulties arisAttendees also attended pre-conference tours of the ing from the many choices and possibilities inherent RFS RF component production facility in Meriden, Conn., in the ATSC 3.0 signal itself. and Hitachi Kokusai Electric Comark in Southwick, “There’s apt to be customer confusion,” he said.

Mass., where they were briefed on that company’s “The AC-4 audio format provides additional lanComark Digital Services for Next Gen TV. guage capability, music tracks, a means for provid-

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