LAS VEGAS—Year one of the NAB Show’s second century is shaping up to be a window on a future that broadcasters will be able to imagine a little more confidently than in recent years.

“As an industry, we have the opportunity to set the tone for the next 100 years,” says Chris Brown, executive vice president and managing director of NAB Global Connections and Events. “It’s an exciting time to see technology reach a point where truly extraordinary advances are possible—in how content is produced, distributed and consumed.”

‘Foundation of Optimism’
For TV stations and their network affiliates, putting these technologies to work across OTA, MVPD, CTV, and streaming outlets to keep audiences engaged while preserving the primacy of broadcast’s role in serving the public is the priority, abetted by new avenues to lowering costs across legacy as well as next-generation operations. While broadcasters­—like other segments of the M&E industry—are dealing with serious “headwinds,” as Brown puts it, unlike recent events in the Covid and post-pandemic era, this year’s show is built on a “foundation of optimism with improving macroeconomic conditions.”

(Note: Brown is being succeeded this year by Karen Chupka, former executive vice president of CES and CTA chief strategy officer) 

Along with highlighting an unprecedented confluence of advanced technologies that have simultaneously reached commercial viability for the entire M&E industry, the 2024 show—April 14-17 in Las Vegas—will feature an expanded agenda specifically tuned to broadcasters’ interests. 

For example, there will be “roughly double” the number of sessions in the annual Broadcast Engineering and IT (BEIT) conference NAB jointly sponsors with the Society of Broadcast Engineers and a return to providing the off-floor “Broadcast District,” in the West Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center which was introduced last year as a focal point for networking and learning that Brown says worked “spectacularly well.”

Standing Out from the Crowd
The upheaval in the streaming market, driven by consolidation and the popularity of ad-supported and FAST services, is forcing companies to distinguish themselves in an increasingly crowded market.

“There’s a lot happening,” says Rick Ducey, managing director at local advertising consultancy BIA Advisory Services. “Everybody is trying to be creative and trying to find the space where they can have that differentiator against the competition.” 

It’s an audience retention and building agenda that’s essential to driving ad revenue. While the explosion in ad-supported OTT services is squeezing the local TV ad take, “we still see it growing,” Ducey says. “All the TV groups have streaming plays and digital plays.”

A major factor shaping the future of TV advertising is broadcasters’ growing reliance on programmatic technology in conjunction with various modes of targeted ad placements streamed to connected TVs (CTVs), which, as Ducey says, are now “the runaway hit in advertising generally.” 

TV groups’ efforts to maintain growth momentum is “really more about product expansion, and that means distribution of the current content and even producing additional content for things like the FAST CTV services they’re managing under their own brands or distributing through other platforms.”

Focus on NextGen TV
And then there’s the looming business expansion opportunity embodied in the launch of ATSC 3.0 (aka “NextGen TV”). Attention devoted to the advanced broadcast standard will be more pervasive than ever at this show. 

“ATSC 3.0 is becoming more and more of a mainstream technology in the broadcast industry and hence also at the NAB Show,” Brown says. “With broadcast transmissions available in markets covering 75% plus of the U.S. population, vendors are pretty much all integrating ATSC 3.0 into their commercial product lines. So the technology will be widespread on the exhibit floor.”

Once again the Advanced Television Systems Committee will be in the West Hall showcasing current and future applications of ATSC 3.0 technology, consumer receivers and set-top boxes, as well as highlighting ATSC 3.0 applications and services outside the U.S. ATSC 3.0 topics will also be addressed during the four-day BEIT Conference.  

No station owner has been more aggressive about driving NextGen TV to market than Sinclair Broadcast Group. Achieving 75% coverage demonstrates ATSC 3.0 is now “on the map,” says Del Parks, Sinclair Broadcast Group president of technology. “That’s kind of a prelude to the next step,” which is “when can we sunset 1.0? That’s the real question.”

Sinclair and its station group allies in tandem with the NAB-led Future of Television task force are pressing hard for cooperation from CE manufacturers and retail dealers not only to create and market 3.0 TVs, media player dongles, and set-top boxes, but to let the public know what’s in store for viewers. That means 3.0 OTA channels now up and running have to deliver “better experiences and additional features,” Parks says. 

Toward that end, one of the strategies Sinclair is pursuing involves utilizing Technicolor’s Advanced HDR platform based on the Single Layer (SL) HDR standard to convert their SDR-formatted programming to HDR for viewing on SL-HDR-compatible TV sets. While SL-HDR 1 is way behind the other leading HDR formats in garnering support from TV OEMs, Sinclair isn’t alone moving in this direction, Parks says. “I believe there are other station groups adopting it,” he notes without naming them. 

Parks says he’s “really optimistic” about the outlook for NextGen TV. Along with delivering HDR and 4K, “there’s a laundry list of experiences we can deliver to the consumer,” including “enhanced sound, advanced emergency information, HTML overlays that consumers can select or we can pop up.” 

Public broadcasters, too, want to get ATSC 3.0 off the ground, but they have a tougher row to hoe than the commercial stations, says Nebraska Public Media CTO Ling Ling Sun. Noting the successes of commercial lighthouse alignments, she says, “We haven’t been able to be part of that. However, we are upgrading our system to be ready to broadcast in 3.0.”

NPM is testing audience responses to potential 3.0-enabled features with an app supporting service enhancements and 4K HDR delivery over its internet feed. And there’s also a possibility of aligning its Omaha transmitter in a lighthouse arrangement with Iowa PBS.

Content Creators
As always, production and postproduction will be a primary topic at the NAB Show with a focus on cutting-edge technology supporting cost-saving efficiency and content innovation. “The internet and related advances in production tools have made high-quality content creation, at or near professional levels, something much more attainable for all,” Brown says. 

Points of coverage at the Post|Production World Conference and show floor will include production virtualization, cloud-based and remote production and “an overall shift from hardware-based to software-based infrastructure,” he adds. “Of note, we will have a unique demonstration of a cloud-based workflow in the ‘Connect Zone’ in the West Hall, produced in partnership with Diversified. We will also be featuring an AWS News Studio in the West Hall lobby using a cloud-based workflow.” 

The show will provide much-needed help for producers unsure of how far to go in putting these new technologies to use, says Dave Van Hoy, president of the Advanced Systems Group (ASG) consultancy. “One of the big challenges today is there are so many options in ways to approach production, it takes a lot of sorting out to find the right way, not only for each client but each production that client does,” he says. For example, “there’s a lot of talk around in-cloud tools,” he notes. But before assuming going to public cloud-based workflows is a slam dunk, producers “have to decide what the goal is.” 

Generally speaking, “It’s pretty unclear that using public cloud technology actually saves you money over a period of time,” he says. “If you’re an ongoing operator with egress and ingress costs, I’m not sure [the public cloud] is less expensive” unless the goal is to save money by supporting remote collaboration.

In any event, Van Hoy adds, the major benefit resulting from reliance on cloud-based workflows is “it allows you to be more nimble by quite a bit.” Coming to this year’s NAB Show, ASG customers are looking at how to accommodate “more software-defined productions, even in on-premises hardware like software-defined switchers and routers, so they can be agile at the least possible costs.”

Another production-related topic which the NAB Show will again shine a light on is the question of whether to apply SMPTE ST 2110 techniques to move out of SDI to IP-based workflows. While the cost-saving case for doing so in many instances “is a no brainer,” there’s still a lot of hesitation in the marketplace, Van Hoy says. 

However, in the case of virtual production technology and the use of LED walls, while adoption isn’t universal, the benefits are well understood with usage growing “up and down the chain” from broadcast news operations to big productions, Van Hoy says. Even producers who don’t yet have the in-house skillsets to use the technology want “to make sure they’re prepared with power and lighting laid out to where that infrastructure can be added as an option,” he adds.

Broadcasters will also have an opportunity for in-depth exploration of AI’s ramifications for their businesses. “This trend is important and pervasive enough that we are creating a Guide to AI that will point to the programs and exhibitors that focus on some aspect of AI,” Brown says. 

To register for the show, visit www.nabshow.com.

HUNT VALLEY, Md.—Sinclair Broadcast Group has announced a strategic memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Korea Radio Promotion Association (RAPA) and CAST.ERA, which is a joint venture between Sinclair and SK Square, to enhance ATSC 3.0 services between Korea and the United States and expand the DDaaS (Data Distribution as a Service) platform globally.

Using NextGen TV, aka ATSC 3.0 broadcasts to deliver data is widely considered one of the most promising ways for broadcasters to make money on NextGen broadcasts. 

The DDaaS platform provides a broadcast backbone for wireless IP (Internet Protocol) data delivery. It harnesses a cloud-based local broadcasting management-control platform and real-time datacasting technology to meet the needs of data users. 

Sinclair, CAST.ERA and the Korea Radio Promotion Association have developed a “Broadcasting Cloud Demonstration Consortium” and will jointly present their empirical service model at NAB 2024, North America’s most prominent broadcasting technology exhibition.

Commenting on the agreement, Del Parks, president of technology at Sinclair reported that “soon we will have 30 of our initial NextGen Broadcast stations connected to our DDaaS platform so we anticipate playing a leading role in accelerating the adoption of the DDaaS business model and the continued transformation of local broadcast capabilities and our ability to serve the public, not only in Korea and the United States, but globally.”

“Through cooperation with Sinclair Broadcast Group, and CAST.ERA, we are determined to promote ATSC 3.0 services that can be utilized in both Korea and the United States,” added RAPA vice chairman Song Jung-su. “This is a pivotal step in our expansion plans.”

Kevin Gage, COO of CAST.ERA, noted that "through this MOU with Sinclair Broadcast Group, a distinguished U.S. broadcaster spearheading innovation in next-generation broadcasting services via DDaaS, and the Korea Radio Promotion Association, which provides extensive support for the activation of ATSC 3.0 services and the global expansion of DDaaS, we anticipate the realization of innovative next-generation broadcasting services shortly, underpinned by close collaboration between the two countries.”

BALTIMORE, Md.—The Sinclair Broadcast Group has announced promotions of seven executives, including the promotion of its longtime head technologist Del Parks to president of Technology. 

“We  are thrilled  to  recognize  these  individuals, especially Del  Parks  who  recently  celebrated  50  years with  the Company and was  key  in building  not  only  our  broadcast  operations  but Sinclair,  as we  grew  from  one  television station  in  Baltimore  to  one  of  the  largest  500 companies  in  the  country  and  an  industry  leader,”  said  Chris  Ripley, President &  CEO  of  Sinclair.    “We  congratulate  all  these  individuals  on their  new  roles  and look forward to  their contributions  as  we  continue  to evolve  and innovate.” 

The promotions at the Sinclair  Broadcast  Group are:

• Del Parks to  President  of  Technology  from  EVP/Chief  Technology Officer  
• Mike Kralec  to SVP, Chief  Technology Officer  from  VP,  Technical  Operations and  Deputy Chief Technology Officer
• Jason  Smith to  Head  of  New  Media  Enterprises  from  VP,  Chief  of  Staff  to  President  of  Broadcast 
• Skip  Flenniken  to  VP,  GM  of  Technology  Business  Development  from  AVP,  Business Development Sinclair  Television  Group
• Kevin Cotlove  to  EVP, Chief  Operating Officer  of  Social  from  SVP,  Chief  Digital Officer
• Amit Mathur  to SVP, Chief  Digital  Officer  from  SVP,  Product  Engineering 
• Don Roberts  to SVP, TV  Sports  Engineering and  Production Systems  from  VP, TV  Sports  Engineering and Production Systems  

MONTREAL—Del Parks, senior vice president and CTO at Sinclair Broadcast Group, has been named chair of Grass Valley’s GVX customer council, the company announced.

Parks will lead the customer group, which is made up of leaders from the largest, innovative media brands in the industry, to advance media technology innovation and help to ensure Grass Valley technology solutions match the challenges of content producers and distributors, it said.

“An initiative like GVX is vital to ensuring customers are heard and have a platform to collectively drive the direction of the wider industry,” said Parks, who is also a SMPTE Fellow. “I’m excited to take on the role of chair and look forward to collaborating with my fellow council members and the Grass Valley team to deliver outstanding results.”

The council, which began in June 2020, convenes regularly to talk about market conditions, tech advancement and other topics that affect suppliers and buyers. These discussions feed directly into the company’s product development strategy, Grass Valley said.

“The relationships we’ve built over the last 60 years are central to our unique ability to engage with the industry’s greatest minds and influencers. GVX lies at the heart of our commitment to listen to and understand the needs of the market so we can develop the technology that our customers need to navigate through the biggest shift the industry has ever seen,” said Tim Shoulders, Grass Valley’s CEO and president. “We are delighted that Del has accepted the position of chair of GVX. His enormous influence in the industry is critical to helping us develop a roadmap that drives the business of broadcast forward.”

Other council members include: Helen Clifton, chief digital and information officer at ABC Australia; Ruba Ibrahim, director of operations at Al Arabiya Network; Gordon Castle, senior vice president, Technology and Operations at Discovery’s sports brand Eurosport; Dave Mazza, senior vice president and CTO, NBC Sports Group and NBC Olympics; and Scott Rothenberg, senior vice president, Technology & Asset Management/Co-Chair, Office of CTO at NEP.

More information is available on the Grass Valley website.

PALM DESERT, CALIF.—Broadcasters at this week’s HPA Tech Retreat discussed two timely television technical topics: the introduction of the ATSC 3.0 DTV transmission standard and the on-going TV spectrum repack initiative.

The “Broadcasters Panel” included Dave Siegler, vice president of technical operations for the Cox Media Group; Del Parks, senior vice president and chief technology officer for the Sinclair Broadcast Group; Skip Pizzi, vice president of technology education and outreach at the NAB; and Fox Network’s Rich Friedel, who also chairs the Advanced Television Systems Committee’s board of directors.

Matthew Goldman, Ericsson senior vice president of technology at Ericsson and SMPTE president, moderated the Wednesday afternoon session and kicked off the discussion by asking the group to talk about the current status of ATSC 3.0.

“The good news is that the standard has been released and the government has allowed us, on a voluntary basis, to broadcast [ATSC 3.0],” said Friedel. “Things are very exciting in ‘ATSC land.’ It’s really real and you’re going to see it on the air.”

THE ADVANTAGES OF MOVING TO ATSC 3.0

Goldman also quizzed the group about what they considered to be the single best feature of the new standard and if its implementation was related to the on-going TV spectrum repacking operation.

“There are so many features associated with ATSC 3.0, so it’s hard to pick out just one,” said Pizzi. “But in the early term I would say greater transmission efficiency combined with more robustness. It’s going to allow broadcasters to do more in the same amount of spectrum and at the same time provide higher quality.”

“I would say it’s the marriage of broadband and over-the-air broadcasting,” said Friedel. “Consumers will be able to get an internet type of experience combined with television.”

[HPA Tech Retreat Plays to Sold-Out Crowd]

As for the tie-in between ATSC 3.0 and the repack, the panel agreed that while there was no direct connection, the timing of events was such that they could be coordinated in such a way as to provide introduction of 3.0 signals in a market as the channel changing is taking place.

“They’re not really related,” said Siegler. “But the coincidence of the timing is a good opportunity for broadcasters to make changes, including addition of 3.0,” noting that coordination and cooperation between broadcasters would be important elements in making both transitions happen. “It’s really an aggressive plan, but you have to start somewhere.”

MAKING THE TRANSITION HAPPEN

Parks acknowledged the challenges in store for broadcasters in achieving the joint goal of shifting channels and rolling out ATSC 3.0, but observed that there has been a long-standing spirit of technical cooperation among broadcasters, even those who are business competitors.

“The engineering departments in broadcasting have had a traditional role in cooperation,” he said. “Many of us are on the same towers and sometimes there are opportunities to use common antennas.”

He added that as the repack and its relatively short deadline for completion was occupying a lot of engineering time and vendor resources at stations and within station groups, it may be challenging to make the move to ATSC 3.0 at the same time.

“There are a lot of engineering ramifications to the repack,” said Parks. “Sinclair has some 95 stations to repack and this is a really significant effort on-going with the introduction of ATSC 3.0 at the same time. A lot of resources within our group are being expended to run both projects at the same time.

“It is very tricky. The government is taking spectrum away and has sold it, so we’re being repacked in a smaller amount of spectrum and at the same time we’re talking about how to deploy 3.0. The most popular approach put forward is to use channel sharing on one or two ATSC 1.0 sticks. So broadcasters have to cooperate or there will be no service.”

Goldman then asked the panel to comment on new services that ATSC 3.0 would enable for the consumer.

“I’m most excited about interactivity that comes with the broadband connection,” said Siegler. “This allows so much to be done.”

[Redefining Television]

“ATSC 3.0 is based on OFDM, rather than VSB and the associated fragility which 1.0 is based on,” said Parks. “With 3.0 and OFDM, you now have this ability for reception in a car while it’s while traveling at 70, 80, 90 miles-per-hour,” said Parks. The vehicle now is really a big computer and you need to have some way to get broadband to it,” noting ATSC 3.0 would be a big enabler in this regard due to its IP nature.”

“ATSC 3.0 is the first and, so far, the only IP-based TV transmission standard,” said Pizzi. “This could become a real advantage at the end of the day once the transition takes place.”

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

For more information on the repack, visit TV Technology's repack silo.