GENEVA—Shanghai will host the next quadrennial Radiocommunication Assembly (RA-27) and World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-27), Oct. 11-Nov. 12, 2027. This marks the first time the event will be held in Asia.

Held every four years, the World Radiocommunication Conference reviews and revises the International Telecommunications Union’s Radio Regulations, the international treaty governing the use of the radio frequency spectrum and associated satellite orbits.

During the four-week conference, ITU member states will consider the results of technical studies and adopt decisions that shape the future use of spectrum for a wide range of radiocommunication services and applications, including mobile, satellite, radiolocation, radio astronomy, and space research services that support lunar communications, ITU said.

“WRC-27 will be a defining moment in making universal, meaningful connectivity a reality,” said ITU Secretary-General Doreen Bogdan-Martin. “The conference will make critical decisions about sharing spectrum and satellite orbit resources efficiently and equitably, on Earth and in space, in ways that benefit all of humanity.”

Over 4,000 delegates are expected to attend the WRC-27 and RA-27 meetings. In addition to ITU’s 194 member states, representatives from sister United Nations agencies, Regional Telecommunication Organizations, and ITU Radiocommunication Sector Members will participate as observers.

“As the first country in the Asia-Pacific region to host the WRC, China highly anticipates the successful convening of this grand event,” said Li Lecheng, minister of industry and information technology of China. “We will fulfill our obligations as the host country in accordance with ITU’s rules and regulations, provide comprehensive services and support for the conference and work together with all ITU member states to present to the world a radiocommunication event that fosters win-win cooperation and yields fruitful outcomes. We hereby extend a cordial invitation to all delegates to the event and wish them all a pleasant stay in Shanghai.”

The world's online population grew by more than 240 million people in 2025, according to Facts and Figures 2025 released today by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). The new estimates confirm continuing progress in expanding digital connectivity, while pointing to differences in quality that impact how users benefit from Internet use.

Globally, an estimated 6 billion people—about three-quarters of the world's population—are using the Internet in 2025, up from a revised estimate of 5.8 billion in 2024. However, 2.2 billion people remain offline, down from a revised estimate of 2.3 billion in 2024.

Overall, the report's findings underline the importance of digital infrastructure, affordable services and skills training to ensure that everyone can truly benefit from advancing technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI).

“In a world where digital technologies are essential to so much of daily life, everyone should have the opportunity to benefit from being online," said ITU Secretary-General Doreen Bogdan-Martin. “This report highlights how today's digital divides are being defined by speed, reliability, affordability, and skills, all of which we must prioritize as we work toward our mission of universal connectivity."

Connectivity's Quality Challenge
For the first time, Facts and Figures estimates the total number of 5G subscriptions, which now account for about one-third—or around 3 billion—of all mobile broadband subscriptions worldwide.

In 2025, 5G networks are estimated to cover 55% of the world's population, reflecting strong momentum in advanced mobile technologies. Coverage, however, remains uneven, with 84% of people in high-income countries having access to 5G, compared with only 4% in low-income countries.

While Facts and Figures shows that 4G and 3G services are available to most of the global population, these services are not best suited for keeping pace with advancing technologies, ITU said.

Estimates in the report reveal deep contrasts in intensity of use as an indicator of the quality gap. A typical user in a high-income country now generates nearly eight times more mobile data than one in a low-income country, according to ITU.

Facts and Figures 2025 highlights that affordability and digital skills remain essential to achieving universal and meaningful connectivity—reached when everyone can access the internet with high-quality service, at an affordable cost, whenever and wherever needed.

Globally, the median price of a data-only mobile broadband basket decreased, but access remains unaffordable in around 60% of low- and middle-income countries.

Data also suggest that most internet users possess basic skills, while more advanced capabilities—such as online safety, problem-solving and digital content creation—are being developed more slowly.

“Reliable data are the foundation of effective digital policies and of our shared vision to connect the world," said ITU's Telecommunication Development Bureau Director Cosmas Luckyson Zavazava. “Achieving that vision will require sustained and well-targeted efforts—in infrastructure, in digital skills, and in data systems. By working together and directing resources where the needs are greatest, we can ensure that no one is left behind and that everyone benefits fully and safely from the opportunities of the digital age."

Detailing the Globe's Digital Divides
According to Facts and Figures 2025, digital development remains closely linked to economic development, gender, and location.

The report underscores the persistence of several digital divides:

• 94% of people in high-income countries use the internet, in contrast to only 23% in low-income countries;
• 96% of those offline live in low- and middle-income countries;
• 77% of men are online compared to 71% of women;
• 85% in urban areas are online versus 58% in rural areas;
• 82% of 15–24-year-olds use the internet, compared with 72% of the rest of the population.

Facts and Figures 2025 provides global, regional and income group estimates for indicators related to Internet use, mobile network coverage, Internet subscriptions, Internet traffic, affordability, digital skills and mobile phone ownership.

Download the report here.

WASHINGTON—The ATSC broadcast standards group has outlined a growing list of international activities that the group said is expanding its influence and solidifying its position as an international leader in next-generation broadcasting standards.

Those activities include a growing portfolio of influential contributions to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) that underscore ATSC’s commitment to international collaboration.

“This level of involvement and recognition reflects ATSC’s growing stature as a key voice in international broadcasting innovation and standards,” said Madeleine Noland, president of ATSC. “Our participation helps underscore that ATSC 3.0 is not just an American standard, but a truly international technology — one that’s adaptable to the needs of broadcasters and regulators around the world as they explore new opportunities and reimagine how to serve audiences. More importantly, we’re opening eyes to what broadcasting can do when powered by advanced technologies — and once that potential is seen, the continued, evolving value of broadcasting becomes clear.”

At the recent semi-annual meetings of the ITU-R Study Group 6 and its Working Parties (6A, 6B, 6C), ATSC participated as an official Associate Member for the first time, marking a significant milestone in its international engagement. ATSC and its collaborators successfully advanced seven ATSC-related documents, including three that were formally approved for publication — bringing the total number of ATSC contributions adopted or recognized by ITU-R to an impressive 23 documents.

More specifically, in terms of ATSC’s ITU-R contributions, key ITU documents recently approved or advanced include:

• Report BT.2526-1: Field trials of mobile multimedia broadcasting systems – approved for publication;
• Report BT.2343-10: Field trials of UHDTV over terrestrial networks – revisions accepted and awaiting further contributions;
• Expanded scope of the Rapporteur Group on ATSC 3.0 to include the development of new documents, reinforcing ATSC’s role as a forward-looking partner in global broadcasting innovation.

These ITU-R reports serve as valuable tools for national regulators and broadcasters worldwide to harmonize their policies with emerging international standards, accelerating the global transition to next-generation television.

“Globally, regulators and broadcasters are looking for trusted, interoperable, and scalable solutions. ATSC 3.0 offers exactly that,” said standards expert Aldo Cugnini, who represented ATSC at the ITU meetings in Geneva alongside other international delegates. “Our contributions to the ITU are helping align global standards and pave the way for broader adoption.”

The growing international interest in ATSC 3.0 was also evident at the 45th meeting of CITEL PCC.II (the Organization of American States’ Inter-American Telecommunication Commission), held recently in Salvador, Brazil, the group reported.

ATSC President Noland serves as Chair of the Working Group on Broadcasting, the group that guides regional conversations on spectrum, broadcasting modernization, and the evolution of radio and television services in the Americas.

Working alongside the group’s Vice Chairs from Brazil, Paraguay, and Trinidad & Tobago, ATSC said that it is helping guide the region toward a cohesive digital broadcasting future.

Notably, ATSC 3.0 technologies like Broadcast-to-Everything (B2X) and Direct-to-Mobile (D2M) are being actively promoted for integration into national strategies.

The Brazilian Ministry of Communications also took advantage of their country hosting the meeting to showcase various aspects of their new ATSC 3.0-based digital TV system, TV 3.0, also known as DTV+. An impressive group of 300 delegates from the Caribbean and the Americas was treated to 6 large TV sets with 6 different demonstrations – from user interface to emergency alerting to accessibility and more. The North American Broadcasters Association (NABA) briefed attendees on a groundbreaking project underway in Calgary, Canada, whereby NextGen broadcast infrastructure is being tested for novel “smart city” municipal use cases. This project is headed via a partnership with the City of Calgary, Humber Polytechnic, Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED), and ATSC.

ATSC also reported that plans are already in motion for the upcoming PCC.II meetings in Dominica and Colombia in 2026. Building upon the Calgary Smart City presentation this year, future ATSC demonstrations and engagement are also in the works for CITEL’s 2027 PCC.II meetings in Ottawa, Canada, including potential “smart city” and Direct-to-Mobile showcases that highlight how ATSC 3.0 can transform public services and information delivery.

Brazil’s recent Presidential Decree outlining new TV frequency allocations has opened up exciting opportunities for digital TV throughout the Americas, while South Korea continues to lead in deployments and innovation around ATSC 3.0 technologies, the group also reported.

“With growing adoption across the globe and strong partnerships in key international forums like the ITU and CITEL, ATSC is committed to delivering future-ready solutions that meet the diverse needs of broadcasters and audiences worldwide,” Noland said.

WASHINGTON—The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has adopted ATSC 3.0 as a recommended digital broadcast standard, opening the door for countries around the world to evaluate and use the standard, the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) has announced.

“With initial U.S. deployments in place, we’re anticipating the first announcements of consumer receivers for the U.S. market in the coming days,” said ATSC Board Chairman and NAB Senior Vice President of Technology Lynn Claudy. “The decision by the ITU is yet another signal that digital terrestrial broadcasting has a bright future ahead.”

ATSC 3.0 is the world’s first IP-based digital television broadcast standard. More than 60 U.S. television stations are expected to be on-air with 3.0 by the end of 2020, and consumer receivers for U.S. TV households are expected to be unveiled at the 2020 Consumer Electronics Show, which opens next week in Las Vegas (Jan. 7-10).

For ITU, the next step is to update its ITU Digital Handbook with best practices for implementing the Next Gen TV standard. Members of ATSC, including those on the new ATSC Planning Team 6 on Global Recognition of ATSC 3.0, are set to continue their support for international standardization efforts, the committee said.

“ATSC appreciates the efforts of the U.S. delegation to the ITU, led by the U.S. FCC, and we congratulate the ITU on its careful review and decision to include ATSC 3.0 as an official ITU standard,” said ATSC President Madeleine Noland.

“The system is currently commercially deployed in South Korea where audiences have been enjoying high-quality Ultra HD video and next-generation audio from ATSC 3.0 broadcasts since 2017,” she said. “U.S. commercial deployment begins in earnest this year.”

“I am very proud of our international progress and would like to thank ATSC members Sinclair Broadcast Group, ONE Media 3.0 and [South Korea’s Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute] ETRI for their leadership role in the ITU process. ATSC is an international organization with members hailing from across the globe. This milestone achievement is testament to the spirit of international collaboration that our members infused into the standard at every level,” she said.

More information is available on the ATSC website.

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

GENEVA—It’s Nov. 21, which means that it is World Television Day (don’t worry if you forgot, no gift required). The day is meant to celebrate the International Telecommunication Union’s release of technical standards for TV 70 years ago in 1949 as well as recognize the medium’s role as a source of news, information, education and entertainment.

Since the release of the first technical standards in 1949, ITU has developed globally harmonized standards that have enhanced TV viewing in terms of both visual and audio quality. It championed early color standards, developed parameters for the 16:9 aspect ratio, the transition to digital TV and HDTV, and it is currently helping to develop standards for UHDTV, HDR and 5G.

“Television plays a crucial role in connecting the world to information and knowledge while providing an unsurpassed channel for mass entertainment,” said ITU Secretary-General Houlin Zhao. “World TV Day brings attention to ITU’s exemplary work in producing standards that are driving future trends in broadcasting and internet services that will bring an increasingly immersive experience to viewers around the world.”

ITU is celebrating World TV Day at its ITU World Radiocommunication Conference currently taking place in Egypt.

GENEVA, Switzerland—With the annual AI for Good Global Summit having taken place in Geneva, May 28-31, the ITU published a new report that lays out how Artificial Intelligence (AI) could be used during the process of making and distributing television and radio content.

The report, “Artificial Intelligence systems for program production and exchange,” discusses how AI is now being used to optimize workflows for broadcasting program making, to improve audio and visual quality evaluation, to efficiently utilize the frequency spectrum in television and radio distribution and recently even to create new programs by mining archives as well as automatically targeting content to specific audiences or individuals.

For example, AI is being used for extracting content from vast archives; automatically localizing content for international distribution; and generating access services such as captioning, audio description, text to speech and signing far faster and far more accurately than could be achieved in the past.

“ITU is collaborating with stakeholders to harness the power of AI to improve lives worldwide and seek solutions to the world's greatest challenges," said ITU Secretary-General Houlin Zhao. “This helps us to identify practical applications of AI that can accelerate progress towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals, which is what we are doing this week at the AI for Good Global Summit."

The AI for Good Global Summit is a leading United Nations platform for global and inclusive dialogue on AI. The summit is hosted each year in Geneva by the ITU in partnership with UN sister agencies, XPRIZE Foundation and ACM.

The recent AI report is in response to Study Group 6 (Broadcasting Service) Question ITU-R 144/6 on Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for broadcasting, which was approved in January 2019. ITU study groups are venues for ITU members to work collaboratively in responding to the priorities of the ITU membership. The groups develop the technical basis for ITU agreements and associated activities.

Study groups of the ITU Radiocommunication Sector (ITU-R) address issues including the efficient management and use of the radio-frequency spectrum and orbit resources, radio systems' characteristics and performance, spectrum monitoring, emergency radiocommunications for public protection and disaster relief, interference-free radiocommunications, radio and TV broadcasting and new radio technologies.

“There is still an incredible amount of work needed to ensure that the use of AI in program making and content distribution is for the benefit of the audiences," said Mario Maniewicz, director of ITU's Radiocommunication Bureau. “We also need to make sure that the systems employed interact with each other. This and other reports and recommendations from ITU help to achieve that."

This story was first posted on TVT's sister publication, Pro Sound News.

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND–A delegation from the U.S. has asked the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) that it adopt the ATSC 3.0 digital broadcast standard for use by all countries in the world. The proposal is the first major step in the evaluation process for worldwide acceptance of the standard, the association said.

The U.S. delegation proposed ATSC 3.0—the world’s first Internet-Protocol-based television broadcast standard—to a Working Party of Study Group 6 of ITU’s Radio communications Sector, which develops and maintains worldwide recommendations, reports and handbooks on the broadcasting service. The U.S. effort was actively supported by the South Korean government delegation with significant assistance from the Korean Electronics and Telecommunication Research Institute.

Developed by the Advanced Television Systems Committee, the ATSC 3.0 standard has been adopted in both the United States and the Republic of Korea. The suite of voluntary technical standards and recommended practices represents very significant enhancements from the original ATSC 1.0 standard adopted in 1996. It will provide an alternative to other digital terrestrial television standards including the European DVB-T, Japanese/Brazilian ISDB-T, and Chinese DTMB platforms.

“We’re delighted to begin this process and look forward to an expedited consideration so that other nations can confidently implement this remarkable new standard,” said U.S. delegation spokesman Larry Olson, Assistant Chief of the Global Strategy and Negotiation Division in the International Bureau of the Federal Communications Commission.

In offering the new standard as part of an existing recommendation for second-generation digital platforms, the United States noted that the ATSC 3.0 standard is designed to deliver improvements in performance, functionality and efficiency so substantial to warrant implementation of a non-backwards-compatible system. The IP-based standard, with its higher throughput capacity, can deliver:

• Enhanced quality for audio and video services,
• Robust mobile reception on a wide range of devices,
• Improved spectrum efficiency,
• Advanced emergency information,
• Personalization features, and
• Interactive capabilities.

Jerald Fritz, Executive Vice President of ONE Media 3.0, presented the proposal on behalf of the U.S. delegation. “The Next Gen transmission standard will provide consumers with a host of new services and expand opportunities for broadcasters and service providers around the world,” he said, urging rapid adoption by the ITU. “By integrating broadcast and broadband services, ATSC 3.0 also can be part of the 5G transmission ecosystem for non-television data transmission services,” Fritz said.

In support of the new standard, the United States presented the ATSC’s Advanced Emergency Information Implementation Guide. This document describes methods and examples for implementing the standard’s critical emergency-related capabilities—life-saving services that are expected to be of particular interest both to countries upgrading their digital systems and those still migrating from analog to digital broadcasting.

The ATSC’s 2019 Board Chairman Lynn Claudy of the National Association of Broadcasters called international acceptance ATSC 3.0 “quite appropriate given the extensive work of engineers from around the world to craft this state-of-the-art standard with built-in capabilities to evolve as the markets warrant.”

Several additional ITU Reports and Recommendations were identified to be modified, reflecting the new ATSC 3.0 standard. Accelerated action on the U.S. proposal is expected at the next ITU working party meetings in July.

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

WASHINGTON--The National Association of Broadcasters wants to make sure the world knows which spectrum remains in the hands of broadcasters following the incentive auction and TV station repack.

While it says the FCC has modified the domestic table of allocations to reflect the fact that Channels 14–36 remain in broadcaster hands and unavailable for other services after the incentive auction, NAB says the International Bureau has not made it explicitly clear that it will recommend the International Telecommunications Union make the same changes to its allocations table.

[Read: NAB Releases Video Highlighting Tower Challenges for Repack]

Under FCC chairman Tom Wheeler, NAB says, the ITU table reflected that the entire UHF band was up for potential use by mobile broadband, which NAB says was because at the time it was unclear how much of the band broadcaster would give up in the auction.

Now that it is clear, broadcasters say, ITU needs to change that. NAB points out that both Canada and Mexico, which were signatories to that original UHF designation, have also said that channels 14-36 won't be used for mobile.

Specifically, NAB is asking the FCC to withdraw from a footnote on UHF spectrum in the ITU spectrum table dating from the ITU World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-15) back in November 2015.

For all our news on the repack, visit TV Technology's

repack silo

.

BERLIN, GERMANY—When it comes to advances in telecommunications technology—and specifically video codecs—Germany’s Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute has been at the forefront. The organization is an integral member of the experts groups, which developed the H.264/AVC video codec nearly 20 years ago, as well as its successor, HEVC. It was also among the team that received numerous Technical Emmys including one in

2017 for the High Efficiency Video Codec.

Thomas Wiegand, executive director, Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute HHI; Benjamin Bross, project manager at the Video Coding & Analytics department with the Fraunhofer HHI and Detlev Marpe, head of Department Video Coding & Analytics at Fraunhofer HHI

Now celebrating its 90th year, TV Technology caught up with Benjamin Bross, project manager at the Video Coding & Analytics department with the Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute to discuss the evolution of HEVC and what’s next in video compression.

TV Technology:What are the latest developments on video compression standards work?

Benjamin Bross: The ITU Video Coding Expert Group (VCEG) and the ISO/IEC Moving Pictures Expert Group (MPEG) have already started working together on a successor to HEVC by forming the so-called “Joint Video Exploration Team” or JVET. We currently have a joint exploration codec model (JEM) already in place; this isn’t necessarily the successor codec, but it’s new technology that was proposed and investigated after the standardization of HEVC. This JEM codec provides about 30 percent bit rate reduction for the same objective quality compared to HEVC. So this is clear public evidence that it’s possible to further improve the compression performance compared to HEVC. We have started to work on the successor with a call for proposals and it is possible that we might soon be seeing another factor of two in coding efficiency relative to HEVC.

TVT:What does the call for proposals entail?

BB: Last October, JVET issued a call for proposals for video coding technology beyond HEVC and several companies including us are submitting technology. Each proposal will be independently tested and compared to HEVC and the results will be evaluated at the next JVET meeting in April. That’s when the official standardization process will begin with the goal to finish the new standard by 2020. Besides submitted coding technology, a lot of other influences will be taken into account. One of the main concerns from hardware manufacturers for example is complexity. Even if you find a nice technique that significantly reduces the bit rate, but it’s super complex, chipset vendors will say ‘that’s pretty nice, but there’s no way we can build a chip using that technology at a reasonable cost.’

[HEVC Advances Enhance Cell-Based ENG] 

TVT:Is it the JVET that’s doing this?

BB: Yes, the JVET, ITU and ISO are teaming up to generate a codec that is both efficient and simple enough in order to be able to put the decoder on a chip that can be integrated into TV set-top boxes, mobile phones and so on. The goal is to reduce the bit rate by up to 50 percent of the previous standard for the same perceived subjective quality.

TVT:Can you elaborate on ‘subjective’ vs. ‘objective’ quality?

BB: You cannot perform subjective evaluation for every new thing that you add during standardization—the logistics to perform subjective testing for every new incremental step is just too high. That’s why you have an “objective error measurement” that you calculate, like some kind of mean squared error-based measure that gives you an indication of the quality; but usually these measurements are a little bit more pessimistic compared to subjective quality.

For example, in HEVC, we ended up with 38 percent bit-rate reduction over H.264/AVC for the same objective quality. When we did perform subjective evaluation and verification of that in independent test laboratories, we ended up with 50 percent bit-rate reduction for the same subjective quality perceived by the individuals involved in the test.

TVT:Would you say HEVC has attained its goal, has it been a success in terms of adoption?

BB: From a technical perspective, I would say totally. The support is very broad. Apple introduced it last year, so now every new iPhone is able to decode HEVC up to UHD—almost every Android phone is able to do that—and all of the new TV sets have HEVC built in, as well as new set-top boxes and other media devices. Then there’s the question of whether business-wise it makes sense to employ HEVC. Apple’s support was extremely important, so now we will see how many services will jump on that and actually use it.

For the broadcast community HEVC is pretty well set, especially. When it comes to UHD and new improvements like HDR and high frame rate, HEVC is the codec to use. In Germany, for example, they started the new terrestrial TV service with HDTV that uses HEVC and it’s working pretty well.

TVT:What about the future development of HEVC? Has it fully matured as a standard and is that why you’re working on a new compression standard?

BB: For compression efficiency, when it comes to encoders, there is a steady improvement still to come. When you look at MPEG-2, H.264/AVC, even over the last five years—and H.264/AVC is already quite old—encoders have improved in efficiency; improvements that are also being carried over to HEVC. I don’t think we’re at the end of the line efficiencywise for HEVC, but the encoders that are out there are already mature enough to provide the gain that HEVC promised at the beginning.

TVT:What is Fraunhofer HHI is doing in regards to HEVC?

BB: After we contributed core compression techniques to the standard, we started to develop products for HEVC encoding and decoding to the industry. We have a software encoder that is used in broadcast to encode HD and UHD content live, for example, for satellite and terrestrial television in Germany. Here, we do not sell the appliance, we provide the software encoding component.

TVT:Where do you see advances in video codecs going?

BB: Right now, everyone is following the same concept of hybrid video coding. They’re adding and improving a lot of parts of it, but the general concept remains the same.

TVT:How important is it for Silicon Valley companies like Google, Amazon, Facebook, Netflix and Apple to participate in the development of the successor to HEVC?

BB: It is very important as compressed video data are the by far highest percentage of bits on the Internet and mobile phones. These companies and everybody else who is serious about video compression will highly benefit from the coding efficiency improvements that the JVET process will surely deliver. They and many others are interested in video compression technology improvements that will help their businesses to flourish.

For example, Netflix has provided content to the JVET already. When we develop a standard we need test sequences that are characteristic of the content that is out there; we cannot test or develop a new standard using sequences captured with cameras from the ’90s.

TVT:Are you saying then that it’s to their benefit to participate in this process rather than try and go their own way?

BB: Sure, and they will be looking at the new video codec and realize that the achieved coding efficiency improvements are a big deal. But, if you create such a superior video codec as a result of a joint effort with a lot of players in the industry, there are patents involved. Hence, there needs to be a reasonable way to get a license.

ITU Radiocommunication Study Group 6, considering

a) that Report ITU-R BT.2299 provides a compilation of supporting evidence that terrestrial broadcasting plays a critically important role in disseminating information to the public in times of emergencies;

b) that the overall robustness of broadcast services is enhanced by the geographical diversity of multiple radio and television services within a given region,whereby total loss of service during service disruptions rarely occurs;

c) that radio receivers are generally highly reliable, regardless of almost any disorder or disruption taking place in the affected disaster area;

d) that the majority of smart phones contain hardware that consists of a multitude of connectivity capabilities including, among other things, Bluetooth and similar technologies. Regardless of the chipset manufacturer selected by the smart phone maker, FM receivers have a nearly 100 percent inclusion in this set of connectivity chips;

e) that Report ITU-R BT.2387 indicates that some countries are implementing digital sound broadcasting and while the demand for analogue FM radio remains strong, some countries have extended the FM band,

is of the opinion
that citizens of the world would benefit if manufacturers of mobile telephones, tablets, and similar devices as well as associated service providers would include and activate a broadcast radio tuner functionality in their products along with the appropriate applications to facilitate radio broadcasting reception. TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA— The North American Broadcasters Association announced that it has gained international support for the activation of FM radio receivers in smartphones. NABA submitted an “Opinion” on activating radio receivers in smartphones that was adopted by the International Telecommunication Union in March of 2017. Enabling the FM chip present present in most smartphones would allow users convenient access to FM radio in times of emergency and natural disasters.

“ITU’s support is a result of focused, coordinated and steadfast effort by NABA’s Radio Committee and the FM Chip Working Group comprised of members across Canada, Mexico and the United States,” said Michael McEwen, director-general of NABA. “As broadcast industry leaders, we thank the ITU for the global support of FM enabled smartphones.”

The Official Opinion from the ITU, (reproduced in the sidebar), states “that Report ITU-R BT.2299 provides a compilation of supporting evidence that terrestrial broadcasting plays a critically important role in disseminating information to the public in times of emergencies.” In addition, “...citizens of the world would benefit if manufacturers of mobile telephones, tablets, and similar devices as well as associated service providers would include and activate a broadcast radio tuner functionality in their products along with the appropriate applications to facilitate radio broadcasting reception.”

The opinion was initially submitted to the Radiocommunication sector of the ITU in Geneva in October of 2016, and was discussed, edited, and approved at the March 2017 meetings of the ITU’s Study Group 6,which specializes in broadcasting services. NABA’s submission was supported by the European Broadcasting Union, International Association of Broadcasting, the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union and the World Broadcasting Unions as well as a number of administrations, NABA said.

GENEVA— The ITU has announced a new standard for High Dynamic Range Television that enhances the quality of imaging for HD, 4K, 8K and even virtual reality. 

The new ITU-R HDR-TV Recommendation BT.2100 standard which the ITU says will “give viewers an enhanced visual experience with added realism” builds further on the superior color fidelity of ITU’s Ultra-High Definition Television (UHDTV) Recommendation BT.2020. ITU’s Radiocommunication Sector (ITU-R) developed the standard—or Recommendation—in collaboration with experts from the television industry, broadcasting organizations and regulatory institutions in its Study Group 6.

“High Dynamic Range Television will bring a whole new viewing experience to audiences around the world,” said ITU Secretary-General Houlin Zhao, welcoming the announcement. “TV programming will be enhanced with brighter pictures that add sparkle to entertainment and realism to news coverage.”

“High Dynamic Range Television represents an important step towards the virtual-reality quality of experience to be delivered by future broadcasting and multimedia systems,” said François Rancy, Director of the ITU Radiocommunication Bureau. He congratulated Yukihiro Nishida, Chairman of ITU-R Study Group 6, for this major achievement.

The ITU-R announced its UHD standard, BT-2020 in October 2015. UHDTV Recommendation BT.2020 and the latest ITU-R HDR-TV Recommendation BT.2100 brings a further boost to television images, giving viewers an enhanced visual experience with added realism. The HDR-TV Recommendation allows TV programs to take full advantage of the new and much brighter display technologies. HDR-TV can make outdoor sunlit scenes appear brighter and more natural, adding highlights and sparkle. It enhances dimly lit interior and night scenes, revealing more detail in darker areas, giving TV producers the ability to reveal texture and subtle colors that are usually lost with existing Standard Dynamic Range TV.

The HDR-TV Recommendation details two options for producing High Dynamic Range TV images based on technologies promoted by several industry groups. The Perceptual Quantization (PQ) specification—standardized by SMPTE—achieves a very wide range of brightness levels using a transfer function that is finely tuned to match the human visual system and the Hybrid Log-Gamma (HLG) specification—supported by the BBC and Japan’s NHK—offers a degree of compatibility with legacy displays by more closely matching the previously established television transfer curves. The Recommendation also outlines a simple conversion process between the two HDR-TV options.

The ITU-R Recommendation BT.2100 also allows TV producers to choose from three levels of detail or resolution: HDTV (1920 by 1080), and UHDTV “4K” (3840 by 2160) and “8K” (7680 by 4320)—all of which use the progressive imaging system with extended colour gamut and range of frame-rates in ITU’s UHDTV Recommendation BT.2020.

“This Recommendation is the culmination of three years of intensive work by dedicated image experts from around the world. HDR images are stunning and this is another major step forward in television quality,” said Andy Quested, chairman of ITU-R Working Party 6C (WP 6C), which developed the new standard. “Program makers today need a much wider range of options in order to meet the expectations of the different platforms they must supply, and this need for flexibility is catered for within the framework of a stable ITU-R Recommendation.”

See also:

May 27, 2016 

A New Day Dawning... HDR Delivery

While there are common features between the HDR proposals, there are different approaches to fitting the full HDR signal into the limitations of HEVC as well as providing a solution for multiple display and production formats. 

March 24, 2016

Brightest Brights, Darkest Shadows…. HDR 

This month, I thought we’d tackle one of the less controversial subjects in the media business today, high dynamic range. Who could argue from a creative perspective or from the viewer’s perspective, the ability to capture and delivery stunning video imagery with a dynamic range far in excess of the current HDTV system.

Jan. 5, 2016 

HDR Showcased at CES 

The call for better pixels is being heeded. LG Electronics, Technicolor, Amazon, Harmonic, Netflix, Dolby, Philips and broadcasters are among technology developers at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas showcasing high dynamic range, a measure of image brightness. 

Nov. 6, 2015

Finding Clarity With HDR

The emerging technology of HDR will be the focus of the session "The Road to High Dynamic Range: Finding Clarity" at the 2015 CCW/SATCON at the Javits Center here, Nov. 11-12. Broadcasting Engineering Extra spoke with Katie about what she plans to talk about at the session, scheduled for 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 11.

Oct. 15, 2015 

"Is HDR Worth It?"

The reason consumer TV manufacturers are promoting HDR/4K when very little content exists is the same reason they’ve been selling 4K sets and 3DTVs before that: they need to make money.

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND—The international body governing global spectrum treaties has affirmed the reservation of UHF channels for broadcasting across Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Russia and neighboring nations. In making way for mobile broadband, the World Radiocommunication Conference last week voted to reserve 470-694 MHz (U.S. Chs. 14-51) for broadcasting.

“Representatives reached a consensus that this spectrum, currently used by broadcast services such as digital terrestrial TV and radio microphones, is too important to be allocated to mobile services,” said a statement from the European Broadcasting Union in Geneva, Switzerland.

The World Radiocommunication Conference is an ad hoc body of the International Telecommunications Union that meets every three to four years to review regulations covering radio frequency spectrum and satellite orbits, and revise them when necessary. Around 3,300 participants from 162 of the ITU’s 193 member states attended the four week conference, which concluded Nov. 27. More than 40 items involving spectrum allocation for mobile broadband, ham radio, emergency communications, satellite transmissions, maritime and aeronautical radio and more were discussed.

Revisions were made to allow mobile broadband services in L-band (1,427-1,518 MHz) and C-band (3.4-3.6 Ghz) spectrum, with studies to be done to identify frequencies at 6 GHz and above that would be suitable for wireless broadband.

Further revisions opened up the spectrum between 694 and 790 MHz (U.S. Chs. 52-67) to mobile broadband, with “full protection… [for] television broadcasting as well as to the aeronautical radionavigation systems operating in this frequency band,” according to the WRC’s summary of the meeting’s outcome. (In the United States, these channels were redesignated for mobile broadband and auctioned off in 2008.)

Other revisions included a new allocation for amateur radio in the 5 GHz band, more frequencies between 694-894 MHz for emergency communications, and greater protections for search-and-rescue operations on 406-406.1 MHz. New allocations also were made for earth observation satellites, wireless avionics, gobal flight tracking for civilian aviation, automotive radar and earth stations in motion.

Members also agreed to review coordinated universal time for a report to be considered at the 2023 WRC.

It was the EBU that made clear that WRC members agreed to reserve 470-694 MHz for broadcasting in the 118 countries comprising ITU Region 1. EBU said WRC members “agreed that there would be no change to the allocation in the 470-694 MHz band either now, or at WRC-19 in four years’ time. Instead there will be a review of the spectrum use in the entire UHF band—470-960 MHz—at the WRC in 2023. Only then will it be decided whether to make further changes to the Radio Regulations. This added security will enable many countries in ITU Region 1 to continue with their digital switchover programs without the risk of an impending change in use of the spectrum.”

The National Association of Broadcasters in Washington, D.C., also hailed the decision.

“NAB was pleased by the global unity demonstrated at WRC-15 for the importance of a vibrant system of over-the-air broadcasting,” the NAB’s Dennis Wharton said in a statement. “Of the 162 nations attending the conference, more than 140 countries rejected the wireless broadband industry’s anti-broadcasting UHF spectrum grab and recognized that frequency band is harmonized to provide television services on a worldwide scale. This broad consensus should send a strong message that while wireless broadband services are important for those who can afford the fees, that service should not come at the expense of a ubiquitous over-the air TV service that is available to all for free.”

GENEVA—ITU has announced that its members have unanimously approved Recommendation ITU-R BS.2088-0, open standards aimed to deliver advanced sound for broadcasting services. Based on existing RIFF/WAV file formats, the new standards are said to facilitate the production and exchange of advanced audio files by allowing a single file to carry a complete audio program containing audio samples as well as metadata for any combination of object-, channel- and scene-based audio.

The “Recommendation contains the specification of the BW64—Broadcast Wave 64 Bit—audio file format, including the new chunks, and which enable the file to carry large multichannel files and metadata, including the Audio Definition Model specified in Recommendation ITU-R BS.2076,” the document, entitled, “Long-form file format for the international exchange of audio programme materials with metadata,” states.

It goes on to say that the BW64 format is based on the WAVE audio file format specified in the Resource Interchange File Format, or RIFF. These WAVE files contain audio data.

“The basic building block of the RIFF file format, called a ‘chunk,’ contains a group of tightly related pieces of information. It consists of a chunk identifier, an integer value representing the length in bytes and the information carried. A RIFF file is made up of a collection of chunks.”

This BW64 format is said to use the core elements of the format as described in EBU Tech 3306. The BWF file format described in an earlier recommendation, Rec. BS.1352, had a number of limitations, incuding a maximum file size of less than 4 Gb, no support for advanced multichannel audio and inadequate support for technical metadata. The BW64 format described in BS.2088-0 aims to overcome those limitations while preserving as much compatibility as possible with BS.1352.

The aim of all of this is immersive audio and being able to pair it with UHDTV for a more life-like television experience. With the technical capabilities of these standards, viewers will be able to adjust the level of immersive audio. This is made possible by object-based coding, which allows viewers to personalize the viewing and listening experience at the point of consumption, including setting language and dialogue levels and selecting different aspects or sections of programming.

ITU is the United Nations agency for information and communications technology.

Also see...
August 12, 2015
“Do We Need More Audio? A Primer on Immersive (3D) Sound”
Immersive audio goes beyond 5.1 surround sound and uses more channels to create the sensation of height (sound above). Where this gets interesting is—how many more channels?

June 29, 2015
“ATSC Sounds Out 3.0 Audio Proposals”
The field of competitors for the next broadcast—and therefore production—audio standard which once included Dolby Labs, DTS, Fraunhofer IIS, NBCUniversal, Samsung, Technicolor and Qualcomm, has been whittled down to two contenders: Dolby, with its AC-4 technology, and the MPEG-H Alliance represented by Fraunhofer on behalf of its partners, Qualcomm and Technicolor.

May 12, 2015
“AES69-2015: Key to Immersive Audio”
Depending on many variables—including where our head is in the soundfield in relation to the source—sound is likely to arrive at each ear at a slightly different time, at a different intensity and with a somewhat different frequency response depending on the shape of our head and ears, and reflections/cancelations from our body.

March 10, 2015
“ATSC to Review Audio Proposals for 3.0 Standard”
The three audio proposals were submitted by Dolby, DTA and an alliance consisting of Fraunhofer, Qaulcomm and Technicolor.

February 20, 2015
“AES Conference to Target Immersive Audio”
Immersive sound is on the forefront of audio technologies gaining ground in cinema and television. Unlike mono, stereo or even 5.1 surround sound, immersive audio is not dictated by the number of channels feeding a likewise number of speakers.

January 26, 2015
“All-Around Sound: Mark Richer on ATSC 3.0 Audio”
Immersive audio for ATSC 3.0 is composed of two different sound enhancements over the current ATSC 1.0 system; first, personalization and the ability to customize the audio program based on the viewer’s unique needs, environment or device and second, enhanced surround sound, bringing a much more enveloping experience to both the home theater and headphone listener.