CLEVELAND—The latest field testing of ATSC 3.0 from the NAB-CTA-sponsored experimental Next Gen TV station, Tribune’s WJW Fox affiliate in Cleveland, successfully demonstrated the ability of 3.0 to deliver SHVC-encoded LDM base and enhancement layers for mobile and high-quality UHD HDR fixed receivers, respectively.

“The test was an immense success. We assembled a commercial system to show ATSC 3.0’s ability to support enhanced over-the-air services in challenging urban environments,” said Alan Stein, VP of Technology Development and Standards at Technicolor.

Several use cases with a variety of test scenarios were tested in Cleveland, he said. Among them were carrying a 1080p Layer Division Multiplexing (LDM) base layer and an LDM enhancement layer with 4K and Technicolor’s SL-HR1 high dynamic range data; a 540p base layer and 1080p/HDR enhancement layer; and two high-quality SHVC services.

“When we did the HD and the 4K, the core PLP [physical layer pipe] was QPSK [modulated] 7/15ths [bits per symbol] code rate. That was the video base layer and audio,” said Stein. “The enhancement layer was 64 QAM, 9/15ths code rate, and that carried the SHVC enhancement layer data and the SL-HDR1 metadata.”

For that configuration, the core PLP capacity was 4.5Mb/s, while that of the enhancement PLP was 17.5Mb/s, he said.

SHVC, or scalable high efficiency video coding, is a particularly useful technology when combined with LDM because it enables broadcasters to enhance the bits delivered in the core layer to create the highest quality images on fixed receivers while preserving more bandwidth for additional services, such as mobile.

Although not nearly as robust as the core layer, the enhancement layer has a much higher throughput, capable of carrying the heavy data load needed to build the 4K UHD HDR image in a fixed receiver.

The Cleveland test demonstrated that despite being less robust, the enhancement layer—as well as the core layer—could be received downtown at the offices of test participant Osborn Engineering, an environment in which the transmitted signal was subject to reflections off adjacent buildings, which creates multipath interference.

“At the video coding layer, the enhancement layer is about 3x to 4x more bits, when we think about how the video encoder is set up,” said Stein. “But that is mitigated by having less physical layer robustness. The FEC [forward error correction] coding and using QPSK versus using QAM at the physical layer, the overhead is actually quite less.”

To test the ability of 3.0 to handle two high-quality signals, the test organizers worked from the assumption that a Next Gen TV signal in a 6MHz channel can carry 20Mb/s to 25Mb/s. With that in mind, PLP configurations were set to stay around 10Mb/s of total capacity. “The idea was we could have two services each taking 10Mb/s of capacity and have a multicast of two high-quality services,” he said.

That required the video bit rate to be reduced. For the core layer, it was reduced to 1Mb/s and the enhancement layer was set to 4Mb/s, “where the physical layer parameters gave us an aggregate of 10Mb/s capacity,” he explained.

Rather demanding test footage of a Washington Capitals hockey practice supplied by NAB was used. The footage was “fairly challenging” because of the ice, the ice spray from players stopping short, the players’ bright, saturated red and blue practice jerseys and the fast edits in the piece, he said.

“Subjectively, the quality delivered was acceptable, even at those very challenging bit rates and even with a first-generation SHVC card,” said Stein.

To make the test happen, organizers assembled a team of 3.0 vendors and experts, including: Technicolor, which encoded content with its SL-HDR1; ETRI, the South Korean-government funded research institute, which supplied LDM technology and a professional 3.0 receiver; Kai Media, which provided a professional HEVC and SHVC and SL-HDR1 decoder; and LG, which supplied a consumer OLED 4K/UHD/HDR TV. Technicolor also provided its Intelligent Tone Management (ITM) technology to convert source content from SDR to HDR using equipment provided by Cobalt Digital.

The Cleveland test isn’t the first for Technicolor, Stein said. A few years ago, it worked with Sinclair Broadcast Group to test mobile reception of a 3.0 signal transmitted from a Sinclair experimental station on board a train from Baltimore to Washington, D.C.

However, a lot has happened since then. “We are really happy to see this [3.0] commercialized,” said Stein.

Kelly Williams, senior director of Engineering and Technology Policy at NAB, is pleased with the testing for another reason. “The ability to deliver multiple broadcasts of enhanced video—in this case content encoded with Technicolor SL-HDR1—on a single channel will help to transform the economics of the broadcast industry, and meet the high expectations that consumers have today,” he said.

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

WASHINGTON—Triveni Digital will demonstrate an end-to-end, real-time, scalable HEVC (SHVC) workflow with compression developer ATEME, at the ATSC Annual Meeting in Washington D.C, May 23-24. Leveraging Layered Division Multiplexing (LDM) and real-time Scalable HEVC (SHVC) technology in an ATSC 3.0 environment, the joint solution offers increased bandwidth efficiency for broadcast content delivery over the air and via broadband.

The demo will feature a full chain of ATSC 3.0-compatible equipment including Triveni Digital's GuideBuilder XM metadata generator and MMTP/ROUTE encoder, a TITAN encoder from ATEME, a broadcast gateway, a transmitter, and the Samsung ATSC 3.0 television prototype for reception. Additionally, Triveni Digital's StreamScope XM MT ATSC 3.0 analyzer will be utilized to showcase the two layers of MMTP/ROUTE data.

The joint demonstration from Triveni Digital and ATEME combines the physical-layer scalability of LDM with real-time SHVC to showcase efficiency boost in spectrum uses, as well as improved robustness when multiple mobile/indoor low-quality HD (1080p) and fixed high-quality UHD (2160p) transmissions are simultaneously serviced. ATEME's TITAN real-time SHVC encoder is capable of MPU/DASH packaging, simultaneous multiple-HD encoding, and statistical multiplexing. Triveni Digital's GuideBuilder XM integrates seamlessly with the TITAN encoder, providing signaling, announcements, and MMTP/ROUTE encoding for both OTA broadcast and broadband delivery applications.

[Read: NAB Show Demo To Show Power Of SHVC Encoding In ATSC 3.0 Ecosystem]

"We are very proud to extend our partnership with Triveni Digital in this successful demonstration that will rise the movement toward a flexible ATSC 3.0 deployment," said Mickaël Raulet, advanced research manager at ATEME. "Our TITAN Live encoder provides an evolutive solution for ATSC 1.0 and ATSC 3.0 deployments."

"In the past, broadcasters were required to use a significant amount of bandwidth to deliver content over the air and over broadband, which was very expensive," said Ralph Bachofen, vice president of sales and marketing at Triveni Digital. "With GuideBuilder XM supporting SHVC for both OTA and broadband transmissions, this is no longer an issue. We're excited to team up with ATEME on this innovative end-to-end solution, which is ready for real-world deployment."

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

LAS VEGAS –TV broadcasters who have wondered what all the hoopla is about when it comes to delivering IP packets as part of Next-Gen TV service rather than today’s MPEG Transport Stream via ATSC 1.0 may want to take the time to visit the Convergence TV Project demo in the NAB Futures Park (booth N1531FP) at the 2018 NAB Show next week.

There, five French companies and two research institutes will put on a joint demonstration of scalable High Efficiency Video Coding, otherwise known as SHVC, for audio and video compression. By encoding with SHVC, which is supported as part of the newly approved ATSC 3.0 standard, TV broadcasters can elect to send certain IP packets over the air and others over the top to connected TVs.

For broadcasters evaluating how best to use their over-the-air bits, SHVC will make it possible to pack more services –whether that’s more OTA channels, new data services or mobile TV—into their 6MHz channel without compromising the delivery of signals to the home TV.

SHVC makes that possible by enabling a base layer of service to be sent over the air and an enhancement layer to be delivered over the top to internet-connected TVs. Thus, broadcasters are relieved from the burden of carrying the full load of IP packets needed to make, for instance, a 4K UHD HDR picture, while maintaining the ability to deliver 4K UHD HDR to the home where the OTA base layer and OTT enhancement layer are added back together.

Essentially, SHVC as part of ATSC 3.0 will allow TV broadcasters to have their cake and eat it, too. In other words, they will be able to deliver the highest quality video and audio to the home while preserving their ability to deliver more services over the air.

[Read: Sinclair Taps ATEME For ATSC Encoding]

This base-enhancement layer combo should also allow broadcasters to overcome one of the biggest reasons Mobile DTV failed: simulcasting and broadcast rights.

James Goodmon Sr., Capitol Broadcasting CEO and Chairman of the Board, recounted the problem during a recent demo of NBCOlympics’ 4K UHD coverage from PyeongChang, South Korea, being delivered over the air from an experimental 3.0 station WRAL is running.

Goodmon told those gathered for the demo that the only way to deliver Mobile DTV in an ATSC 1.0 (A/53) era was with a simulcast of a separate service relying on A/153. Red flags went up for affiliates when the legal teams of their network partners insisted the A/153 transmission was a separate channel, and that the affiliates had not acquired the rights to simulcast their main channel on this new mobile channel. With SHVC as part of ATSC 3.0, no simulcast is necessary.

The objective of the NAB demo will be to show delivery of a full UHD service using an OTA ATSC 3.0 broadcast for HD HDR service and a 3.0 broadband path for enhancing the service from HD to 4K UHD with HDR. On the reception side of the equation, a normal ATSC 3.0 TV will display the HD HDR service, and a PC-based hybrid receiver prototype will combine the base and enhancement layers to display 4K UHD HDR.

The demo will also illustrate that it is possible for a regular HEVC-enabled TV set to decode the SHVC base layer without needing an upgrade, thus underscoring the backward compatibility of SHVC.

The Convergence TV Project, sponsored by the French government and two local councils, is the work of five tech companies, including TeamCast, ATEME, Broadpeak, Motion Spell and TDF. Two prestigious French academic research institutes, INSA Rennes and Telecom Paristech, are also a part of the project.

Samsung is supporting the NAB demo by providing the ATSC 3.0 TV set to demonstrate backward compatibility.

Visit the demonstration at NAB Show booth N1531FP.

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