SAN MATEO, Calif.—In what promises to be a major expansion of interactive features and personalized content on the DirecTV platform, the operator and Glance have announced that they will launch Glance AI on DirecTV Gemini devices in early 2026.

The two companies said that the deployment will significantly change how consumers experience idle TV screens and notably expand DirecTV’s personalized consumer experiences. Glance AI offers interactive AI-powered content and commerce screensavers on idle TV screens that provide access to new entertainment, shopping, and creative experiences.

A video of the experience can be found below and on YouTube.

"Glance AI unlocks a new two-way relationship between TV watchers and their idle screens," said Naveen Tewari, CEO and founder, Glance. "Whether its sparking creativity in a family room using Glance's AI looks on TV, or creating an AI feed of your favorite sports leagues on your idle-screens, or helping your kids discover their next dream vacation, or letting your partner instantly select a brand & reimagine themselves in the brand catalog right from their living-room TV itself, Glance AI makes it all come alive."

"With Glance AI, TV screensavers become a smart content discovery, personalization, and AI-commerce experience", said Vikash Sharma, senior vice president product marketing at DirecTV.. "DirecTV audiences who stream TV through our Gemini devices will now get the opportunity to reimagine their interactions with their TV screen, with personalized content, entertainment, news, and shopping recommendations in real time."

Powered by advanced on-device AI developed in collaboration with Google, Glance AI will allow consumers to access a wide variety of interactive experiences, including capabilities that will allow viewers to:

• Engage in interactive screensaver experiences across lifestyle, travel, health, auto, seasonal events, and local trends, directly on the TV screens.
• Stay up to date in real-time with live weather and sports scores tailored to their interests.
• Shop smarter by discovering and engaging with products and brands in an AI-led virtual and visually immersive shopping experience that feels native to TV.
• Seamlessly go beyond the TV with new commerce experiences that extend via mobile devices.

For more, visit glance.com and inmobi.com.

A video of the experience can be found below:

LAS VEGAS—At this week’s CES here (Jan. 7-10), the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) is showcasing a number of new NextGen TV/ATSC 3.0 receivers, gear, services and improvements to the broadcasting standard at its booth in Central Hall 20340.

The group reported that a host of new ATSC 3.0 receivers and enhanced broadcast services will reach U.S. consumers this year, with RCA launching a lineup of NextGen TV sets and new ATSC 3.0 accessory receivers from ADTH, MyVelo, Stavix, Vbox, Zapperbox and Zinwell among the new consumer products showcased at ATSC’s booth.

Expanded High Dynamic Range, interactive gaming, and digital signage options are also on show this week, as local stations and networks take advantage of the key benefits of next-generation broadcasting—including the ability to launch virtual channels with internet connections, the group said.

The displays come at as the ATSC 3.0 broadcast standard is now widely deployed in the U.S., South Korea and Jamaica, with Brazil also recommending ATSC 3.0 to power its DTV+ service. Additionally, tests of ATSC 3.0 broadcasts are on the air in Trinidad and Tobago, India, Mexico, and Canada, the group said.

“More than three-quarters of U.S. viewers now have access to NextGen TV broadcasts, and at CES we’re very pleased to see the addition of RCA as a sixth TV manufacturer to join the roster of those offering NextGen TV sets, a list that now includes nearly 100 different receiver models,” Madeleine Noland, president of ATSC, said. “The first affordable USB-style receivers will also soon be available from ADTH for Android and Fire TV devices. These new products will reach even more consumers, with millions already enjoying NextGen TV receivers at home.” Panasonic recently returned to the U.S. television market with several OLED models powered by Fire TV equipped with NextGen TV electronics, and the addition of RCA in 2025 will bring even more choices to consumers planning a display upgrade.

More specifically, the group said that technologies from six TV and six accessory device manufacturers are on display this week at the ATSC booth at CES, including more than a dozen different types of NextGen TV products, device software offerings from Tolka and Mirakulo, the Run3TV broadcast application, and Advanced HDR from Technicolor. NextGen TV displays from Hisense, Panasonic, Samsung, Sony, RCA, and TCL are in the ATSC exhibit, as are ATSC 3.0 accessory receivers from ADTH, MyVelo, Stavix, Vbox, Zapperbox, and Zinwell.

In addition, ATSC’s NextGen TV “Wall of Champions” in its booth highlights growing investment across the ecosystem. “We invite CES attendees to experience all these innovations in person at the booth. Plan your visit for 2 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 7, to join us for a much-deserved coffee break sponsored by Rohde & Schwarz,” Noland said.

ATSC will be showcasing NextGen TV’s ability to transmit digital data for new purposes such as digital signage. ATSC will feature a new signage kiosk equipped with everything necessary to offer messaging—including an antenna for over-the-air reception, a receiver and on-board storage and playback. In the ATSC booth, the signage kiosk managed by USSI Global will feature local headline news, traffic and weather updates, emergency alerting and advertising messages and promotions from KTVN-TV, the Las Vegas ABC affiliate owned by E.W. Scripps.

Also on display will be enhanced services from broadcasters for HDR and interactivity.

More than 200 NextGen TV services in the U.S. now include HDR, with many also adding immersive Dolby Atmos audio to daily broadcasts, the group said.

At CES, Sinclair is showing a side-by-side demonstration of the eye-popping consumer benefits of HDR, highlighting the enhanced picture quality made possible with ATSC 3.0 HDR broadcasts compared to standard ATSC 1.0 digital TV broadcasts. Local stations started adding HDR to sports broadcasts in 2024, greatly expanding offerings that take advantage of what the ATSC 3.0 standard makes possible. Today, more than 80 million viewers have access to NextGen TV with HDR.

In terms of interactivity, ATSC said that many stations are enhancing local content with the Run3TV broadcast app, which offers on-demand programming from local stations and opens the door for interactive content such as program restart and hyperlocal weather forecasts. The ATSC exhibit will also demonstrate gaming over NextGenTV by GameLoop, which is launching a new channel and its “Play Now” feature, which allows NextGen TV viewers to instantly play games showcased on the channel by using their TV remote or mobile phone.

In addition, broadcasters are also using the ATSC 3.0’s internet protocol backbone to add channels and local content streamed through internet connections, the group said.

For more information, visit www.atsc.org.

LAS VEGAS—The premise of the 2024 NAB Show's "Creative Lens on Live Sports: Next Gen Video Production and Fan Experiences" session was very simple to understand if one casts a discerning eye across the broadcast landscape.

In July 2023, linear TV made up less than half of all TV viewing, according to Nielsen. So all of those content craving eyeballs have gone to other screens, with the big push about streaming and the demands of today’s market.

That’s largely because cable isn’t interactive. And interactivity and the ability to produce one’s own experience is what much of the market, notably Gen Z (the demographic of people born from the late 1990s through the early 2010s) ― wants.

Unlocking Data

“The average age of viewers of most of the major sports leagues is mid-50s,” said Matt Coleman, CEO of Las Vegas-based FansXR and the panel’s moderator. “The younger generation isn’t watching cable.”

Coleman is leading the charge armed with recent data from Deloitte, for instance, from a recent survey that revealed that 67% of Gen Z want interaction when it comes to watching a sporting event.

“Another key point is that 64% of Gen Z viewers say they want their experience to be more immersive, too,” he said. “Generally, our panel was based around next-gen technology and engagement. That’s the main data to unlock, because there is a broad feeling in the industry that using artificial intelligence, biometrics and player tracking are options that fans are really interested in.”

What that does is allow users (or fans) to tailor a broadcast sporting event into a personal experience. “The younger generation is not really interested in linear experiences that one finds on broadcast, YouTube, etc.” he said. “They expect something interactive that they can control, like they can on TikTok, Xbox and social media.”

A 5G Thing

They also want to gamble. Coleman cited stat companies, such as Genius Sports (NFL), Sportradar (NBA) and Stats Perform as heavy investors in new data sets and apps for sports when it comes to leagues, like NBA, NFL, FIFA, MLB and the NHL, that can allow in-game betting or prop betting using the likes of FanDuel or DraftKings.

For in-game betting, “The product has to transmit in real-time, so that’s a key part of this equation,” said Coleman, noting that FansXR uses Verizon or T Mobile 5G to operate its system. “We’re one of the first companies globally to work with soccer with TV Azteca (Liga MX) and we launched a real-time product with up to six 2-D and 360 cameras in a web URL interface. The project is sponsored by Caliente, which is looking for new ways to connect with fans; in this case, it’s a second screen experience for the main 2-D broadcast and that drives new sponsorship and advertising for the broadcaster and FansXR.”

And what does it offer fans? “Another way to watch soccer and become their own director,” he said, “as the leagues’ exclusive suppliers provide the data to all of the sports books and the sports books, in turn, present the odds.

“Our product has new software (with the patent pending) and edge compute hardware, and facilitates in-game betting,” he said. “We’ve already done a number of projects, such as the horse racing project where you can could bet in real time at the race track while jumping horse to horse using 360 cameras and LIGA MEX with Azteca, installing our server and cameras onsite at Estadio Cuauhtémoc, in Puebla, Mexico, with Caliente.”

See It Now

Concerning big projects, the session panelists had plenty to talk about. For instance, Ally Coulsen, marketing director for London-based Disguise, discussed the recent effort to turn NBA courts “into giant TV screens” where players are tracked as they moved across a glass floor.

That calls for bringing in data to create “a more immersive experience,” she said, also noting ESPN’s Catalyst Stage as an example “of a fully immersive XR stage for broadcast,” which serves as “a digital twin” that “changes the game in terms of how you broadcast and tell stories.”

Jason Yim, CEO of Los Angeles-based Trigger XR, pointed out “the cinematic quality” of the video and how this trend is extending beyond, but still melds with, the sports world. “We do a lot of work for the theme parks,” with clients like Imagineering, which is “not just the two hours a sports event happens,” he said.

Yim also discussed how Trigger XR was involved in a project with Verizon “a couple of Super Bowls back” where the viewer “could plant an AR door in your room, step through,” said Yim, “and then you’d be on stage at the Half-Time Show. “A half-million people were in the portal at one time for an average of nine minutes,” he said. “That proves the consumer wants this content.” 

He also noted how the firm has worked with the NHL “first to take the telemetry from the puck and players and actually present it in AR,” which could be watched on Apple Vision Pro and META.

The 5G world and the cloud offer so many options, Yim said, “that you have to work through what the user really wants out of it.”

That’s especially key for Gen Zers. Tim Stevens, global leader, strategic innovation, sports, media and entertainment for Verizon, noted an event in the corporation’s booth at NAB later that afternoon: cutting an NHL game between the New York Islanders and the New Jersey Devils with only five ISO feeds that were mixed in the cloud using 5G and edge computing architecture.

“What is important is taking the live camera feeds to the cloud that are delivered back” with “HLS streaming and delivering it to handsets on the floor,” said Stevens, in “roughly about one second.”

The reason that’s important, he said, is that latency had been several seconds ahead because they ended up 20-30 seconds ahead on handsets; however, taking that latency out of the equation ensures that the fans outside the venue “have a same, very similar or even unique experience,” he said, to those inside, which opens the door for in-game betting. 

“The only way to do that,” said Stevens, “is to make sure that data matches the video. That’s the biggest component.”

Finding Formulas

Grant Nodine, senior vice president of technology for the NHL, continued. “The biggest thing we’ve found,” he said, is that today’s tech flexibility enables the league “to differentiate the content” for the generational divide and offer new ways to present a hockey game. 

“So being able to give them an experience that mirrors what they are after in the event,” he said, “is the most important thing.”

That can even include something as off-the-wall as using the Warner [Bros.] characters with its content. Such moves open new markets, as does live cut production, which Nodine felt is the best way to package content “to produce a very unique output.”

The question is, “How do we find the right formula,” he queried, for various sectors of the NHL fan base when the league airs “1,500 live events a year?” Experimentation has been the answer to that burning question as the technology march continues. 

“Our company is only six years into sports and we’re expecting a big upswing in that sector, notably in the in-game part of the market. It’s not just pregame anymore,” Coleman said. “By following in-game, that can personalize an experience Gen Z viewers (among others) want to make it more immersive. 

Stevens reflected on just how far the market is already, well, immersed (if you will) into this new age. 

“We are so far beyond the mass market. I remember as a broadcaster 20 years ago I had one [live linear] product on the shelf. That’s all I needed. Now the iterations of all the product” are for “different countries and globals, different types of experiences, different platforms,” he said. “It’s mind-boggling. But that’s the only way to really meet the demands of the industry.” 

These new technologies “give us the core fabric,” said Stevens, “to start doing that.”

NEW YORK—LiveLike has announced that its engagement and gamification tools are now available in AWS Marketplace, a digital catalog with thousands of software listings from independent software vendors that run on Amazon Web Services (AWS). 

With access to a range of powerful AWS services, including Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), Amazon CloudFront, Amazon Aurora, and Amazon Simple Queue Service (Amazon SQS), LiveLike is able to deliver immersive and high-performing media experiences that are reliable and lightning-fast, the company said. 

More specifically, LiveLike’s platform is designed to help users improve interactivity, community, and customer loyalty. It offers features that will help them retain, monetize, and engage their audience in ways that decrease the risk of losing users to third-party social networks. They also help boost revenue through increased registration, interactions, impressions and sponsorship, well as reducing churn and creating loyalty, LiveLike said. 

“We are committed to creating communal experiences for our partners, and by working with  AWS, we have the opportunity to reach even more businesses that are looking to grow and engage with their audiences, retain and monetize their user bases using our platform and with that, access to zero-party data,” said Miheer Walavalkar, CEO and co-founder of LiveLike. “For years, we have built a strong track record by working with companies across sports, entertainment and other verticals, to enable them to foster active, engaged communities via social features like group chats, activity feeds, rewards programs and leaderboards that encourage interactivity and loyalty.  We look forward to working with AWS to create even more opportunities that will enable our partners to achieve their business goals.”

LAS VEGAS—In a move that will notably expand the availability of NextGen TV interactive applications to consumers, Verance has entered into agreements with Sinclair Broadcast Group, Gray Television, Graham Media Group, and Capitol Broadcasting Company to  implement the Verance Aspect audio watermark on stations across the station groups. 

Aspect is Verance’s high-performance implementation of the ATSC open watermarking standards.  The Verance Aspect watermark launches broadcast applications by carrying metadata and triggers  associated with NextGen Broadcast experiences through all distribution paths (including ATSC 1.0 over-the-air, ATSC 3.0 over-the-air, cable/satellite, and over-the-top services) to reach 100% of  connected televisions. Without the Verance Aspect watermark, approximately 80% of households are  unable to receive NextGen capabilities.  

As a result of the implementation, each  of the broadcaster’s NextGen Broadcast (ATSC 3.0) applications, which offer the opportunity to drive  new business models and revenue through interactive applications, can now reach up to five times the  number of homes by specifically enabling all homes that receive their television signals through the  NextGen TV’s HDMI connection via a cable/satellite set top box or media adapter.  

This announcement of major broadcaster agreements builds on the momentum that Verance  announced at NAB last April that LG Electronics was the first television manufacturer to implement  ATSC 3.0 watermark detection on NextGen TVs. Verance expects additional television manufacturers  to follow in LG’s footsteps. 

“Bringing Verance’s Aspect watermarking to all of our stations accelerates our NextGen Broadcast  applications strategy to better understand our viewers and to provide them with personalized  broadcast experiences,” said Mike Kralec, CTO, Sinclair Broadcast Group. “We believe that Verance’s  watermarking technology substantially enhances use of the NextGen Broadcast standard that we hope  that all the television manufacturers will adopt quickly.” 

A demonstration of the Verance Aspect watermark application will be on display at the NAB Show in  Las Vegas, April 16-19. As part of the ATSC Booth (#W3443), Sinclair will be showing how viewers can  have access to Broadcast App functionality by embedding the watermark in the audio signal that  launches the interactive experience on a NextGen TV for any pay TV or ATSC 1.0 over-the-air  viewer. The Broadcast App is then available to all NextGen T viewers who want to take advantage of  this new capability, regardless of how they receive the TV signal, gaining access to both broadcast and  broadband content. 

“NextGen TV is a game changer for broadcast television, and it is exciting to see interactive experiences  powered by Verance watermarking on Gray’s stations,” said David Burke, senior vice president and CTO of Gray Television. “With Verance watermarking, Gray can now proceed with confidence, knowing that  our applications can be received by the largest number of viewers across all of our signals and can help  Gray with our business objectives.” 

“Verance’s Aspect watermarking will enable Graham to reach our HDMI viewers with interactive  experiences,“ said Anthony Plosz, vice president and CTO, Graham Media Group. “This capability enables Graham  and other broadcasters to better understand and serve our audiences and to better support our  NextGen TV business opportunities.” 

“We are excited to rollout Verance’s Aspect watermarking across our stations to help drive the  distribution of our NextGen TV apps to a larger audience and to allow us to bring new NextGen  experiences to our viewers,“ said Peter Sockett, director of engineering and operations, Capitol Broadcasting Company. “This opportunity will help us to better scale the broadcaster application  opportunity.” 

“Sinclair, Gray, Graham, and Capitol are at the forefront of a broadcaster movement to establish a direct  connection with their viewers to drive engagement and revenue, and Verance is excited to have these  innovative broadcasters as partners. As interactive applications deploy across the United States with the  broader deployment of NextGen TV, we are excited for enhanced viewing experiences, such as sports  betting and dynamic advertising, that drive new revenue opportunities for broadcasters,” said Nil Shah, CEO of Verance.

SAN BRUNO, Calif.—With more and more people accessing YouTube content on connected TVs, YouTube has announced new features that provide viewers with a more engaging experience and interactivity via a two screen solution using a CTV and a mobile device.

In a blog post, Brynn Evans, head of design for YouTube on TV noted that viewers watched an average of 700 million+ hours of YouTube content on TV in January of 2022. 

“As more people watch YouTube on their TVs, one challenge we face as a design team is how to keep the experience simple, streamlined and intuitive, but also bring the best of YouTube to the TV,” Evans wrote. 

Adding interactivity, however, was a difficult design challenge given the limitation of existing remote controls and the fact that most TVs don’t have built in web browsers, he explained.  

Building on the insight that over 80% of people say they use another digital device while watching TV, YouTube eventually decided to roll out a new feature that lets viewers connect TVs to their iOS or Android phones, so they can dive deeper with their favorite content on YouTube while watching on the big screen.

“To try this, your phone and TV must be signed in to the same YouTube account,” Evans explained. “Open the YouTube app on TV, then open the YouTube app on your phone, and click `Connect’ on the prompt that automatically pops up. Now your phone will be synchronized to the TV, so you can directly interact with the video you are watching from the convenience of your phone. That means it’s easier than ever to read video descriptions, leave comments, share the video with a friend, or support your favorite creators by sending a Super Chat or becoming a member, all while you watch on the big screen.”

More features are on the way, he added. 

“There’s much more to come as we think about the future of interactivity in the living room,” Evans wrote. “With this launch, your phone becomes your all-purpose, interactive device and unlocks the ability to do more in this space. We’re already starting to test new designs for our video watch page to help fold in more uniquely YouTube features — such as browsing and shopping for products featured in videos – directly to the big screen to help you decide when to pick up your phone and engage.”

BURLINGTON, Canada—Evertz has announced the acquisition of Norwegian-based Ease Live AS, which is now set to serve as a subsidiary of Evertz. Ease Live AS will be integrated into Evertz cloud production technology to offer live interactive graphics for live sports, live events and linear channel customers, the company announced.

Ease Live AS is an interactivity platform designed for use with OTT video services. With the Ease Live AS software-as-a-service technology platform and engineering team, Evertz will offer a cloud-based platform that aims to drive viewer personalization, engagement and interactive features, per the official press release.

“We [Ease Live AS] specialize in creating and distributing new content experiences,” said Kjetil Horneland, CEO of Ease Live AS. “Our interactive TV graphics platform enables connected devices to become interactive and personalized—all in the hands of the end users. It’s all about delivering better viewing experiences on top of what has already been invested in OTT.”

“Digital has become the priority for our entertainment, sports and news customers, so we are excited to bring interactive graphics to the edge,” said Romolo Magarelli, CEO, Evertz.

For more information, visit www.evertz.com.  

SAN BRUNO, Calif.—Think you’d be able to successfully rob a highly secure museum of its classic antiquities? YouTube is providing viewers the chance to find out without, you know, the threat of actual jail time.

“A Heist With Markiplier” is the first interactive special from YouTube that follows a branching narrative format where the viewer controls the outcome. The video stars YouTube content creator Markiplier as he attempts to rob a classic museum, with the viewer controlling all of the actions that could lead to a big payday or, in some cases, an untimely death.

YouTube joins other previous media companies that have created interactive videos to try and further engage consumers. Netflix, most notably, did so with the full-length movie “Black Mirror: Bandersnatch,” and Tinder crafted its own interactive story for its users.

“A Heister With Markiplier” was produced by Markiplier and Rooster Teeth.

Watch the video here.

INDIAN WELLS, CALIF.—Did you hear the one about a bunch of broadcasters walking into a golf resort full of Hollywood production types?

“If you bring it,” they said, referring to content, “We will come. With ATSC 3.0.”

The preceding anecdote was based on the true story of this week’s ATSC seminar at the Hollywood Post Alliance Retreat, held annually in Coachella Valley. ATSC 3.0, colloquially known as the “next-generation” broadcast transmission standard, is rounding the final corner of development and could be completed as soon as the second quarter of this year, according to Madeleine Noland of LG. Noland, whose work on 3.0 earned her the Bernard J. Lechner Award, highest accolade of the Advanced Television Systems Committee, said the standard is 80 to 85 percent complete. The seminar came just four days before the Federal Communications Commission is set to vote on voluntary deployment of the standard at the Feb. 23 open meeting. (See the component standards comprising ATSC 3.0 in the pop-out sidebar below.)

OTA+OTT
Noland opened the Monday afternoon seminar with a litany of characteristics—Ultra HD support, name your frame rate up to 120 fps, high dynamic range, wide color gamut, object audio, personalization and scalabilitya la one person gets 24 Mbps or a million. It makes no difference. ATSC 3.0, she and several panelists emphasized, redefines broadcasting the way jet propulsion redefined travel.

“Today’s system is designed with certain planning factors,” said Winston Caldwell, vice president of spectrum engineering in the Fox Networks Advanced Engineering Group. “The expectation was that people put Yagis on their rooftops, and the network’s designed to hit that antenna. Now, it doesn’t have to be like that. You can simply configure the system to deploy that network and give people an experience unlike they’ve had before with broadcast television. Think about the reliability of the cellular network. I tend to get frustrated with that. This is megawatts of power. The network can be configured to give you something no one has given you before.”

3.0’s capabilities leapfrog previous methodologies in that it supports interactivity versus push transmission only, but perhaps more radically, ATSC 3.0 combines broadcasting and broadband. Among other implications, that means channel surfers can move between over-the-air and over-the-top platforms like Netflix without jumping through a bunch of interface hoops.

RECEIVERS
That type of functionality—as well as ATSC 3.0 itself—requires a new generation of receivers, since the standard is not backward compatible with the one currently feeding TVs and cable headends across the country. This presents the old chicken-and-egg dilemma that HDTV had to get over, which is; what comes first, the content or the receivers? After HDTV finally drove a massive wave of new TV sales, a similar expectation for 3DTV hit the ground like a bag of wet cement.

TV manufacturers are taking a different approach with 3.0, which also supports mobile reception. LG, for example, introduced a gateway device at last year’s NAB Show that decodes ATSC 3.0 signals and redistributes them via Wi-Fi through an app. LG also introduced its first ATSC 3.0 4KTV at CES earlier this year in preparation for the deployment of 3.0 in South Korea this year. (South Korea officially adopted ATSC 3.0 last July, according to the Yonhap News agency.)

Noland and Caldwell were joined by Dave Siegler of Cox Media Group, Nandhu Nandhakumar of LG and Steve Koenig of the Consumer Technology Association for the first panel of the day on ATSC 3.0 distribution and display.

Siegler said Cox is “really interested in better pictures, immersive audio, dynamic ad insertion and advanced emergency alerting.”

Nandhakumar said LG is focused on “important consumer-facing features,” such as 3.0’s ability to reach further into buildings and support mobile reception. With regard to creating consumer awareness, his response was simple: side-by-side demos with 1.0 transmissions.

Koenig noted that “TV is something very different today… [it ’s] diffusion of content engagement across screens.” TV viewing on what old-timers call “TV” is decreasing, he said, from 61 percent in 2011 to 51 percent today.

SINGLE FREQUENCY NETWORKS
Caldwell took an audience question on single frequency networks and whether or not broadcasters would be willing to invest in multiple towers the way cellular service providers have. Single frequency networks, or “SFNs,” comprise multiple transmitter sites simultaneously slinging a signal over a single frequency. SFNs allow for greater signal saturation in a coverage area.

“When you put in another tower site, you expand the [bit] pipe,” Caldwell said. “It’s a real key to the efficiency of the system.”

“With regard to cost, we see the key to that just cooperation, as we move into the future, hopefully the broadcast industry can cooperate more. A single tower can host several broadcasters at once a key way to offset costs... with regard to SFNs, we’re talking about four towers, maybe 10, not hundreds of towers,” he said.

INTERACTIVY
Mark Corl of Triveni Digital led a second panel on interactivity featuring Guy Hadland of UniSoft Corp. Joe Winograd of Verance Azita Manson of OpenZnet and Pete Van Peenen of Pearl TV.

Hadland described how Unisoft provided data delivery and interactive applications for the OCAP cable standard, which is still in use in 14 million Charter homes. He said Unisoft now has a working data delivery system for ATSC 3.0.

Manson, whose company led an ATSC 3.0 app authoring project for the National Association of Broadcasters, said some new apps will appear at the upcoming 2017 NAB Show, including one for interactive advertising opt-in.

Hadland noted that, “Comcast Spotlight has been selling enhanced interactive ads for about three years. It’s one of the first things broadcasters can do.”

Van Peenen noted that the opt-in structure isn’t part of the 3.0 standard, “but from Pearl’s perspective, it would be opt-in,” to keep from peeving viewers, “but we don’t want people to have to opt in every time they change the channel.”

LIKE HbbTV
Winograd talked about HbbTV as an object lesson. HbbTV is a hybrid broadcast-broadband service in Europe. He said by “layering on top of OTA services an entry point into OTT, the broadcaster doesn’t lose a viewer when they change channels.”

He gave some examples of widely deployed HbbTV features, including real-time, customized content such as live, in-play soccer league stats, or viewer participation events. An addressable advertising feature “has gained a lot of traction in Germany,” he said, where 320 million “switch-in” ads per month are to delivered 26 million viewers over 10 million sets. These are overlays that occur during the program segment just when a viewer tunes into that program, hence, “switch-in.”

CONTENT PRODUCTION
A third and final panel featuring NAB’s Skip Pizzi; Steve Bartkowicz of NBCU, Thad Beier of Dolby Labs, Howard Lukk of SMPTE, and David McElhatten of Fox Networks Group, addressed ATSC 3.0 content production, for which Siegler earlier urged producers in the audience to have “an open mind.”

Pizzi addressed some key differences in producing audio for ATSC 3.0, which supports the type of technology that make it sound like raindrops are falling all around a listener. This object, or immersive audio technology, can place discrete sounds throughout a defined three-dimensional space. Immersive audio involves 12-plus channels, or “N”objects,” he said. Among other things, Pizzi recommended producing in immersive and downmixing to 5.1 or stereo.

Lukk talked about the advanced video features enabled by ATSC 3.0—multiple frame rates, aspect rations, resolutions, 10-bit color for high dynamic range, and how some of these lend themselves more readily to episodic TV versus live broadcasting. High frame rate, he noted, tanked in traditional cinematic story-telling, and might be more effective as a plot device much the way black-and-white and color were used in “The Wizard of Oz.”

Beier addressed high dynamic range, and said the first order of doing it is to “shoot well, first of all.” He noted HDR is not just for brightness, but for blacks as well.

“We think doing HDR first makes the best product. Mapping from HDR to SDR is better than an SDR version done by hand,” he said.

Finally, McElhatten said the killer 3.0 app is personalization, particularly for sports.

“At Fox, we do more than 11,000 sporting events a year, more than 8,000, highly regional. I’ve tried to do enhancement on drama, but it’s very hard,” he said. McElhatten showed screengrabs of “live biometrics,” analytical data and other information on drive Dale Earnhardt in a NASCAR event.

He also showed an example of a live multiscreen portal using the multiple content channels NBC employed in the 2012 London Olympics.

“There were eight channels that NBC owned that were running Olympic content,” he said. The idea of the portal is that a broadcaster can show all of their channels in small windows on a single screen, so a viewer could pick and choose among ongoing live events.


Also see where ATSC 3.0 was last year during HPA…
Feb. 16, 2016
“HPA 2016: ATSC 3.0 Update”
Over-the-air TV is on its way to resembling a more robust version of the Internet with the realization of ATSC 3.0.

And then go ahead and check out our ATSC 3.0 silo for more TV Technology coverage, and please feel free to drop us a line with any questions you may have about the standard.