WASHINGTON—A conversational agent for broadcasters from Michigan State University and WKAR Public Media and a chatbot API for music stations from the University of Minnesota are this year’s winners of the PILOT Innovation Challenge, the NAB technology initiative announced.

“We are pleased with the quality and innovation of this year’s submissions as well as the success of our new approach to the Innovation Challenge,” said PILOT Executive Director John Clark. “We look forward to working with the winners to develop their prototypes and ultimately provide broadcasters the ability to better serve their communities through AI.”

A new feature of the program this year is providing support to the winners to develop an AI prototype of their submission to enhance broadcast audience engagement, according to PILOT.

Participants were asked to submit concepts addressing the challenge of building an AI character that can have conversations with individual viewers, listeners or consumers.

A purse of $150,000 from PILOT will be divided among the winners. They also will receive mentorship, ongoing feedback during development and a trip to the 2020 NAB Show, April 18-22, in Las Vegas, where they will demo their prototypes.

This year’s winners are:

• DeepTalk: A Conversational Agent for Broadcasters—Michigan State University (MSU), NextGen Media Innovation Lab, College of Communication Arts and Sciences; MSU’s iProBe Lab, Department of Computer Science and Engineering; and WKAR Public Media.
• Jukebot, a chatbot API capable of answering simple questions and getting feedback from users for music stations—University of Minnesota, Department of Computer Science and Engineering.

Innovation Challenge finalists included:

• AI-driven interactive news on mobile devices—Embody Design;
• Leveraging Conversational AI to Grow Audience, Deepen Engagement and Shape Content Strategy—University of Georgia: Department of Statistics, Institute for Artificial Intelligence; Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication New Media Institute;
• Kuralt.AI: 3D Broadcast Avatar—University of North Carolina, Reese News Lab, Hussman School of Journalism and Media.

More information is available on the PILOT website.

EAST LANSING, Mich. – WKAR Public Media at Michigan State University and Gaian Solutions, Inc., have launched the Apollo PublicTV Platform, a NextGen TV accelerator platform for public broadcasters.

Apollo PublicTV Platform offers broadcasters a suite of services including NextGen TV master classes, ATSC 3.0 receiver and transmitter starter kits, access to NextGen TV broadcast chains, and the capability to conduct lab and field trials. Apollo PublicTV Platform also offers a certification program for technology providers, plus business consulting services for organizations interested in identifying and launching specific market-by-market NextGen TV opportunities.

This new platform offers NextGen TV services through tools that apply artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) in a fully cloud-based, virtualized environment to enable the convergence of broadcast and digital workflows.

[See also NEXTGEN TV Innovation Lab Running at Michigan State's WKAR]

Through Apollo PublicTV Platform, public broadcasters can now offer rich content experiences in education, alerting, health information, community fundraising, and other domains, according to Susi Elkins, general manager at WKAR Public Media.

“Putting the tools of the Apollo PublicTV Platform in the hands of public broadcasters means that local communities can begin to benefit right now from the promise of NextGen TV,” Elkins said. “Barriers to moving forward immediately include a lack of significant investment and the absence of a clear migration path to NextGen TV. The Apollo PublicTV Platform partnership we’re announcing today is a marketplace collaboration designed to address those barriers. Apollo PublicTV Platform will help stations manage the convergence of operations now, to be well positioned for the future.”

Apollo PublicTV Platform tools include data analytics, app designer tools, AI agents, Software Development Kits (SDKs) and Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) for rapid service curation, an ATSC 3.0 receiver application stack, and the necessary business applications to manage carrier-grade content services.

“The coming NextGen TV economy will ensure overall growth of the broadcast industry and its long overdue integration with the digital transformation ecosystem,” said Chandra Kotaru, CEO and founder of Gaian Solutions. “Public broadcasters are in a unique position to leverage NextGen TV opportunities. Apollo PublicTV Platform was designed to accelerate this phenomenon.”

“The Apollo PublicTV Platform instantly opens up new opportunities and better experiences through cutting edge technology, open APIs, and toolkits,” said Prabu David, dean of the College of Communication Arts and Sciences at MSU. “Gaian Solutions has been instrumental in conceptualizing, designing, developing, and operating the Apollo PublicTV Platform with WKAR at MSU. We are very hopeful this will put public broadcasters at the forefront of leading innovation in the NextGen TV space.”

“America’s Public Television Stations see great potential in the Apollo PublicTV Platform developed by Gaian in cooperation with Susi Elkins and her team at WKAR-TV,” said Patrick Butler, president and CEO. “We look forward to working with them and with the public station community to make Apollo PublicTV Platform an accelerator of ATSC 3.0 adoption and of all the new service and revenue opportunities the NextGen broadcast standard holds in store for public television.”

Butler continued, “APTS intends to play an active role in familiarizing stations with the Apollo PublicTV Platform and ensuring that every station understands the transformative promise of ATSC 3.0 and the ability of Apollo PublicTV Platform to help make that promise come true for stations of every size.”

WKAR at Michigan State University, Gaian Solutions, and APTS invite all content and spectrum based entrepreneurs, digital transformation agencies, broadcasters, and technology vendors to collaborate on Apollo PublicTV Platform, the new open platform for NextGen TV. 

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

EAST LANSING, Mich.—Michigan State University has hopped on the NEXTGEN TV train, opening a Media Innovation Lab that will experiment with different applications of the ATSC 3.0 broadcasting standard. The lab is hosted at the WKAR Public Media station.

WKAR was granted an experimental license in 2018 by the FCC to broadcast in ATSC 3.0, which resulted in the construction of of the NextGen Media Innovation Lab at MSU’s College of Communications Arts and Sciences.

“This innovative space serves as a collaborative hub where students, faculty and researchers will explore the future of television and other applications afforded by the emerging ATSC 3.0 digital standard,” said Susi Elkins, director of broadcasting and general manager of WKAR.

“The new standard integrates broadcast with broadband, and features heightened mobility and a more efficient use of the broadcast spectrum,” Elkins continued. “These attributes allow numerous opportunities for multidisciplinary research on customization and interactivity.”

Michigan State officially opened the NextGen Media Innovation Lab on Sept. 19.

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

EAST LANSING, Mich. — The Federal Communications Commission has granted a new experimental license to Michigan State University and public TV station WKAR, who plan to launch a next-generation TV broadcasting station and a new media lab driven by the next-gen ATSC 3.0 standard.

The announcement was made by FCC Commissioner Michael O’Rielly during a visit to WKAR Public Media studios.

“We have authorized a new broadcast standard and it’s going to open up the doors to what television may be in the future,” O’Rielly said. “WKAR is now authorized to test out ATSC 3.0 in their new lab and work with public broadcasting stations covering 200 million Americans.”

WKAR is the first public broadcasting station in the United States to receive FCC authorization to begin experimental ATSC 3.0 broadcasts, the station said, and expects to begin ATSC 3.0 experimental broadcasting in September. The license is good for six months and then WKAR will be required to petition for an extension to continue the broadcasts.

[Read: ATSC Meeting Explores 3.0 Deployments]

“Next Gen TV has great potential to enhance our media experience by merging the best of broadcasting and broadband,” said Prabu David, dean of the College of Communication Arts and Sciences, which houses WKAR. “The experimental license offers MSU and WKAR a test bed to explore new media innovations in education, information and even autonomous vehicles in depth and in the field.”

WKAR’s experimental ATSC 3.0 station will broadcast in Michigan on digital frequency 35 with a broadcast reach of approximately 40 miles. The technology allows for features such as 4K ultra high-definition video and multichannel immersive audio.

With the ATSC 3.0 station as a test bed, the university also plans to open a new research facility within WKAR and the College of Communication Arts and Sciences called the NextGen Media Innovation Lab. The lab will focus on the creation of education and public media content including early childhood education, telehealth and distance education, connected and autonomous vehicles, agriculture and emergency response.

One of the first projects planned for the NextGen Media Innovation Lab will be how to use ATSC 3.0 to improve early childhood education, said Susi Elkins, director of broadcasting and general manager of WKAR. “We intend to focus on ATSC 3.0 applications that are central to the core values of noncommercial television licensees — education and the betterment of our communities.”

In partnership with the Public Media Venture Group and in collaboration with other noncommercial educational television stations, the NextGen MI Lab will provide an opportunity to test ATSC 3.0 applications and share findings.

The capabilities of ATSC 3.0 continue to be front and center at events like the May Advanced Television Systems Committee Annual Meeting where representatives from the likes of Pearl TV, Sinclair Broadcast Group and Capitol Broadcasting discussed just how far Next Gen TV has come over the past few years. Consumer labs are being set up to gather feedback from viewers while field tests continue to roll out at stations around the country.

It was at that event that Michigan State’s David revealed that the university would be focusing on exploring opportunities for creating interactive content via ATSC 3.0.

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

BURBANK, CALIF.—Bexel ESS is earning some extra credit with a few college sports programs by designing and installing remote camera systems for video capture during games and practices. Two recent installations of the Bexel systems include the Michigan State University football program and University of Notre Dame lacrosse teams.

Michigan State had Bexel install a second end zone camera in Spartan Stadium to aid in practice sessions and also to study movements of the team and its opponents during games. The stadium design required Bexel to create a custom pole to mount a single pan, tilt and zoom camera to clear the video ribbon board. The camera system is weatherproof and is connected via a single mode fiber to a patch panel for video and control, and features a custom-designed camera control case.

Two remote cameras were installed at Notre Dame’s lacrosse stadium by Bexel; it also designed and built a camera control system for the lacrosse teams. One camera is mounted on the top of the stadium wall for a sideline view via CAT6. The other is mounted on a pole in the end zone that is also utilized by the school’s football team; a fiber connection to the video control system is provided for this camera.

Bexel ESS, a division of Bexel Global Broadcast Solutions, designs and installs systems for permanent facilities, major events, live game production and enterprise markets.