PHOENIX—The NTA has changed its name from National Translator Association to the National Television Association and announced that Jack Mills has been elected president replacing retiring president John Terrill at the Dec. 10 Board Meeting in Phoenix.

Mills is the director of engineering for KWTV Oklahoma’s Own News 9 (CBS), a Griffin Communications station in Oklahoma City and its duopoly KSBI (Mynetwork TV). He is also general manager of Oklahoma Community Television LLC. 

“NTA is growing, providing more services to both translator and LPTV viewers in growing rural and metro areas,” Mills said. “New members are always welcome as we reach out to represent them with solid, responsible representation and up to date technical information.”

“Changing NTA’s T from Translator to Television reflects the Association’s commitment to stay even with the times, providing rural America with the same quality of Television Pictures that the big city folks get,” said retiring president John Terrill.  “It reduces the confusion of folks thinking we are in the language business and reflects our commitment to learning about `Next Gen’ and the future of free broadcast television.”

Broadcast districts, cities, states, large and small broadcasters, not-for-profit and for-profit broadcasters are represented on the NTA Board of Directors, the association said. It has also created new By-Laws for the non-profit association in a marathon session. The association also said that "National Translator Association" will serve as a dba name for special occasions.

NTA is planning to hold its next annual convention on May 19 - 22, 2022 in Phoenix.

WASHINGTON—The National Translator Association has come out against the recent FCC proposal to expand Distributed Transmission Systems (DTS), saying that it would cause significant interference to hundreds of stations.

The NTA comments were filed on June 12 in response to the FCC’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would allow for new and expanded uses of DTS. A number of organizations, including the NAB and APTS, have supported the NPRM, saying that it would help with the deployment of ATSC 3.0 and enhance “localism,” particularly in more remote areas.

NTA, however, believes that translators and low power TV stations are already qualified to handle these tasks.

“Translators and LPTV stations already cover Rural America, so it is easy for us to just add a station to deliver “Next Gen” signals, providing the coverage contours are adjusted to meet needs and that no interference is generated from full power DTS stations seeking to ‘bend’ beyond their contour impacting Class A, translator and LPTV stations,” said John Terrill, NTA president.

NTA says that proponents of DTS have acknowledged that interference would be a result of the move and that it would be “dramatic” and “unavoidable” for the development of next-gen television.

NTA countered with three key points:

• NTA cannot think of any justification for one station interfering with another outside of its service contour, especially if it is importing programming intended for markets over 121 kilometers distant. 
• The impact signals would most likely be a competitor’s signal. 
• The proposal is not clear as to where the standards bend. If it is in a crowded major market such as Los Angeles, Denver or Salt Lake City, where terrain plays a major part in coverage, the impact on the public living in the mountains can be significant. 

An alternative proposed by the NTA is that a DTS station file with the FCC for a next-gen very lower power translator or another open frequency, “with injury toward none.”

In addition, NTA proposes a new filing window for a “Next Gen” station to be added to the market, what it calls an easy and low cost fix using present transmission sites, providing more rural internet service and fix remaining repack problems.

The complete comments can be found on the FCC’s ECFS. 

WASHINGTON—In an effort to support students that are seeking careers in telecommunications and broadcast engineering, the Association of Federal Communications Consulting Engineers, the IEEE Broadcast Technology Society and the National Translator Association have selected nine students across the country to receive their Spring 2020 scholarships.

Here are the nine recipients:

• Maurice Compton, University of Dallas
• Nathan Ellsworth, University of Texas at Dallas
• Andrew Heller, University of Minnesota
• Md. Tajul Islam, University of Missouri at Kansas City
• Daniel Klawson, University of Maryland at College Park
• Obagaeli Ngene-Igwe, University of Cincinnati
• Prosanta Paul, Old Dominion University
• Dylan Stewart, Old Dominion University
• Rafida Zaman, University of Missouri at Kansas City

The scholarships all range between $1,000 and $5,000, with $29,000 being awarded in total between the nine students.

Andrew Heller is the inaugural recipient of NTA’s Byron W. St. Clair Memorial Scholarship, which is given to promising students that plan to pursue a career in broadcast engineering.

“NTA congratulates Mr. Heller,” said John Terrill, president of NTA. “This scholarship is a good first step in the tradition of Byron St. Clair to enlighten young minds and encourage more interest in broadcast engineering, especially in the areas of translator and low power television.”

Ellsworth, Islam, Klawson and Stewart, meanwhile, were awarded IEEE BTS/AFCCE’s Jules Cohen Memorial Scholarships, which awards up to $10,000 to promising undergraduate or graduate students pursuing broadcast engineering.

Also of note, Zaman was the recipient of the E. Noel Luddy Scholarship, which was sponsored by Dielectric Communications.

In total, AFCCE says that these scholarships represented the groups’ largest ever award to students that they hope “will help shape the future,” said John George, AFCCE president.

AFCCE also announced dates to submit applications for its Fall 2020 scholarships, which will begin March 1 and go until April 30. More information is available through AFCCE and IEEE BTS’ websites.

WASHINGTON—The National Translator Association joined its colleagues from the LPTV Coalition in praising the recent decision to open a 60-day filing window for TV translator and LPTV stations to apply for reimbursement for TV spectrum repack-related expenses.

“We are delighted to see the FCC begin the process of reimbursement for low power translators, LPTV and FM stations,” said John Terrill, president of the NTA.

TV Translators will now have until Oct. 15 to file for reimbursement, for which Congress had set aside $150 million. Terrill urges translators to file as early as possible.

Terrill notes that the NTA’s “Fast-Track” plan had some influence in the reimbursement process, saying that it allows “stations that have had to move and have purchased equipment and built their stations to skip the bid process and simply use paid invoices in requesting reimbursement.”

Additional information on the filing process is available on the NTA website.

For more news and insight on the repack, visit TV Technology'srepack silo.

WASHINGTON—The National Translator Association today filed comments with the FCC asking the agency to adopt a “Fast Track” approach and streamlined application process for repack expenses and limit reimbursement to no more than $31,000 per station.

Placing the dollar limit on stations qualifying for the proposed expedited process will allow “many administrative practices” currently in use to be simplified, NTA said. Simplification can be achieved because “market prices for re-fitting are competitive.”

NTA suggested the Fast Track process as a way to preserve TV translator delivery of OTA television, especially for viewers in areas with no alternative who, the filing said, “stand to lose all television service if TV translator service is impaired or terminated.”

The process would also protect low-power television stations that frequently serve urban niches and isolated rural areas, it said.

The filing offered a summary of the Fast Track proposal. Highlights include: stations opting to use the fast-track agree to limiting expense reimbursement to no more than $31,000 per station; collection of 100 percent of reimbursable costs once they are documented with paid invoices; no submission of preliminary proposals or cost estimates from stations; and applicability to stations that already are displaced, have bought equipment and continue to serve the public on new channels.

When construction is completed, participating stations would then submit a one-page form along with paid receipts not totaling more than $31,000, the filing said.

NTA chose the dollar limit because it will cover the relocation expenses of most translator stations required to change channels, it said. The filing indicates that the Fast Track approach will cost the government far less than what has been estimated for relocation in FY 2018.

Specifically, based on the commission’s own numbers, 2,159 applications were made to change channels during the window, and 340 more were filed prior to the window that are considered to be eligible. “At $31,000 apiece, this would total $77,469,000 or a little over half of the $150 million set aside,” the filing said.

The Fast Track program will meet the needs of small translators strapped for personnel and resources, said John Terrill, NTA president.

“Salt Lake City stations are repacked now, rebroadcast by almost 800 stations in five states,” he said. “These typical small stations do not have large budgets, not many options and a small staff to plan, build and request reimbursement, so this is tailored to small station needs.”

WASHINGTON — NAB and the National Translator Association separately this week filed comments with the FCC stating their objection to allowing wireless services to share or use C Band satellite spectrum.

NAB told the agency that the 3.7–4.2 GHz band is widely used to distribute television and radio content to broadcasters. “Virtually every U.S. television and radio household relies on C Band satellite operations for content distribution in some manner,” NAB said.

Thousands of MVPDs, more than 1,000 TV stations, OTT service providers and radio stations rely on C Band. National Public Radio uses C Band for reliable distribution of content to 475 public radio earth stations, a critical link in the distribution chain of content to 42 million Americans every week, NAB said.

NAB also told the FCC that practical alternatives to C Band, such as fiber, “are significantly overstated.” Often alternatives aren’t available, and in areas where fiber is present “it may not be economically viable,” NAB said.

The FCC should not assume that technical solutions will be created that makes sharing the spectrum possible, the association said. “NAB reiterates that, as a practical matter, this means the commission should acknowledge that terrestrial users cannot share C Band frequencies based on geographic separation alone,” it said.

[Read: More Broadcasters Weigh in on C Band Sharing]

NAB pointed out that C Band facilities are highly sensitive to enable signal reception from an orbiting signal source more than 22,000 miles over head. As such, they are quite vulnerable to terrestrial interference. The association also told the FCC that it should reject any proposal to do away with or constrain its full-band, full-arc earth station licensing policy.

In its comments, the National Translator Association pointed out the FCC has asked a question in its public notice that cannot be answered. “It asks: ‘How should we assess the operations and possible impacts of sharing on Federal and non-Federal users already operating in this band?’” NTA quotes the public notice as saying. The FCC has made registration of domestic receive-only C Band terminals optional since a 1979 deregulation. “No one knows how many private, public, commercial or noncommercial R/O users there are here,” NTA said.

While the FCC has set up a way to register R/O C-band users recently, it “is obvious that more users are out there — many more — than are aware of the registration deadline or are willing and able to pay the [registration] fee,” NTA said.

As a result, if new users are allowed into the C Band, it is certain only registered users will be protected and “many other existing users will be harmed, and some will be driven out of business,” it said. Many LPTV and translator stations will face an added problem because they are required to migrate to new terrestrial channels as part of the TV spectrum repack. Many will need to geographically relocate, which means “affected parties cannot file [C Band receive site registration] now to protect facilities that they do not yet know will be needed.”

NTA urged the agency “to start over” and “determine that all C Band dishes serving existing TV or radio distribution as of a certain date — whether registered or not — shall be automatically protected against harmful interference from subsequent arriving users.”

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