Part 2

While the International CES 2019 was top of mind for Mark Aitken, president of ONE Media LLC and vice president of Advanced Technology at Sinclair Broadcast Group (as discussed in part 1 of this Q&A), far more is happening with regards to broadcast standards and ATSC 3.0.

In part two of this interview, Aitken reveals Sinclair’s plan to rollout ATSC 3.0 in 26 markets in 2019, where Sinclair’s Dallas SFN rollout stands, why 3.0 naysayers will soon see they are off target, the effect multistandard TV exciters and receivers may have on the future of standards and his thoughts on the announcement that ATSC President Mark Richer will soon retire.

(An edited transcript.)

TV TECHNOLOGY:ENENSYS/TeamCast and Comark recently announced they were showing a DTV exciter with support for both 3.0 and DVB-T2 waveforms at BES Expo 2019, India.

At CES, ONE Media rolled out its new multi-standard DTV tuner chipsets with support for at least a dozen standards, including 3.0.

It seems to me that multistandard TV exciters and receivers may usher in a new era in which TV standards become something different than they traditionally have been. In other words, it’s hard to see how TV standards in the future will serve as mechanisms to protect markets, regions, economic interests and even competing political systems. What do you think?

MARK AITKEN: I am sure that I have said Broadcast Market Exchange, BMX, to you on more than one occasion.

We started seven or eight years ago –before we even entered the ATSC process for this standard. We started putting out some white papers and articles about the notion of a Broadcast Market Exchange.

Part of that was looking at what was going on in the spectrum sharing worldview and a lot of that came out of the foundational work even before there was CBRS (citizens band radio service).

CBRS is different spectrum, but it’s all about spectrum sharing and providing spectrum access. So, the Broadcast Market Exchange we envisioned tied together broadcast stations on a virtual basis to create a national network.

That in fact to a large degree was the reason we worked with Nexstar to start Spectrum Co. And Spectrum Co is involved in a lot of conversations right now based on our own commitment to build out [ATSC 3.0] in 26 markets this year and finding other partners in those markets.

That’s all backdrop. The point is we had this thing called the Broadcast Market Exchange that envisioned this world of virtualization. The very same world that is at the heart of 5G –not a bunch of hardware, but in fact cloud-based, virtualized functions.

Well on the other side of the world in India, one of the things that attracted me to Saankhya is that they shared a very, very similar view and about four years ago wrote a series of white papers–and there will be another one coming out shortly—on something called a cognitive radio access network.

Cognitive is now being morphed into AI because everybody believes they know what AI means.

To your point, imagine a network where you have software-defined radios, software-defined receivers. You have a network that when you apply AI has a cognitive ability to determine based upon a set of requirements of how best to deliver a wireless set of packets.

If you can describe the attributes of various technologies, you suddenly have a network that can on its own define unique waveforms to deliver [data] in the most effective and efficient way.

The short word for this is AI-RAN [AI Radio Access Network] where you deploy a network with the ability to shape waveforms and radios that can conform to those waveforms. You can begin to envision a world in 10 years, perhaps less, where you don’t even have a standard per se of a fixed set of waveforms. But in fact you have a network that is capable of producing its own waveforms on a flexible, desirable basis.

I would add that I think that becomes almost essential in a future world where you are looking for security at all levels.

Imagine the ability on a data-frame-by-data-frame basis to convey that data with a slightly different waveform based on a 128-bit or 256-bit encoding scheme.

Suddenly not only are you encoding data, but you are effectively encoding waveforms and obviating the need for a fixed standard.

TVT:So this would be a whole new level of security.

MA: Exactly. You could define your own unique waveform. You are not going to hard code that into a chip because it’s your unique waveform. It’s your own modulation, your own coding scheme. The only thing that is common is this bootstrap.

TVT:Probably from its inception, there have been 3.0 naysayers. Some, given the dearth of 3.0 TVs at this year’s CES, say the Next-Gen TV standard is 'DOA.' Clearly, you don’t see it that way. How would you respond to the naysayers?

MA: I’ve not gone to two CES shows in a row where the theme and the thrust of the show on the outward side wasn’t about something new.

CES is always about something new, and this year, surprisingly or not, it wasn’t just one thing. On the surface, you certainly had 5G, 8K and autonomous vehicles. But all of those things, if you think about it, come back to a flexible means to convey any and all of that.

And so, while there was not a big stage for ATSC 3 television devices, ATSC 3 fits into all of those devices.

And I think if you talked to the manufacturers there are a couple of reasons they haven’t launched new ATSC 3 product lines. One of them is technical, and one of them is market.

On the technical side, it is the issue of content protection. You know the ability to ensure that content [remains safe], creating a high enough bar that you haven’t got easy theft, easy access and therefore easy distribution of an all-IP piece of content.

We are a long ways down that road, and I think in a couple of months there will be an announcement of industry alignment and cohesion around a content protection solution.

And I would venture and say it will be supported by the consumer electronics industry, broadcasters and the MVPDs. If you don’t have that, you’re not going to sell ATSC 3 sets into a marketplace.

Probably the more important piece–and I fully understand this from a product manufacturer’s perspective—where are the 3.0 signals? Where is the content?

We are answering that with an absolute public commitment to launch 26 markets by the end of this year.

When we start launching those markets and there is a clear set of objectives for where those markets are and how the content is going to be protected–when all those things come together—the problem is not a technical problem, it’s the realities of a new market, making sure the new market is alive.

TVT:Have you announced Sinclair’s 26 ATSC 3.0 rollout markets for this year?

MA: We have not publicly stated those yet. We have internally as of today, and we will externally two weeks hence.

We know the 26 markets in which we need nobody to participate to create channel shares and offload channels from one to another to clear a channel for 3.0.

But we have also engaged ourselves in discussions through Spectrum Co. We actually have more than 26 markets. I can tell you that we have commitments from a number of broadcasters to participate in a large number of markets. We have one broadcaster that will be working with us in five markets –somebody outside of Spectrum Co.

I think you will see a public announcement of those markets in a couple of weeks.

TVT:Where does the Sinclair SFN deployment in Dallas stand?

MA: It will light up March 1 at all sites. Actually, I just reminded myself I have to check with legal on this one. The holdup on this one is the MVPD notification process, and the FCC is a stickler on making sure we run out the 120 days. That is why it is March.

But I am saying that with a smile because I don’t know how this partial government shutdown impacts that. I am certainly hopeful that the government will be back to being as dysfunctional as it can be by then.

TVT:Sinclair has announced its STIRR OTT service. It seems like this might be a good learning experience and springboard for launching many aspects of an over-the-air IP-based broadcast service like ATSC 3.0. Is that the case?

MA: There is nothing that we are doing that is not focused on the 3.0 future. So, there is a whole lot of learning that comes out of these things.

So, yeah, STIRR is local-advertiser-supported. It has a lot of the moving pieces that end up being connected to 3.0.

When you think of 3.0, you think of broadcast and broadband. OTT sits right alongside of OTA, and while the ad tech might be slightly different between OTT and OTA because OTT is unicast, a one-to-one relationship with folks, there is a lot of technical convergence between the two.

TVT:Finally, the Advanced Television Systems Committee announced that its president, Mark Richer, would soon be retiring. I know you and Mark have a long history–I believe going back to the early DTV days at Comark. What are your thoughts?

MA: I could almost say I love Mark like a brother, and it’s not as though we haven’t had our differences. We have.

When we are together we have this little routine that we go through that we are the “Co-Marks.” Mark ran the Comark Digital Services Group. That is what he was hired in to do at Comark. It was me and the president at the time who brought him in.

We’ve remained very close. We’ve always had the utmost respect for each other, and very recently I had the pleasure of spending a lot of time together with him in India. We went to the Taj Mahal together.

The industry will miss him. The industry will come to understand that leading an organization that demands consensus is a very trying job. It takes a lot of skill and a lot of talent to try to maintain congeniality in the face of confrontation. It takes a lot of effort to intercede and provide a calming effect and bring aggrieved parties together.

A lot of this is finding the common ground as opposed to highlighting the differences. Mark has affected a lot of people in a very positive way, and he made it look really easy, but I can assure you it was a most difficult job that he was a champion of.

For a comprehensive list of TV Technology’s ATSC 3.0 coverage, see our ATSC3 silo.

LAS VEGAS—Compression, image processing and security specialist intoPIX will introduce the JPEG-XS standard with a demo of its TICO-XS FPGA and ASIC IP-cores at CES 2019, Jan. 8-11, in Las Vegas.

The company, which will also unveil CPU and GPU software development kits for the standard, co-developed JPEG XS based on intoPIX’s TICO RDD35 codec. It foresees TICO-XS as being an important enabler for development of video devices because it solves problems facing CE manufacturers, such as how to manage more and better pixels, realize cost and power savings, simplify connectivity and preserve quality with no latency.

For 4K and 8K, JPEG XS can carry video over existing bandwidth with lossless quality and imperceptible latency, the company said. The standard also saves on cost and power in regards to in-device video transport by reducing internal links and memory.

It has undergone rigorous testing by the ISO JPEG committee and has been shown to provide fully transparent quality at compression ratios of 1.5 bits per pixel ~ 16:1 for TV, the company said.

See intoPIX at CES 2019 booth 1129 at Westgate Paradise Center.

More information is available on the company’s website. 

For all the latest news from the 2019 CES, visit TWICE’s CES Hub.

To access all the latest CES news on Twitter, follow #MyCES2019.

LAS VEGAS—Samsung has announced that it will add support for movies and TV shows purchased via Apple’s iTunes as well as support for Apple AirPlay beginning in the spring. Support on 2018 Samsung Smart TVs will be made available via firmware update.

This marks the first time Apple has made support for its iTunes platform available on a non-Apple device. Support for iTunes will be made available on Samsung Smart TV’s in more than 100 countries and support for “AirPlay 2”—the latest version of Apple’s platform that allows consumers to stream from Apple devices to smart TVs—in 190 countries.

This capability will allows users to access and purchase or rent iTunes content—including 4K, HDR movies—on Samsung Smart TVs as well as play videos, photos, music, podcasts, etc.

“We pride ourselves on working with top industry leaders to deliver the widest range of content services to our Smart TV platform,” said Won-Jin Lee, Executive Vice President, Service Business of Visual Display at Samsung Electronics. “Bringing more content, value and open platform functionality to Samsung TV owners and Apple customers through iTunes and AirPlay is ideal for everyone.”

“We look forward to bringing the iTunes and AirPlay 2 experience to even more customers around the world through Samsung Smart TVs, so iPhone, iPad and Mac users have yet another way to enjoy all their favorite content on the biggest screen in their home,” said Eddy Cue, senior vice president of Internet Software and Services at Apple.

For all the latest news from the 2019 CES, visit TWICE’s CES Hub. 

To access all the latest CES news on Twitter, follow #MyCES2019.

WASHINGTON—For the second year in a row, FCC chair Ajit Pai has pulled out of his appearance at the Consumer Technology Association's CES in Las Vegas next week.

Pai was to have been interviewed in a "Fireside Chat" with CES president Gary Shapiro, which has become something of a tradition. But Pai's office said the government shutdown—and uncertainty about how long it would last—precipitated the decision.

It is not clear whether commissioner Brendan Carr, who also planned to attend to kick the tires on new tech, will be making the trip or canceling due to the shutdown. Carr's office was not available for comment.

Commissioners are still able to work in the office because they are essential personnel, but travel budgets are expected to be curtailed during a shutdown.

“Because of the government shutdown, some of our scheduled government speakers at CES® 2019 have alerted us that they must cancel their travel to the show," said Shapiro. "As a result, some of our scheduled CES 2019 programming and speakers will change. We urge attendees who planned to hear U.S. federal government speakers to check the sessions on the website to ensure those individuals are still speaking. Our Speakers Directory can be found here. This page will be updated regularly.”

WASHINGTON—We are on the cusp of a new age of consumer technology, said Steve Koenig, vice president of market research at the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) during his “2019 Tech Trends” keynote at the 2018 Government Video Expo in late November. At some point over the course of the last decade, which he describes as the “connected age,” we began to take the internet for granted, expecting our consumer devices to be online. “We’re streaming audio, video—most of our waking hours are spent online either passively or actively.” 

Not only have we been using these devices to stay connected, they have been using us, collecting data on what we watch, where we go and what we like to buy.

AI

So what’s on the horizon? “Get ready for the data age of consumer tech,” Koenig said. “More and more business decisions, more and more consumer choices are guided and informed by data. Just think about your Netflix queue. Those recommendations about what you might like, that isn’t just magic. That’s all built off of data. So we look across the whole tech ecosystem, I think data is the common denominator. Whether it’s Netflix or a self-driving vehicle, data is behind much of what we do, and that’s only going to grow and multiply exponentially as we get into the next decade.”

This era will be driven by advances in AI and machine learning, which Koenig anticipates will be a strong theme at the upcoming International Consumer Electronics Show, which the CTA produces every January in Las Vegas. Drawing an anticipated 180,000 trade professionals from 150 countries this year, according to Koenig, CES is probably the world’s largest consumer technology event.

About AI, Koenig continued, “Companies have massive amounts of customer data ... that they want to make sense of that would take us humans years and years” to sort. And AI will potentially be able to do it in real time, translating this data into instant, actionable information.

Stressing the importance of AI as a technology enabling the future, Koenig mentioned a study released by the McKinsey Global Institute in September. “Just to kind of underscore the significance of AI, they likened the global economic impact of AI in terms of GDP growth globally to the invention of the steam engine or the steam locomotive 150 years ago... They go on to say that through 2030, AI will add 1.2 percent to global GDP growth. It’s such a small percentage, but what’s behind that is quite literally trillions of U.S. dollars. Trillions. That’s how significant AI is. You don’t have to look too deep to uncover other statistics about the vast majority of commercial operations that are either using AI now or making plans to.”

5G

With the speed of technological progress, it’s not surprising that Koenig noted another change we’ll be navigating over the next few years, and another enabling technology. “We’re bridging into the data age, and 5G, which is the next generation of wireless connectivity, is essentially going to become the central nervous system of the data age.”

The hallmarks of 5G—faster speed, greater capacity and lower latency—are all critical elements to enable emerging technologies such as self-driving vehicles, smart cities, 8K video and others.

In its publication “5 Technology Trends to Watch in 2019,” the CTA noted that the U.S. “is beginning a transformation that will create lucrative business opportunities for many. 5G is coming and its rich bandwidth will reduce latency, allow a fast data stream and incentivize new services that cross the borders of all tech sectors. Combined with low-cost sensors, deep data analytics and AI, 5G will be the backbone for much of the smart city infrastructure that will help drive resilience for unforeseen disasters ... 5G will also fuel the connected home, transform digital healthcare and create immersive experiences for global sports fans. Of course, AI will be at the core of each of these areas, supporting them with data to make informed actions.”

Describing the many potential opportunities it may unlock, Koenig explained that 5G, deployed as fixed wireless broadband, has the capacity to bridge the digital divide in the United States and other large countries with geographically dispersed citizens. Noting that it is too expensive to lay fiber to support access to broadband internet for all the residents of the Appalachian Mountains, for example, “fixed wireless 5G brings those super-fast speeds of broadband to places that heretofore have not been able to get a robust internet connection.”

[Read: 5G—The Future Is Now]

He added that 4G and 5G are going to coexist for a time while networks are built out to support 5G deployments and 5G smartphones are put in the hands of consumers. Koenig predicts that by 2022 or 2023, the majority of handsets shipping in the U.S. will be pure 5G.

8K

Koenig positions the 2019 International CES as “the coming-out party for 8K TV,” based on monthly shipment data CES tracks in the U.S. market: “In the October year-to-date data for TV shipments, we have breached the 1 million mark [for the first time] in terms of unit volume shipped for TV sets 70 inches and above,” the target screen size for 8K resolution.

He admits that there’s little native 8K content now and no 8K transmission in the United States, but we were in a similar position when HDTVs first began to appear around the turn of the century.

As for how many 8K televisions are going to sell in the coming year, Koenig said, “Right now my current thinking is 100,000 or less. It’s going to be pretty small simply because it’s a brand new technology.”

He added, “It starts small but then we hit an inflection point. Now, when that big inflection point comes, I don’t think 8K is going to be a big majority seller simply because it’s domain is very, very large screens.”

The trend in the United States is toward increasingly large screens, so 8K sets may increase in prominence over time. “Ten years ago, under 40 inches was the lion’s share of TV shipments, and that has slowly modulated to where now shipments of TVs above 40 inches are the lion’s share. The size category that’s just crushing it right now is 65 inch. Three years ago it was 55 inch. You can start to see a trend here.”

Smart Speakers and Digital Assistants

This holiday season, tech spending is expected to reach a record $96.1 billion in the U.S. alone, according to CTA research, a year-over-year increase of 3.4 percent. Whether it’s emerging tech like smart speakers and smart home devices, or the popular categories like TVs and laptops, tech is an integral part of our lives.

CTA projects that smart speakers such as Amazon’s Echo and Google Home will sell 22 million units this holiday season, up 44 percent over 2017.

Discussing consumer purchasing trends, Koenig said, “About every five or six years there tends to be a must-have consumer tech product. It has the signature of hyper-growth and hyper-volume of sales, so almost overnight, millions of households adopt it. Today that’s the smart speaker.” Five or six years ago, the must-have consumer tech item was the tablet; before that it was the smartphone, and back in 2002 it was the DVD player.

Smart speakers provide an entrée into the home for AI via the speakers’ digital assistant. Microsoft’s Cortana, Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa and Google Assistant are some very capable helpers, and they are changing the way consumers interact with and even purchase new technology.

“CES 2018 taught us three things related to digital assistants,” Koenig said. “The first is that these digital assistants are going into more vessels—this is everything from phones to PCs to cars.”

The second point: “Support for these assistants has now become table stakes, just like connectivity was mandatory several years ago.” If you brought forward a non-connected device in 2010, people didn’t have much interest in it; it’s the same now with devices that don’t interconnect with a digital assistant ecosystem.

This has become critically important in smart home products, where digital assistants have become the killer app, according to Koenig, which leads to the third point: these digital assistants are quickly establishing voice as the go-to user interface.

“Voice is really coming into the user experience,” he said. “I predict that within five years, things that we normally do on a website or through an app, that all gets pushed to the digital assistant that is omnipresent in our experience. They’re in our car, they’re on our phone, they’re on our laptop, they’re in the kitchen on the smart speaker, they’re integrated into the fridge—they’re everywhere. Therefore, they’re always standing by to help. So voice and digital assistants become the new search.”

Koenig isn’t simply speculating on this. The CTA conducted research over the summer that revealed several things about how American adults are using these digital assistants. Koenig noted, “The list is very long of the things that consumers are doing with these digital assistants—it’s not just a few things like checking the weather or setting an alarm. Point two: the things that they are doing are what we would normally fire up an app for or go to a website.” At least part of the time, consumers are starting to pivot to a digital assistant to make purchases or schedule their work and free time.

He added, “I’m belaboring the point, but what I’m trying to say is that we are on the cusp of a major shift in consumer behavior and it’s made possible by these digital assistants, and it will transform our interactions.”

Koenig will be at CES next month to track the accuracy of these forecasts. The 2019 International CES takes place Jan. 8-11 in Las Vegas.