Pearl TV told a U.S. Court of Appeals this week that it has “deep concern” over the future availability of TV sets and devices that support the ATSC 3.0 standard because of LG’s exit from the 3.0 market in the U.S. last year after it lost a court case against Constellation Designs over a patent dispute.

In an amicus brief filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals in the case of “Constellation Designs, LLC v. LG Electronics Inc.,” Pearl, a consortium of broadcasters, manufacturers and associations promoting ATSC 3.0 (aka “NextGen TV”) told the court that it feared that “other major TV manufacturers will follow LG and pull their products off the market, if the decision on damages from the trial court is allowed to stand.”

In 2023, LG Electronics, which, along with Samsung, was one of the companies that worked on developing the ATSC 3.0 standard—a next generation broadcast standard that combines traditional broadcast with IP—announced that it would no longer manufacture or sell TV sets that receive NextGen TV in the U.S. because it lost a patent dispute with Constellation Designs.

LG filed its appeal in May.

That decision, LG said at the time, “was not made lightly, because LG has been a vocal ATSC 3.0 advocate, a strong supporter of local broadcasters, and a leading developer of television products with the latest NextGen TV technologies.”

Transition to 3.0 'Could End in Futility'
LG still sells 3.0 sets in South Korea, one of several other countries that has adopted the standard. In the U.S., consumers can still purchase 3.0 sets from Sony, Samsung, Hisense and TCL. However, in Pearl’s amicus, it feared that these companies could follow suit if the appeal stands.

“[A]ll this effort by the broadcast industry to deploy NextGen TV and by the Federal Communications Commission to approve the standard and guide the industry through the transition, will end in futility if consumers cannot purchase ATSC 3.0-equipped TV receivers,” Pearl said.

Pearl told the court that while the industry took steps to guard against such patent disputes in advance of the rollout of consumer TV sets starting in 2020, Constellation Designs’ actions went against the norm.

“[T]his patent pool system is working to facilitate the deployment and transition of NextGen TV,” Pearl said. “Pearl TV . . . views the patent pool system for NextGen TV as well functioning, and has observed no significant issues or complaints by key members of the ecosystem. “Until the Constellation Designs decision on appeal here, the patent pool system led to dozens of TV set models being introduced into the market at multiple price points (many well below $999) and widespread adoption of the NextGen TV technology by the broadcast industry.

“The decision at issue in this case disrupted that functioning market in a manner that greatly concerns the broadcast industry and any person interested in seeing the transition to NextGen TV be successful and completed.”

Judgment Was 'Skewed and Exorbitant'
Pearl also took issue with the financial arrangements, noting that the size of the judgment prompted LG’s immediate exit from a burgeoning market.

“[The trial court] returned a verdict in favor of Constellation Designs, awarding it $1,684,469.00 U.S. Dollars for past infringement,” Pearl said. “More troublingly, the judgment also ordered LG to pay Constellation Designs $6.75 for every future LG TV that used Constellation’s patents. This result immediately halted LG’s NextGen TV enterprise.”

Pearl noted that the judgment was “skewed” and “exorbitant,” distorting the SEP process. “Standard Essential Patents” are those patents identified as crucial to the deployment of a particular technology standard.

“The largest patent pool, Avanci Broadcast, charges $2 to $3.00 for 11,000 patents, including nine hundred SEPs which are critical to NextGen TV,” Pearl said. “Another patent pool charges roughly $.30, twenty-two times less than Constellation’s rate, while offering 90 SEPs, more than twenty-two times the number of SEPs. The jury’s verdict on damages is extreme and risks disrupting the entire patent pool market for ATSC 3.0, which otherwise has functioned smoothly for broadcasters, receiver manufacturers, and consumers.

"The consequences of the judgment may reverberate beyond one manufacturer. The verdict may encourage patent holders to leave patent pools,” Pearl continued. “Instead of negotiating with manufacturers for competitive rates and waiting for their assets to appreciate as NextGen TV takes off, some may prefer to charge higher fees now. Doing so would deter manufacturers from making TVs that are compatible with NextGen TV.”

With the future viability of ATSC 3.0 on the line, Pearl warned that the verdict could discourage further development of new 3.0 products and the standard itself.

“Without NextGen TV-television sets in the market, viewers will not be able access NextGen TV, nor will broadcasters have any incentive to implement the myriad improvements that the new standards boast.”

“Thus, the judgment’s ripple turns into a cascade,” Pearl concluded.

As we start a new year, I thought it would be interesting to look back at 2023 and offer some comments on what I expect lies ahead for 2024 and beyond.  

A Quiet 2023
After the activity surrounding the FCC incentive auction channel repack and the post-repack antenna and transmitter upgrades, the past year was quiet when it came to spectrum issues. The RF spectrum scene, however, is changing.  

When the FCC lifted its freeze on channel changes, many TV stations, (31 at last count), filed channel change petitions to move from VHF channels to UHF TV channels. While VHF channels can work well to cover large areas if viewers are using outdoor antennas, reception of VHF with indoor antennas has been problematic for reasons I’ve discussed before. As of Nov. 24, 2023, 481 stations were still transmitting on VHF channels, 51 of them on low-VHF Channels 2–6. 

After rushing to get red and blue C-band interference filters installed on satellite dishes, wireless operators started using the 3.7 GHz to 3.98 GHz band that used to be devoted to C-band satellite down-links. From what I’ve seen, there have only been a few problems with interference­—which may be due to program distribution moving from satellite to terrestrial distribution via fiber and even the internet. 

As the year ended, broadcasters faced a Nov. 29 deadline to certify that their microwave links in the 12.7 GHz band were operating as licensed; file an application to modify the license to correct any errors or omissions; or cancel the license. The FCC is looking to allocate this spectrum for wireless broadband use, but it isn’t clear exactly how this will be used. One possibility is fixed wireless internet.

Transition to NextGen TV
The slow rollout of ATSC 3.0 continued in 2023. Available spectrum to allow simultaneous transmission of primary programming in both 3.0 and 1.0 is still a problem, although stations continue to learn how to trade capacity to make it work. One potential solution is to move from MPEG-2 to AVC (MPEG-4) encoding, but incompatibility with older TV sets has frustrated that effort (viewers hear the audio but get a black screen from MPEG-4 on older TVs). 

More stations switched on content protection in 2023. While this caused few problems for large-screen ATSC 3.0 TV sets, viewers with early set-top boxes like SiliconDust’s HDHomerun lost reception of protected channels. 

Fortunately, as the year ended, set-top boxes that support content protection became available—the ZapperBox and the ADTH box, for example. Except for ATSC 1.0, almost all video delivery today is content protected, whether streamed or over fiber or cable TV. The challenge for the ATSC 3.0 roll out will be making that content protection as easy for viewers and device manufacturers as it is for cable and streaming services.  

Unfortunately, LG, a major supplier of ATSC 3.0 TV sets, has stopped selling sets with ATSC 3.0 tuners after losing a patent battle with Constellation Designs over non-uniform constellations. 

Fig. 1 shows a non-uniform 64-QAM constellation generated by my software-defined ATSC 3.0 transmitter. Non-uniform constellations are more efficient than the uniform (rectangular) constellations used in other digital TV COFDM systems. 

Constellation’s patent would appear to apply to equipment that generates ATSC 3.0 RF signals as well as receivers. Readers may remember that similar patent battles erupted during the rollout of the original ATSC (1.0) DTV and affected both receiver and transmitter manufacturers. In the end it had very little impact on the rollout of DTV in the United States. I don’t expect it to be a major issue for ATSC 3.0. 

For more information on non-uniform constellations, see the complaint filed by Constellation Designs LLC at https://drive.google.com/file/d/1I5-nhg3MMcR8peqIEei8XVM5kNpwVHOc/view 

Non-TV uses of ATSC 3.0 received more attention. The Broadcast Position Standard (BPS) that would provide a backup for GPS, which many services depend on for accurate timing was tested, as well as radio over ATSC 3.0. I covered both topics in detail in my 2023 NAB Show coverage in TV Tech. 

I’m often asked, “When will broadcasters complete the transition to ATSC 3.0?” My usual answer is I don’t see it happening for at least 5-7 years. The key factor will be the widespread availability of ATSC 3.0 tuners in TV sets, set-top boxes or other devices.

It's usually followed up by “What can broadcasters do to speed the adoption of ATSC 3.0?” Almost all 3.0 programming is a duplicate of what stations are airing in ATSC 1.0. Better encoding and the addition of HDR provide a better picture, but is that enough? Broadcast applications and “virtual channels” delivered over the internet are attractive, but support varies among devices.  

While the focus has been on the benefits that ATSC 3.0 provides consumers, don’t ignore the benefit it provides broadcasters. More bandwidth (about 20% more for similar coverage) and encoding that’s 4x more efficient is equivalent to getting additional ATSC 1.0 channels! It gets better—a broadcaster can use LDM to add a very robust signal for mobile TV, data or other applications like radio with little impact on the main channel coverage. 

Perhaps rather than relying on consumer pull, we need a stronger broadcaster push. This push could be funding an ATSC 3.0 set-top box program, either by building and distributing converters or providing discount coupons. 

Financial incentives for device manufacturers (not only TV sets but streaming devices and set-top boxes) to include ATSC 3.0 capability, just as streaming services do now, could drive adoption. Since smart TVs know what the consumer is watching, offering manufacturers a bonus when the set tunes to an ATSC 3.0 service would help ensure over-the-TV wasn’t buried deep in the menus. 

We’ve seen stations move away from using two-way radio systems and microwave ENG systems in favor of cell phones and bonded cellular. Will the same transition happen to broadcasting? 

We can’t ignore the possibility that TV “broadcasting” will eventually move to the internet and 5G wireless. I don’t see this happening in the next five years, but if the ATSC 3.0 transition fails and as transmitters bought during the repack need replacement, the idea of relying on internet delivery, perhaps supplemented with 5G broadcast, might look attractive, especially if it allows broadcasters to avoid the regulatory burdens associated with an FCC license. More likely, we’ll see multiple broadcast platforms, with over-the-air continuing to exist in some form. 

Viewers are discovering free over-the-air TV to avoid the cost of cable TV and streaming subscriptions. Antenna sales are strong. For broadcasters to take full advantage of this trend, we need to push the transition to ATSC 3.0 technology to be able to both complement and compete with other platforms like internet streaming (wired and wireless) and 5G broadcast for both viewers and content.

IEEE BTS Returns
Finally, I was happy to see that IEEE Broadcast Technology Symposium was back in 2023. The last Symposium was in 2019 and I wondered if it would return after the 2022 Symposium was canceled. 

Thanks to the efforts of Jim Stenberg, Paul Shulins and the presenters and volunteers supporting it, the symposium was a success, with approximately 90 people attending the two-day session at NAB headquarters in Washington, D.C. Visit https://bts.ieee.org/ for more information on the IEEE Broadcast Technology Society. I’ll be covering the 2023 Symposium’s papers in a future column. 

As always, your questions and comments are welcome. Email me at dlung@transmitter.com.

As word spread of LG Electronics’ decision to suspend ATSC 3.0 as a feature in its 2024 models in the U.S. following the loss of a patent infringement lawsuit filed by Constellation Designs, ATSC responded with a bulletin to members and interested parties on the “progress and growing pains” 3.0 has experienced as of late.

In it, ATSC president Madeleine Noland sought to reassure readers that the impact of the situation “is likely very limited,” citing “one prominent electronics industry market analyst.”

At the core of the issue is how digital symbols are transmitted in ATSC 3.0. The NextGen TV standard uses non-uniform constellation (NUC) to optimize inherent channel capacity. Constellation Designs' complaint arguedsthat Maged Barsoum and Christopher Jones—two of the company’s founders—developed this technique in 2007 while at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

The complaint further quotes a Samsung press release underscoring NUC as a “key component” in the A/322 Physical Layer, saying it is critical to “generating the modulated symbols and optimizing the transmission capacity for all reception conditions.”

In July, a jury in the Marshall Division of U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas found LG willfully infringed on four Constellation Designs NUC-related patents and awarded the company $1.68 million—some $6.75 per 3.0 unit sold.

The decision raises questions about what this might mean more broadly for the industry as it rolls out 3.0 as well as how something like this happened when ATSC has a patent policy in place. 

In this interview with Noland, the ATSC president talks with TV Tech Contributing Editor Phil Kurz about this and other questions raised by these growing pains and the progress the standard is making both at home and around the world.

(An edited transcript.)

TVTech: Let's start off with the basics. What was ATSC’s reaction to LG’s filing with the FCC informing the agency it will suspend sale of NextGen TV for the 2024 model year following its loss of the patent infringement case brought by Constellation Designs?
Madeleine Noland: Well, that did not come as good news. We recognize at the launch of a major new technology, there's definitely going to be bumps on the road, and there have been with this.

But I think the thing we need to remember about this is there's not a lot of information out there right now, and the information that is out there is rather scoped to a very niched spot for what's happening. I think the other thing ATSC keeps in mind is that history suggests that the marketplace works these types of things out.

You never know what's going to happen with any given situation. But we're hopeful that the marketplace will find its way forward and pursue paths that are going to be beneficial for the whole ecosystem.

TVT: I think one major concern involves the larger implications. When I asked the representative of the legal team representing Constellation Designs whether or not Constellation Designs had filed similar suits with regard to Sony, Samsung or other companies offering ATSC 3.0 enabled receivers, the answer wasn’t yes or no. It was basically "none of these players have secured licenses for use of the company’s non-uniform constellation technology." So, I think the bigger concern for the industry is, are we going to get muddled in some sort of legal morass that ultimately will impede the broadcast industry’s ability to advance its rollout of NextGen TV?
MN: It's so hard to predict what's going to happen, and from my perspective until there's something that demonstrates that the scope of this is changing my feeling is let's keep on our path. We are expecting to have New York City launched soon. We're excited about the new set-top boxes that are coming out.

I think it's a little bit counterproductive to speculate about what might or might not happen—the good, the bad or the ugly. We just don't know yet, and we have a lot of progress being made. We're going to keep making that progress. It's too early to say what may or may not happen, and we need to go on the facts that we have today in front of us.

TVT: How does something like this happen? According to the Constellation Designs legal filing, the company’s non-uniform constellation technology is fundamental to the physical layer of ATSC 3.0. How did the industry get to this point?
MN: ATSC’s patent policy requires all the participants to disclose their patents and to either agree to RAND [reasonable and non-discriminatory licensing] or that they don't agree to RAND and disclose that. That gives the ATSC membership and board of directors an opportunity to decide whether or not a given technology should or should not be in the system.

Patent policy relies upon the compliance of the participants. So, from ATSC’s point of view, we rely on our members and all the participants to disclose the patents that they have and to include them on the website. It's always possible that one of our members or participants has not. For whatever reason, something came out of the woodwork that they didn't anticipate. It can happen. So, I think that when things like that do happen again it's just a question of working through it with the parties involved and seeking a solution that's going to work for the ecosystem.

TVT: Is Constellation Designs a member of ATSC?
MN: They are not.

TVT: Is there a provision to deal with patents that are relevant to the standard that are held by non-members?
MN: The ATSC patent policy recognizes that ATSC itself is not in a position to do deep patent searches on all the patents that are coming out for a given standard, so, the patent policy relies on its members to do this due diligence. As I say, you know, it happens that a due diligence search may or may not have turned up absolutely everything, in which case, we do look to those members who are impacted to work with the marketplace and figure out the best next steps.

TVT: Is there any movement by the ATSC working group, committee or sub-group responsible for patent policy to revisit the organization’s patent procedures to protect against a similar situation in the future?
MN: Certainly, the ATSC board of directors is watching the situation very closely. We've had conversations about the patent policy, and we would adjust the patent policy if at the end of the day, the board of directors feels it's necessary. The patent policy and other policy documents are the purview of the board. And the board is, as I say, keeping a close eye on what's happening here.

TVT: What's your message to broadcasters as they're watching all this play out when it comes to planning their future deployments and business models?
MN: Interestingly, we have found that the broadcasters are moving forward as before. I have not heard broadcasters talking about changes of plans or changing directions as a result of this.

Again, my feeling is both for broadcasters as well as others need to take it for what it is at face value right now. We simply don't know what may or may not happen in the future. And the plans that the broadcasters had to launch in New York and a few other markets, including Chicago, hopefully soon, seem to be rolling forward as before, to my knowledge.

So, in a way, I think that we can all follow suit with the broadcasters rather than us trying to send a message to the broadcasters. We can watch what the broadcasters do, and they're just going forward. I think that they see that this is going to ultimately have a solution that's going to work and that their plans are going ahead.

TVT: What can you tell me about the New York launch of NextGen TV?
MN: I'm excited about New York because we are going to have our public broadcast station WNET up and running. What's also exciting about New York is that a second transmitter is scheduled as well. So, the first transmitter coming online will be the public broadcaster, and then later on there's another transmitter that's scheduled. I think both are supposed to be lit up this year. 

TVT: What’s the latest developments from Brazil?
MN: I’m very excited about Brazil. Brazil started their process of defining their second generation, what they are calling their "TV 3.0" digital system. They started that process back in 2020, and since then they've gone through a development of requirements, a call for proposals, combing through the responses to all the proposals. ATSC 3.0 was among them.

(Read: Where in the World is ATSC 3.0?)

Basically, they are selecting layer by layer which technology that they're going to use. They weren't sort of doing one-stop shopping. They were saying: “Let's pick the best video.” “Let's pick the best audio.” “Let's pick the best transport.”

We're pretty excited that they have so far chosen almost all ATSC 3.0 technologies. There are two exceptions. So far, they've chosen ROUTE/DASH for transport, MPEG-H audio, ISMC1 caption and ATSC emergency messaging.

The one that they are going to do is have VVC instead of HEVC, which is logical because they're coming a little bit after ATSC. But we're going to catch up to them. We're adding VVC, too, to the 3.0 standards. So, it'll all be one, pretty soon. Then the other one is their interactive system. They are keeping their homegrown system that they've been using for years. So that was never really on the table for a new proponent to come in. 

So, the last piece is the physical layer. There were four proponents for that. At one point earlier this year, one of the proponents withdrew, which took it down to three. Three proponents were in lab testing. Their plan was that when the lab tests concluded that they would take two of the three proponents to testing in the field. 

I'm very pleased to announce that ATSC 3.0 is one of the two systems that's advancing to the field. So, we will be undergoing field testing with one other system. The expectation is field testing will conclude late in Q1 next year.

By then, they will have recommended their full suite of layer technologies, and we'll be moving forward from there. So, we're excited by what's happening. 

TVT: Is there any concern that this whole patent issue related to non-uniform constellation modulation, which is an integral part of the physical layer, will have a negative effect on Brazil’s decision about what to choose?
MN: Interesting question. By no means is ATSC a patent attorney, and we are not in a position to predict what is or isn't going to happen. However, we have researched the matter.

There are a couple of data points I think are worth mentioning. One is that looking at an international patent search for Constellation Designs, and not having done a completely deep dive, but at least looking at a reasonable level, it appears that the patent is granted in five countries. Brazil is not one of those countries.

What that exactly means, I'm not 100% sure. But ATSC is working with its counsel to try to understand the nuances.

I think the other thing that's worth mentioning is that one of the countries that they do have it in is Japan, which is the source of the other physical layer standard that's being tested [in Brazil]. Presumably, and I can't say this, for sure, but I would think that it's entirely possible that that standard also has non-uniform constellations in it.

So, when you look at the landscape as it stands right now, it would seem that a couple of things are happening: If non-uniform court constellations are in the other system, which is originating out of Japan, there may be a similar situation. I don't know.

The other thing is that the patents don't appear, at least not at this moment, to exist in Brazil. So, I don't know how it's going to impact things. But these are the things we've been able to uncover so far, and we're communicating transparently with the Brazilians about what we're finding.

TVT: Finally, what’s the update on ATSC 3.0 in India?
MN: Funny you should ask. I was up at 3:00 in the morning Pacific Time today to do a webinar at a TSDSI [Telecommunications Standards Development Society, India] technical deep dive conference talking about converged networks.

In India, what's happening is the TSDSI, which is their telecommunication standards development organization and a partner of the 3GPP [mobile broadband standards group] have adopted or transposed –I forget which terminology they exactly use—ATSC 3.0 as their own.

Currently, the Indian regulatory authorities are in a comment period to help decide whether or not to make ATSC 3.0, as adopted by TSDSI an Indian national standard. If they do that, that paves the way for ATSC 3.0 to be deployed in India.

Right now, it is deployed on an experimental basis. There's a major proof of concept field trial going on in Delhi. But I think that if the Indian regulator were to permit 3.0 as an Indian national standard that would open up some doors. That said, unlike Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, South Korea and Brazil, there's no government mandate within India to make a change at all, let alone to ATSC 3.0 or any other system. 

So right now, they're very much in the testing phase, understanding and paving the way for what they may or may not do in the future. But I think that it is important to note with India, that they really are highly motivated to have a direct-to-mobile broadcasting solution. And that's pretty exciting.

TVT: Is it reasonable to think that with India’s direct-to-mobile strategy and its population of more than 1 billion people, that if 3.0 is permitted as a national standard that 3.0 mobile reception—that is in cell phones—will get a big boost?
MN: Certainly, I think that what's interesting about India is, as you point out, it's such a large market, that you could argue they can create scale, unilaterally within the country. That certainly is pretty exciting if that were to come to pass.

LAS VEGAS—Although TV has been “wireless” since the inception of over-the-air broadcast TV, a new kind of “wireless” is grabbing the attention of CES 2023 attendees. The new wireless technology involves truly wireless in house reception, with the goal of reducing wire clutter and eliminating the growing number of HDMI inputs in today’s large flat screens. 

India-based startup Displace TV previewed its new wireless TV in a press release in December, when it announced its debut at this week’s CES. 

“Unlike any other TVs currently available in the market, the Displace 55" 4K TVs are powered by a proprietary hot-swappable battery system, lightweight at under 20 lbs., transportable and can be easily secured to any surface with no mounting required, using Displace TV's proprietary active-loop vacuum technology… which with a slight push will magically stick to the wall,” the company said in its press release. 

The company said its new design would help eliminate or reduce the problems of mounting flat screen TVs that can create wire clutter and even damage walls. It also does away with physical remote controls in favor of hand gestures and even facial recognition to control the TV so it can operate seamlessly when viewers move from any one room with a Displace TV. A button on top of the Displace TV also enables the feature to be switched off for privacy. 

All Displace TVs wirelessly connect to a base unit that can be plugged into an electrical outlet and kept inside a closet or anywhere within the home. To connect, it uses the newly released Wi-Fi 6E protocol, which operates 6-gigahertz (GHz) band, a new swath of unlicensed spectrum. 

"Displace completely reinvents the television with its hardware and software technologies, and user interfaces that will not only change the way people enjoy entertainment in their homes, but will also advance the entire television industry," said founder and CEO Balaji Krishnan. "We envision a world with multiple displays on walls delivering significant value to the consumers wherever they are inside their homes. To achieve this vision, it's important to re-architect television by eliminating all common frustrations and making it extremely easy to secure televisions on any surface inside homes. By realizing this vision, Displace is effectively creating the next computing platform and the potential applications are limitless."

The 55-inch display is also modular, which means it can be used in combination with multiple Displace displays to form any size TV, the company said.

Displace TVs also eliminate the power cord with multiple rechargeable batteries that can be popped in and out individually. Batteries can also be charged one at a time while the TV remains fully operational using Displace's proprietary hot-swappable battery system. Each Displace TV averages about a month of total battery life for an average usage of six hours of active TV time per day, the company said.

Reservations for Displace TV are available now on the Displace website, with a fully refundable deposit. They will be available to ship by late 2023.

For an up close and personal view of the Displace TV, check out TV Tech sister brand Tom's Guide's coverage.

Also at CES, LG is showing a wireless 97-inch OLED TV that uses a base station that can be placed up to 30 feet away from the display. The top of the box can be rotated according to where the TV is placed in the area, according to CNET. 

The box includes standard TV inputs including HDMI, Ethernet, USB, antenna and serial port and the signal can handle up to up to 4K, 120Hz resolution. Unlike Display’s battery setup, however LG retains the traditional power cord.

While both Samsung and LG announced in 2021 that their high-end TVs would be certified for Wi-Fi 6E, this year's model from LG is believed to be the first out of the gate from a major TV manufacturer to implement it as part of a wireless TV product.

LAS VEGAS—LG Electronics today announced it will offer six premium OLED TV models supporting ATSC 3.0 in 2020, ranging in size from 55 to 88 inches.

The announcement, made the day before the official opening of CES 2020, answers the question in the minds of many industry observers about whether or not ATSC 3.0 consumer receivers would actually make it to market in the United States, and offers one more indication for broadcasters that a voluntary transition to Next Gen TV will actually be able to seen by viewers.

“Speaking of futureproofing, another key change in 2020 is the official U.S. launch of Next Gen TV,” said Tim Alessi, director of new products for LG Electronics. “Next Gen TV is the new ATSC 3.0 broadcast standard, co-developed by LG, which is the world’s first internet protocol-based television standard.”

During the LG Electronics press presentation at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center, the company laid out several key strategies it is pursuing, including leveraging AI to enhance the lives of customers, and partnerships.

The Next Gen TV rollout is timed with this year’s expectation that more than 60 local TV stations covering around 70% of the U.S. viewing public will launch ATSC 3.0 service in 2020.

Briefly explaining the standard, as a marriage of broadband and broadcast, Alessi laid out how ATSC 3.0 will enable broadcasters to deliver 4K UHD, multidimensional sound and interactive content “among many other potential benefits,” he said.

All of the new 3.0 models will carry the Consumer Technology Association’s new Next Gen TV logo, he added.

While the announcement is a major step on the road to 3.0 success, reaction to the news among the mostly consumer electronics press in attendance was rather low-key.

Their interest was focused on the company’s new G10 OLED Gallery Series 65-inch OLED. With a thickness of only 20mm, the new television mounts flush to the wall without the need for a separate connection for source signals.

The company is also extending its lineup of 8K televisions with six new models, leveraging AI to scale content, touting the use of its new televisions as displays for gaming and supporting the UHD Alliance’s Filmmaker Mode to ensure what a filmmaker intended the audience sees is actually displayed on its televisions.

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

SEOUL—Perhaps inspired by Samsung’s foldable phones, LG is applying that idea to a television with a new design for a foldable OLED TV.

Designs from a patent LG recently filed in September with the Hauge International Design System for an ultrawide display that can fold up when not in use have been revealed, as well as some related artwork and renders.

The TV would be a six-segment display that would fold like an accordion and features rigid frames at the end that would serve as stands and include built-in speakers.

There are few additional details and no plans on whether this product will ever come to fruition.

TVT’s sister publication Tom’s Guide had the original story.

BURBANK, CA—The awards committee of the Hollywood Professional Association (HPA) this week announced the winners of the 2019 HPA Engineering Excellence Awards.

The winners include:

• Adobe–Content-Aware Fill for Video in Adobe After Effects;
• Epic Games—Unreal Engine 4;
• Pixelworks—TrueCut Motion; and
• Portrait Displays Inc. and LG Electronics—CalMAN LUT-based Auto-Calibration with LG OLED TVs.

“Every year, it is an absolute pleasure and a privilege to witness the innovative work that is brewing in our industry,” said HPA Awards Engineering Committee chair Joachim Zell. “Judging by the number of entries, which was our largest ever, there is genuine excitement within our community to push our capabilities to the next level.

“It was a close race and shows us that the future is being plotted by the brilliance that we see in the Engineering Excellence Awards. Congratulations to the winners, and all the entrants, for impressive and inspiring work.”

A blue-ribbon judging panel selected the winners after a session held at IMAX on June 22. Winners will be honored Nov. 21 at the 14th Annual HPA Awards Gala at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles.

Honorable Mentions were awarded to:

• Ambidio for Ambidio Looking Glass;
• Grass Valley, a Belden brand for Creative Grading; and
• Netflix for Photon.

The HPA Awards were founded in 2005. They recognize creative artistry and innovation in the professional media industry. Tickets for the 14th Annual HPA Awards will be available later this summer, HPA said.

The Engineering Excellence Award honors outstanding technical and creative ingenuity in media, content production, finishing, distribution and archive.

More information is available on the HPA website.

ERLANGEN, Germany—LG Electronics has licensed MPEG-H Audio from Fraunhofer IIS, allowing the consumer electronics company to manufacturer products with the audio codec, Fraunhofer announced today.

MPEG-H Audio, developed largely by Fraunhofer IIS, is specified as one of the audio systems that is part of ATSC 3.0. It has been on air in South Korea since May 2017 when the nation rolled out the Next Gen TV standard.

MPEG-H Audio also is specified as part of the DVB standard. In Europe, where many countries use DVB, MPEG-H has been tested successfully as part of the digital television system.

Among MPEG-H Audio’s features are immersive audio support as well as audio personalization.

More information is available on the Fraunhofer IIS website.

WASHINGTON—The NAB Leadership Foundation’s Corporate Leadership Award, which is given to a business outside of the broadcast industry that focuses on community service and corporate social responsibility, will be presented to LG Electronics USA for 2019.

The North American subsidiary of LG Electronics Inc, LG Electronics USA has provided leadership in the U.S. when it comes to environmental sustainability, social impact, employee volunteerism and disaster relief efforts.

A highlight of their efforts is the “Life’s Good: Experience Happiness” initiative, which strives for positive change in people’s lives, with a goal to deliver sustainable happiness skills to 5.5 million young adults by 2021. Working with the University of California Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center, LG has identified six learnable skills linked to happiness: mindfulness, human connection, positive outlook, purpose, generosity and gratitude. The initiative engages leading nonprofit partners and educational resource providers to raise awareness and increase youth access to the six sustainable happiness skills.

The LG initiative is now in its second year and has reportedly impacted 1.8 million teens across the country through curriculum implementation projects, International Day of Happiness events and high school programs that promote social-emotional learning.

NABLF will present the Corporate Leadership Award to LG Electronics USA during the Celebration of Service to America Awards that will take place on June 11 in Washington, D.C.

CES 2019 will be marked as the true debut of 8K television.

In Las Vegas, four TV makers — LG, Samsung, Sony and TCL — announced they'd be shipping 8K big screen models to North American retailers this year, like it or not, ready or not. Other brands, including Changhong, Hisense, Sharp and Skyworth, fronted their LVCC booths with 8K prototypes, likely waiting to gauge sales by the top tier brands before announcing their own U.S. 8K product plans.

8K ON DISPLAY AT 2019 CES

While there was boastful excitement amongst the 8K TV vendors in Las Vegas — several banded together at CES to form the 8K Alliance — excitement among retailers, the industry and consumers at large is questionable.

This lack of excitement is reflected by 8K sales forecasts. CTA projects than 200,000 8K TVs would be sold in the U.S. this year compared to projected sales of 22.2 million 4K sets, growing to a mere 1.5 million 8K units in 2022. But there are those who believe these and other similar 8K forecasts are optimistic. A couple of months ago, Samsung forecast North America 8K sales of just 100,000 units in 2019, and only 759,000 sets in 2022.

"8K [is] just another distraction encouraging customers to second guess that aspirational 4K purchase," opined Robert Cole, founder and CEO of Philadelphia-based World Wide Stereo. "My guys on the floor learned quickly not to lead with the 8K story. The presentation was more about it being future-proof with the best technology available. As more 8K TVs are released, the story will evolve."

“Considering there is no content for 8K at the moment and the technology hasn't been standardized, making the leap isn't for everyone,” agreed Jon Abt, co-president of Glenview, Ill.-based Abt Electronics, which has sold around a dozen of the first Samsung 8K model. "It's certainly at a very early adopter stage at the moment, but the upscaling from 4K is promising for today's buyers. There will be an influx of sets in 2019 at lower price points, which should open the market up.”

“We were one of two retailers in Texas to receive Samsung’s first 8K TV," said Kris Dybdahl, VP of Bjorn’s Audio Video. "We have sold one or two already to our early adopters. It looks great with the internal 8K demo content, as well as the up-converted content that we play on it on a daily basis.

"However, in a perfect world I wish the manufacturers would have held off a little while longer before trotting out 8K," Dybdahl continued. "By bringing 8K out so quickly after 4K, when most people still don’t have a 4K set yet, I think causes confusion in the customers mind — even the possibility of should I wait to see if there will be 16K?”

Here's a rundown of the 8K sets announced at CES and scheduled to go on sale this year:

LG: Five 8K models are coming from LG in the second half of 2019, with pricing likely coming in June: the 88-inch Z9 OLED, and four LCD-based NanoCell models — SM80, SM85, SM90 and SM95. All five LG 8K sets will be imbued with the company's ThinQ smart home platform and Google Assistant, DolbyVision HDR and LG's next-gen Alpha 9 processor designed to enhance up-conversion.

Samsung: First to market with 8K last fall, Samsung has already started pre-sales on four new QLED 8K models, all equipped with HDR10+, adaptive brightness and sound technologies, as well as Apple AirPlay 2 and iTunes support: a 65-inch ($4,999), 75-inch ($6,999), 82-inch ($9,999) and 85-inch ($14,999). Samsung also displayed a 98-inch QLED model, but with no word on when or how much.

Sony: The company silently debuted 85- and 98-inch versions of its XBR Master Series Z9G 8K Android TV LCD models. While both sets are already listed on the company's web site, there is no word on when or how much.

TCL: As its CES press event, TCL announced two models — a 75-inch Roku-enabled 8-Series set equipped with QLED and quantum contrast technologies and a Roku hardware reference design that TCL is the first to license, as well as the Q10 QLED Android TV. Only the Roku 8K model is scheduled to be sold in the U.S., however, but in what potential additional sizes, when and at what price TCL hasn't said. 

Pictured: LG's Z9 OLED

LAS VEGAS--As Yogi Berra might have observed about this year’s CES, “It was déjà vu all over again,” (at least with regard to the next-gen TV sets being displayed by both large and small manufacturers.)

Last year, with the ink still drying on the 3.0 standard and the FCC’s green-lighting of its use by the nation’s TV stations a couple of months earlier, ATSC, NAB and CTA industry officials gathered to celebrate its arrival with a champagne toast on the opening day of the CES. However, there was not a single 3.0-capable set to be found among the super-bright, super-big, super-colorful, super-intelligent, (and, in some cases, super-expensive) television receivers that literally reached the ceiling of the Los Vegas Convention Center which hosted the 2018 show.

Fast forward a year—has there been any change in the 3.0 situation?

In a word, no! If anything, there was less ATSC 3.0 presence this time, as one TV manufacturer did put up a sign in its 2018 CES display space that touted the benefits of the new DTV transmission standard. Not even the sign was there this time.

CRITICAL MASS

While most of the TV set exhibitors quizzed about the lack of ATSC 3.0 product (which has been available since 2017 in South Korea) were silent about its absence at CES, John Taylor, senior vice president of public affairs for LG USA did offer an explanation.

“You’re a year or so early,” he said. “We’re trying to time the introduction of the product with the critical mass of Next-Gen TV broadcasting, and the whole industry seems to be moving toward a 2020 product launch.” Taylor did seem fairly certain that the 3.0 sets would be populating manufacturers’ exhibit spaces at the 2020 CES to “prime the pumps” of buyers who would be at that show to decide what to stock their stores with for the 2020 holiday buying season.

And while others in the industry have hinted that there may be a problem with delivery of some of the components needed for 3.0 sets, Taylor was quick to state otherwise.

“There’s no technology issue at all,” he said. “It’s a business marketplace consideration about the right time to introduce the product in the U.S. market. We could ship the product today. As you know, we’re shipping ATSC 3.0 TVs in Korea, but it has to make sense for the U.S. market and that’s heading towards 2020.”

Taylor noted that LG and its Zenith R&D subsidiary are providing receiver products and technical support for some of the U.S. ATSC 3.0 field trials.

THE VIEW FROM OVERSEAS

Peter Siebert, head of technology for the DVB (Digital Video Broadcast organization, a Swiss-based consortium that sets digital broadcast transmission standards for Europe, and is roughly the equivalent of the Advanced Television Systems Committee), was at the show and had a slightly more pessimistic view when asked about the appearance of ATSC 3.0 TVs at the 2020 edition of the “world’s biggest consumer electronics show.”

“I don’t think so,” said Siebert. “And the reason why I don’t think so is that there has to be a strong commitment from the broadcasting community to say ‘we will introduce the service,’ and personally from a European perspective, I don’t hear this message from the North American broadcasters.

“It’s a typical ‘chicken and egg’ problem and there must be somebody breaking it,” he continued. “The broadcasters must say ‘we offer a service.’ It doesn’t help that the industry develops products first. For example, when I look at the televisions, there are many 4K televisions on the market. However, this doesn’t mean that we have 4K broadcasts. I think the broadcaster has to make a firm commitment to introduce the service and then the receiver industry will follow.”

Siebert noted that when the United Kingdom decided to migrate from the original DVB-T (terrestrial broadcast) standard, which was struck in 1997, to an updated version, DVB-T2, which was completed in 2008, there was no “chicken and egg” situation because there was a clear commitment from the BBC for a rollout of the improved HD service via DVB-T2.

“It can go very fast if well planned,” he said, noting that the transition was accomplished in Ukraine in a single year and in two years in Germany. Siebert did admit that the move to DVB-T2 didn’t go quite so fast in every European nation, explaining that “typically, the more a country is relying on terrestrial television, the longer it takes, because you have a much bigger legacy of receivers that you have to update before you can start a new service.”

However, lack of suitable receivers didn’t seem to be an issue in the DVB-T2 transition.

“In Germany, when we went from DVB-T to DVB-T2, we had all stakeholders sitting together at a round table and making a plan on how to introduce T2,” said Siebert. “It was very clear. The broadcasters said on this date we will switch our transmissions to the new DVB-T2 specification. And it was also very clear that the consumer industry [would be] ready way before this, providing the necessary equipment. So, at the time the switchover happened, quite a high percentage of receiving equipment was ready. I think it is necessary that all stakeholders sit together, to agree on a plan and then stick to the plan.”

THE VIEW FROM SINCLAIR

Since ATSC 3.0’s inception, one of its biggest backers has been the Sinclair Broadcast Group, and for the past several years the broadcast station group has been at CES to promote the standard, even operating a transmitter on Black Mountain south of Las Vegas to provide TV set exhibitors with 3.0 signals to demonstrate reception of OTA UHD video at the show. Sinclair has also hosted demonstrations of 3.0 technologies a few blocks away from the convention halls in a suite at the Wynn Hotel.

Mark Aitken, Sinclair’s vice president of advanced technology, was on hand this year to offer his take on the absent ATSC 3.0 hardware.

“I think it’s very simple,” said Aitken. “There two issues. The difficult one is content protection, and this issue has not been answered. You’ve got a lot of dancing around on the part of the networks with respect to what their requirements are for content protection, and not a single solution that has been put on the table has been supported by all of the content providers—and I might add content distributors or MVPDs. So, you have a bit of a stalemate. For me, it’s a fairly easy one to resolve. I look at it and say as a starting point ‘if Widevine [DRM] is good enough for Netflix, why isn’t it good enough for broadcast?’

“The networks will always try to extract the broadcaster from out of the middle of the relationship with the consumer,” continued Aitken, noting that reluctance of networks and program providers to allow their content to be transmitted by affiliates deploying ATSC-M/H [aka Mobile DTV] was one of the reasons for that mobile initiative’s ultimate demise.

“I think there’s been a soft promise made on the part of broadcasters that we’re willing to come to a solution. There’s been an unwillingness on the part of the large content players to sit down and really try to solve that problem, at least with Sinclair. They have their own views and their views are not shared equally with all broadcasters. And so, for the very same reasons that we ended up with Dolby AC-4 as an abstraction of the Atmos production environment in Hollywood, the issue of content protection is being driven by those same Hollywood entities, which for a broadcaster is driven through the network.”

Aitken summed up the situation by stating: “It is a political problem, absolutely.”

Aitken said that Sinclair will light up 26 markets by the end of 2019.

“There’s a requirement by the FCC that there be some replication across ATSC 1.0 and ATSC 3.0,” he said. “There may have to be an opportunity to force that issue at a regulatory level, which nobody really wants. But at the end of the day sometimes you solve problems by spilling a little blood first.”

THE CHIP

Despite his disappointment with this stalemate in the rollout of 3.0, Aitken was in a celebratory mood as he announced the release of an integrated circuit specially designed and fabricated for Sinclair. The chip’s unveiling marked the end of a nearly two-year journey that began with a pledge to supply free ATSC 3.0 demodulator chipsets to any company manufacturing smartphones or other handheld viewing devices that would commit to including them in their products.

Explaining the genesis of the project, Aitken—who is a firm believer that broadcast television’s future lies in mobile devices—said that after surveying existing 3.0 chip products, he quickly came to the conclusion that none were really satisfactory for mobile device applications.

“We knew what sort of power the available chips consumed,” said Aitken. “It’s easy enough to guess the power requirement specs, because it’s almost like a curling iron if you’ve ever put your finger on one. If we were ever going to have a mobile-enabled device—something that was suitable for embedding in phones, something that could couple-up to a cellphone without draining the life out of the phone—we would have to create it.”

Frustrated that none of the large consumer electronics firms showed much interest in mobile TV products, he decided to go it alone.

“We went literally to the top of the ladder, and at the end of the day, they saw the world the way that they choose to see the world,” he said. “They saw no place for mobile ATSC; certainly not at this time.”

Aitken recalled an Indian company with a reputation for low-power consumption specialty integrated circuit design—Saankhya Labs—from his involvement with ATSC M/H—and contacted them.

“I decided to pick up the phone and have a conversation with Praag Naik, who is the president,” said Aitken. “We had a conversation, and it became evident that we shared a much higher-level understanding of what was possible, so Sinclair invested.”

The result was the creation of a very low-power consumption chip that can easily be incorporated within a mobile viewing device without substantially decreasing its battery life or increasing its physical profile.

NOT JUST FOR ATSC 3.0

Aitken said that as Saankhya had an established reputation in software-defined radio (SDR) technology, it was decided early on to create a chip that was signal agnostic, with software dictating which of a dozen or so digital TV signals it will decode, including ATSC 1.0 and the European DVB-T2 standard.

“We’re not building an ATSC 3 chip,” he said. “We’re building a chip that can go in set-top boxes, in televisions, in tablets, for any global broadcast standard, including digital radio. You level your risk by having a multistandard chip.”

Aitken says that at present about 1,000 of the chipsets have been created, and the foundry is ready to roll out millions more. Asked about takers for the free devices, he acknowledged that this has been a bit of a hard sell, but sees some light on the horizon.

“We’ve offered a major carrier five million chips. We’ve also offered the engineering of that chip into the device and we’ve offered the availability of the IP data stream, but that has not been enough to entice them to do that yet, but we are knee-deep into discussions with a USB manufacturer.”

Aitken views this as a first step to getting the chips into mobile devices, explaining that they would be part of a USB-C “dongle” equipped with an embedded antenna and designed to plug into mobile devices. And by the chip’s not being specific to ATSC 3.0, the dongle could be used virtually anywhere that digital over-the-air broadcasting is taking place.

“It would host DVB-T2, ISDB-T, ATSC 1, and other standards just by changing the software,” said Aitken. “It could be used in any part of the world.” 

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

TV suppliers are turning to big screens and advanced display technologies to bolster ASPs and improve earnings at CES 2019, where 8K TVs, improved contrast ratios, voice assistants, and new display technologies such as micro LED and rollable OLED are front and center.

The first roll-up TV — a 65-inch LG OLED model — is making its debut along with a greater selection of LCD TVs with quantum-dot WCG technology.

During the first 10 months of 2018, the retail ASPs of U.S. LCD TVs were flat year over year, with both dollar volume and unit sales up 3 percent, The NPD Group’s Retail Tracking Service found. LCD accounted for the vast majority of North American flat-panel shipments in 2018, or 98.4 percent of 42.6 million units, IHS Markit said.

Stay up to date on all things CES with one-click access to our CES Hub.

Continuing growth in demand for larger screen sizes could help boost ASPs in 2019, when sizes of 50 inches and up will account for almost 100 percent of North American 4K/8K TV shipments, said IHS Markit executive director Paul Gagnon. Among all TVs, sales of 60 inches and larger will increase faster in 2019 to account for 23 percent of all North American TV shipments, thanks to rapidly declining costs of 65-inch panels.

Big-display demand will help stoke 8K demand, Gagnon noted. 8K resolution will be more apparent on big screens that also reduce pixel visibility when viewers are close. Chris Larson, TCL’s North America senior VP, expects 8K “will be represented by all major brands” in the U.S. in 2019, though IHS expects 8K shipments to account for only 0.1 percent (or 42,700) of 42.7 million TVs shipped in North America.

Although native 8K video in noticeable quantities might be a few years away, 8K TVs will use up-scaling technology that has improved dramatically to deliver 8K resolution from HD sources, said Gagnon. Content from 8K cameras can also be displayed, as can a few 8K YouTube videos.

In Japan in December, NHK launched an 8K satellite channel, but David Mercer of Strategy Analytics said “expectations for 8K services should be cautious.” The rest of the world “will be slower to follow suit, given that the number of homes with 8K-ready TVs will remain low until the mid 2020s.”

Despite the excitement surrounding 8K TV, added Strategy Analytics director David Watkins, “It is important to remember that image resolution, whether native or otherwise, is only one element in perceived video quality, and TV vendors and content players alike should not lose focus on other important drivers of consumer satisfaction, such as high dynamic range (HDR) and high frame rate (HFR).”

At CES, 8K launches include LG’s first two SKUs (an 88-inch OLED and 75-inch LCD) and a 98-inch Samsung LCD. They join Samsung’s $15,000 85-inch LCD. TCL is demoing a 75-inch 8K LCD and plans 2019 shipments of an 8K model, expected to feature 8K-capable HDMI 2.1 inputs. Samsung’s current 8K TV features an outboard HDMI switching box that can be swapped for a future HDMI 2.1 version.

8K screen sizes could trickle down below 75 inches in the U.S., said TCL's Larson, but “anything below 65 inches will be a challenge in a real-use environment.”

See: TV At CES 2019: 8K Is 'Getting Real'

Nonetheless, Nanosys sales/marketing VP Russell Kempt expects some suppliers to push LCD-based 8K into more mainstream sizes down to 55 inches in coming years. OLED displays, however, will be challenged to bring 8K to anything but “very large form factors.”

In other big-screen developments, LG is expanding its selection of 70-inch-plus sizes, Samsung is launching a 98-inch 8K model, Philips is showing a 75-inch 4K Android TV, and TCL is bringing back a 75-inch SKU (at less than $1,800 MAP).

Here’s what else to expect:

MICRO LED

Select suppliers will demo micro LED displays, which use emissive red, green and blue LEDs to create 4K color images. Each LED can be turned off to deliver perfect blacks and improved contrast, with faster response times and better off-axis viewing, compared to LED-lit LCD displays. Samsung is showing a smaller, 75-inch version of last year's 146-inch Wall TV. The Wall is available for commercial and custom residential applications. Sony showed a pro model at the CEDIA Expo.

CONTRAST

Full-array local dimming (FALD) will spread to more LED-backlit 4K LCD TVs in 2019 to improve contrast ratios. “Almost all premium LCD sets at about $1,500 and up will transition to FALD in 2019,” predicted Kempt of Nanosys. “We can achieve excellent contrast that a couple years ago people didn’t think possible with LCD technology.” In a new flagship 8 series, TCL is offering 300 percent more zones versus 120 and 96 in its 65- and 55-inch 6 series SKUs, respectively. Select 2018 Sony and Samsung TVs sport around 500 zones, and Vizio offers up to 192. 

MINI LED BACKLIGHTS 

With new mini LED backlights, more LCD TVs will feature thousands of FALD zones, Nanosys’s Kempt said. Samsung features thousands of zones in its current 85-inch 8K TV. TCL is demoing thousands of zones. Other demos might be private.

Mini LEDs are smaller than typical LEDs but larger than micro LEDs. 

More TV suppliers at CES will build far-field microphones for digital assistants into the chassis of select TVs rather than deliver voice control solely through a remote with built-in near-field mic. At a minimum, TVs with embedded far-field mics will be available later in 2019 from TCL and Philips, joining Sony models.

Separately, LG will offer three voice assistants — Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa and proprietary ThinQ — in all new 4K smart TVs, with voice control delivered by a mic-equipped remote. ThinQ delivers voice control over more TV functions than other assistants alone provide, the company said.

BRIGHTNESS, GAMUT

More TVs will get closer to delivering 100 percent of DCI-P3 color gamut, delivered by 4K Blu-ray discs and streaming services. TCL plans its first U.S. TVs with gamut-widening quantum-dot displays sometime in 2019 in multiple screen sizes. “In 2019, quantum dot delivers the right performance for the cost for mainstream consumers,” said TCL North America SVP Chris Larson.

Attendees will likely find more 4K LCD TVs with peak brightness levels of 4,000 nits, as delivered by Samsung’s current 8K TV. One of the brightest 4K displays has been a 2,000-nit 65-inch Vizio TV.

As quantum-dot costs fall, added Kempt of quantum-dot supplier Nanosys, “it is now becoming possible for set makers to waterfall the technology across their product lineups.” As a result, by the end of 2018, “we’re beginning to see quantum-dot technology entering the mainstream market for TVs with several 65-inch TV products available below $1,500.” 

HDMI 2.1

At least one more company, LG, is adding select HDMI 2.1 features to TVs. All LG OLEDs and three top LCD series add 2.1’s variable refresh rate (VRR), auto low latency mode (ALLM), and eARC. Sony added them to select TVs in 2018.

Let Your Voice Be Heard At The CES Social Hub!

LAS VEGAS—LG Electronics believes its 2019 flagship OLED TVs are moving to the head of the class.

This year’s lineup, encompassing the Z9, W9, E9 and C9 series, promise optimized content and enhanced picture and sound thanks to the company’s second-generation a9 Gen 2 intelligent processor, and a deep-learning algorithm developed from a database of over one million visual cues. Together they “recognize” content source quality and determine the best upgrade method for visual output, LG said.

[Related: CES 2019 Preview: Your TV Wants To Control Your Home]

The new processor also automatically adjusts brightness based on ambient light conditions, taking into account the way the human eye perceives images in different lighting.The a9 Gen 2 processor can further refine HDR content by adjusting the brightness to add contrast, detail and depth of color to dark scenes in brightly-lit rooms, LG said.

Stay up to date with all things CES-related with one-click access to TWICE’s CES Hub.

On the sound front, quality is augmented by an intelligent algorithm that can up-mix two-channel audio to deliver what LG described as “convincing virtual 5.1 surround sound.” Meanwhile, the a9 Gen 2 chip can optimize output based on content type for clearer-sounding voices, adding further realism to the sets’ Dolby Atmos sound signature.

The platform’s smarts also extends to digital assistants, which this year includes Amazon Alexa in addition to the built-in Google Assistant, first made available on the 2018 models with ThinQ AI. Pressing the Amazon Prime Video button on the TVs’ Magic Remote allows users to manage smart-home devices, ask questions and access Alexa’s tens of thousands of skills.

Voice control also comes into play via LG’s own ThinQ AI smart platform, which now boasts a new conversational voice recognition feature that understands context and allows for more complex requests.

LG’s latest OLED series will be on display next week at CES 2019 in the company’s Central Hall booth, #11100.

LAS VEGAS—Just before the 2019 CES begins Jan. 8, the Consumer Technology Association will reveal its annual electronics sales forecast, and for the first time 8K ultra high definition TV sets will be included in the forecast.

“8K is getting real,” says Steve Koenig, CTA’s vice president of market research. “We’ve seen 8K in previous years, but now I expect every manufacturer will show 8K equipment, and there will be big announcements about plans to begin shipping 8K sets later in the year.”

Koenig’s forecast will also confirm the strength of the television receiver market, showing that 55-inch 4K UHD displays are “now the industry standard,” a dramatic jump from the 42-inch screen which had been the mainstay of the flat-panel industry for several years. Koenig also expects that 65-inch sets will be heavily promoted at CES.

[Read: Is 8K Gaining Traction?]

Although Koenig admits he has “no idea” about the pricing for 8K equipment, he expects the sets will be just one aspect of the renewed focus on TV devices. Advanced TV display technology, including rollable screens, micro LEDs from Samsung and Sony’s short-throw laser projection are among products Koenig expects to see at next year’s CES.

THE RISE OF ‘C-SPACE’

CTA’s Karen Chupka, senior vice president, CES & Corporate Business Strategy, affirmed the staying power of television sets despite the boom in alternative viewing devices.

“At one point, everyone thought the TV set would become a dumb device, yet TVs have become smarter,” Chupka said. “TVs are still a huge part of our everyday lives. While we have all these great technologies being built into things we never thought of, at the end of the day, people are still using TVs, albeit interfacing with them in different ways.”

Citing the rapid adoption of streaming video, as well as user-created content, Chupka characterized as “incredibly important” the growing reality that “content resides on all our devices.” Focusing on the growth of “C Space,”—a conference and exhibit area at CES aimed at content producers, marketers and distributors—she focused on the growing role of analytics and other tools that help marketers and programmers evaluate new opportunities.

“We created C Space with the intent to bring branding, content and marketing people under one roof,” Chupka told TV Technology. “There is so much knowledge about who’s watching what and the ability to create diverse programming. All this data and analytics are becoming more and more important to understanding audiences.”

This year, “Sports Zone,” a popular component of the CES in recent years, has been moved to C Space, because it’s “such an important tie-in,” Chupka explained. The combination means that 2019’s C Space will be twice the size of last year’s event, which drew 22,000 attendees. Chupka expects a larger crowd this year.

Other technologies such as ATSC 3.0 will be less visible—but not absent—from the halls and suites at CES. Koenig does not expect manufacturers to demonstrate 3.0 devices on the show floor, although such products may be on display at the 2020 CES.

WELCOME TO ‘THE DATA AGE’

Along with 8K introductions, Koenig expects other video developments.

“What matters is picture quality,” he said. Technically advanced consumers will be looking for advanced features, such as high dynamic range. Koenig’s research also indicates that 4K sets will dominate U.S. TV sales in the coming year. Nearly half of all new receivers will have 4K displays in 2019, and that figure will rise to 55 percent by 2020, Koenig said.

Television sets are the number one most-owned technology in America, in 96 percent of U.S. homes, according to CTA’s research, with smartphones (86 percent) coming in second place.

“Even in this mobile-driven era, the TV remains the centerpiece of technology in U.S. homes,” Koenig added. “TV is still a major attraction at CES.” He expects that one major issue next month will be the intense global competitive market, especially as more TV brands from China offer innovations, just as Japanese and Korean companies have done in recent years.

At their presentation at the “CES Unveiled” preview in New York last month, Koenig’s CTA research colleagues predicted an upbeat holiday sales season, predicting that 164 million adults (about two-thirds of American adults) will purchase technology gifts, spending an average of $464. TV receivers remain the most popular item on the holiday wish list, similar to 2017, with notebook/laptop computers and smartphones/tablets filling the next two spots.

In their presentation, Ben Arnold, CTA’s senior director-innovation and trends, and Lesley Rohrbaugh, director-market research, introduced a new strategic perspective, calling 2020 the start of the “Data Age,” following the “Digital Age” (2000) and “Connected Age” (2010). They singled out the growing use of artificial intelligence—where IoT, which usually stands for “Internet of Things”—has been updated to the “new” IoT: “Intelligence of Things,” in which digital assistants become more specialized and a range of home products are integrated into a “whole home view.”

READY FOR ATSC 3.0

Pearl TV, the alliance of eight broadcast companies promoting Next Gen TV, will be active during CES in anticipation of its 2020 service launch, according to Anne Schelle, managing director.

“Our entire focus is on the commercialization of the very flexible ATSC 3.0 standard,” of Pearl TV, Schelle said. The organization’s leaders and its Phoenix model market partners will be at CES “meeting with various ecosystem partners, reaching out to consumer device manufacturers, automotive manufacturers, and other players to share our service requirements and plans resulting from the Phoenix tests,” she said.

Schelle contrasted the 3.0 rollout to the high-definition transmission and reception launch 20 years ago, which “took several CES and NAB Shows to accomplish.”

“It’s moving much faster in today’s digital environment,” she said. “While we don’t anticipate seeing much in the way of ATSC 3.0 receivers on the show floor itself in 2019, we know that ‘behind the scenes’ discussions will be about new partnerships and new capabilities of future television products—just like conversations in past years.

“CES will be another opportunity to explain how this transition is different than the last one, and how broadcasters are embracing the Internet Protocol capabilities of the new standard,” Schelle added.

Separately, ONE Media, the Sinclair Broadcasting technology unit that is developing Next Gen TV services, will privately demonstrate three configurations of its chip for ATSC 3.0 devices. There will be a simple demodulator package, a demodulator with analog/digital conversion capability and a demodulator with analog/digital conversion plus an embedded turner, according to Mark Aitken, president of ONE Media and Sinclair’s vice president of advanced technology.

First versions of the chip, which was developed by Saankhya Labs, an Indian firm in which Sinclair holds a major stake, were due to be delivered during the past month from a Samsung foundry. The single-chip receivers feature a low-power embedded antenna and were also designed for use in moving vehicles. The chips include a closely coupled antenna array to insure reception in a high-speed mobile environment, according to Aitken. “We’re going after the largest possible markets, including the global market for set top boxes,” Aitken told TV Technology. The new multistandard SDR (software defined radio) chip will support 23 broadcast standards, he added. ONE Media will demonstrate the technology privately in a hotel suite during CES and expects “we’ll have more to show” (possibly on the exhibit floor) at the 2019 NAB Show, Aitken said, adding that he also plans to demonstrate the chip’s capabilities at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in late February.

Aitken declined to discuss pricing, but said that even in low quantities, the price point will be “a fraction” of what other companies are charging for SDR chips.

SENSORY OVERLOAD

Beyond the renewed vigor within the video category, CES continues to expand its reach into countless digital realms—thereby attracting an ever more diverse array of exhibitors and attendees. For example, the Eureka Park exhibit area—where start-ups and young companies can display their innovations—will have 1,200 small booths next month, up from 1,000 in 2018 and six-fold the size of the first Eureka Park five years ago.

Overall, more than 4,500 exhibitors have signed up to show their wares in the 2.75 million square feet of space at CES’s three major venues in Las Vegas (Tech East, Tech West and Tech South, all of which include multiple buildings), CTA’s Chupka said. Floor space and the expected attendee roster of more than 180,000 people are “tracking ahead of last year,” Chupka added. About one-third of attendees are based outside the United States, and CTA’s tally shows that 65,000 people carry a “senior-level executive” title.

In addition to the Prince of the Netherlands and the United Kingdom’s Minister of Trade, 10 other overseas Ministers will take part in the programs.

Chupka is particularly enthusiastic about the growth of C Space, with its larger-than-ever presence by Hulu, NBCUniversal, Turner, Google and other old and new media companies. CES has expanded its “Marketplace” clusters of technologies—each focused on purveyors in categories such as robotics, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, smart cities and travel.

Koenig pointed out the continuing explosion of new programming, including material created for streaming, subscription video-on-demand and other platforms.

“There is so much content out there,” he said, speculating that the “mosaic of sources can be a ‘Frankenstein monster’ of content that consumers have trouble wrangling.” He said he’ll look for ways that artificial intelligence can better help consumers curate their choices. Koenig cited the predictive algorithms (recommendation engines) of Netflix and Amazon Prime which steer viewers to shows they like.

“As algorithms get better and better and train the AIs,” Koenig said he expects that the services will bridge to other digital assistants that will help consumers make viewing decisions. He cited a service, which will be on display at CES, in which LG uses Google Assistant to enable viewers to control the TV.

“It will be interesting to see what is the next level of integration beyond command and control, getting into curation,” Koenig said.

Among other features that he expects to emerge at CES is more audio for home theater, such as a new Dolby Atmos technology that provides “an enormously rich, immersive sound field to go with 4K or 8K.”

WHERE CONTENT AND TECHNOLOGY MEET

The CES conference program—spread over the four days of CES, Jan. 8–12—encompasses more than 250 sessions on dozens of topics. The keynote speaker line-up includes a first-time appearance by LG Electronics President/CTO Dr. I.P. Park, who will appear at a Monday night pre-show event to discuss how artificial intelligence has become the company’s main growth engine. Park is also expected to describe how AI will affect nearly every major industry from technology to healthcare, agriculture, transportation and engineering.

Other keynoters include IBM Chairman/President/CEO Ginni Rometty, who will also discuss AI and quantum in the context of trust and transparency, and Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg, who will (according to CTA) “take a deep dive into the impact of 5G,” especially for use in building smart cities infrastructure. AMD President/CEO Dr. Lisa Su will examine next-generation of computing, especially in terms of gaming and virtual entertainment.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai is scheduled to sit down with CTA President/CEO Gary Shapiro for a half-hour on-stage chat about regulatory issues on the first day of CES. Other members of the FCC and Federal Trade Commission are expected to join various public policy sessions, which had not yet been confirmed at press time. International trade issues will also be on the agenda, Chupka promised.

Even after more than 20 years of overseeing CES, Chupka seemed awed at the velocity of changes now infusing the technology industry.

“One thing I think that will be surprising is how many advances there will be apparent in just one year.”

For more information, visitces.tech.

NEW YORK–At NAB Show New York this week, executives from Fox Television Stations; NBC and Telemundo Owned Stations Group; Univision; TEGNA, Inc. (for Pearl TV), and Nexstar Media Group (for SpectrumCo) announced their collaborative effort and support for the introduction of ATSC 3.0 (aka Next Gen TV).

The new standard, which was approved by the FCC a year ago, combines broadcast with IP and will introduce a far more robust and flexible UHD video service designed to compete against the increasing penetration of OTT-streaming services; however, the standard is not backward-compatible with current TV sets. The announcement this week is designed to confirm stations’ commitment to collaborating on launching ATSC 3.0 in anticipation of the market introduction of ATSC 3.0-enabled sets in 2020.

It doesn’t mean every station in these groups will be deploying the standard, but instead will collaborate with each other to provide a large enough national footprint so that a majority of American consumers will be able to receive some form of ATSC 3.0 service by the time sets appear in stores by the end of 2020. Anne Schelle, director of the Pearl TV Group--which is testing the standard via the Phoenix Model Market pilot project--said the lab provides a good example of this type of collaboration, where multiple stations are using a Univision stick to transmit test signals, while maintaining the legacy ATSC 1.0 signal, referred to as the “lighthouse” approach.

“I think the Phoenix test is a great example of how stations are collaborating on a market to market basis,” she said. “In Phoenix, we’re working of a Univision stick and we are looking to enable a second stick in the market and that allows us to start to introduce these basic services across the country.”

As far as financial commitments, Schelle said it’s too early to tell, but that “the cost to upgrade to an ATSC 3.0 lighthouse is fairly small compared to the existing infrastructure that’s already in place,” she said. But “none of the companies are prepared to provide that level of detail at this point.”

This new effort is not exclusive and will include other broadcasters with interests in next-gen TV services, including both other commercial and public TV broadcasters.

CONSUMER ELECTRONICS COMPANIES ALSO COMMITTED

In addition to the station groups, consumer electronics giants LG, Samsung and Sony also expressed their commitment to the standard. All three companies have been involved in the development of the standard.

“LG looks forward to working with these and other broadcasters and stakeholders in the Next Gen TV ecosystem to help bring the benefits of ATSC 3.0 to American consumers,” said Dr. Jong Kim, senior vice president in the office of the CTO at LG Electronics as well as president of Zenith Electronics, LG’s U.S. R&D subsidiary contributing to Next Gen TV standards.

Building on its support of the Phoenix Model Market pilot project, LG plans to provide receiver technology and expertise to support various markets from coast to coast launching Next Gen TV, Dr. Kim explained. LG already has launched 4K Ultra HD TVs with ATSC 3.0 receiver chips in South Korea.

Sony Electronics will supply televisions, demodulators and application development tools for ATSC 3.0 and is collaborating with broadcasters and other industry players in testing both technical solutions and service models. Current collaborations include the Phoenix Model Market and Test Bed, as well as launches by individual broadcast groups.

Station group CEOs expressed their enthusiasm for the standard’s deployment.

“One big challenge was whether the big owners of valuable spectrum could work together, commit resources, and stick to the game plan. Done, done and done," said Jack Abernethy, Chief Executive Officer at FOX Television Stations.

“ATSC 3.0 is something that as an industry we have to do. The new standard will transform the way we deliver content to our audiences - including viewers who are consuming information in multiple languages and screens. ATSC 3.0 will also help us to better connect advertisers with the audiences they want to reach on any platform. We are pleased to be working with Pearl TV and our broadcast partners to ensure the new technology is set in place for both viewers and broadcasters when we are ready to roll-out the new standard,” said Valari Staab, President, NBCUniversal Owned Television Stations.

“Univision is excited to continue playing a leadership role in the market transition from ATSC 1.0 to ATSC 3.0. As one of the largest TV spectrum holders in the US, we are eager to bring an enhanced audio and video experience to our audience, as well as new services and capabilities to our advertising partners,” said Vince Sadusky, Chief Executive Officer at Univision.

“Pearl TV’s 300 local broadcasters, along with our network partners, are working together to deliver a national Next-Gen TV service by the end of 2020. ATSC 3.0 offers new ways for local broadcasters to tell stories, interact with viewers, make an impact in our communities and innovate across screens and devices. The new standard will allow for clear, ultra HD signals, personalized advertising and the potential for exciting new adjacencies such as smart city infrastructure and connected vehicles,” said Dave Lougee, President and CEO of TEGNA, Inc., one of the Pearl TV broadcast group members.

"SpectrumCo and Pearl TV consortium members are aligned in our commitment to the voluntary scaled adoption of the ATSC 3.0 broadcast standard across the U.S.," said Perry Sook, President & CEO of Nexstar Media Group, representing SpectrumCo. “Advancing the ATSC 3.0 standard is critical to facilitating future innovation in the local broadcast television industry. With more than 350 SpectrumCo stations participating and additional new members in the pipeline, SpectrumCo broadcasters will add immense scale and depth to the collaborative industry wide rollout of ATSC 3.0. With this new technology broadcasters will be able to bring consumers more localized programming content and a host of other innovative NextGen TV services, while creating new revenue opportunities for our respective businesses in growing areas of the digital economy."

The Phoenix Model Market pilot project launched nearly one year ago and the pilot project has offered testing for broadcast equipment implementation, new services, and technology offerings to show how the ATSC 3.0 standard could be deployed by broadcasters while maintaining existing digital service for viewers. The Phoenix DMA is home to more than 1.8 million households with more than one in five viewers relying on over-the-air reception. Participating TV groups and stations in the Phoenix Model Market include: Arizona State University's Arizona PBS (KAET) , Arizona Television’s KAZT Channel 7 (Independent), E.W. Scripps’ KNXV (ABC), Fox Television Stations' KSAZ (Fox) and KUTP (MyTV), Meredith’s KPHO (CBS) and KTVK (Independent), Nexstar Media Group’s KASW (CW); Telemundo Station Group’s KTAZ (Telemundo), TEGNA’s KPNX (NBC), and Univision’s KFPH-CD (UniMas) and KTVW (Univision).

CONSUMER INTEREST IN NEXT GEN TV IS HIGH, ACCORDING TO MAGID

Pearl TV's initial activities in Phoenix provide an open test bed and a proving ground for technology, implementations, and new services. A September 2018 consumer survey conducted by Magid for Pearl TV and the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) shows exceptionally strong consumer interest in a Next Gen TV service that will offer all the programming of live over-the-air TV (such as local news, live sports, programming from ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox and other broadcast networks) and adds improved features that can enhance the viewing experience for consumers.

In the Phoenix Model Market partners /CTA survey of more than 1,500 U.S. consumers ages 18-74, Magid registered “solid overall interest in and high likelihood to use” the next-gen ATSC 3.0 concept. The research also shows that the Next Gen TV concept is most appealing with younger consumers and those who are defined as “Early Adopters” because of their positive attitude toward technology.

Magid’s research shows 42 percent of those interested in ATSC 3.0 say they anticipate buying a new TV to enable and enjoy next-gen TV services. Overwhelmingly, 96 percent of the Core Target (those who rated the concept Very Appealing and Very Likely to use next-gen TV) said they were likely to buy a new TV set to experience Next Gen TV.

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

LONDON–Just as the UHD/4K TV set market heats up, a research firm is predicting that the next wave—8K—is not far behind.

With the debut of 8KTVs now making their way to the market by the end of 2018, business information provider IHS Markit says it expects less than 20,000 sets to be shipped globally by the end of this year, with more than 430,000 sets sold in 2019, eventually approaching 2 million units by 2020. The growth will be centered around sets 60-inches are larger, with 65 inch TVs accounting for more than half of the volume.

For the burgeoning 4K market, IHS says more than half of the 226 million TVs expected to ship in 2019 will be UHD TV models. Global shipments of 4K/UHDTVs are expected to to grow 3.6 percent year over year in 2018, with additional 1.4 percent growth in 2019.

“Growth in the TV market typically is the result of more attractive retail prices for large-screen sizes and the continued commoditization of 4K resolution, driving TV replacements and upgrades,” said Paul Gagnon, research and analysis executive director, IHS Markit. “However, this growth through price compression has a negative effect on profits, so TV brands are actively looking for more growth from advanced TV models to improve earnings.”

[Read: Coming To A Living Room Near You: 8K]

Technologies like 8K, organic light-emitting diode (OLED) and quantum dot (QD) carry substantial premiums, and even 4K TVs still carry premiums of more than 35 percent at screen sizes where 1080p resolution is still an option, such as 40-inch to 49-inch TVs.

OLED TV is expected to grow more than 40 percent in 2019, rising to 3.6 million units. This growth is in line with previous forecasts, because demand is essentially matching industry production capacity. The size mix still favors 55-inch TVs, based on current prices, but it will transition to mostly 65-inch TVs by 2020, when new production capacity is optimized for larger screen sizes, and when substantial growth is expected in the OLED TV category.

Quantum dot LCD TV shipments are now forecast to exceed 4 million units in 2019, based on more aggressive pricing and the introduction of transitional quantum-dot-equipped LCD TV models. “The high-end prices of non-QD-equipped LCD TV models and the prices of the low end QD-equipped LCD TV models have moved closer together,” Gagnon said. “This extension of the quantum dot LCD TV lineup into more moderate price ranges effectively reduces the quantum dot premium to less than 100 percent at mid-range sizes, opening up the category to a larger addressable market of consumers.”

Although there is very little to no 8K content available, Japan is expected to spur more interest in the high-res format, which has twice the resolution of 4K and 4x the resolution of 1080p HD. In advance of its plans to broadcast the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo in 8K, public broadcaster NHK announced earlier this year that it plans to launch a channel devoted to 8K by the end of 2018.

Samsung and LG, among the largest consumer electronics manufacturers in the world, are introducing new 8KTV sets to markets beyond its shores. Earlier this month Samsung announced initial shipments of its new 85-inch Q900 QLED television to select retailers. To make up for the lack of 8K content, Samsung has built an AI-based upscaler, called the Quantum Processor 8K, into the television to produce 8K resolution regardless of the video’s original resolution, the company said.

At CES in January, LG previewed an 88-inch class 8K OLED TV the company called “world’s first OLED 8K TV set.” It uses more than 33 million self-emitting pixels to create its contrast ratio and true blacks produce its picture quality. LG Electronics says it expects OLED TV shipments to double in 2018 and to reach five million by 2022.

BERLIN--LG Electronics will bring its 8K (7680 x 4320) OLED TV to IFA 2018 in Berlin, Aug.31-Sept.5 at the Berlin ExpoCenter City.

Previewed at the International CES in January, LG calls the 88-inch class 8K LG OLED TV the “world’s first OLED 8K TV set.” It uses more than 33 million self-emitting pixels to create its contrast ratio and true blacks produce its picture quality. LG Electronics expects OLED TV shipments to double in 2018 and to reach five million by 2022.

[READ: Is 8K Gaining Traction?]

Fellow Korean consumer electronics giant Samsung has already introduced the Q9S, an 85-inch 8K TV set, which is not OLED and uses the company’s proprietary AI to produce images in 8K.

"LG's first 8K OLED TV is the pinnacle of technological achievement and the next evolutionary step in display technology," said Brian Kwon, president of LG Home Entertainment Co. "4K OLED played a major role in reshaping the TV industry and LG is confident that 8K OLED will do the same."

[Want more information like this? Subscribe to our newsletter and get it delivered right to your inbox.]

LOS ANGELES—LG Display is bringing its rollable OLED display to the trade this week.

The 77-inch flexible and transparent display, first unveiled by the company last year, features a 3840 by 2160 Ultra HD resolution and 40 percent transparency. It can be rolled up to a radius of 80mm, according to the company, without affecting functionality.

LG is showcasing the technology at the 2018 Society for Information Display (SID) conference in Los Angeles this week.

VANCOUVER, B.C.—Canadian telecom provider TELUS just announced that its Optik TV service now supports 4K High Dynamic Range (HDR) TV. With 13 million subscribers, the company claims to be the first TV/internet service provider in Canada to support 4K HDR TV. Until now, the company says it’s been the only provider in Western Canada to offer live and on-demand 4K content.

For a limited time, new Optik TV and Internet customers who sign up for a two-year term can receive a free 50-inch LG 4K HDR Smart TV. A 4K HDR-capable TV and TELUS Internet 50 or higher is necessary to view Optik TV’s HDR content, which consists of Netflix’s HDR service and selected video-on-demand titles.

[Read: HDR: What Is It And Why Do We Need It?]

“4K HDR, enriching the viewing experience with more than a billion available colors, is the new gold standard in TV picture quality,” said Zainul Mawji, VP of Home Solutions & Complementary Channels at TELUS. “Being first in Canada to offer 4K HDR is further proof of our commitment to provide Western Canada’s best entertainment experience.”

Optik TV customers with 4K HDR-capable TVs can now access a range of 4K HDR titles on-demand, including “Blue Planet II” and “Planet Earth II,” plus movies, including "Justice League,” “Dunkirk,” and “Blade Runner 2049.” Netflix subscribers with premium accounts can also stream 4K HDR content through the built-in Netflix app on Optik TV. And Optik TV customers can also access features like Restart TV, a built-in YouTube app, and the TELUS Healthy Living Network.

PHOENIX — LG Electronics will provide ATSC 3.0 receivers for the Pearl TV-led Phoenix Model Market Project that will serve as a testbed for Next Gen TV services, the company said.

The move makes LG the first television manufacturer to join the initiative, which is being supported by 10 TV stations in the Phoenix market. A major goal of the project is to demonstrate how 3.0 can be deployed while maintaining ATSC 1.0 service.

[Read: CES 2018: LG Electronics to Take Part in U.S. ATSC 3.0 Trials]

Branding the project “a key element of the commercialization of ATSC 3.0,” Dr. John Kim, senior vice president in the LG CTO’s office, said the initiative moves the Next Gen TV standard out of the lab and into the field. “We look forward to working with Pearl and Phoenix broadcasters on activities focused on technical, commercial, promotional and implementation aspects of the new platform,” said Kim, who also serves as president of LG’s Zenith R&D Lab in the United States.

The success of the initiative depends on the participation of various stakeholders, said Anne Schelle, Pearl TV executive director. “[T]he collaboration between LG and Perl leverages our significant respective resources and expertise to help facilitate the rapid conversion of the current ATSC 1.0 broadcast standard to the next-generation ATSC 3.0 standard.”

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

WASHINGTON—Retransmission consent is emerging as a particular bugaboo in the Federal Communications Commission’s ATSC 3.0 proceeding. The commission’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to allow voluntary deployment of the advanced TV transmission standard would keep must-carry in place for signals in the current ATSC 1.0 format, but leave carriage of 3.0 signals up for retrans negotiation.

In a nutshell, “no way,” say pay TV operators, claiming they are already strong-armed into carrying unwanted signals.

“Way,” say broadcasters. “It’s free market. If you don’t like it, pick up your marbles and go home.

Size matters in the retrans debate. Small pay TV operators are outgunned by the larger programming providers, both cable- and broadcast-based. Small broadcast shops, on the other hand—those with just two or three stations in small to medium markets, have nowhere near the negotiating firepower of a Comcast with operations covering a third of the U.S. population.

Even Sinclair, which has 173 TV stations and deals for 60 more, says it’s dwarfed by the large carriers.

“The four largest MVPDs together account for more than four out of five MVPD households. The smallest of these is more than five times as large as Sinclair, measured by both market capitalization and revenue,” Sinclair said in reply comments, which were due on the docket Thursday.

SINCLAIR vs. ATVA
Sinclair focused on comments by the American Television Alliance, a lobby formed by a number of pay providers to battle retrans. Members range from the American Cable Association representing 850 small and mid-sized operations serving a 7 million households, to Charter Communications, the second largest U.S. cabler with nearly 25 million subscribers.

The ATVA said it supported the notion of “permissionless innovation” for broadcasters, but objected to the application of retrans to 3.0, using Tennis Channel as an example.

“Sinclair did not obtain expanded Tennis Channel coverage from ATVA members by offering something of value in exchange. Rather, ATVA members report that Sinclair presented carriage of the Tennis Channel as a fait accompli at the start of retransmission consent negotiations. …We have every reason to believe that broadcasters would negotiate for carriage of their ATSC 3.0 signals in exactly the manner that Sinclair negotiates for carriage of the Tennis Channel.”

To which Sinclair replied that the ATVA “bizarrely alleges that Sinclair has coerced various MVPDs to carry the Tennis Channel against their will and without ‘offering something of value in exchange.’ …We doubt any of the management of the MVPDs backing ATVA would report to their shareholders—or state in their public filings—that they had entered into a significant commercial agreement without getting anything of value in exchange.”

The ATVA further asked the commission to prohibit broadcaster degradation of the ATSC 1.0 signals now carried by its members. Sinclair said it’s the pay carriers, not the broadcasters, who “consistently demand rights to further compress it.”

ATVA said 3.0 would impose inordinate costs on multichannel video programming distributors, including potential royalty fees for HEVC, the standard’s video codec. Sinclair said ATVA’s cost estimates were overstated. ATVA also urged the FCC to “adjust” the 5 percent ancillary fee on revenue-generating secondary broadcast services. Sinclair said, sure, go ahead: “The commission should take this opportunity to reduce this requirement substantially and ensure that it truly does not dissuade innovation.”

LG: A/322 IS ‘CRITICAL TO NEXT-GEN TV’
The commission’s ATSC 3.0 proposal would codify just one of 20-plus individual standards that comprise the 3.0 suite. That would be A/321, the “bootstrap,” which provides a doorway for the TV signal to get into the RF waveform. (The rest of the 3.0 standard offers a variety of technologies designed to allow individual broadcasters to tailor their service types. Watch “25 More Things to Know About ATSC 3.0,” a TV Technology webinar presented June 6, for more.)

The NPRM also asked if A/322, the “Physical Layer Protocol,” which configures the various bitrate conduits within a 6 MHz channel, should be ratified. Yes, says LG Electronics. “A/322 is necessary to ensure a stable RF environment.”

On this point, Sinclair’s ONE Media split the sheet: “Doing so would limit the usefulness of the transmission standard and hamper broadcasters’ ability to exploit the standard’s potential fully without adding anything not already protected by the rules currently in force.”

“Manifestly untrue,” LG replied. “The waveform and coding choices available with A/322 result in more than 10,000 different emission parameters…. A/322 is the component of ATSC 3.0 that ensures that receivers in televisions and other consumer reception devices are able to demodulate an ATSC 3.0 signal.”

Seattle-based engineering consultant Benjamin Dawson also favors the inclusion of A/322, “since A/321, by itself, is insufficient to define the waveform and interference criteria.”

ATSC: 3.0 IS LOCKED AND LOADED
The Advanced Television Systems Committee, the organization that developed the 3.0 standard, also filed a reply comment on the docket to the effect that both A/321 and A/322 are ready to roll.

“These standards are finalized, along with a majority of the other standards and recommended practices that make up ATSC 3.0. Therefore, there is no reason to delay its adoption.”

ATSC also noted that it requires disclosure of any patented technology within the standard to be made available on “reasonable and non-discriminatory terms.”

AT&T STANDS WITH MVPDs
AT&T also weighed in on the docket in the MVPD camp.

“The commission should heed the unified voice of MVPDs in this proceeding and adopt rules that ensure that the ATSC 3.0 transition will be voluntary for all stakeholders, not just broadcasters.”

AT&T also urged the commission to be adamant about requiring 1.0 simulcasting as a condition for transmitting 3.0. (See “ATSC 3.0 Local Simulcasting Approach Debated,” May 9, 2017.) ONE Media requested “flexibility for simulcasting” and the use of vacant channels for launching 3.0 or transmitting 1.0. Low-power broadcasters outright oppose simulcasting because of the cost involved.

The LPTV Spectrum Rights Coalition said, “The new regulatory burden of a local simulcast, would literally make it financially infeasible for a large majority of stations to convert in a timely manner…. Our Coalition recommends that Class-A and LPTV stations be allowed to ‘flash-cut’ to a 3.0 service without any legacy ATSC 1.0 legacy simulcast.”

Likewise,  Keith Leitch, president of One Ministries, Inc., a Class A and LPTV station owner in Santa Rosa, Calif., said, “Allowing us to freely move to ATSC 3.0 whenever we like will help ensure our survival.”

ATSC 3.0 WEEK AT THE FCC
The commission set aside time later this month specifically to discuss the ATSC 3.0 comments and replies with the various players “given the interest in this proceeding,” the Media Bureau’s Public Notice stated. Tuesday, June 27 through Friday, June 30, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. has been blocked out for 3.0 meetings between “interested parties” and commission staff.

RANDOM SELECTION OF OTHER COMMENTS
“I do not think it a good idea for the government to authorize official use of airwave spectrum for this purpose,” wrote Prof. John Woods of the Department of ECSE Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Woods recommended “staying with ATSC 1.0 in the authorized spectral bands and fully expect its use to die off in the coming five to 10 years,” because “there is a new TV emerging, one that will be delivered by the wired Internet and wireless cellular networks.”

Lokita Solutions of Radnor, Pa. a 3.0 app developer, countered that “one-to-many broadband Internet over-the-air will revolutionize the wireless broadband marketplace for the age of the Internet of Things.”

“The FCC should confirm that voluntary adoption of ATSC 3.0 will be the FCC’s permanent policy. — ION Media

“Commissioner O’Rielly’s goal of having the initial rules to authorize voluntary use of the “Next Generation” broadcast standard, with no unnecessary mandates, in place by October is the correct one. Rapid approval of this NPRM promises to again revolutionize broadband media as we know it.” — Chet Dagit, founder and CEO of Lokita Solutions, a Radnor, Pa., app maker.

The commission should not permit broadcasters to use vacant channels preserved for unlicensed operations or require TVWS devices to protect multiple ATSC 3.0 transmissions.” — the Wi-Fi Alliance (Dell, Intel, Microsoft, Qualcomm, LG, T-Mobile, Samsung, Nokia, etc.)

“The commission should expressly prohibit the tying of ATSC 3.0 carriage to retransmission consent negotiations. The commission should also require local broadcast stations to disclose their plans to transition to ATSC 3.0 and local simulcasting during retransmission consent negotiations that are scheduled to take place at the end of 2017.” — WTA-Advocates for Rural Broadband

“MVPDs should continue to enjoy the full benefits of the retransmission consent agreements for which they bargained, but should not be effectively coerced into carrying ATSC 3.0 signals when negotiating new retransmission consent agreements or the renewal of existing ones.” — The Independent Telephone & Telecommunications Alliance

“Meredith encourages the FCC to adopt ATSC 3.0 as a new, optional additive standard, while allowing simulcasting for a voluntary transition and implementing necessary clean-up rule changes to be clear ATSC 3.0 counts as ‘television broadcasting’ under the FCC's rules.” — Meredith Corp.

“NPR urges the commission to ensure the interference protection of NCE radio stations operating on the reserved portion of the FM band as a result of the DTV transition to the ATSC 3.0 standard.”— NPR

“Although LG agrees that the Physical Layer [A/321] is the only layer of ATSC 3.0 that is relevant for purposes of authorizing broadcasters to provide Next Gen TV service, LG urges the commission to also incorporate by reference into its rules A/322, which is the critical component of the Physical Layer for interference-free delivery of IP signals to both fixed receivers and mobile devices, including new automotive applications.” — LG Electronics

“AWARN will enable distribution of geo-targeted, rich media alerts simultaneously to an unlimited number of enabled fixed, mobile, and hand-held devices, indoors and outdoors, across an entire television broadcast contour…. AWARN capabilities will far exceed those available to the American public today.” — AWARN Alliance

WASHINGTON—LG Electronics will include ATSC 3.0 tuners in all of its 4KTVs sold in South Korea beginning later this year, according to John Taylor, LG vice president of public affairs, who spoke during a panel discussion at the annual general meeting of the Advanced Television Systems Committee in the nation’s capitol this week.

“We’ll include our latest generation of ATSC 3.0 chip—it will include both 1.0 and 3.0 demodulation,” Taylor said.

LG introduced its first ATSC 3.0-enabled 4K Ultra HDTVs at CES in Las Vegas in January and said “new” 4K sets sold in Korea would include 3.0 tuners. Taylor today confirmed that would include “all” new 4KTV sets. LG 4KTV screen sizes range from 42 to 86 inches, Taylor said, and all LG TV sets over 50 inches are 4K. Commercial U.S. availability of the 3.0-enabled sets is contingent on the broadcaster roll-out plan in the United States, he said.

The Seoul-based manufacturer said it would roll out new big-screen smart TVs with both ATSC 1.0 and 3.0 tuning in anticipation of the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang next February, which the South Korean government intends to cover in 4K.

In February of 2016, South Korean broadcasters announced their intention to start broadcasting in 3.0 this spring; and in July of last year, the Yonhap News Agency reported that South Korea’s Ministry of Science had adopted ATSC 3.0 as the official over-the-air TV transmission standard, making it the first country to do so.

“The early launching Korea is a really wonderful on-ramp for those of us in the United States,” he said. “We’ll build economies of scale on the production side.”

LG showed a 65-inch model at the January consumer electronics trade show, where they demonstrated broadcast video-on-demand and program guide delivery over the ROUTE protocol specified in ATSC 3.0. The manufacturer rolled out its dual-tuner chips at the 2016 NAB Show, most notably in a smart antenna designed to redistribute the 3.0 signals around the home via Wi-Fi. (TV Technology contributor Doug Lung provides more details on the tuner chip in, “Coming Soon: ATSC 3.0!,” June 22, 2016.)

LG has been actively involved in the development of ATSC 3.0 for years, first proposing “Futurecast” with Harris in 2013. (See “ATSC Receives 3.0 Physical Layer Proposals,” Sept. 6, 2013, and “OFDM-Based ‘Futurecast’ ATSC 3.0 Proposed by LG, Zenith and Harris Revealed,” Oct. 2, 2013.”)

ATSC 3.0 will be the first over-the-air TV transmission standard to leverage internet-protocol technology, which gives it new capabilities such as multiple audio tracks, 4K resolution, high-dynamic range and other advanced video features; portability to mobile devices and the use of apps among them. Development of ATSC 3.0 was first proposed in September of 2011 with the formation of TG3 within the ATSC.

TG3 was led by Dr. Richard Chernock of Triveni Digital, who continues to chair the group. ATSC 3.0 was perceived of before the development of 2.0 was completed in order to incorporate the work being done on mobile digital television. ATSC 2.0 comprised internet-enhanced broadcasting, non-real-time delivery and 3DTV, which evolved into 4K, HDR and other advanced video characteristics.

LG tested Futurecast in Madison, Wis., on WKOW-TV in October, 2014; and again in Cleveland in July of 2015. The foundation of the standard, referred to as the “physical layer,” was approved last year, with core technology contributions from LG and Zenith, it’s U.S.-based skunk works, including the scrambler, forward error correction, bit interleaver, mapper, time interleaver, OFDM framer, frequency interleaver, pilots, reserved tones, and guard interval functions.

LG also has been active in demonstrations of AWARN—the Advanced Warning and Response Network—the emergency alerting platform developed for ATSC 3.0.

~ James E.O'Neal contributed to this story.

For more TV Technology coverage of the standard and its development, see our 170-story ATSC 3.0 silo.

Also see the ATSC 3.0 Standards Update graphic for May 2017.

LAS VEGAS—LG Electronics said its once again collaborating with Korean broadcasters KBS and SBS to demonstrate real-world implementation of ATSC 3.0.

In the Korean broadcasting exhibit in the ATSC 3.0 Broadcast Pavilion at the NAB Show, KBS and SBS will show how over-the-air ATSC 3.0 will deliver pristine 4K Ultra HD video on LG 65-inch 4KTVs equipped with ATSC 3.0 demodulator/tuner chips.

“Korean terrestrial broadcasters including KBS are preparing to launch the commercial UHD broadcasts with advanced services, including electronic service guides, emergency alerts and video-on-demand, by February 2017. Our collaboration with LG at the NAB Show demonstrates our unique UHD service in the U.S. for the first time,” said Byeong-Ryeol Park, technology executive managing director at KBS, which has been conducting terrestrial UHD experimental broadcasts since 2012.

SBS Technical Director Dr. Young-Soo Park said the ATSC 3.0 demonstrations at the NAB Show set the stage for implementation of next-generation broadcasting in Korea in advance of over-the-air 4K broadcasts of 2018 Winter Olympic Games. “With Korea preparing to launch terrestrial UHD TV commercial services in early 2017, we hope our alliance with LG at the NAB Show inspires other broadcasters around the world to have the confidence to also move ahead with next-gen broadcasting.”

ATSC 3.0’s progress in Korea is in fact significant for the United States, according to Sam Matheny, the NAB’s executive vice president and chief technology officer. “As U.S. broadcasters consider their ATSC 3.0-related business models and implementation plans, there is keen interest in South Korea and their fast-track launch of next-generation television broadcasting,” he said.

ATSC 3.0 is an IP-based broadcasting system that combines broadcasting and broadband. The KBS-SBS-LG demonstrations at the NAB Show include IP technologies based on the Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP, or “DASH” streaming media format and the Real-Time Object Delivery Over Unidirectional Transport IP delivery protocol, aka “ROUTE.”

“ATSC 3.0 represents the next frontier for broadcast television. Korean broadcasters and manufacturers take great pride in their important role in developing, demonstrating and implementing next-gen broadcasting in Korea and in the U.S.,” said Dr. K.Y. Kwak, executive vice president of LG’s Advanced Standard Research & Development Lab.

The KBS and SBS demonstrations with LG at the NAB Show build on 4K ATSC 3.0 broadcast field tests in Korea. LG said that it and KBS demonstrated the DASH/ROUTE IP technologies delivering advanced emergency alerting and electronic service guide data in an end-to-end live terrestrial broadcast a couple of weeks ago. LG, SBS and other vendors demoed a live end-to-end 4K Ultra HD broadcast in February. The broadcast used a live camera feed with real-time IP transmissions from the SBS network studio in Mokdong to the broadcaster’s Gwanak Mountain transmitter. The IP signals transmitted over the air on SBS Channel 53 were then received using a simple antenna and decoded by a 4K Ultra HDTV ATSC 3.0 receiver developed by LG Electronics.

Also see...
TV Technology’sATSC 3.0 vertical, and...
February 24, 2016
“Korea to Launch ATSC 3.0 Broadcasting in 2017”
Several Korean broadcasters announced this week that they will begin transmitting ATSC 3.0 OTA broadcasts starting in February 2017. The news comes after the two broadcast networks, SBS and MBC—in conjunction with LG Electronics, ETRI and several equipment vendors—announced the first successful live end-to-end ATSC 3.0 broadcast in the country, and represents perhaps the best confirmation yet that the ATSC 3.0 next generation broadcast standard is on schedule to be completed within the next 12 months.

LINCOLNSHIRE, ILL. – Dr. Jong Kim, who most recently served as the president for Zenith’s Research and Development Lab, has been hired as the senior vice president for Zenith’s parent company, LG Electronics. The new position reflects the important role of the U.S. R&D lab, which is working on technology for next-generation broadcasting standards.

Dr. Jong Kim

Kim began his career as a research engineer for LG Electronics. He joined Zenith in 1990 and served as vice president, Zenith R&D from 2000-2004, before becoming president in 2005.

“Jong Kim and the Zenith R&D Lab are key contributors to LG’s consumer electronics technology leadership in the United States and around the world,” said Dr. Skott Ahn, president and chief technology officer for LG Electronics. “Of special significance right now is Dr. Kim’s direction of the U.S. team, in close collaboration with LG R&D labs in Korea, on the development of next-gen broadcasting technologies for the emerging ATSC 3.0 standard.”