The Advanced Television Systems Committee announced Feb. 20 that Madeleine Noland of LG Electronics is taking over as chair of TG3, the technical group responsible for development of the ATSC 3.0 Next-Gen TV standard, from Dr. Rich Chernock, chief science officer of Triveni Digital.

[Noland to Replace Chernock as ATSC Tech Group Lead]

Before closing the book on Chernock’s tenure as TG3 chairman, it seems appropriate to reflect on what has been accomplished and to offer a hat tip to the former TG3 chairman for his leadership in the quest to ensure a brighter future for broadcast television.

Chernock has successfully led the world’s brain trust of television technology through a standardization process in which those with various competing interests had to find compromise without compromising the standard.

One ATSC 3.0 member called Chernock’s demeanor “perfect for the time of going through the angst of birthing a new standard,” adding that he could “cut through the bull with the technical chops to back it all up and have the respect of everybody in the room.”

Mark Richer, president of ATSC, described Chernock as “a really good listener” and a “good reader” who digested “everything” in the detailed, technical correspondence of members of the various specialist groups that laid out the nuanced thoughts that needed to be considered and debated.

[What Tom Said: Recognition for the Past and Future]

“Nobody is an expert on every part of ATSC 3.0, but Rich was able to expand his knowledge and skills very quickly to lead the whole effort forward,” said Richer. Equipped with that constant, newly acquired stream on information, Chernock was able to “set direction based on a great deal of knowledge,” he added.

As a result, the TV industry has been given a remarkable gift—a standard that is equally adept at delivering 4K UHD TV over the air as it is at transmitting mobile TV. One that supports IP-based datacasting, interactivity, AWARN alerting, OTT, immersive audio and so much more. Perhaps most important, ATSC 3.0 is not frozen in time but can be updated as new, more powerful generations of technology come along.

The TV industry owes a debt of gratitude to the many people who volunteered so much of their time and so many of their talents to make the Next-Gen TV standard a reality, but none more than Dr. Rich Chernock.

WASHINGTON—There will be a changing of the guard in the ATSC Technology Group, as the ATSC Board of Directors have tapped Madeleine Noland to take over as lead from Dr. Richard Chernock starting in May. The ATSC Technology Group supports the implementation of the ATSC 3.0 next-generation broadcast TV standard.

Noland, a consultant for LG Electronics, has been part of the development phase of Next Gen TV as the chair of the Specialists Group on Applications and Presentation for ATSC 3.0 (TG3/S34), leading the effort to develop ATSC 3.0 features like vetting of standards for watermarking, advanced emergency alerting, personalization and companion devices, according to Mark Richer, ATSC president. She has also served as vice chair of the S31 Specialists Group, helping to frame the system requirements for ATSC 3.0.

[Madeleine Noland Receives ATSC Bernard Lechner Award]

“Throughout the development of ATSC 3.0 suite of standards, Madeleine has been a consistent and dependable leader,” said Richer in the official press release. “She is adept at forging agreements on difficult technical issues within the collaborative standards development process. Following in Rich’s footsteps is a logical progression for her. We are delighted that Madeleine has accepted this new assignment to guide the Technology Group’s continuing development of standards and recommended practices.”

Dr. Chernock, Triveni Digital’s chief science officer, has been the chair of the ATSC Technology Group since 2014.

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

PRINCETON JUNCTION, N.J.—When we look at where television audio standards stand today, it’s hard to reconcile the initial mono sound broadcasts from television’s infancy to where it has evolved with the capabilities of the next generation of broadcast standards, part of ATSC 3.0. This progression of television audio from mono led first to stereo, then a second audio language program (SAP), to ATSC 1.0 digital with the availability of Dolby AC3 Surround Sound—each step advancing audio technology on a steady progression towards making sound more realistic and engaging.

Visitors to the Next Generation TV Hub at the 2017 NAB Show check out immersive audio for ATSC 3.0.
Now, however, new doors are being opened for content developers to leverage the ATSC 3.0 next-generation audio standards and offer a more immersive sound environment, as well as provide end users with a more personalized sound experience. An exploration of ATSC 3.0 audio standards capabilities demonstrates their impact on how we deploy and engage with new sound systems that are evolving along with rapid advancements in the digital world.

3D IMMERSION & AUDIO OBJECTS
Building upon surround sound that’s laid out in a plane (5.1)—such as with initial surround sound systems like Dolby AC3—ATSC 3.0 audio standards take sound to a full 7.1+4 implementation, meaning seven channels of sound in a plane, one channel for a subwoofer (or the low frequencies), and four channels overhead.

On first look, this may just seem like throwing more sound into the mix, but how that sound is delivered is what makes it so unique. With audio experts having a detailed understanding of how the ear works and how humans perceive sound, the new standards can be used more effectively to convey directionality. And, what’s more, this can be done not just on fully equipped home theater speaker systems leveraging all channels, but on something as simple as a sound bar attached to a digital TV. It’s even possible to replicate this immersive 3D sound environment using ordinary headphones.

Imagine the sound of raindrops hitting leaves over your head in a scene filmed in a tropical forest or the oncoming sounds of a helicopter approaching from the side and crossing overhead before moving on and away from you. The possibilities for sound technicians truly are expansive and these new ATSC 3.0 standards involved are designed to scale and accommodate newer, more sophisticated audio scenarios as they emerge, making for a truly immersive 3D, and much more attractive, user experience today and for the future.

While there’s likely to be some time delay related to broadcasters implementing full capability of the new standards, (as well as end users not running out to purchase advanced sound systems), there are other aspects of the new audio technologies that are going to probably be used right away, and that will ultimately be very impactful.

For example, the coding technology for next-generation audio systems has moved away from being simply channel-based systems. In today's 5.1 implementations, there are five channels of surround sound and one channel for subwoofer, or low frequency, with fixed assignments: front left, front right, center, the two rears, and then the subwoofer. All sounds fall into these channels. Next-generation audio standards additionally incorporate object audio, whereby audio objects can move and be maneuvered into different positions to register sound information.

As an example, imagine someone filming a skateboarder while they run a circuit in a skate park, where the sound tech is following the skater using a joystick to control the movement of a sound object in three dimensions. In this scenario, the sound will follow the skateboarder around the course and record a more realistic representation of sound as it changes with the skater’s movements. This allows for more diversity as objects can be positioned and moved to accommodate a lot of unique and intriguing audio scenarios.

Another change enabled by next-generation audio standards—including audio objects instead of just channels—is that it allows viewers to control and choose objects that they want to hear (personalization). This enhances the user experience by vastly increasing a viewer’s control over audio content. For example, because you are dealing with objects, it makes it possible to offer controls that allow viewers to turn one object up, or turn another down, based on their own personal preference. For example, you might broadcast a football game where one object is the home team announcer and the other is the visiting team announcer. With next-generation audio systems, it’s fairly simple to give the viewer control over the audio so that they can choose and customize an audio experience tailored to their individual likes (choose which announcer to listen to in this example). Another scenario might be a visually-challenged viewer looking to “turn up” an object that is providing some audio detail describing what is coming over the television screen (known as descriptive video). Personalized audio is likely to be simpler to implement than full immersive audio (especially regarding fitting into existing station workflows) and will be very attractive to many viewers.

BUILT FOR THE FUTURE
Technology is always evolving, as are the capabilities of devices. Because it’s understood that evolution will happen, ATSC 3.0 has been developed to gracefully move from what we have today to what will be coming in the future. The need for this is something learned from past experience and incorporated into the entire standard, not just the audio portion. Throughout the entire system, each layer signals to the layer above what technologies will be used. ATSC 3.0 has set the stage for carrying both the old technology and new technology as it comes online—a win-win scenario for all involved in broadcast television and the viewing public at large.

HIGHLIGHTS FROM NAB
In my opinion, one of the primary themes of this years NAB was ATSC 3.0. ATSC 3.0 is clearly a reality—with demos, products, conference sessions and significant mention in the keynote speeches from FCC commissioner Ajit Pai, NAB’s Senator Gordon Smith and Sam Matheny. There was a well-attended Next Generation TV Hub in the LVCC Grand Hallway that demonstrated the reality of many new features of the ATSC 3.0 system: Better Pictures, Immersive Sound, Mobility, Gateway Devices, Targeted Ad Insertion, Audience Measurement, Emergency Alerting, Content Delivery to Automobiles and a broadcast from Black Mountain. The ATSC Pavilion in the Futures Park area of North Hall gave a deeper dive into many technologies and features for ATSC 3.0—including the systems currently being deployed in South Korea for the launch of UHDTV services for the 2018 Olympics.

Dr. Richard Chernock is the Distinguished Lecturer Chair for the IEEE Broadcast Technology Society (IEEE BTS). He is currently the Chief Science Officer at Triveni Digital. In that position, he is developing strategic directions for monitoring, content distribution and metadata management for emerging digital television systems and infrastructures. Dr. Chernock is active in many of the ATSC, SMPTE and SCTE standards committees, particularly in the areas of future DTV, monitoring, metadata, and data broadcast. He is chairman of the ATSC Technology Group on ATSC 3.0 (TG3) and chairs the AHG on service delivery and synchronization for ATSC 3.0. He was previously chairman of the ATSC Technology and Standards Group (TG1). Previously, he was a Research Staff Member at IBM Research, investigating digital broadcast technologies.

For more on this subject, visit ourATSC 3.0 silo.

PRINCETON, N.J.—ATSC 3.0 will be ringing in the new year by providing an update on the next-generation standard’s latest development during IEEE’s International Conference on Consumer Electronics, held in conjunction with CES 2017. Dr. Richard Chernock, Triveni Digital’s chief science officer and chair of ATSC’s Technology and Standards Group (TG3), will be among the participates in the panel.

Dr. Richard Chernock

The planned session will provide an overview of the new ATSC 3.0 standards and have panelists reflect on the opportunities that leveraging an all-IP based distribution platform provides by improving the consumer TV experience via broadcast and broadband paths and enabling new digital services.

Joining Chernock as part of the panel will be Skip Pizzi, NAB senior director of new media technologies, chair of Specialist Group on System Requirements and Program Management for ATSC 3.0, and vice chair of TG3; Luke Fay, staff software system engineer at Sony Electronics, chair of Specialist Group on Physical Layer, and vice-chair of TG3; and Madeleine Noland, consultant to LG Electronics, chair of Specialist Group on Application and Presentation, chair of S33-3, and vice chair of S31. Wayne Luplow, vice president of Zenith R&D and a member of the ATSC Board of Directors, will lead the session.

The panel will take place on Jan. 8, 2017 on the second floor of the North Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center. For more information, visit www.icce.org/conference/.

For more on ATSC 3.0, see TV Technology’sATSC 3.0 silo.

PRINCETON, N.J.—The 2016 IEEE BTS Symposium is bringing out the big guns to address ATSC 3.0 in the form of Dr. Richard Chernock, Triveni Digitals chief science officer and chair of ATSC’s Technology and Standards Group. Dr. Chernock will be on hand to lead a tutorial session and panel on the next-gen television standard.

Dr. Richard Chernock

“The Practical Side of ATSC 3.0” will see Dr. Chernock providing a status update on ATSC 3.0, including on the implementation steps that are still required for the standard. There will be a Q&A session following the presentation.

There will be a handful of other presenters contributing to the tutorial session. Participants include Dave Siegler, senior vice president of technical operations for Cox Media Group; Mark Earnshaw, senior systems architect at Coherent Logix; and Skip Pizzi, senior director, new media technologies for NAB.

Dr. Cherncok’s ATSC 3.0 session will take place on Oct. 12 at 4:45 p.m.

The 2016 IEEE BTS Symposium will take place in Hartford, Conn., from Oct. 12-14.

For more on ATSC 3.0, see our coverage silo.

LAS VEGAS—TV Technology asked a cross-section of NAB Show-goers a series of five questions regarding what they considered the main themes, evidence of those, whether or not these initiatives will take hold, and what promising technologies from past NAB Shows did not see daylight. (A complete list of quotes from respondents and links to their full 5Qs is at “NAB 2016 in 21 Quotes.”)

Dr. Richard Chernock, chief science officer for Triveni Digital:
Q1.How many NAB Shows have you attended?
R.C. Compared to many, I’m a relative newbie—I think I’ve been to 16 or 17 NAB shows.

Q2.What, in your opinion, were the main themes of the show this year?
R.C. Very clearly, this year’s theme was ATSC 3.0.

Q3.What were some examples of these themes?
R.C. Many different products across the spectrum that support the new ATSC 3.0 system—as well as integrated systems from multiple vendors that showed a working end-end ATSC live broadcast system—starting from a camera in the Futures Park area to a full set of studio equipment for encoding and transport to an STL to an exciter on Black Mountain, to a transmitter and reception from an antenna on the roof of South Hall connected to ATSC 3.0 televisions—and it worked! For a technology this new and this complex, I think this was a major achievement.

Q4.Do you foresee any or all of these technologies or initiatives taking hold?
R.C. Simple answer—yes. I think ATSC 3.0 will be adopted and used by broadcasters as it provides them the opportunity to re-invigorate their business, connect to their viewers in ways that they now demand and provide a growth path to new services and business opportunities.

Q5.What technology that impressed you most at a past show didn’t see the light of day?
R.C. I really can’t think of one—the ones that impressed me had legs & the ones that didn’t disappeared.

PRINCETON, N.J.—Triveni Digital’s chief science officer and chair of ATSC’s Technology and Standards Group, Dr. Richard Chernock, has been slated to lead a tutorial session on ATSC 3.0 at the upcoming 2015 IEEE Broadcast Symposium. Chernock will serve as session chair, leading a series of presentations on ATSC 3.0 and how it impacts broadcast content delivery.

Dr. Richard Chernock

“The tutorial session will focus on the various layers of the new standard,” said Chernock. “Each presenter will take a close look at the technologies included in each layer and discuss benefits to the broadcast community. Additionally, there will be a general overview of ATSC 3.0, during which we will discuss how this exciting new standard enables monetization in the broadcast environment.”

Scheduled presenters include Skip Pizzi from NAB, who will provide an overview of ATSC 3.0. Luke Fay from Sony will talk about the ATSC 3.0 physical layer. Youngkwon Lim, Samsung, will present on ATSC 3.0 management and protocols layer. Also, Madeline Noland, LG Electronics, will discuss ATSC 3.0 applications and presentation layer.

The ATSC 3.0 tutorial session will take place Oct. 15 at 8:30 a.m. The 2015 IEEE Broadcast Symposium is scheduled to run from Oct. 13-16 at the Caribe Royale Hotel in Orlando, Fla.

ALEXANDRIA, VA. — Technology doesn’t stand still; instead, it evolves at an ever-growing pace. This is especially true in the area of bringing media to viewers.

In the past, video entertainment in the home was relatively simple, consisting of sitting in front of the TV to watch broadcasts when they were scheduled. Today, people want the capability to watch nearly anything they want, on any device, wherever they are—with content delivered over the air, over cable or satellite, via the Internet or locally stored. It is clear that the broadcast industry must evolve to accommodate this desire.

The current work on the ATSC 3.0 next-generation broadcast standard is meant to address this issue, using advanced transmission and video/audio coding techniques to bring new and creative services to viewers.

It has become clear that to adapt to consumers’ changing habits and demands, a new system is needed by broadcasters to support new viewing behaviors. Such a system must include the capability to evolve with consumer demands, and thus provide extensibility that permits future adaptation.

“Television” is now “viewed” in a variety of ways, through a growing range of media sources and delivery platforms. Among these, the Internet has become a major source of television content for consumers. Developing a new DTV system that incorporates all these elements is now not only desirable, but has become essential.

Flexibility in service options is a keystone of the next-generation ATSC 3.0 DTV broadcast system, including the opportunity for terrestrial broadcasters to send hybrid content services to fixed and mobile receivers seamlessly—combining both over-the-air transmission and broadband delivery. Options such as “multiview” and “multiscreen” are also important, as is the option of choosing among standard definition, HD and Ultra HD resolutions.

The ATSC 3.0 system also must adapt to future innovations. “Scalable,” “interoperable” and “adaptable” are some of the key words that describe the general principles behind ATSC 3.0.

Although work is already underway to enhance the existing ATSC TV system with Internet compatibility and caching capability for storing programs (a backwards-compatible suite of enhancements dubbed “ATSC 2.0”), the future needs of viewers and broadcasters is the focus of the ATSC 3.0 initiative. Technologies developed for ATSC 2.0 are expected to be supported in the new ATSC 3.0 system.

Because ATSC 3.0 is likely to be incompatible with current broadcast systems, it must provide improvements in performance, functionality, and efficiency significant enough to warrant implementation of a non-backwards-compatible system.

It is important to remember that the original A/53 DTV standard was launched in 1996. A number of significant developments have occurred since then, notably:

• Spectrum is becoming increasingly scarce

• Major improvements have been made in video coding efficiency

• A strong desire exists for higher-resolution images

• Audio has become more efficient and immersive

• Interactivity has become expected on the part of consumers

• Delivery paths other than broadcast have become commonplace

• Mobile devices have proliferated

• Tablets are in widespread use

These developments, taken collectively, have reshaped the television landscape, with the development of ATSC 3.0 as a response. The work on ATSC 3.0 has been broken up into a number of layers, as discussed below.

PHYSICAL LAYER
The physical layer is the core transmission system that is the basis for any over-the-air broadcast service. The physical layer is focused on modulation and coding, emission waveforms and other common system elements.

Multiple types of TV receivers, including fixed devices (such as traditional large-screen living room and bedroom TV sets), handheld devices, vehicular screens and portable receivers are being considered in the work on ATSC 3.0. A primary goal of the ATSC 3.0 physical layer is to provide TV service to both fixed and mobile devices.

Spectrum efficiency and robust service are some key focus areas. Increased data rates to support new services such as Ultra HD are a priority as well.

Furthermore, mechanisms for extensibility of the ATSC 3.0 system are being explored so that advancements and technologies that may be developed in the future can be accommodated without redefining the entire system. Determining mechanisms for graceful and agile evolution are an integral part of the ATSC 3.0 work.

In addition to traditional fixed services, ATSC 3.0 is intended to provide robust mobile services to devices that move, such as phones, tablets, laptops and personal televisions. Since these devices are likely to move across borders, it is highly desirable that the specification contains core technologies that will have broad international acceptance and enable global interoperability.

Figure 1: Physical layer skeleton architecture
The overall physical layer skeleton architecture is illustrated in Figure 1. Currently, the following baseline features are amongst those that have been tentatively agreed to:

• OFDM-based modulation, with a wide range of guard intervals to mitigate multipath

• LDPC based FEC, with a wide range of code rates in two code lengths (supporting mobile and fixed)

• Wide range of constellation sizes

The ATSC 3.0 physical layer is expected to provide a large range of possible operating points for broadcasters, all of which are very close to the Shannon limit (the theoretical limit of how much information can be carried over a noisy channel) as illustrated in Figure 2, below. Basic operating tradeoffs include selecting a lower data capacity/more robust service and/or higher data capacity/less robust service, or points in-between.

Figure 2: Example capacity curve for ATSC 3.0 physical layer
Broadcasters have the opportunity to choose operating points that support their business models. Through the use of multiple physical layer pipes (PLPs), it is possible to use different operating points simultaneously—for example, devoting a portion of the emission bandwidth to UHD services and the remainder to mobile services.

MANAGEMENT AND PROTOCOLS LAYER
The management and protocols layer is the plumbing connection between the physical layer and presentation layer, supporting service delivery and synchronization, service announcement and personalization, and interactive services and companion-screen services.

A consensus has been reached on the use of Internet Protocol transport for broadcast delivery of both streaming and file content. The use of IP transport (instead of MPEG-2 transport as used in the previous DTV system) provides a large degree of commonality with other delivery mechanisms. Streaming content (for example, live TV) will be delivered in chunks (using ISOBMFF as a content format), rather than a continuous stream of bits.

Again, this provides commonality with other delivery mechanisms, as well as making things such as localized or personalized ad insertion relatively simple.

ATSC 3.0 is being designed to allow the seamless use of broadcast combined with broadband to deliver services and components of services. One example of this might be delivering video and one audio language (which might be expected to be used by a majority of viewers) in broadcast, with alternate language audio streams delivered via broadband—allowing the viewer to select among a number of options. One enabling technology for hybrid delivery is the use of UTC (or some other form of “absolute” time) for synchronization and buffer management.

Although the details are still being worked out, an example protocol stack for ATSC 3.0 is shown in Figure 3, below. As can be seen, there is significant commonality between delivery via broadcast and delivery via broadband, especially above the delivery protocol layer, with complete convergence in the Application Layer.

Figure 3: Example protocol stack model for ATSC 3.0
In a number of situations, the receiver may only have access to uncompressed audio and video; e.g., via an HDMI cable connected to a set-top box. For ATSC 3.0, additional components and services are desired that may not make it all the way to the receiver in the main delivery path.

Automatic Content Recognition can enable the receiver to identify what is being viewed. ACR methods include fingerprinting and watermarking. ACR-aware receivers with a broadband connection could request and retrieve additional content via broadband.

APPLICATIONS AND PRESENTATION LAYER
The applications and presentation layer represents essentially the elements that the viewer experiences, including video coding, audio coding and the run-time environment. The service model for ATSC 3.0 allows for more complex services to allow broadcasters to evolve their business. Major elements include:

• Enhanced linear TV, plus on-demand support

• Subscription and pay-per-view (PPV) support

• Conditional access and digital rights management (DRM) capabilities

• Mobile and fixed device, plus companion device support

• Hybrid delivery (broadcast and broadband), combined with pushed content

For video coding, UHD and HD enhancements are a key initial goal, with 4K support at the start and 8K support possible later via extensibility. HEVC (H.265) has been selected as the core video codec. Portable, handheld, vehicular, and fixed devices in both indoor and outdoor settings are all targeted, and hybrid integration of broadcast/broadband delivery is a required capability for broadcasters.

Physical layer “pipes” (PLPs) may enable the flexible trade-off of robustness vs. throughput for each component. Layered (scalable) coding is under consideration, possibly on multiple PLPs. The latter situation may allow delivery of an HD version for core service over a robust pipe and an enhancement layer over a higher-bitrate pipe to bring the video to UHD.

For audio coding, new personalization features are envisioned that include control of dialog, use of alternate audio tracks and mixing of assistive audio services, other language dialog, special commentary, and music and effects. Furthermore, normalization of content loudness and contouring of dynamic range, based on the specific capabilities of a user’s fixed or mobile device and unique sound environment, is expected.

An enhanced immersive experience is envisioned, with high spatial resolution in sound source localization (in azimuth, elevation, and distance), for an increased sense of sound envelopment. Features will include targeted services to various devices (fixed, mobile) and speaker set-ups, support for hybrid broadcast/broadband delivery, and support for audio-only content as well as audio/video content.

The runtime (or application) environment will likely be based on HbbTV 2.0, with modifications as needed to accommodate differing needs and requirements. Some aspects from the ATSC 2.0 application environment may be used as well.

EXTENSIBILITY
Although the ATSC 3.0 standard is meant to last, technology continues to advance and consumer demands will evolve in ways that are difficult to predict. As a result, methods must be included in the ATSC 3.0 standard to facilitate a graceful evolution from the initial technologies to newer, more advanced technologies that may be developed in the future.

Signaling is being developed that will permit new receivers to take advantage of new technologies when they are available. This signaling begins at the physical layer and extends through to the application/presentation layer. The physical layer will have a very basic, highly robust form of signaling that can indicate what technology is used for the physical layer itself. At a minimum, each layer will have the ability to signal what technologies are used in the layer above.

Signaling and announcement information will include the ability to indicate the capabilities necessary to successfully render services, with a distinction between those considered essential (by the content creator) and those considered optional.

GET INVOLVED
Work on ATSC 3.0 has been underway for more than two years. Much work remains, and many decisions are yet to be made.

Participation in ATSC is open to all with a direct and material interest in the work. Organizations interested in joining ATSC will find more information on the ATSC web site (www.atsc.org).

Rich Chernock, chief science officer of Triveni Digital, holds an Sc.D. degree in nuclear materials from MIT. He is one of the principal developers of the ATSC 3.0 standard. Rich can be reached at rchernock@trivenidigital.com.