HUNT VALLEY, M.D.—Sinclair’s One Media 3.0 subsidiary has announced that it will be holding a three-part webinar series covering the delivery of Advanced Emergency Information using the NextGen TV broadcast standard, ATSC 3.0.

To be held virtually on consecutive Tuesdays in March (March 15, 22, 29 at 1:00 PM EST), the webinar series will take a deep dive into the new capabilities that the NextGen TV standard offers to warn and inform consumers of urgent events from weather to police actions to natural disasters and finding lost neighbors.

As the ability for broadcasters to create interactive services draws closer, Advanced Emergency Information (AEI) services are among the most compelling public services a broadcaster can offer, One Media noted. 

AEI also represents the best unique feature set broadcasters can field as they vie for users against much larger media platforms that have had interactive capabilities for many years. This series will examine opportunities AEI services can offer broadcasters to improve service to their communities and business health.

Webinars will have one hour presentation/discussion followed by 30 min audience Q&A.

Webinar #1: Tuesday March 15, 1 PM ET

As NextGen Broadcasters offer interactive services, AEI services can offer features not available from large digital platforms. This panel will examine what it will take to offer services unavailable today yet critical to broadcasters’ local communities.

Topics to include:

• How AEI and other interactive services will fundamentally change the relationship broadcasters have with viewers by making it interactive.
• How the return path for NextGen Broadcast services works.
• New research that anticipates consumer preferences and acceptance of AEI features
• Comparisons with digital services that also offer geo-targeted alerts and emergency information.
• What AEI services will look like from the user point of view (frame grabs).
• How AEI can enhance mobile/portability.
• How AEI can be expanded to provide urgent information and support a community in normal times.
• Preparing for interactive viewer relationships, calculating the benefit of long-term digital viewers.
• Portability to the app in the home, and through wireless carriers.
• How TV stations with no news departments can benefit from the technology.

Registration and a complete list of speakers and topics for all three webinars are available here. 

HUNT VALLEY, Md.—Sinclair Broadcast Group’s ONE Media 3.0 subsidiary has announced the completion of a series of ATSC 3.0 tests in August that validate the broadcast group’s “mobile first” strategy that leverages advanced compression, modulation and HDR technology to broadcast robust OTA signals to mobile devices and simultaneously deliver 4K UHD with HDR with enhancement data delivered via the internet.

Conducted Aug. 19-22 in the Baltimore area, the tests relied on Technicolor SL-HDR1, Scalable High Efficiency Video Compression (SHVC) and Layer Division Multiplexing (LDM) to maximize the efficient use of available OTA bits and guarantee the highest quality delivery of content by taking advantage of the internet.

The testing, done in partnership with Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI), InterDigital and Technicolor, underscored “that we have both the technologies and business objectives that can realize and sustain substantial future value for video services,” said Mark Aitken, president of ONE Media 3.0.

SHVC compression enables delivery of a base layer of bits, used during the tests to deliver 540p and 740p over the air. The same layer also delivered a standard dynamic range (SDR) base layer with Rec. 709 color space via SL-HDR1.

The tests relied on an LTE broadband network to deliver the SHVC enhancement layer, including SL-HDR1 high dynamic range with Rec. 2020 color space.

This base-plus-enhancement layer approach offers a number advantages, including making it possible for broadcasters to make the fullest use of their over-the-air bits while continuing to provide partners, such as MVPDs, with the highest quality service to deliver to their customers, said Aitken.

“It’s no secret that wireless bits are more valuable than wired bits,” Aitken said in a phone interview with TVTechnology.

He pointed to the difference in retail pricing wireless carriers charge for data plans versus the price of broadband to the home charged by cable operators and others as an example.

Various configurations were used in the testing. One delivered four independent SHVC video services carried by two LDM PLPs (physical layer pipes) on one 6MHz channel, which were successfully received by various devices moving in a vehicle. Other mobile and fixed devices received both LDM PLPs and displayed four services at 1080p HD HDR.

Live content for the tests came from TBD Network and Stadium Sports Network and other challenging sports, movie and entertainment content chosen to stress the SHVC compression used.

For all experiments, equipment from Cobalt Digital leveraging Technicolor Intelligent Tone Management technology was used to convert source content from SDR to HDR.

Another test delivered 540p video via 3.0 delivered and 1080p HD HDR via the enhancement layer carried on an LTE link. The test demonstrated the ability to switch seamlessly between 3.0 broadcast and broadband. Other experiments focused on combining 720p mobile and 4K UHD fixed reception.

During his interview, Aitken emphasized that the technology used in the tests is commercially available, and not simply a “science project.”

Sung-Ik Park, project leader for ETRI expressed pleasure over the successful tests. “Among the many unique capabilities of the Next Gen standard is the mechanism to converge broadcast and broadband seamlessly, which will be an excellent enhancement in the 5G era," he said.

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

WASHINGTON—The battle over getting Next Gen TV onto pay-TV platforms is heating up.

ONE Media 3.0 LLC, a subsidiary of Sinclair Broadcast Group focused on developing technology for the ATSC 3.0 television broadcast standard, fired back at Charter Communications over the cable operator’s criticism of the lack of standards for carrying ATSC 3.0 signals on cable TV.

Charter recently met with the FCC to voice its concerns about requiring cable TV operators to carry ATSC 3.0, citing the fact that it is not compatible with ATSC 1.0 and that broadcasters have not adopted standards needed for MVPDs to broadcast ATSC 3.0. ONE Media 3.0 said such concerns are “misplaced and premature.”

“At this time and for the foreseeable future, MVPDs will not require equipment to decode ATSC 3.0 signals because, with respect to the primary signal, a broadcast station that is transitioning to ATSC 3.0 must simulcast in ATSC 1.0 per the FCC’s rules,” said Jerald Fritz, executive vice president, strategic and legal affairs for ONE Media 3.0, in a letter to the commission. “As a result, MVPDs will continue to have an ATSC 1.0 source for the primary signal.”

Charter’s criticism over the lack of standards for ATSC 3.0 to be carried on cable TV platforms is also misplaced, Fritz said.

“Charter appears to confuse standards with flexible uses for non-television delivery of data,” Fritz wrote. “One of the extraordinary features of the ATSC 3.0 standard is its inherent flexibility enabling multiple service profiles. Broadcasters have been working closely with equipment vendors to establish basic television service profiles.

“This critical process, however, will have no impact on the availability of television services to MVPD subscribers,” Fritz added. “Moreover, there is no requirement for uniformity among broadcasters in order for MVPDs to make ATSC 3.0’s features and services available to their subscribers at such time as they agree with the broadcaster to carry the ATSC 3.0 signals.”

Fritz advocates a market-based solution to determine what ATSC 3.0 services MVPDs could offer.

“If a MVPD and broadcaster are motivated to add an ATSC 3.0 delivered feature or service to the MVPD’s platform, implementation will be achieved in a reasonable timeframe and based on mutual business objectives,” he said.

Fritz also criticized Charter’s contention that demand for ATSC 3.0 will be limited because some of its features are already available via IP, saying such reasoning was “backwards.”

“Enhancing the broadcast platform with features and capabilities that have already proven to be popular with consumers should increase, not decrease the demand for broadcast reception products and services,” Fritz said, adding that such deployment considerations have “zero impact” on MVPD access to broadcaster-provided programming.

“The implicit suggestion that the Commission should delay the rollout of Next Generation broadcast services because not all potential use cases have been identified and that some services may be available (albeit much less efficiently) by current MVPD internet providers reflects a particularly jaundiced view of the Commission’s regulatory role and should be summarily rejected.” Fritz said. 

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