WASHINGTON, D.C.—Federal Communications Commission chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel has announced a tentative agenda for the May Open Commission Meeting scheduled for Thursday, May 23, 2024 that include a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPR) designed to strengthen national security by cracking down on tech labs certifying RF equipment with ties to countries like China and Russia.  

Other than this NPR, The FCC will take up a number of unspecified enforcement actions and a restricted adjudicatory matter from the Media Bureau. 

The new NPR is part of an ongoing crackdown on the use of telecommunications equipment from China that has already seen a ban on equipment from Huawei and other Chinese vendors being used in U.S. networks.  

To strengthen those nation security efforts, the FCC said it is now proposing to ban test and certification labs that have ties to countries on the “covered list”, which include the People’s Republic of China, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (China), Republic of Cuba (Cuba), Islamic Republic of Iran (Iran), Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea), Russian Federation (Russia), and others. 

“The FCC’s equipment authorization program is tasked with ensuring that all of these devices available to  American businesses and consumers comply with our rules regarding, among other things, interference, radio-frequency (RF) emissions, and hearing aid compatibility,” the agency said in the NPR. “To ensure the efficient and effective review of tens of thousands of equipment authorizations annually, the Commission delegates certain important responsibilities to telecommunications certification bodies (TCBs) and measurement facilities (test labs) with regard to implementing our equipment authorization program. Now, as part of ongoing efforts to promote national security and protect our nation’s communications equipment supply chain, the Commission has placed significant new national security related responsibilities on TCBs and test labs.”  

“By establishing new equipment authorization program rules that prohibit authorization of communications equipment that has been determined to pose an unacceptable risk to the national security of the United States or the security and safety of United States persons, these entities now must help ensure that such prohibited equipment is kept out of our nation’s supply chain," the NPR said. "Further, these entities are entrusted with receiving and maintaining sensitive and proprietary information regarding communications equipment.  In light of these new and ongoing responsibilities and the persistent and evolving threats posed by untrustworthy actors seeking, among other things, to compromise our networks and supply chains, today we seek to strengthen our requirements for and oversight of TCBs and test labs by proposing new rules that would help ensure the integrity of these entities for purposes of our equipment authorization program, better protect national security, and advance the Commission’s comprehensive strategy to build a more secure and resilient communications supply chain.  It is vital that we ensure that these entities are not subject to influence or control by foreign adversaries or other untrustworthy actors that pose a risk to national security.”

More specifically, the NPR noted that "we propose to prohibit from recognition by the FCC and participation in our equipment authorization program, any TCB or test lab in which an entity identified on the Covered List has direct or indirect ownership or control, and prohibit reliance on or use of, for purposes of equipment authorization, any TCB or test lab that is directly or indirectly owned or controlled by any entity on the Covered List or by any third party in which an entity identified on the Covered List has any direct or indirect ownership or control. Considering our national security concerns about entities identified on the Covered List, we also direct the Office of Engineering and Technology (OET) to take swift action to suspend the recognition of any TCB or test lab directly or indirectly owned or controlled by entities identified on the Covered List, thereby preventing such entities from using their owned or controlled labs to undermine our current prohibition on Covered Equipment.”

The full document is available here. 

SAN ANTONIO, Texas—The IP-based video tech provider NewTek has announced the appointment of Ninth Heaven Technology as a new distributor in China.  

NewTek, which is a member of the Vizrt Group, said that this strategic partnership with Ninth Heaven Technology is part of the company's plan to expand its presence in the growing Chinese proAV markets,  including enterprise, education, government, Esports, and more. 

The addition of a new distributor in China also reinforces NewTek's long-term commitment to delivering accessible, easy to use, yet cutting-edge solutions to customers and end users worldwide, the company said. 

"Ninth Heaven Technology has extensive experience and expertise in the proAV markets, and coupled with their strong network and dedication to customer satisfaction, they are an ideal partner for us," said Paul Dobbs, head of channel sales, APAC, Vizrt Group. "We are confident that this collaboration will expand our reach to new heights in the Chinese market,” 

Ninth Heaven Technology will provide NewTek with a wider distribution network and increased accessibility for its products in China. 

This move will also facilitate the growth of reseller partnerships and provide customers with more options to leverage NewTek's industry-leading solutions for their video production workflows. 

"We are thrilled to embark on this partnership with NewTek," said Song Wei, the general manager for Ninth Heaven Technology Co LTD. "As a leading distributor in China, we are constantly seeking state-of-the-art solutions to meet the increasing demand for high-quality live streaming and live production. Collaborating  with NewTek expands our product portfolio and offers our customers innovative solutions that empower them to achieve their creative visions. We are excited about the opportunities this partnership brings and look forward to delivering exceptional value to  our customers in the Chinese market.” 

To learn more about NewTek's live video production solutions, visit  www.newtek.com  

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.—TVU Networks has announced that the stars of “HaHaHaHaHa,” the first traveling, reality show in China, relied on TVU One mobile transmitters to conduct interviews and deliver live broadcasts on their journey from east to west across China.

In the show, the 5HA Tour Group, which is made up of Chinese film and television stars Deng Chao, Chen He and Lu Han, go on ten journeys filled with surprises and challenges. They must earn accommodation, transportation expenses and everything they need on the road by completing tasks and games determined by the film crew.

In the tenth episode, the team arrives at Qingshan Village in Yuhang District, Hangzhou. People in the village had just finished the autumn harvest and were planning a post-festival party. The challenge for this episode was for the 5HA Tour to conduct multiple live broadcasts of the party, interviewing, filming and hosting the live report on their own – without help from the crew.

Because Qingshan Village is located in a mountainous area, there was a risk of poor and fluctuating signal coverage, making it essential that the live broadcast equipment maintain stable transmission in a weak network environment, be easy to use for non-professionals, and be rugged enough to withstand extreme weather and constant travel.

After testing several solution, the show chose TVU One mobile transmitter to ensure high-quality, stable delivery of this live broadcast, TVU reported. 

Signals from three locations in the village were transmitted back to the TVU Receiver in the producer’s temporary studio and production center from the three TVU One transmitters in the field. At the same time, using TVU One's VoIP call function, the “reporters” on location maintained an interactive connection with show hosts Chen He and Li Dan at the makeshift studio.

TVU One performed flawlessly throughout the three-hour live broadcast, delivering real-time backhaul of multiple channels between the field and the studio. The show was broadcast on the iQiyi and Tencent platforms, receiving hundreds of millions of views and enabling the audience to enjoy the antics of the 5HA Tour Group, the companies said. 

“We’re delighted that our technology was part of such an innovative, live program,” said Paul Shen, CEO, TVU Networks. “For the non-professional, 5HA reporters to deliver and produce their own live interviews and interact with show anchors through the VoIP function, the technology had to be very easy to use. Through this experience, the 5HA reporters have inadvertently become our biggest ‘spokespersons’ for TVU One - pushing it to center stage from its usual spot behind the scenes.”

“HaHaHaHaHa” (official name in English is “Let’s Work Together”) is produced by iQiyi and Tencent Video and co-produced by Zhejiang Blue Sky Media, Orange Image and Zhejiang Hexin Media. Season 2 of the 70-minute reality show ran for 22 episodes between November 20, 2021 and January 30, 2022.

OBERTEURINGEN & GUANGZHOU—IHSE has announced that it has opened an office in Guangzhou, China, to meet the region’s growing demand for KVM products. The office will provide sales and technical support to customers and channel partners throughout the region.

Alan Wang, who has more than 17 years of experience in KVM, control center and audiovisual/IT system specification and installation, will head up IHSE’s China office. He will be tasked with serving existing business relations as well as developing new sales opportunities directly with customers and through local sale channels.

"Our new office under Alan Wang will deliver a greater level of local support to customers throughout China. It will enable us to identify new projects to significantly expand growth in the region," explains Terence Teng, CEO of IHSE Asia.

For more information, visit www.ihse.com.  

LONDON—The growth of the global digital media industry has been significant over the last few years as content consumption on the internet gains in popularity, and nowhere has that been more evident than in China.

According to a report new data from Statista Global Consumer Survey, reported on by GoldenCasinoNews, the world’s five largest digital media markets—the U.S., China, Japan, the U.K. and Germany—are expected to reach $116 billion in value in 2020, an increase of $18.2 billion from the market’s value in 2017 ($97.8 billion). 

The digital media industry includes audio/visual media content distributed over the internet, including digital video content, music, video games and electronically published content.

The U.S. is still the largest market for digital media in the world, expected to reach a value of $51.3 billion in 2020, which is an increase of $6.9 billion since 2017. 

However, China, which is the second largest market, has emerged as the fastest growing market in the world. It’s value of $25.8 billion in 2017 is expected to reach $34.4 billion by the end of 2020, an increase of $8.6 billion.

Japan follows as the third largest market ($17.2 billion in 2020), followed by the U.K. ($7.8 billion) and Germany ($5.2 billion).

The rise in digital media is only expected to go up over the next few years, according to Statista Global Consumer Survey. By 2024, the value of the top five global digital markets is projected to reach $128 billion. 

During this time frame, the U.S. is actually expected to surpass China in terms of growth, with a forecasted increase of $5.5 billion to reach nearly $57 billion in revenue. China will keep its second position, with an estimated growth of $4.2 billion to $38.6 billion. Growth in Japan, the U.K. and Germany is expected to be slower, with a combined projected growth of $1.8 billion by 2024.

LONDON—If watching eSports was an Olympic event, China would be racking up gold medals. A new report from Ampere Analysis found that among China’s internet users, 26% are watching eSports at least once a month, which is significantly more than Western countries.

The leader in eSports viewing among Western countries is Denmark, which has 9% of its internet viewers watching eSports on a monthly basis. Sweden, the U.K. and France follow, with the U.S. just behind them at about 6%.

The big draw for eSports audiences, according to Ampere, has been high profile global tournaments. The 2019 Fortnite World Cup drew 20 million global viewers on Twitch; the FIFA 2019 eWorld Cup garnered 50 million global viewers across all platforms. China’s highest-watched eSports event was the League of Legends 2018 World Championship, which had an audience of 203 million in the country, compared to 2 million throughout the rest of the world.

The audience for eSports appears to growing among demographics, as Ampere’s study indicates. While the main demographic fo eSports is still males 18-34, females now make up 35% of viewers, while 40% are over 35 and 33% live with young children. China in particular is pretty well balanced, as 43% of its viewers are female.

As far as how viewers are watching eSports, Amazon’s Twitch platform is the most popular service among North American and European viewers, at about 65% usage among monthly viewers. YouTube trails with under 40%. Twitch has been able to build its popularity by hosting a variety of channels and having deals for third-party streaming rights for events.

“The rise of eSports viewing on a global scale presents a potentially lucrative opportunity for new and existing players,” said Hazel Ford, analyst at Ampere. “Platforms such as Twitch and YouTube are currently market leaders but face growing competition from a number of newcomers, including the developers themselves. As with the traditional sports world, exclusive rights deals will become crucial for platforms looking to control high growth eSports audiences.”

For more information, visit www.ampereanalysis.com.

LONDON—TNT may be the U.S. network that knows drama, but China has laid its case to be the drama leader of the world with its slate of TV productions. According to new research from Ampere Analysis, the country’s leading broadcasters and OTT services have commissioned nearly 300 new drama series in the last six months.

The Ampere study shows that China is responsible for more than half of the world’s new drama productions, with the genre representing 67% of all upcoming titles. In the U.S., dramas make up just 16% of upcoming titles. This interest in genre is making it the number one commissioned genre worldwide.

However, while drama is the dominant genre, it isn’t alone. Leading up to September 2019, China had 432 upcoming scripted TV commissions; the U.S. had 359 over that same period, while the rest of world in total had 645.

Besides drama, 14% of Chinese commissioned shows fall under romance—similar to other APAC countries. But where international markets often enjoy crime and thriller shows, it only makes up 10% of China’s commissions. There were very few comedy and sci-fi shows greenlit in China over this period.

While most of the shows have been commissioned by Chinese producers, international companies like BBC and Endemol Shine have also entered the market.

Another factor that differentiates China from other markets is that only about 8% of its new shows were commissioned by SVoD services. The U.S., in comparison, had nearly half of its shows commissioned by OTT players. However, because of fragmentation of the market, Chinese SVoD services are still among the most active individual commissioners, but most content is still commissioned by a large number of small, local broadcasters.

In terms of subscribers, Chinese SVoD services are keeping pace with international competitors. Ampere expects iQIYI to reach 116 million subscribers by the end of 2019, while Tencent should hit 108 million subscribers. That would be behind Netflix’s 164 million expected subscribers, but ahead of Amazon’s 91 million. This subscriber growth is expected to increase SVoD’s commissioning activity over the next year, which could also impact the genre preferences of the country.

“The Chinese SVoD services, which have some of the largest subscriber bases in the world and now represent nearly one in 10 new series green-lit in China, echo the global and U.S. TV giants in terms of the genres they are commissioning,” said Richard Cooper, Ampere research director.

MUNICH—China will be taking a look at what 5G broadcasts will look like through a field trial taking place in Beijing and run by the Academy of Broadcasting Science and the China Broadcasting Network Co. Ltd. Assisting with the trial will be Rohde & Schwarz, which will provide transmitters and core network components.

This new trial will be based on the 5G Today project that R&S is also a part of in Germany. Set to go on air in August before the 2019 Beijing International Radio, TV & Film Exhibition, this is a step toward 5G broadcasting that China hopes to have in place for commercial deployment by the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing and then for further national expansion by 2025.

The Beijing Trial network will contain three stations operating in a single-frequency network and a FeMBMS (Further evolved Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service) and High Tower High Power concept. R&S transmitters with 1kW output power will work at a central frequency of 754 MHz with 5 MHz bandwidth (later on 10 MHz). A software defined radio receiver developed by Technische Universitaet Braunschweig, Germany, and a Kathrein signal analyzer are part of the trial package. This end-to-end implementation will help with tests for field strength propagation, network coverage, mobility reception, application possibilities and interworking with LTE unicast network.

According to R&S’ press release, the 5G trial is expected to have significant impact on chipset and handset manufacturers market, and that it can be a “driving force on a commercial end-to-end realization of the future broadcasting technology.”

BIRTV 2019 will take place from Aug. 20-24, where R&S is expected to demonstrate some of the 5G broadcast technology.

Petaluma, Calif. — Point Source Audio (PSA) announced that it has appointed China’s EAD and South Korea’s Capstone Pro to be distribution partners for its SERIES8 and EMBRACE™ microphones as well as its CM-i series of patented in-ear headsets. The appointments come on the back of an expansion effort in response to increased sales and product awareness outside of the USA for Point Source Audio. These partnerships further expand the company’s worldwide reach, which now includes international partners in the United Kingdom, Australia, Japan Italy, Norway, Finland and France, among others.

“We’re excited to be working with both Capstone Pro and EAD,” said James Lamb, President of Point Source Audio. “The creative community in these regions is massive and our products fit their needs. Our goal is to continuously improve our customers’ experience around the world in every aspect and we are confident that our new partners will help achieve that.”

Integral to achieving this growth trajectory in the Asia Pacific region is also the appointment of AS Audio APAC Pte. Ltd. as the manufacturer’s representative in the territory. Based in Singapore, the company, led by Alex Schloesser, will support the Asia Pacific business and develop its distribution network. AS Audio will also handle all technical and sales support for Point Source Audio throughout the APAC region.

Schloesser comments, “Developing and growing the PSA business is a rewarding and enjoyable task. Wherever we take the products, they shine and stand their ground with the competition. I very much look forward to be taking PSA into APAC.”

Point Source Audio is a manufacturer of specialty sub-miniature body-worn style microphones and patented lavalier mounting systems specifically designed for theatre applications. The company creates value-added solutions through intelligent designs, driven by market demand — examples include their IP 57 rated waterproof models and unique headsets which retain the position of the microphone capsule regardless of performer activity.

About EAD
Established in 1997, Guangzhou Donghui Digital Technology Development Co, Ltd is a professional audio and video integrator and distribution company. The company is headquartered in Hong Kong with branches in Guangzhou and Beijing. For more information, visit their website at www.ead.cn.

About Capstone Pro
CAPSTONE PRO, led by founders Kevin Kim and Jesse Park, both veterans of the professional audio industry, was established in 2018. The company distributes pro audio brands including Point Source Audio throughout Korea. For more information visit their website at www.capstonepro.co.kr.

About Point Source Audio
Point Source Audio (@PSA_audio) manufactures and distributes worldwide their SERIES8, EMBRACE, and CONFIDENCE collection of miniature microphones—a unique line of headset, earworn and earmounted microphones known for their robust bendable boom and waterproof features. The company also holds two patents for the EMBRACE concealable microphone as well as the patent for the world’s first modular in-ear comms headset that is supporting the hearing health for audio, lighting and camera techs using headsets everywhere from sports to space. Founded in 2004, Point Source Audio is headquartered in Petaluma, Calif. For more information call (415) 226-1122 or visit www.point-sourceaudio.com. Follow the company on Twitter at www.twitter.com/PSA_audio.

ALEXANDRIA, VA.—A new study finds the Trump Administration’s proposed tariffs on TVs from China would boost the price Americans pay for sets, costing an estimated $711 million next year.

The study, commissioned by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) and National Retail Federation (NRF), finds the proposed tariffs will increase the price of TVs from China by 23 percent and increase prices for all TVs by 4 percent.

"These proposed tariffs are bad for the economy, businesses and American consumers," said Gary Shapiro, CEO and president, CTA.

The study relies on a model that reflects shifts to other sources that would occur if the tariff on Chinese products in four product areas –televisions, monitors, batteries and printers—were imposed.

[Read: The Top 10 Tech Trends For 2018: Juniper Research]

The results “show that, even accounting for alternative sources of supply, the proposed tariffs would have a negative impact on American consumers,” the study said.

As relates to TVs, the tariffs would result in U.S. consumers cutting back on television purchases by 7.8 percent, it found. “The net impact on the economy (the value of U.S. producer gains plus tariff revenues to the U.S. government, minus the value of consumer losses) is a hit of $322 million,” it said.

"China's unfair trade practices must be addressed, but as this study shows, tariffs aren't the answer and will punish U.S. consumers in the form of higher prices," said NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay.

LAS VEGAS—Throughout the 2017 NAB Show, Chinese broadcasters were able to share their country’s radio, television and film industries by visiting the China (Beijing) Broadcasting Technological Innovation Pavilion. The pavilion was sponsored by the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television, and organized by the Organizing Committee of CCBN.

The goal of the pavilion, and the events and demonstrations held at it, was to promote China’s products and technologies, as well as improve communication and cooperation with international broadcasters, industrial organizations and institutions.

The Beijing Municipal Bureau reports that during the NAB Show it met with representatives from organizations like IABM, NAB, IBC, IEEE, InterBee, SCTE, HIS, Future TV and the Brazilian Association of Radio and Television.

SAN MARCOS, TEXAS—While the end result won’t be quite as big as the Great Wall, Quantum Materials Corp. has announced that it has entered into a joint venture with Guanghui Technology Group to build out quantum dot production facilities in China. GTG will invest $20 million to build Quantum Materials QDX facilities and quantum dots application development.

Quantuam Materials Corp CEO Steve Squires

Registered in Hong Kong, the venture will be known as Quantum Materials Asia Co., Ltd. This venture will enable Quantum Materials Asia to supply quantum dots to clients in the display, lighting and solar energy industries by Q3 2016.

Among the materials that will be produced by Quantum Materials Asia is Cadmium free quantum dots.