WASHINGTON—PILOT, NAB's innovation initiative, is now accepting submissions for the 2024 PILOT Innovation Challenge through Jan. 19. The program provides mentorship and promotion for winning proposals, along with an opportunity to exhibit at NAB Show in Las Vegas, April 13-17, 2024.

The Innovation Challenge focuses on startups and growing companies looking to help broadcasters rise to some of the key challenges and seize opportunities they are likely to face over the next few years. A successful company will have a prototype or early-stage product to demonstrate at the 2024 NAB Show. This annual opportunity highlights innovations that will help broadcast media address challenges in an increasingly competitive and dynamic marketplace, NAB says.

Submissions should align with the three focus areas of the NAB Show:

• Create: Focused on content creation from pre-production to post, including the latest tools and advanced workflow solutions to elevate storytelling.
• Capitalize: Focused on reach and ROI, including next-generation technologies creating new revenue streams and fueling the content economy.
• Connect: Focused on content distribution and delivery, from cloud computing to new media infrastructure.

“The Challenge provides a unique opportunity for innovators to bring fresh ideas to the table that solve problems facing broadcasters and the broadcast community.” said PILOT Executive Director John Clark. “We are looking forward to seeing all of the new technologies and innovation in this year’s submissions and we are excited to spotlight the up-and-coming companies and startups that present them.”

Individuals, teams, companies, academic institutions and nonprofit organizations are eligible to apply subject to the official rules of participation. Participants can review the judging criteria on the PILOT website.

Winners will be selected to receive relevant mentorship, feedback, networking with broadcasters and a trip to the 2024 NAB Show. They will be provided exhibit space on the NAB Show floor to demonstrate their prototype to potential customers, investors and partners.

The deadline to apply is January 19, 2024.

The list of past Innovation Challenge winners can be found here.

WASHINGTON, D.C.—PILOT, which is the innovation arm of the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), has announced that it kicked off the third annual PILOT Next Gen TV Fellowship program on November 3 at NAB headquarters in Washington, D.C. 

This year’s expanded program includes students from Howard University and the University of Missouri.

“The PILOT Next Gen TV Fellowship is a one-of-a-kind opportunity for students to get real-life experience in broadcast technology, learn more about television innovation and work beside industry experts,” said John Clark, executive director of PILOT. “We’re thrilled to partner with Howard University and the University of Missouri for this year’s program that will provide fellows an immersive journey into the next generation of television.”

Launched in 2021 with support from Amazon Web Services (AWS), the fellowship gives participants practical, first-hand experience with the ATSC 3.0 transmission standard and the broadcast television industry. Over the course of the program, fellows will participate in training programs, seminars and one-on-one coaching with Next Gen TV standard experts and AWS representatives. The program will conclude with fellows presenting their projects at the 2024 NAB Show in April in Las Vegas.

The fellows also participate in the NAB Leadership Foundation’s Technology Apprenticeship Program (TAP), a complimentary career development program that is designed to train, inform and recruit a diverse workforce to meet emerging technology and engineering needs within the broadcasting community. During orientation, fellows had the opportunity to visit the Technology Lab at NAB headquarters in Washington, D.C., which features equipment for testing and research of cutting-edge television and radio technologies.

The 2023-24 fellows from Howard University are:

• YaSin Abdul-Musawwir, Film and Television, Junior
• Rachel Ibihwiori, Computer Science, Senior
• Emmarah Kouadio, Interactive Media and Computer Science, Senior
• Teshi Waruingi, Computer Science, Senior

The 2023-24 fellows from University of Missouri are:

• Charles Dake, Finance, Senior
• Amanuel Hailemariam, Information Technology, Senior
• Shannon Worley, Journalism, Senior

WASHINGTON—PILOT, the technology innovation initiative of the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), today announced Backlight, Hour One and TSV Analytics as the winners of the 2023 PILOT Innovation Challenge. The winners will receive a trip to the 2023 NAB Show, April 15–19, in Las Vegas, with exhibit space on the convention floor in which to demonstrate their products to potential customers, investors and partners. 

The PILOT Innovation Challenge specifically sought products or prototypes that align with three focus areas of the 2023 NAB Show associated with the content lifecycle: Create, Capitalize and Connect. Winning submissions provided compelling solutions to key challenges and opportunities facing broadcasters over the coming two to three years. 

This year's winners are:

•  Backlight: Iconik, a Backlight product, is a cloud-native solution that gathers and organizes media securely from any storage, providing a central point at which teams can gather, find assets and collaborate using any device. With hassle-free media collaboration and powerful automation features, iconik enables teams to streamline and accelerate editorial workflows.
• Hour One: Hour One enables a single person to generate video quickly at low cost and high scale. The solution provides an AI-driven, entirely virtual broadcast video platform, complete with lifelike virtual news anchors and customizable 3D news studios. It includes script- and image-generation features to further remove friction from broadcast news creation.
• TSV Analytics: TSV Analytics is an analytical social media management platform designed to make social media content more effective. Designed to help social media managers across all stages of the content creation process, from content ideation to creation to distribution, the platform streamlines and optimizes the social media management process.

"Hour One, Backlight and TSV Analytics stood out from an exceptional pool of Innovation Challenge applications that deliver practical and business benefits our industry can use today," said PILOT Executive Director John Clark. "These startups stood out as exceptional to our judges for the direct way in which they tackle immediate and future challenges with specific, ready-to-use solutions that can help broadcasters tell compelling stories. We look forward to seeing these impressive teams and their winning products on the NAB Show floor."

Hour One represents the second year in a row a startup associated with the Center for Digital Media Entrepreneurship at Syracuse University has been named an Innovation Challenge winner, following Spalk’s selection in 2022.

To register for the 2023 NAB Show, visit nabshow.com/2023

WASHINGTON—The National Association of Broadcasters has released the final report of a six-month study that examines how the loss of third party cookies that track online traffic could impact broadcasters’ bottom line. 

The use of third party cookies to track online traffic has long been identified as a threat to users’ privacy. As consumers become more aware of them and regulators—particularly in Europe—take aim at phasing out the use of such algorithms, the result could mean a decline in digital revenues for U.S. broadcasters. 

These concerns prompted  the National Association of Broadcasters to research the issue through its PILOT innovation subsidiary. The results of PILOT’s “First-Party Data Direct-to-Consumer Accelerator” report—now released—details a six-month long study on direct-to-consumer data strategies for broadcasters.

The results of the report, which was first made public at NAB Show New York last fall, details how the loss of third party cookies could create a $2.1 billion loss in annual digital revenue for the broadcast television and radio industry. PILOT’s accelerator program focused on mitigating revenue loss by examining how broadcasters can harness first-party relationships with their audiences. It also considered important issues such as content direction, product marketing and privacy compliance.

Nine broadcast companies participated in the six-month collaboration with support from the Google News Initiative. During the course of the program, participants met for high-level project sharing and ongoing education. During these gatherings, each company shared the progress of their individual projects and heard from industry experts on privacy and first-party data strategies. The results of the study are based on the work and output of the participating companies representing business, technology and audience engagement areas.

The report specifically called out those broadcasters who may drag their feet on the issue due to financial concerns. 

"While operational costs can be estimated for launching a first-party data practice, the unknowns surrounding revenue in a post third-party cookie world could lead some to adopt a wait-and-see strategy," the report noted. "The assumed shift in valuation to first-party data would put those who adopt the 'wait-and see' approach at a distinct disadvantage because third-party cookies are being deprecated across many platforms. 

"They would have squandered valuable time to streamline processes and amass as much first-party data as possible," the report adds. "As one broadcaster put it, “you can’t compare first-party data to third-party data now—the question is what happens when third-party data goes away—which it will.”

Additionally, PILOT commissioned an evaluation of the impact of the third-party cookie phase out in Europe and its impact on European broadcasters.

“Addressing this $2 billion problem for the industry is a high priority for digital leaders at broadcast companies,” said John Clark, NAB senior vice president of Emerging Technology and executive director of PILOT. “This report offers guidance with real examples for broadcasters. We can use first-party data to create more engaging content for consumers, while maintaining privacy standards.”

The full report can be accessed here.

WASHINGTON—PILOT, NAB's technology innovation initiative, is now accepting submissions for the PILOT Innovation Challenge through 5 p.m. ET, Feb. 3. The program will provide mentorship and promotion for winning proposals, along with an opportunity to exhibit at NAB Show in Las Vegas, April 15-19.

The Challenge is seeking startups and growing companies providing solutions to some of the key challenges and opportunities facing broadcasters over the next two to three years. PILOT is specifically seeking products or prototypes that align with three focus areas of the 2023 NAB Show associated with the content lifecycle. These areas are:

“PILOT is excited to kick off the 2023 Innovation Challenge spotlighting the innovative ideas and proposals seeking to tackle the evolving challenges in broadcasting,” said PILOT Executive Director John Clark. “This is an exciting opportunity for applicants to elevate their cutting-edge breakthroughs at NAB Show and help broadcasters find solutions to take their operations to the next level.”

Individuals, teams, companies, academic institutions and nonprofit organizations are eligible to apply subject to the Challenge’s official rules of participation. Up to 10 finalists will be selected by a panel of industry experts by early March, with up to three winning proposals to be announced the week of March 27, 2023. Participants can review the judging criteria on the PILOT website.

Winners will be selected to receive relevant mentorship, feedback, numerous opportunities to engage with broadcasters and a trip to the 2023 NAB Show. They will be provided exhibit space on the NAB Show floor to demonstrate their prototype to potential customers, investors and partners.

The deadline to apply is February 3 at 5 p.m. ET.

WASHINGTON, D.C.—PILOT, the innovation wing of the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), has announced the development of a NextGen TV Transmitter ID (TxID) table for voluntary use by broadcasters using the ATSC 3.0 transmission standard. 

The table and TxID codes can be used to identify individual transmissions for testing, measurement, interference identification and other differentiation purposes, the NAB said. 

“ATSC 3.0 stations are rapidly launching all over the United States and this TxID table is an excellent resource for broadcasters,” said Sam Matheny, NAB’s chief technology officer. “It’s important for each main and SFN transmitter to have a unique identifier, and NAB is proud to provide this table to help ensure a consistent format and regional uniqueness. We invite and encourage all ATSC 3.0 broadcasters to use this important tool.”

The ATSC 3.0 suite of standards provides a mechanism for assigning an optional TxID code for each individual NextGen TV transmitter, including main transmitters of full-power and low-power stations, as well as TV translators and on-channel low-power transmitters that are part of single frequency networks (SFNs). No specific methodology for assigning or registering these identifying codes is documented in the ATSC 3.0 standards, but they must be regionally unique.

Under contract from NAB PILOT, Cavell Mertz & Associates, Inc. and The Merrill Weiss Group developed the TxID code table to serve as a voluntary register for the TxID transmitter identification system. NAB PILOT will act as the registration authority for the table.

In the table, TxID code values are assigned to licensed facilities in blocks, providing each station the resources needed to identify multiple transmitters operating under its single license. Each block of TxID codes is selected to be regionally unique for its channel number.

The table can be accessed at TxID.NABPILOT.org.

WASHINGTON—Sophi.io, a suite of artificial intelligence (AI)-powered solutions that help content publishers identify and leverage the value of their content, has joined PILOT, an initiative of the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) bringing together a coalition of innovators, educators and advocates dedicated to advancing broadcast technologies and cultivating new media opportunities. 

PILOT comprises broadcasting and technology stakeholders, such as new media broadcast operators, measurement and attribution companies, advertising partners and technology providers. Among other goals, PILOT’s working groups and committees strive to drive the creation and implementation of new technologies and solutions for the media industry. 

Sophi.io is an artificial intelligence (AI) platform tailored to optimizing revenue and engagement for media companies. Through its powerful prediction algorithms, Sophi Automation serves the right content to the right audience at the right time across text and video. Sophi's core product suite offers automated content curation, personalization and dynamic registration that facilitate first party data acquisition, viewer engagement and monetization of video and text content across multiple channels including web, app, OTT and streaming.

"It's great to have Sophi.io join PILOT given their experience developing and implementing strategies for digital revenue around first party data,” said NAB PILOT Executive Director John Clark. “We look forward to working with Sophi.io to drive those opportunities forward in the industry."

"We're looking forward to working more closely with PILOT and its members and collaborating on some new ways to help the industry address the challenges of first party data activation, automated curation and revenue optimization," said Sophi.io Co-Founder and Chief Revenue Officer Gordon Edall.

PILOT members help define key areas for development of innovative technologies and services for media companies. As associate members of NAB, PILOT members will also participate in NAB technology program development, conventions and networking events.

WASHINGTON—NAB’s Pilot initiative has announced the 2021 recipients of its annual media technology and innovation scholarships. 

Two undergraduate and two graduate students have been selected to each receive $2,500 awards to pursue their studies related to broadcast or media technology and innovation, said NAB.

This year’s recipients and the schools they plan to attend are:

• Destney Johnson, Grambling State University
• Christi McGahan, Liberty University 
• Sophie Theiss, Gulf Coast State College 
• Julie Young, Loyola University of Chicago 

The scholarship funds must be applied to broadcast television or radio engineering and technology, broadcast content creation, including sports and news production, web and online media, mobile media, media-related information technology (IT), multiplatform audience measurement and media technology research, the association said.

“NAB is excited to work once again with BEA in presenting these PILOT scholarships to worthy students as they pursue careers in broadcast and media technology,” said Sam Matheny, NAB’s executive vice president of Technology and CTO. “Helping young people better understand our industry and its challenges will inspire fresh thinking to engage future opportunities.”

The scholarship program started in 2019. It is administered in partnership with the Broadcast Education Association, NAB said.

More information is available on the NAB website.

WASHINGTON—NAB’s PILOT coalition has a new member with Verizon Media. Verizon Media, the media and online business division of Verizon Communications, now joins other companies, educators and advocates as part of the coalition’s effort to advance broadcast technologies and grow new media opportunities.

One of the key aspects of Verizon Media is its integrated digital media platform that prepares, delivers, displays and monetizes online content. The platform powers websites, apps and OTT video services.

“We’re delighted to have Verizon Media as a partner in driving innovation in broadcasting,” said John Clark, NAB PILOT executive director. “We look forward to collaborating and identifying opportunities to move the industry forward.”

For more information about NAB’s PILOT coalition, visit www.nabpilot.org. 

WASHINGTON—NAB’s PILOT wants to help broadcasters help students forward their careers in radio and television engineering this summer via its technology internship grant program, announcing that it is now accepting applications to help create paid internships.

The summer 2020 technology internship grant program is open to NAB member radio and television stations. Accepted stations will be assisted in establishing paid engineering or media-technology internships for undergraduate students at stations that do not have such resources, particularly in smaller markets.

The program also provides resources for the selected stations in identifying and supporting interns. This includes travel assistance for selected interns to attend the 2020 NAB Show in Las Vegas.

The deadline for NAB members to submit applications for the grants is Feb. 21. Selected stations will be notified in March 2020.

For more information, visit www.nabpilot.org/techinterns.

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.

WASHINGTON—Four NAB member stations have been selected by Pilot as the recipients of grants designed to fund paid engineering or media technology internships in the spring of 2020. The stations are WISR/WBUT/WLER, Butler County Radio Network in Butler, Pa.; KNXV, Scripps Media Inc. in Phoenix; WNKY, Marquee Broadcasting in Bowling Green, Ky.; and WKAR-AM, -FM, -TV, Michigan State University in East Lansing, Mich.

The program, which began this past spring, is in partnership with the NABLF to help grow technical and engineering talent. The recipients are NAB members that do not currently offer engineering or media technology internships. Also as part of the program, NAB provides resources to help identify and support interns, including having them attend the 2020 NAB Show in Las Vegas.

“Pilot and the NAB Leadership Foundation remain committed to assisting NAB member stations in attracting the best and brightest new candidates to a career in broadcast technology,” said Sam Matheny, NAB’s executive vice president and chief technology officer.

Since it was initiated, the program has provided technology internship grants to 13 organizations.

For more information on the program, visit nabpilot.org/techinterns/.

WASHINGTON—Now in its fourth year, NAB’s Pilot Innovation Challenge is now accepting proposals and has announced a new component for this year’s program. For the first time, Pilot will provide support to a pair of winners so they can develop a prototype to be presented at the 2020 NAB Show.

The prompt for this year’s Pilot Innovation Challenge is to build an AI character that can have conversations with individual viewers, listeners or consumers, with character traits that can be defined and trained by the broadcaster.

Individuals, teams, companies, academic institutions and nonprofit organizations are eligible to submit proposals, with up to five finalists selected by a panel of judges by the end of November. Of those five, two winners will be granted as much as $150,000, relevant mentorship and feedback during the development of their prototype. They will also be invited to the 2020 NAB Show, April 18-22, in Las Vegas to demonstrate the prototype.

The deadline to apply for the Innovation Challenge is Oct. 18. Interested applicants can review the judging criteria and apply here.

WASHINGTON—NAB’s innovation initiative PILOT today announced the 12 finalists for its third annual PILOT Innovation Challenge. The challenge recognizes ideas for leveraging technological advances in production, distribution and display.

More than 100 ideas have been submitted to address the challenge question: “What is an innovative way broadcasters and other local media could serve communities?”

The finalists include:

• AR Story Template — Retha Hill, Cronkite Innovation Lab, Arizona State University
  Provides a cost-effective way to create immersive AR stories quickly and without having to understand code.
• Beam— David Burton
  An AI mobile platform that enables users to build a personalized newscast using content categorically sourced from local television broadcasts.
• Big Processing, Local Impact — Daniel Faltesek, Oregon State University
  Provides local news organizations with robust computing and data science capacity.
• El Timpano — Madeleine Bair
  Spanish for “eardrum,” El Tímpano informs, engages and amplifies the voices of Latino immigrants using a community mic and SMS.
• FlyRight— Samuel Crane
  Software solution that streamlines drone flight registration for media groups and local law enforcement.
• Immersive Disaster Effects Application (IDEA) — Ronald Baez, Yellow Wood Immersive
  An immersive and interactive 3D mapping tool for use by broadcasters to visualize the effects of weather emergencies.
• Lawmaking Live — Terry Quinn, The Texas Tribune
  Provides live analysis of policy development and makes the law-making process more accessible to consumers.
• Open Spaces — Amara Aguilar, USC Annenberg
  Allows users to engage on selected topics using social virtual reality.
• Podium— Daniel Lewis
  Provides a platform for the public to participate in virtual town halls and crowdsourced interviews.
• VettNews— Paul Glader
  VettNews is a ratings agency of news organizations and helps combat the rise of misinformation.
• Voices of TwoOneSix — Mike Shafarenko, Ideastream
  An audio livestream that amplifies original content by underrepresented people in Cleveland.
• Zagrut— Mario Dcunha, The New School
  A news reader app that guides users against prevalent media bias.

A panel of five judges will choose the top six from these finalists. Participants at the NAB Futures conference, Jan. 27–29, in Seattle, will select first-, second- and third-place winners. The remaining participants will receive an Innovator Award at the event.

The six to be judged in Seattle also will be awarded cash prizes ranging from $15,000 to $30,000 — in part from a Knight Foundation grant. They will receive mentorship, access to broadcast executives and exposure at industry events, such as the 2019 NAB Show in Las Vegas, April 6–11.

More information is available on the NAB PILOT website.

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Two years ago, NAB launched its PILOT program, an initiative designed “to bring together leading-edge companies, organizations and educators to advance broadcast technology and broadcaster innovation.” Numerous companies including Accenture, Frankly, IBM, Google and Nielsen have joined the coalition that helps drive the research, creation, testing and implementation of new technologies and solutions.

Last month NAB announced its third annual PILOT Challenge. The program recognizes creative ideas that leverage technological advances in the production, distribution and display of engaging content. It also provides support to the winners for development. The challenges are supported by a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

I had a chance to talk with the winner of the grand prize in last year’s challenge, UNC-TV, which won for its proposal to use the ATSC 3.0 standard to enable North Carolina’s public safety community to provide timelier response to emergencies by datacasting over broadcast signals.

Fred Engel, senior director of technology at Public Media North Carolina/UNC-TV explained the proposal, which stemmed from a suggestion from Red Grasso, North Carolina’s FirstNet Single Point of Contact with the state Department of IT. Grasso, a former firefighter and fire department communications expert, was concerned that a local fire department was considering purchasing new analog voice paging radios, but “the idea of ‘new’ and ‘analog’ just didn’t roll off his tongue real well,” Engel said. Grasso approached UNC-TV to inquire whether ATSC 3.0 might provide a new means of alerting for first responders.

Those of us old enough to remember the TV series “Emergency,” will recall one of its signature moments when an emergency was called into the local fire station; after the tones sounded, a voice would announce the details of the emergency, including who was to respond and what they were responding to. In the real world, that part of the alert could last up to a minute depending on the severity of the emergency. That technology, which is still being used in many stations, is analog-based, which limits its capabilities, according to Engel.

Based on a real life event of a multiunit dispatch for a fire Engel said it took 67 seconds from the time the very first tone alert was generated to the end of the voice alert. “During that 67 seconds, if there’s any other incidents that happen, they all have to wait until that one is fully communicated before the next one will be announced,” Engel said. “So, depending on what else is going on, whether it’s a car accident, cardiac arrest, whatever, those all have to wait.”

The goal was to provide a text-based protocol that would provide instant alerts to first responders’ pagers, and help reduce delays in providing follow up alerts. And providing text alerts would allow those first responders to better retain the information. Cellular was not an alternative because insurance carriers don’t recognize cellular as an approved method of delivering this kind of message to first responders, Engel said. So how about broadcast?

[Read: NAB Launches Third Annual PILOT Innovation Challenge]

Around this time, in late 2016, the National Institute of Science and Technology issued a grant request for proposals to improve public safety communications, including new ways to “provide resilient systems to deliver emergency messaging.” UNC-TV, along with PBS, local broadcaster WRAL-TV and local public safety officials collaborated on applying for the grant but were unsuccessful, so Engel turned his attention to the PILOT challenge that was issued around the same time.

Engel said UNC-TV had previously done some 911 dispatch testing with ATSC 1.0 but there were several factors that led them to propose ATSC 3.0 as a solution, namely the mobility factor and the robustness of the Next Gen TV signal, particularly for indoor penetration.

Engel and his group successfully conducted their first test this spring, transmitting emergency information from a local fire department dispatch center to the UNC-TV campus using WRAL’s ATSC 3,0 test signal. Engel says further testing is in the works, based on feedback his group received from a meeting with public safety officials and commercial product manufacturers in July.

There are a lot of elements to take into account, not the least is getting manufacturers to add ATSC 3.0 receivers into the pagers but Engel acknowledges that the project is in the very early stages, adding that there has been interest from other corners of the public broadcasting community.

“They’re all interested in this, to see how this might take off, because it’s the kind of thing that that just makes our networks more vital to the states we serve,” Engel said.

The deadline for entering the third annual PILOT Challenge is Oct. 19. For more information, visit https://nabpilot.org/challenge.

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

WASHINGTON—NAB tech innovation initiative PILOT has begun accepting submissions for its third annual PILOT Innovation Challenge, which recognizes creative ideas leveraging technological advancements in the production, distribution and display of content. Winners receive support for development of their ideas.

“The PILOT Innovation Challenge continues to foster ideas that accelerate local news innovation in the digital age,” said PILOT Executive Director John Clark. “We look forward to again providing an opportunity to not only drive industry innovation but also connect consumers with broadcast media in new ways.”

The challenge question for this year’s competition is: “What is an innovative way broadcasters and other local media could serve communities?”

Original ideas must be submitted to the special Pilot webpage set up for the challenge by Oct. 19. Information and judging criteria are available online as well.

A panel of experts from the broadcast, venture capital, media and tech industries will serve as judges. By the end of November, 12 semifinalists will be selected. A smaller panel of judges will select the top six finalists. Winners will be chosen by participants at the NAB Futures conference, Jan. 27-29, 2019, in Seattle.

The top cash prize is $30,000; second place is $25,000; third $20,000. The remaining finalists will receive $15,000 each. The cash prizes are supported in part from a Knight Foundation grant.

Besides cash prizes, the winners will receive mentorship, access to key broadcast executives and exposure at industry gatherings, such as the 2019 NAB Show in Las Vegas, April 6-11.

WASHINGTON — TV and radio broadcasters have a new resource to help fund internships to grow the pool of young engineering talent for the broadcast industry.

Pilot, NAB’s technology innovation initiative, in partnership with the National Association of Broadcasters Educational Foundation, today announced the launch of a new program to provide grants to NAB members that establish paid engineering and media technology internships at their radio and TV stations.

“We believe these internships will help NAB member stations attract the best and brightest and expand awareness of the exciting work that a career in broadcast technology can provide,” said NAB CTO Sam Matheny. “We are thrilled to be working with NABEF on this program, as a key component of Pilot’s technology education efforts.”

Initial grants will be for part-time internships in the spring 2019 academic term and full-time internships in the summer of next year. The program is aimed at helping NAB members that do not offer engineering or media-technology internships at the moment.

The new initiative will also help selected stations identify and support interns as well as assist with their attending the 2019 NAB Show in Las Vegas.

The deadline for NAB members to apply for the grants is Aug. 15 for the spring 2019 internships. The deadline for the summer internship grants is Nov. 2.

“Through these grants, we expect to provide more opportunities for students to explore and learn about broadcast technology and engineering,” said NABEF President Marcellus Alexander. “The result will be an increase in the pool of talent for our industry.”

More information is available on the NAB Pilot website.

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LAS VEGAS--NAB’s PILOT tech incubator has teamed up with IBM and Frankly to demonstrate a proof of concept for using Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology for local broadcaster video at the 2018 NAB Show in Las Vegas. The demo will be presented in the PILOT booth (N2431FP), at Futures Park in the North Hall of the LVCC, April 9-12.

The display will demonstrate the way in which local broadcasters can use AI to enrich video assets and provide rich, contextual metadata. This data can be used to help editors quickly and more efficiently produce news packages as well as provide consumers with a more contextually relevant and highly targeted content recommendation engine.

[Read: NAB Show Conference Showcases Machine Learning And AI For Filmmaking]

"AI holds great promise for broadcasters in terms of enhancing the way content is produced, managed, delivered and consumed," said Executive Director of PILOT John Clark. "We appreciate the collaboration of PILOT members with IBM and Frankly, and we are proud to bring this demonstration to NAB Show through the development of this proof of concept."

“Local broadcasters need to unlock new opportunities for viewer engagement and monetization,” said Jason Simpson, Chief Revenue Officer at Frankly. “Leveraging AI to analyze textual, audio, and visual data within their media, local broadcasters will benefit from stronger viewer engagement, enhanced content discovery, and more advertising revenue.”

Elsewhere in Futures Park, attendees will have the opportunity to see demos of high-tech media developments in progress, prototypes, and products not yet available for sale from academic, government, and commercial research laboratories in the United States and around the world. Exhibitors will show their research and development work on a wide range of topics, including dynamic ad insertion for Next Gen TV, UHD broadcasting and virtual/augmented/mixed-reality content creation.

WASHINGTON—Startup companies in the early stage of their existence with their eyes set on the broadcast market take note; you could receive $50,000 from NAB’s PILOT innovation initiative.

PILOT announced March 7 a competition for such companies to receive seed money and support if their technology offerings are helpful to broadcasters and their digital media operations, especially when it comes to operational efficiency, audience engagement, measurement, content distribution or enhanced user experience.

Entries in the PILOT Pitch Prize will be judged on an entrant’s ability to solve “a well-defined problem for a significant market in a differentiate way,” according to a PILOT announcement. To be considered, companies must show initial progress with their product, a potential revenue model or customer base, a realistic plan for growth, credible financials and the right team to scale.

“PILOT Pitch Prize is our latest approach to support budding startups by providing a vehicle to attain early-stage financial support, executive mentoring and valuable industry exposure,” said NAB CTO Sam Matheny in a press release announcing the contest.

The deadline for application submission is April 30. Five finalists will be named in June. Three winners will be chosen at the live pitch event, Oct. 17-18, during the NAB Show New York, at Javits Center in New York City.

Finalists will receive individual mentoring leading up to their live pitch. Winners will receive a Simple Agreement for Future Equity contract, including $50,000, brand recognition and the opportunity to participate at the 2019 NAB Show in Las Vegas.

The first 100 applicants completing a qualified application will receive a complimentary pass to NAB Show New York.

Contest rules are available online, and additional information is available by sending an email to pitch@nabpilot.org.

WASHINGTON—A VR mini-documentary about a homeless woman living under a Seattle bridge may not seem at first glance like the stuff of television. But don’t tell that to director of photography Matt Mrozinski, Toby Rigby, marketing/promotions producer and Evonne Benedict, director of digital media, at KING-TV.

The three TEGNA employees narrate the first of what will be 10 video profiles that make up a new NAB/PILOT campaign to spotlight people in broadcasting who are using innovative technologies to tell stories and convey information to radio and TV audiences in unique ways. The campaign, announced Feb. 8 and running through April, is called “Broadcast Innovation Stories.”

“Broadcasters have seen tremendous advances in technology in recent years that have improved our mission to provide local news, weather, entertainment and emergency information to our communities,” said PILOT Executive Director John Clark in a press release announcing the effort. “This campaign highlights the men and women who are developing the tools and processes that are changing local radio and television in new and exciting ways.”

One new video and five new capsules will be released online each week. Other videos will feature:

· Hearst’s women-led startup accelerator;

· iHeartMedia’s voice-powered platforms;

· News Press & Gazette’s Next Gen TV initiative;

· Bonneville’s KSL-TV (Salt Lake City, UT) “Radio You Can See” programming;

· Development of the NextRadio app;

· Use of newsgathering drones by WCBS in New York; and

· The broadcast and digital footprint of Raycom’s national investigative unit.

The video about KING-TV’s VR mini-doc as well as the VR mini documentary “Under the Bridge” is available online.

Organizers promise keynotes, panels and live demos with experts highlighting how they are “revolutionizing the broadcast industry with new and emerging technologies to better serve audiences in new ways,” according to a press release.Pilot was announced last winter as “a coalition of stakeholders dedicated to advancing broadcast technologies,” succeeding NAB Labs. Along with NAB, its charter members are Accenture, Akamai, Frankly, Google, Lakana, Nielsen, Shareablee and Yahoo.News4 anchor Jim Handly emcees today’s event; participants include NAB President/CEO Gordon Smith, Sen. Brian Schatz, Rep. Greg Walden and Glenn Reitmeier, SVP of Advanced Technology Standards & Policy at NBC Universal.Some highlights from the schedule:After the panels and remarks comes a two-hour reception, during which demonstrations of the Olympics in Ultra HD, virtual reality, NewsOn, NextRadio, “Next Generation TV Advanced Emergency Alerts” and (of course) drones.

• An Olympic Experience: This presentation talks about how changes in production and consumer technology affect the way that home audiences experience the games. Wwimmer Allison Schmitt will discuss her career, during which she has medaled across three separate games.
• The New Broadcasters: The session explores how on-command content gets to audiences in “today’s anywhere, anytime broadcast environment.”
• Congressional remarks fromWalden and Schatz, each of whom are slated to talk for about five minutes.
• The Future of Localism: Bringing the Story Home (5:25–6 p.m.): How have innovations enabled broadcasters to focus on news that matters most to their communities?

WASHINGTON—
The National Association of Broadcasters’ recently renamed tech advocacy arm is hosting D.C- area policymakers today for a “glimpse of the future” that includes demonstrations of Ultra HD video, NextRadio,
virtual reality and drones.

The event is called “Broadcast Innovations: Today, Tomorrow and Beyond” and is being put on by Pilot, the former NAB Labs, this afternoon and evening at the Newseum, a couple of blocks from the U.S. Capitol.

Learn more about the agenda here.

WASHINGTON—The National Association of Broadcaster’s Pilot coalition, a program of companies and organizations seeking to advance broadcast innovation and technology, has a new charter member: Lakana, a content management provider for media publishers.

“Forward-thinking companies like Lakana are creating solutions to help media companies succeed in today’s rapidly changing business environment, and through Pilot, we hope to leverage their collective expertise to help our industry thrive in today’s new media landscape,” said NAB Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer Sam Matheny, in an announcement.

Lakana, with its suite of experience management, engagement and monetization solutions, powers more than 250 local broadcast digital media websites. Its platforms reach 75 percent of U.S. DMAs and 180 million unique users per month.

NAB’s Pilot charter members help define what the key areas are for development of innovative technologies and services for media companies with a focus on multi-platform digital distribution.

WASHINGTON—“No broadcaster left behind” could be the moniker of the National Association of Broadcasters’ newly renamed investment arm, a move that recognizes that this association of broadcasters can no longer just be about broadcasting.

Three years ago, the NAB debuted an internal program that would look outside broadcasting to find the types of technology that would continue to drive broadcasting forward. Circular logic though that might be, the program billed itself as a means of scouting out new partnerships behind the scenes and pulling the curtain back on new technology—though to a casual observer, the first question might be: “what does that have to do with TV and radio?”

But the NAB has capitulated to the fact that broadcasting is no longer just about sending signals over the air. The solution is to take a deeper dive into the digital world as it relates to new multiplatform digital business for NAB members, which means mobile, streaming, virtual reality and the like.

“We want to look at the way that these multiplatform digital platforms are becoming such an important part of our traditional business, by better understanding consumption,” said Sam Matheny, executive vice president and chief technology officer for NAB.

PLAY ON WORDS
Formerly named NAB Labs, NAB has rebranded this young program “Pilot,” a play on words that Matheny believes will help reinforce the organization’s internal efforts and get more than just “broadcast” around the proverbial table.

“If you think about it, there are pilot signals in TV that are the first and most tunable part of the signals, and there are pilot tones in radio that indicate that these are the frequencies I need to tune to,” said Matheny. “There are pilot programs in both, experimentation in both, and pilot experimentations are done to prove things out.”

Sam Matheny, NAB CTO When it came to rebranding the NAB Labs moniker, the organization thought that the research arm should be about navigating the future, Matheny said, which includes but is not exclusive to broadcast. “When you have the NAB Labs [name], you are literally leading with the trade association name,” he said. “A lot of people will think [this organization] is about advocacy. We want to still be able to leverage that, but be very intentional about this being a navigation of broadcast’s future. We want to be on that leading edge and helping to define what comes next.”

The program’s mission and scope: to invest time and resources in burgeoning organizations whose technology will provide directly applicable benefits for radio and TV broadcasting. The Pilot initiative is designed to pull in new media broadcasters, advertising partners, technology enablers and measurement and attribution companies. Former media exec John Clark has been named executive director to lead the launch and evolution of Pilot, which counts Accenture, Akamai, Google, Nielsen, Shareablee and Yahoo! among its charter members.

“We have unparalleled opportunities to advance how we serve our audiences,” Clark said. “We’ve launched Pilot to explore the answers to these questions with the people directly and indirectly involved.”

Matheny said there is no one single methodology behind Pilot’s investment strategy, but the organization has been “intentional” in endorsing companies with technologies that NAB members should be aware of, including augmented and virtual reality and “Hybrid TV,” which enables a TV receiver to customize the viewing experience through voluntary collection of user data and preferences. While Matheny was mum on what new investments are on the horizon—as well as on whether funding for the Pilot program comes from NAB member fees or other sources—he said the organization is considering small-scale investments that will help the broadcast industry see further into the future.

“We want to be involved with the startup community,” he said. “We are actively going out and meeting with and seeing pitches from a whole variety of startup companies that are boundary-spanning.”

INVESTMENTS TO DATE
To date, the program has invested in Yet Analytics, Antenna and Syncbak, and partnered with 1776, a hub company that provides resources and networking connections for startups, and the Dingman Center Angels, an investment group that provides resources and networking connections for early-stage companies. As NAB Labs, the group’s efforts ran parallel to work that the larger NAB organization has been doing with internal programs like FASTROAD, a technology advocacy program; and SPROCKIT, a program at the NAB Show that gives market-ready startup companies the opportunity to present to media and entertainment executives.

The then-NAB Labs made investments in a number of startups that were developing technologies that would be beneficial for broadcast. In January, just prior to announcing the name change, NAB Labs made public its investment in Yet Analytics, a Baltimore startup that provides technology platforms for the collection and analysis of data within Fortune 500 companies and other large organizations. The essence of the technology is that it can simplify and leverage so-called “big data” analytics. “Here there was this notion of big data and this sort of multiplatform measurement,” Matheny said.

According to Yet Analytics CEO Shelly Blake-Plock, broadcasters will continue to see an increase in the number of data sources and the variety of data types now being produced across industries. “It is in this environment that the real-time collection and analysis of performance metrics will provide game-changing insight into the way that businesses function in a fully-immersive digital world,” he said.

The organization’s investment in the OTT company Syncbak and its live streaming solution was a success, Matheny said. Syncbak is currently powering real-time streaming for the CBS All Access OTT service as well as providing OTT services for Fox O&O affiliates and Raycom Media.

Pilot has also made an early-stage investment in the startup firm Antenna, which built an online engagement platform that enables users to react to and interact with mobile and web content. Antenna measures audience sentiment from these reactions, including responses to news and entertainment content, and provides a means for media companies to determine what online content is resonating with audiences.

“It’s a unique and creative platform that allows people visiting mobile sites of content producers to pick which piece of content they want,” Matheny said.

MEASURING SUCCESS
That arena of measurement and engagement will be a key one for Pilot in the coming months as the organization continues its research and invest in a new set of companies.

“When looking at measurement for traditional over-the-air or linear listening, more has to happen,” Matheny said, whether the audience is listening via a traditional radio station or via an online app for a TV network. Both radio and TV need to get a better sense of how people are listening, how they are sharing their opinions and what that means for overall content consumption.

So how do you use this data to help your station? “We want to help develop solutions that will measure across all platforms to determine how to make content more discoverable, how to better measure engagement and how to ensure that our member’s content is positioned the best way that it can be,” Matheny said.

While Pilot is not a venture capital fund and is not placing “big bets” on individual companies, the program is trying to be “intentional” with its investments in an effort to see further into the future and work with these innovative companies, Matheny said.

The organization will also be focused on content creation and gathering, content distribution and monetization.

At the NAB Show this spring, Pilot will introduce a new exchange program that will provide educational programming to those with digital leadership responsibility at a station.

Also see...
Feb. 19, 2016
“NAB Pilot Invests in Haystack TV”
Users select trending topics based on their interests, resulting in a tailored headline news channel based on the user’s tastes.

WASHINGTON—The technology division of the National Association of Broadcasters, Pilot, has announced that it recently invested in the startup Haystack TV. The California-based company features a TV news app that aggregates content from a variety of sources for a continuous stream of personalized news that can be viewed on mobile devices or connected TVs.

Haystack TV launched in 2014 and is currently available for iOS, Android, Android TV, Apple TV and Chromecast. Users select trending topics based on their interests, resulting in a tailored headline news channel based on the user’s tastes.

In addition to the investment, NAB Chief Technology Officer Sam Matheny will join Haystack TV as an advisor.

Pilot, previously known as NAB Labs, also recently invested in Yet Analytics and supported incubator Dingman Center Angels.

WASHINGTON—NAB Labs is heading in a new direction. And in the announcement you can sniff the evolving nature of broadcast media itself.

The National Association of Broadcasters today announced the planned “evolution” of its four-year-old NAB Labs technology division to become PILOT. It describes the latter as “an initiative to bring together leading-edge companies, organizations and educators to advance broadcast technology and broadcaster innovation.”

Charter members announced today are Accenture, Akamai, Frankly, Google, Nielsen, Shareablee and Yahoo, along with NAB. They also are associate members of NAB itself.

John Clark is hired as executive director of the program. He will lead its launch and evolution.

“Clark brings 18 years of experience in the digital media space, most recently with the Reese News Lab in the School of Media and Journalism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Prior to UNC, Clark conceived, built and managed some of the most successful broadcast television websites and mobile applications in the industry.”

NAB stated in the announcement that the program aims to be a coalition of broadcasting and tech stakeholders, “such as new media broadcasters, measurement and attribution companies, advertising partners and technology enablers.” It envisions creation and implementation of new tech for media through working groups and committees.

With this move, it appears that NAB EVP/CTO Sam Matheny continues to make his thumbprint evident. Since he join NAB in 2014 from Capitol Broadcasting Co., where he was active in digital strategies, NAB Labs has been in the news with several notable activities and investments. 

In the announcement, Matheny is quoted saying, “As the definition of what it means to be a broadcaster broadens, it is critical to work with traditional and new media partners on innovations to better meet the needs of future generations of consumers.” He said the new program will seek to build partnerships among “visionaries.”