WASHINGTON—While the broadcast industry has been beset by challenges in 2020 from the COVID-19 pandemic, NAB’s President and CEO Gordon Smith believes there can be a silver lining: the re-examination and re-invention of broadcast.

In his opening remarks for NAB Show New York, taking place virtually this week, Smith praised the work of broadcasters—who he described as visionaries and disruptors pushing the industry forward—not only in their efforts to provide vital information to viewers during these times, but their work toward improving their services for the future.

“The challenges of 2020 have created opportunities to re-examine our business models … and integrate different tools and technologies so that we can create new ways to continue to thrive,” Smith said. “This is happening all across the media and entertainment landscape, but on the broadcast side, NAB and its members have been more focused than ever on investing in innovations to ensure that broadcast signals are available on every device today and in the future so that we can always be there for our communities when they need us most.”

PLUS: NAB Show NY 2020: Virtual Events Calendar

Smith also praised the work of local broadcasters in keeping their communities informed and connected in situations that have included the pandemic, wildfires, hurricanes and social justice movements. “[W]e are exercising our First Amendment rights of freedom of speech and of the press to keep the public informed and shine light on the issues that our nation and communities face.”

Some direct examples of this are part of the NAB Show New York program, which Smith highlighted in his remarks, including a panel on Oct. 21 looking at 2020 election campaign coverage by local broadcasters and recognizing Meredith Vieira with the NAB Show New York Impact Award.

The full remarks from Gordon Smith are now available for on-demand viewing. For more information on the NAB Show New York, visit www.nabshowny.com.  

WASHINGTON—Just a couple of blocks down from the Capitol, NAB Pilot offered policymakers a look at innovations in TV broadcasting that are serving the public during its “Broadcast Innovations” event.

The first such event put on by NAB Pilot, the program took a close look at how new apps are helping spread local news and emergency information, as well as advancements on the horizon.

(From left to right) Diana Marszalek, Paul Brenner, Louis Gump, and Anne Schelle participate in "The New Broadcasters" panel during NAB Pilots' "Broadcast Innovations" event.

One of the main panels was “The New Broadcasters,” which featured NewsOn CEO Louis Gump, PearlTV Managing Director Anne Schelle and NextRadio President Paul Brenner, and focused on the new ways content is being delivered.

Gump highlighted the NewsOn app, which allows users to stream live or on-demand broadcasts of their local news stations from anywhere in the country. Supported by a number of broadcast networks, NewsOn currently features more than 160 stations in 108 markets. The app launched in 2015, but one of the big surprises, Gump said, is how many government officials based in Washington use the app to stay connected to their local news.

In addition to providing local information to those in Washington, Gump also stressed how NewsOn can be “public service magnified.” With the recent events with Hurricane Hermine, NewsOn was able to provide a new capability of sending push alerts to mobile devices. “Users got the alert, they could pick where they wanted to look… and they could find the information,” explained Gump.

This echoed the issue of emergency alert capabilities that Schelle and Brenner also brought up. But the key to further developing these services and others like it, according to the panel, is the advancement of ATSC 3.0. All of the panelists—and even other speakers like NAB President and CEO Gordon Smith—are calling on the FCC to move forward in their process of approving ATSC 3.0 for broadcasters to begin using as soon as possible.

“It’s really important that the FCC move quickly to issue a notice of proposed rulemaking this year so that we can sink the implementation of 3.0 during the repack timeframe,” said Schelle. “It doesn’t make any sense to do any kind of transition twice.”

(ATSC 3.0 is moving forward on its own, announcing today the final approval of its Physical Layer Standard.)

The rest of the sessions offered a number of updates and recaps of some other examples of recent broadcast innovations, including the use of UHD and other technologies during NBC’s coverage of the Rio Olympics; the advancements of local broadcast; as well as drone, virtual reality and emergency alert technology, specifically the AWARN system.

The “Broadcast Innovations” event took place at the Newseum in Washington D.C.

Organizers promise keynotes, panels and live demos with experts highlighting how they are “revolutionizing the broadcast industry with new and emerging technologies to better serve audiences in new ways,” according to a press release.Pilot was announced last winter as “a coalition of stakeholders dedicated to advancing broadcast technologies,” succeeding NAB Labs. Along with NAB, its charter members are Accenture, Akamai, Frankly, Google, Lakana, Nielsen, Shareablee and Yahoo.News4 anchor Jim Handly emcees today’s event; participants include NAB President/CEO Gordon Smith, Sen. Brian Schatz, Rep. Greg Walden and Glenn Reitmeier, SVP of Advanced Technology Standards & Policy at NBC Universal.Some highlights from the schedule:After the panels and remarks comes a two-hour reception, during which demonstrations of the Olympics in Ultra HD, virtual reality, NewsOn, NextRadio, “Next Generation TV Advanced Emergency Alerts” and (of course) drones.

• An Olympic Experience: This presentation talks about how changes in production and consumer technology affect the way that home audiences experience the games. Wwimmer Allison Schmitt will discuss her career, during which she has medaled across three separate games.
• The New Broadcasters: The session explores how on-command content gets to audiences in “today’s anywhere, anytime broadcast environment.”
• Congressional remarks fromWalden and Schatz, each of whom are slated to talk for about five minutes.
• The Future of Localism: Bringing the Story Home (5:25–6 p.m.): How have innovations enabled broadcasters to focus on news that matters most to their communities?

WASHINGTON—
The National Association of Broadcasters’ recently renamed tech advocacy arm is hosting D.C- area policymakers today for a “glimpse of the future” that includes demonstrations of Ultra HD video, NextRadio,
virtual reality and drones.

The event is called “Broadcast Innovations: Today, Tomorrow and Beyond” and is being put on by Pilot, the former NAB Labs, this afternoon and evening at the Newseum, a couple of blocks from the U.S. Capitol.

Learn more about the agenda here.