The interest in ATSC 3.0 in the United States is so strong, that one might assume that it is being reflected in other parts of the world. 

However, the standard has only officially been adopted by Korea, Jamaica and the Republic of Trinidad-Tobago. But as other larger countries including Brazil, Canada and India illustrate, each nation has its own approach to next-generation broadcast TV. (Note: “NextGen TV” is the U.S. brand of ATSC 3.0.)

Brazil Designing Transmission System
Although Brazil has not selected ATSC 3.0 or any other predefined advanced terrestrial TV standard, a group of Brazilian broadcasters, manufacturers and academics called the Fórum do Sistema Brasileiro de TV Digital Terrestre (“SBTVD Forum”) has launched the “TV 3.0” project. This made-in-Brazil, custom-designed, next-generation terrestrial digital TV system uses a hybrid broadcast/wireless broadband delivery approach, which the SBTVD Forum is promoting to the Brazilian federal government for adoption.

“The intention is to design a new state-of-the-art terrestrial TV system that improves upon the current Brazilian DTV system, via a non-backward-compatible transition,” said Skip Pizzi, chair of ATSC’s Brazil Implementation Team. “TV 3.0 is being designed to provide greater OTA robustness and spectrum efficiency, higher audio and video qualities, greater flexibility for broadcasters and more choice for Brazil’s TV consumers, improved accessibility and emergency information features, along with expansion of the current Brazilian TV system’s interactive capabilities.”

This being said, the SBTVD Forum has already recommended using some core elements of ATSC 3.0 in its made-in-Brazil platform. They include ATSC 3.0’s ROUTE/DASH Transport system, its MPEG-H Audio system, IMSC1 Captions system, and the ATSC 3.0 Advanced Emergency Alerting system, along with some elements of ATSC 3.0’s Video-HEVC system. 

“The Forum continues to evaluate proposals for TV 3.0’s OTA Physical Layer and its Application Coding system, for which ATSC 3.0’s proposals remain in the running,” Pizzi added. “ATSC is assisting Brazil in the ongoing development of its TV 3.0 system. Like all proponents to the TV 3.0 process, ATSC has agreed that if any of its proposed technologies were selected by the SBTVD Forum, we would assist in the drafting of the TV 3.0 standard specifications, operational guidelines, and conformance documentation, which we are currently engaged with on the Audio, Video and Captions specifications.”

Pizzi said that an end-to-end demonstration of the complete TV 3.0 system is expected by August 2024 and expected to launch in 2025, “although spectrum allocations for the new service remain TBD,” he added.

The popularity of over-the-air Brazilian TV makes this a worthwhile investment for broadcasters. “It’s essentially the opposite of the U.S. situation, in that Brazil’s OTA TV usage accounts for about 85% of viewing, while pay TV’s penetration is only around 15%,” Pizzi explained. “As well, the overall market size is quite large, at around 70 million TV households and growing, with Brazil’s per-capita TV viewing second only to the U.S. in the Western Hemisphere, and fifth-ranked among all countries in the world.”

Canada: Integrating 3.0 and 5G
To support research into ATSC 3.0 multi-sectoral applications in Canada, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) and Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) has awarded a C$4.5 million grant (US$3.34 million) to Humber College to create Canada’s first Broadcast-Broadband Convergence B²C Lab in Toronto. It is headed up by Humber B²C Lab Director Orest Sushko.

“We are a 100% front-facing industry research lab,” said Sushko. “We are able to provide insights through ATSC 3.0 innovations in our lab that can inform and support new provisions in broadcast regulatory policy.”

To pursue its ATSC 3.0 research, the Humber B²C Lab has been equipped with an ATSC 3.0 IP-based broadcast ecosystem and a 5G core network, allowing its personnel to explore convergence of these two data delivery systems. The lab also has an RF anechoic chamber to support the development and testing of a wide range of wireless devices and prototypes.

As well, having been granted the first and only ATSC 3.0 experimental broadcasting license in Canada, the Humber B²C Lab has deployed a custom multiple transmitter/antenna ATSC. 3.0 over-the-air test bed covering the Toronto area.

As for the role of Canadian broadcasters in this process? “They can help advance research using the television spectrum that could be supported by government regulators,” Sushko replied. “This could bring forth new conversations about developing more efficient use of that spectrum through ATSC 3.0.”

“Our broadcasters are very supportive of the research work that we’re undertaking, as they continue to learn more about the standard,” he added. “They’re watching the U.S. rollout and still determining what sort of resources they’re prepared to put into ATSC 3.0.”

South Korea: a True ATSC 3.0 Pioneer
The Republic of Korea (aka South Korea) was the first to launch ATSC 3.0 in 2017 to deliver better video and audio quality to OTA viewers in its largest urban areas, using the 2018 Winter Games in PyeongChang to promote its 4K capabilities. Today, this country is extending ATSC 3.0 coverage to medium and small cities, according to Dr. Sung-Ik Park, the Republic of Korea’s Project Leader of ATSC 3.0 Physical Layer, for the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI), a government-funded research organization.

“Korea is the most advanced country in terms of SFN [single frequency network] design and optimization,” he said. “For example, KBS [Korea Broadcasting System], the largest broadcaster in Korea, constructed a national SFN with more than 20 transmitters and is installing more transmitters for better coverage and field strength. Furthermore, Korea is testing MIMO and Channel Bonding technologies for future applications such as 8K-UHD delivery and multiplex businesses.”

To date, South Korea’s interest in ATSC 3.0 has been for broadcasting 4K-UHD video and enhanced audio. However, “ATSC 3.0 is a toolbox that can do more than just TV,” said Dr. Park. “Korea primarily focuses on UHD broadcasting but has prepared several new services such as high-quality mobile for D2M (direct-to-mobile) and D2V (direct-to-vehicle), enhanced GPS for centimeter-level accuracy, high-quality audio-only service, targeted advertisement, emergency alert, and others.”

(Read also: ATSC Seeks to Converge Global DTT Standards)

At present, the popularity of South Korean OTA TV is being undercut by Netflix and other streaming platforms. “However, OTA will be stronger than now due to the several new ATSC 3.0 services mentioned above,” Dr. Park said. “In particular, datacasting services like emergency alerts and enhanced GPS will be killer applications for terrestrial broadcasters.”

Meanwhile, government and industry support for ATSC 3.0 is strong in this country. “Korea commercially started UHD broadcasting in 2017 thanks to a great effort from broadcasters, industries, academics, and the government,” explained Dr. Park. “Due to this effort, major TV manufacturers support the ATSC 3.0 function in their models. Korean broadcasters plan to install ATSC 3.0 in all major cities by 2023 and cover the whole territories of South Korea, including medium/small cities, by 2027.”

India Focuses on d2m
The world’s most populous country has also been considering ATSC 3.0 as its next generation terrestrial television standard. In 2021, the ATSC signed an agreement with the Telecommunications Standards Development Society, India (TSDSI)—the government agency responsible for developing telecommunications standards in the country—to transpose ATSC 3.0 as a possible next generation broadcast standard. That work is now complete.

Mark Aitken, senior vice president of advanced technology with Sinclair Broadcast Group—which has been working with broadcasters in that country to build an SFN for ATSC 3.0 trials in Bangalore—says that rather than adopt the standard as a whole for TV, the country is considering certain aspects of ATSC 3.0—in particular its mobility elements—in a “direct to mobile” (D2M) strategy. 

“The ministry in broadcasting [MIB] has explicitly asked for proposals to build out direct to mobile infrastructure,” he said. “So there’s activity underway with both private and government parties working together to figure out building out marketplaces with direct to mobile [services].”

In a country where only 2% of the population watches television over-the-air, using broadcast to transmit to mobile devices could go a long way towards closing the digital gap, Aitken said. He added that more than 800 million people in India don’t have access to high-speed broadband, and yet the country is the largest per capita consumer of digital video services on mobile devices in the world, “by a fairly large margin.”

Aitken says the Indian Telecommunication Engineering Centre (TEC), the government agency responsible for approving telecommunications standards in India, is expected to make a decision on whether to make 3.0 the D2M standard by the end of the year. 

If TEC gives its approval, it’s very likely that the government could mandate support for 3.0 chipsets in mobile devices sold in India, giving ATSC 3.0 an enormous boost (and argument for) adding support for 3.0-enabled mobile devices in other parts of the world. 

Part 2 of 2

In my last column I focused on ATSC 3.0 measurement gear at the 2022 NAB Show. This month I’ll review some of the other items I found interesting at the show and look at the Broadcast Engineering Conference’s discussion on using drones for tower inspections. 

Transmitting—5G for Broadcast?
I wasn’t expecting any breakthrough technology in high-power UHF transmitters in Las Vegas but I did find time to visit three manufacturer’s exhibits and saw some interesting products. Rohde and Schwarz (R&S), which has been promoting the use of 5G for broadcast in the United States, featured its 5G transmitters for broadcasting. I wanted more details as I really didn’t understand how U.S. broadcasters would use 5G transmitters.

Since the ATSC 3.0 standard allows signaling different types of waveforms in the bootstrap signal, I thought R&S might be looking at using 3GPP 5G standards in the UHF TV band. It turned out R&S envisioned using these on existing UHF 5G wireless bands licensed to wireless operators in the U.S. One idea was that broadcasters—with their high-power, high tower sites—could provide low-cost, wide-area coverage. 

A more likely scenario is wireless carriers will roll out their own 5G broadcast system and compete with broadcasters for content delivery. It will be interesting to see how this develops. For an example of how 5G and ATSC 3.0 could co-exist, Google the HP Enterprise business white paper “The Convergence of 5G and ATSC 3.0 Opens a New Era of Communications.”

Hitachi-Comark had a new compact, all-in-one transmitter built on their successful Parallax series. The transmitter uses liquid cooling with dual pumps for both the amplifiers and in-cabinet mask filter. Maximum power output for the EC700HP-BB3 is 13.2 kW. Installation is simple as it only requires hooking up power and running hoses to the outdoor heat exchangers. If that’s too much work, an air-cooled E-Compact transmitter line does not require an outdoor heat exchanger, but obviously sufficient air flow (and perhaps cooling) is required.  

The simple installation of these transmitters could make them ideal for disaster recovery or backup, although the mask filter would have to be tuned to the desired channel if shared between stations.  

Anywave also had more powerful UHF amplifiers, with a 4.5 rack unit “Marble” series transmitter providing outputting 2,200 watts. It uses the latest Ampleon BLF989E ninth-generation LDMOS chip, rated at a peak power of 1 kW and average power of 180 watts per device. Proper cooling will be essential for these compact devices.

What I found most interesting was Anywave’s chart showing a new gap filler design using a reference antenna. This is used to characterize the booster’s transmitter reflections from the surrounding environment. Anywave claimed rejection of the transmitted signal into the gap filler of up to 50 dB, allowing higher power. Download http://anywavecom.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Anywave-Gap-Filler-Indoor-Flint-Series-Product-Specification-4-22.pdf for more data. I expect low-power gap fillers to become more common as ATSC 3.0 is deployed.

Innovation from South Korea's ETRI
The Korean booth at the NAB Show usually has some interesting ATSC 3.0 technology and this year was no exception. ETRI described a system using MIMO and a 1024QAM constellation to transmit over 100 Mbps in a single ATSC 3.0 RF channel. The design requires separate transmit antennas (one for horizontal and one for vertical polarization) and a receive antenna with separate outputs for horizontal and vertical polarizations.

This is obviously incompatible with existing receive antenna installations, so I asked if LDM could be used to provide a robust non-MIMO layer at reduced bandwidth for viewers without the outdoor dual-polarized antennas. I was told it was possible, but greatly increases complexity. 

A more likely scenario would be a station provides only high-data rate service, requiring a special receive and likely professional antenna installation. A pay-only service might be possible if FCC subscription TV rules used by analog for-pay OTA companies like On-TV apply to digital broadcasts as well. Google “ETRI ATSC 3.0 MIMO” for a number of articles on the technology, many in Korean (use Google translate). 

Inspecting With Drones
In a Broadcast Engineering Conference presentation at  the NAB Show, Paul Shulins with Shulins Solutions showed how he uses drones to examine the thermal characteristics of antennas and transmission lines. TDR (time-domain reflectometry) measurements with a vector network analyzer can reveal major issues with transmission line connections but are less useful pinpointing problem areas inside antennas or heat-related problems that don’t change the line impedance. 

Shulins uses a drone outfitted with a special IR camera able to detect minor temperature differences in the line. This is more complicated than it may sound at first because the outer on copper transmission line, particularly new line, tends to reflect IR and hide internal heating. Measurements are best made before the sun has had a chance to heat the line. This IR imaging as proven it's worth in several cases, which Shulins outlined.

All it takes is one bad transmission line connection to eventually take a station off air and potentially cause expensive damage to many sections of transmission line. In Fig. 1, a thermal image shows the hot spot in a line due to a bad “O” ring that resulted in damage to 150 feet of transmission line. In Fig. 2, the arrow on the visual image provides a higher resolution view of the line. 

Due to the time of day when the visual image was taken there wasn’t much light. I stretched the contrast on the images to make the less illuminated and heated parts of the line and the tower more visible. The fault was not visible in a ground-based TDR sweep of the line. I’m now recommending IR inspections on new line installations to avoid future problems. For more information, visit https://shulinssolutions.com/drone-tower-inspections for more information.

Jason Schreiber, CEO of RF measurement provider SixArms, presented a paper on using drones to measure antenna patterns. I’ve covered drone antenna measurements in previous columns, so I won’t repeat the details. He noted measurements found several antenna patterns that didn’t match the expected pattern. In about 80% of the cases, they were due to installation errors, a common problem being the antenna rotated by one bolt hole. Manufacturers’ defects were less common. 

Of course, tower reflections result in measured patterns from side-mounted antennas being quite different than the free-space patterns. While ground measurements were enough to find that error, drone measurements would be required to discover more subtle discrepancies. SixArms also had some new measurement equipment at the NAB Show (for more information, visit www.sixarms.com). 

Testing NextGen TV on the Road
For ATSC 3.0 reception on the road, I have an early Airwavz Redzone receiver using the original LG demodulator.The SiliconDust ATSC 3.0 IP HDHomeRun gateways use the new Sony chip and in my limited testing seem to perform better than the old Airwavz tuner. 

The problem is the SiliconDust tuner requires an IP connection. Just hooking it up to the laptop’s Ethernet port results in complaint about no Internet access. I have found a way using NetworkManager in Linux to configure a shared connection between a wireless Internet link and the device and the laptop, but it is complicated. 

A much simpler solution was to buy the small TP-Link TL-WR902AC AC750 wireless travel router that connects to the hotel WiFi, provides an Ethernet port for the SiliconDust tuner, and a wireless connection to the laptop for both. The device may also come in handy when working on equipment in the field that requires an Ethernet connection as the equipment could be connected by cable to the router and accessed anywhere in the room on a laptop using WiFi—no need to string an Ethernet cable across the floor. 

As always, I welcome comments and questions. Email me at dlung@transmitter.com. I try to answer all emails promptly, but if I’m busy and the email gets buried, I might miss it. If you don’t get a response within a week or so, email me again.

ATSC 3.0 quietly achieved a significant milestone in South Korea Sept.14-18 and again Oct. 19-23 with over-the-air transmission of 8K television.

A trial, led by Dr. Sung-Ik Park, principal researcher at the country’s Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute, made use of MIMO (multiple-input and multiple-output) technology, an option available in the 3.0 standard, to deliver 113Mbps over-the-air—a data rate that’s more than sufficient to support 8K.

ETRI, working with engineers from Korean Broadcasting System, installed a special 2x2 MIMO array on KBS’s tower in the Paju and Yeoncheon area on Gamak Mountain in Gyeonggi-do province near the border between South and North Korea.

The ETRI and KBS team tested several MIMO data rates, including 60, 90, 105 and 113Mbps, and observed their reception performance with a specially equipped test van taken to multiple locations. The test was conducted on UHF channel 56 (765-771MHz) at low power to avoid the possibility of interfering with other broadcasters in the area.

I reached out to Dr. Park to learn more about the ATSC 3.0 MIMO test, its implications for broadcasters that might at some future point wish to deploy MIMO, what a MIMO 3.0 service would mean for early adopters of NextGen TVs and what other research is underway at ETRI examining 8K television delivery via 3.0.

(An edited transcript.)

TVTechnology: ETRI and KBS conducted a couple of over-the-air tests to demonstrate the feasibility of transmitting 8K via ATSC 3.0 using a MIMO RF infrastructure. Tell me about transmission-receiver setup for the trial. 

Sung-Ik Park: ETRI and Cleverlogic developed the ATSC 3.0 MIMO transmitter and receiver together. This MIMO system is 100% compatible with the ATSC 3.0 standard.

The current system supports a maximum of 5kW ERP [each horizontal and vertical antenna has 5kW ERP] because it was just developed for small-scale field trials. Cross-polarized transmitting and receiving antennas were used. 

TVT: And the receiver?

SP: The MIMO receiver supports not only all the ATSC 3.0 mandatory and optional technologies, but also accurate field measurement, [including parameters such as] signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), Modulation Error Ratio (MER), Bit Error Ratio (BER), Frame Error Ratio (FER), spectrum, Channel Impulse Response (CIR) and frequency response.

TVT: Did you receive the 8K 3.0 MIMO signal in different locations?

SP: We selected six reception points and measured several parameters, like field strength and Threshold of Visibility (ToV) at each point.

TVT: Besides ETRI, KBS and Cleverlogic, who else was involved in the testing?

SP: KaiMedia provided an 8K-UHD video/audio encoder and decoder and AGOS provided a total measurement solution and related equipment for the field trial.

TVT: If I understand MIMO properly, it sends the same data as several signals via multiple transmission antennas. If so, how was that leveraged in an ATSC 3.0 context to achieve the data throughput needed to enable 8K OTA delivery of IP packets?

SP: ATSC 3.0 supports 2x2 MIMO optionally. Two vertical and horizontal antennas were used at the transmitter and receiver, respectively. If ATSC 3.0 can deliver 57Mbps at 6MHz with a single transmit and receive antenna, two cross-polarized TX and RX antennas can achieve 113Mbps at 6MHz throughput, almost double the data rate compared to a single antenna case.

At the transmitter side, 113 Mbps data is divided by two, and then transmitted through each vertical and horizontal antenna. At the receiver side, each data [stream] from the vertical and horizontal antenna is combined to make a 113 Mbps data stream. Due to several technical reasons—mainly the lack of a feedback channel from the receiver—ATSC 3.0 only supports two cross-polarized—horizontal and vertical—antennas.

TVT: I know MIMO offers other benefits, but in the trial, it was used because of this ability to increase data throughput, right?

SP: Yes, you are right. The primary advantage of MIMO is to increase data throughput so that 8K-UHD or multiple 4K-UHDs can be delivered by OTA.

TVT: How big is an 8K HEVC-encoded signal? I’m trying to get a sense of whether you were barely able to achieve 8K or if there was sufficient bandwidth to make it happen.

SP: Of course, the higher the bitrate, the better the quality. But around a 90 to 100Mbps HEVC encoded signal is more than enough for 8K-UHD quality.

TVT: I understand that this was a trial, and that there is no commercially available system for broadcasters to deploy at the moment. But best guess, what would the cost look like to deploy ATSC 3.0 MIMO from an RF infrastructure point of view?

SP: I am not sure when this MIMO [broadcast system] could be commercialized. However, if there is a strong interest in free OTA 8K-UHD or multiple 4K UHD deliveries, broadcasters and consumer electronics companies will be able to consider ATSC 3.0 MIMO or channel bonding.

In terms of the broadcaster, some infrastructure, such as MIMO exciter, an amplifier for horizontal and vertical and MIMO antenna, will need to be added. So, that MIMO-8K infrastructure cost will be 50% more than a typical 3.0 deployment.

TVT: Would a future ATSC 3.0 MIMO deployment require a station to replace its existing transmitters and antennas?

SP: Yes, MIMO needs MIMO antennas and a new transmitter [exciter]. However, a high-power amplifier (HPA) can be reused. Note that the MIMO system uses two HPAs—one for horizontal and another for vertical. So, one existing HPA can be reused. 

TVT: So, it sounds like there is the possibility of at least a bit of a retrofit by adding, for instance, a second antenna.

SP: This is quite an important question. In ETRI’s field trial, we installed a new 2x2 commercial MIMO antenna on the tower.

However, an antenna expert has informed me that we could also add another antenna to the existing one. For example, assuming that a horizontal antenna [in Korea] is already installed on the tower, adding an additional vertical antenna can work as a MIMO antenna.

However, we should be cautious because the isolation between cross-polarized horizontal and vertical is quite a critical performance factor. Furthermore, installation space for an additional antenna is also a consideration.

TVT: As is weight, wind load and other factors related to an existing tower. That makes me wonder if a second, future MIMO antenna has to be on the same tower as the original antenna or could it be another nearby structure?

SP: No, it should be installed on the same tower.

TVT: Is OTA delivery of 8K via ATSC 3.0 simply a science project, or is there real interest at ETRI in this for the future of OTA TV?

SP: ETRI is quite interested in 8K-UHD delivery, and we are considering three possible ways to deliver 8K-UHD. They include the ATSC 3.0 MIMO system based on two vertical and horizontal antennas; an ATSC 3.0 channel bonding system based on two separate RF channels; and an ATSC 3.0 broadband convergence system where ATSC 3.0 delivers OTA 4K-UHD and broadband—whether it’s 4G, 5G, Wi-Fi or other service—delivers metadata to make 8K-UHD.

Each method has pros and cons, but ETRI wants to show the feasibility and benefit of ATSC 3.0 for efficient 8K-UHD delivery.

TVT: Tell me a bit more about the channel bonding solution. Do they have to be adjacent channels? If not, could a VHF and UHF channel be bonded from a data delivery point of view?

SP: ATSC 3.0 supports channel bonding optionally as well. It only supports two RF channel bonding but doesn’t restrict which RF channel should be used.

Two contiguous or two separate RF channels can be used. If one VHF channel and one UHF channel are bonded, it can further provide frequency diversity because VHF and UHF have different frequency features. 

For example, the VHF channel for mobile-oriented service and the UHF channel for other-targeted services like UHD. The VHF channel delivers a part of the content, and the UHF channel delivers another part of the same content. A channel bonding receiver decodes the content delivered by the VHF channel and that delivered by the UHF channel so that it has better reception performance due to frequency diversity. 

TVT: Let’s get back to the viewer at home. Granted, you conducted a trial, but if 8K 3.0 MIMO were to be deployed in the future, will the NextGen TV sets of early 3.0 adopters be obsoleted?

SP: Yes, unfortunately it is true. However, if a MIMO-supported STB is available, early NextGen TVs can be reused, I think.

TVT: OK, but what about preventing this obsolescence by doing some sort of data split as is done with SHVC where a base layer and enhancement layer are combined in receivers capable of using the enhancement bits to—in this hypothetical case—support 8K without affecting those with existing NextGen TVs, which would simply ignore the enhancement bits?

SP: Unfortunately, MIMO is not backward-compatible with existing ATSC 3.0-ready TVs. If broadcasters adopt MIMO, a new TV or STB will be required. Assuming that you have a MIMO-supported TV, a vertical antenna can provide OTA HD or 4K, and a horizontal antenna can provide metadata to make 8K service. For example, the base layer of SHVC is delivered by the vertical antenna, and enhancement-layer data of SHVC is delivered by a horizontal antenna.

If a MIMO-supported TV or STB receives a vertical base-layer only, you can watch at least OTA HD or 4K service. This is a possible scenario for mobile service as a mobile terminal typically uses a vertical antenna.

If a MIMO-supported TV or STB receives both vertical base-layer and horizontal enhancement-layer, you can watch 8K by combining two layers. This is the same as channel bonding. RF1 delivers the base-layer, and RF2 delivers the enhancement-layer.

TVT: Is there anything else you would like to add about 8K via ATSC 3.0 OTA or other ETRI 3.0-related projects?

SP: ETRI has conducted several projects aimed at helping ATSC 3.0 to succeed. Among them are ATSC 3.0 SFN optimization; development of MATV (master antenna TV) technology for an apartment building; on-channel repeater development for an SFN; professional measurement receiver development for ATSC 3.0; and convergence of ATSC 3.0 and 5G. These all are essential for ATSC 3.0 and are widely used in the industry.

Recently, ETRI and Lowasis started field verification of ATSC 3.0 diversity receivers. Since a diversity receiver provides significant gain compared to a single antenna receiver, it is crucial for ATSC 3.0 mobile. However, since it requires enough space for multiple antenna installations, we are focusing on public transportation systems like a city bus. In ETRI’s preliminary trial in Seoul, the diversity receiver’s performance was more than perfect.

Samsung has announced that it recently conducted a successful demonstration of sending 8K HDR images via satellite transmitted to a Samsung 82-inch QLED TV over HDMI 2.1.

The test broadcast used H.265 compression and was conducted at Seoul Mok-dong Broadcasting Center where 8K HDR images were transmitted to ETRI's Cheonian Ka-band satellite and shown over South Korean satellite broadcaster KT Skylife. ETRI is a South Korean-government funded research institute.

Samsung said it used the DVB-S2x transmission standard, which can expand satellite transmission bandwidth up to 100Mbps or more.

8KTVs were a prominent fixture at Samsung's 2019 CES booth, which included a massive 98-inch behemoth.  

“This test broadcast is significant in that it confirmed the technical stability of large-capacity satellite broadcasting in the future,” said Lee Han-han, head of technology at KT Skylife. "We will lead the market." 

WASHINGTON—At the ATSC 3.0 annual meeting in May, South Korea’s Electronics and Telecommunications Institute demo-ed a small, low-power ATSC 3.0 on-channel repeater to drive part of its tabletop presentation in the lobby adjacent to the meeting room at the Ronald Reagan Building where the event took place. The display included a prototype exciter and demodulator chips ETRI has developed for the unit, which currently relies on expensive FPGAs.

Although the demo device in D.C. was not for sale from ETRI—nor would it ever be because the institute focuses on research, not sales—the repeater nonetheless will likely be available in December from South Korean broadcast vendor Clever Logic, according to Sung-Ik Park, principal researcher at ETRI.

[Read: ATSC Meeting Explores 3.0 Deployments]

Equipped with a small amplifier, the device will be capable of putting out 30dBm. For South Korean broadcasters transmitting 3.0, it solves the problem of complying with Master Antenna TV system regulations. Those rules require any building with more than five households to be equipped with an MATV system, explained Park

For U.S. broadcasters deploying ATSC 3.0, the new device opens up new opportunities that were not available to them in 1.0, he said.

For instance, imagine a football stadium with tens of thousands of fans being able to watch TV coverage of the game on the field in front of them being transmitted from a station’s big stick, which is received and retransmitted by the new low-power unit, said Park.

The commercialized version of the product based on the ETRI chips has a target price of $1,000 to $2,000, far less than the price of an FPGA-based product, which would cost about $10,000, he added.

The exciter and demodulator chipset modules are on track to meet an October-November deadline, he added.

For a comprehensive list of TV Technology’s ATSC 3.0 coverage, see ourATSC3 silo.

RALEIGH, N.C.—There isn’t a bigger showcase than the Olympics to give viewers a taste of the much anticipated next generation television standard, ATSC 3.0.

A WRAL news broadcast reports on the media bus that is demonstrating Next Gen TV capabilities.

ETRI (The Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute), a South Korean government-funded research institution, is showcasing Next-Gen TV by providing ATSC 3.0 receivers onboard a shuttle bus that carries international media throughout the coastal Olympic region. The ATSC 3.0 signal can be received with no cable and allows for the transmission of 4K video, provides immersive sound and object audio and can add interactive features to involve viewers in the broadcast. The bus’ ATSC 3.0 capabilities are allowing writers and reporters to keep up with the games as they travel from location to location.

[Report: South Korea Adopts ATSC 3.0] 

South Koreans are familiar with the technology already, as Korea TV began broadcasting in ATSC 3.0 in 2017. LG has also been selling TV sets with ATSC 3.0 chips in South Korea.

It’s not just in PyeongChang that ATSC 3.0 is being demo-ed. WRAL-TV, which has two news crew at the Games, is among the broadcasters viewing the demonstration aboard the media buses. The Raleigh, N.C.-based station, which began broadcasting ATSC 3.0 in 2016, is planning a demo built around NBC's coverage of the Winter Games. The NAB, NBC Universal, Samsung and LG/Zenith are also participating in the event. The demonstration will take place Monday, Feb. 19, in Raleigh.

In November 2017, the FCC voted to allow the voluntary rollout of ATSC 3.0 and as a result the forecast for consumer devices in the U.S. to receive the new signal is by 2019.

['All' LG 4KTVs in South Korea Soon to Feature ATSC 3.0] 

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