The opening ceremony of Korea’s 2019 Broadcast Industry Promotion Week included a launch ceremony for an ATSC 3.0 emergency alert system. At the ceremony, The Korean Ministry of Information and Communication announced the launch of a UHD Emergency Alert Service for delivering disaster response information for earthquakes, heavy rains, and fires. The Ministry predicts the new system will be able to deliver information more quickly using a terrestrial UHD broadcast network.

The new system will not replace Korea’s existing telecom-based alert system, but will work with it to improve performance and coverage. Korea IT Times reports, “South Korea already has an emergency alert system based on telecom technologies. The addition of using ATSC 3.0 signals from broadcast spectrum is designed to enhance the alerting process, offer backup to the existing telecom networks if they are compromised, and finally cover blind spots that telecom signals do not reach.”

New coverage will include use of large outdoor display screens placed in bus, subway, and multi-use facilities such as nursing homes. The large screens will more dramatically and graphically communicate emergency information. The new service will also include innovations to support hearing impaired citizens with voice guidance based on text-to-speech (TTS) technology, and support the visually impaired by using beacons and vibrometers as guides to safety.

According to BusinessKorea, part of the alert plan was put into place the day of the announcement. ATSC 3.0 receivers and displays were activated in bus and subway facilities in South Korea’s capital city of Seoul. The Korean government has plans to expand the new emergency service to other cities in 2021 and go nationwide in 2022.

While the announcement of an ATSC 3.0-based emergency alert system surprised some in the US, Pete Han, CEO of DigiCAP, a technology supplier for the project, thought it was inevitable, “In Korea we are starting our third year working with live ATSC 3.0 broadcast networks. When you work with this technology day in and day out, you realize how much room for innovation there is. You can see evidence of this in this new EAS system.”

According the Korea IT Times, “These alert services, based on ATSC 3.0 next-generation broadcasting and communications technology, are expected to change the paradigm of information transmission…The Ministry of Science and ICT is planning to overcome the limitations of the current emergency alert and broadcasting services by refining the initial pilot services in cooperation with the Korea Communications Commission, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety and the Korea Meteorological Administration.”

At NAB New York October 22

Pete Han, who attended the Korean emergency alert system launch in Korea will be a part of a panel discussion at NAB NY about the system. He will be joined with John Lawson, Executive Director of the AWARN Alliance, and Joonyoung Park, VP and Fellow at DigiCAP.who worked on key technology for the project. Link to NAB NY Korean EAS Session

PARIS, DENVER & SINGAPORE–ATEME has announced that it is supplying Sinclair Broadcast Group with live video encoding technology for Sinclair’s Dallas experimental ATSC 3.0 test for single frequency networks.

ATEME is providing its TITAN encoding platform for ATSC 1.0 (MPEG-2) “Host Station” encoding and “NextGen” 3.0 (HEVC) encoding, providing efficient, Live/Mux statistical multiplexing enabled VBR encoding across both transmission platforms. Two years ago, ATEME introduced HE-MPEG2, a high-efficiency MPEG-2 codec, which is compatible with MPEG-2 compliant decoders, including legacy set-top boxes, digital televisions and digital to analog MPEG-2 converters.

[Read: Q&A: Mark Aitken On Dallas Next-Gen SFN Trial]

Based on the bandwidth efficiency of HE-MPEG2 in conjunction with ATEME’s TITAN Live/Mux statistical multiplexing, the ATSC stations have increased mux density by 30 percent without compromising video quality, according to ATEME. TITAN is a pure software encoder-transcoder that can provide a migration path to ATSC 3.0, HEVC or SHVC (scalable HEVC) and runs on any private/public and on/off-premises cloud infrastructure.

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

BALTIMORE—The consortium that is led by Sinclair Broadcast, NextStar Media Group and Univision is adding its first affiliate member in Northwest Broadcasting.

The consortium will promote innovation and develop and explore products and services associated with ATSC 3.0. It will also look into monetization opportunities such as spectrum utilization, virtual MVPD platforms, multicast channels, automotive applications, single frequency networks and wireless data applications.

The consortium has agreed to collaborate on a non-exclusive basis. It emphasizes that other broadcasting entities are welcome to join.

For more on this subject, visit our ATSC 3.0 silo.

LAS VEGAS—Enensys will unveil its ATSC 3.0 product line—including ATSCheduler and ATSC 3.0-compliant IP Guard—at the 2017 NAB Show. Korean terrestrial broadcasters, including SBS, have already successfully deployed the products.

Serving as a broadcast gateway, the ATSCheduler runs at the station or central head end where it encapsulates IP streams stemming from HEVC encoders that deliver compressed content over ROUTE or MMTP protocols, as well as from non-real-time servers generating signaling information and interactive applications. It outputs an ATSC-compliant multiplex using studio to transmitter (STL) link protocol through IP.

The Enensys exhibit will also feature IPGuard, an ATSC 3.0-compatible system that provides instant switchover from main to backup without interrupting transmission. To accomplish this, redundancy is required at the STL to deliver synchronized content to the head end and at the scheduler level to ensure seamless switchover in a single frequency network environment.

AdsEdge

ENENSYS will also demonstrate its TbEdge ISDB-Tb solution for use at transmission sites in Brazil and other Latin American countries. It receives and decrypts the DVB-S signal to generate a BTS for MFN or SFN broadcasting, and updates SI information. It can also reuse the DTH signal to build the ISDB-T multiplex to save satellite bandwidth capacity. From the DTH feed, the system selects the services at each transmission site to build the new ISDB-T/Tb signal.

AdsEdge, another Enensys product, allows insertion of pre-recorded regional or local content, such as ads, local news or weather, at transmission sites. A combination of server and splicer, AdsEdge is placed at the networks’ edge to provide targeted content insertion based on geographical location. This solution now includes Campaign Manager, a central server application that interfaces AdsEdge with the automation system, content suppliers and advertising agencies to ensure that the right content is received and supplied in the correct timeframe to the splicer.

The 2017 NAB Show takes place in Las Vegas, April 24-27. Enensys will be in booth SU7813. For more information, visit www.nabshow.com.

For more on this subject, visit our ATSC 3.0 silo.