The SBE Chapter 22 Broadcast & Technology Expo will be held Thursday, Sept. 29 at the Ramada by Wyndham hotel in Liverpool, New York. From 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., the free, one-day event offers a variety presentations geared towards radio and TV professionals.

Expo highlights include approximately 30 exhibitors as well as two rooms offering 45 minute presentations covering different broadcast and media topics throughout the day. Attendees do not need to sign-up ahead of time to attend a presentation.

“We have presentations on the latest topics for radio, including HD Radio, new FM modulation techniques and the latest on audio processing,” said Alan Jurison, SBE Chapter 22 and Expo Committee member. “There are also papers that appeal to both [TV and radio] disciplines, focusing on fiber-optics, IT Cybersecurity, device monitoring, transmitter site management and best practices.”

In the morning of Sept. 29, one of the two rooms will offer radio-specific sessions such as “Cloud-Based Radio Broadcasting and the Last Mile Problem” and “Reducing Analog FM operating costs with SmartFM.” See that list of sessions here.

The keynote speaker for the event is media technology consultant Skip Pizzi, author of the book “Digital Radio Basics," and recipient of the ATSC 2017 Bernard Lechner Award, the association's highest honor.

For TV, a number of sessions will cover ATSC 3.0, cybersecurity, monitoring for OTT and cloud.

While the event is just a couple of weeks away, Jurison said registration is still open for both attendees and exhibitors.

“There are still a few exhibitor booth openings and we’ve had quite a few companies registering within the last few weeks to add to the face-to-face experience,” he said.

The photo below depicts the 2022 Expo floor layout and confirmed 28 exhibitor booths.

Admission to the expo as an attendee is free and includes a continental breakfast with coffee. The SBE said a provided lunch and dinner option is also available, at $10 and $16, respectively.

Jurison said SBE Expos provide a great alternative for those who are unable to travel to Las Vegas for the annual NAB Show.

“[Expos] are challenging to put together, but they are so vital for engineers and other technical-focused people in our industry to learn about new technologies and trends, as well as getting to meet the companies they do business with, see some of the latest products and learn in a more formal educational setting.”

A one hour reception will follow the educational sessions with snacks and cocktails provided. The SBE National Awards Dinner will follow the reception. SBE National will hold its fall meetings at the Chapter 22 Expo on Wednesday, Sept. 28 and Thursday, Sept. 29.

Register for the SBE Chapter 22 Expo here. Additional details can be found on the SBE website.

This article originally appeared on TV Tech sister brand Radio World. 

INDIANAPOLIS—The Society of Broadcast Engineers has announced plans for its 2022 annual meeting, Sept. 28-29, to be held in Liverpool, a suburb of Syracuse, N.Y.

The gathering, which includes the annual Membership Meeting, Awards Dinner, a meeting of the SBE Board of Directors, and several SBE committee meetings will be held in conjunction with the SBE Chapter 22 Broadcast and Technology Expo, which takes place on Sept 29. The Expo, which includes a trade show exhibit hall and technical sessions, will be held at the Ramada by Wyndham Liverpool. The annual event attracts broadcast engineers and technicians from New York and the surrounding states.

The SBE National Meeting events will be held Sept. 28 and 29. On Sept. 28, the national SBE Certification Committee and the SBE Board of Directors will meet while on Sept. 29, SBE activities continue with the annual SBE Fellows Breakfast (invitation-only), sponsored by Kathrein USA, SBE Annual Membership Meeting (streamed live), sponsored by Blackmagic Design, Dielectric, Jampro and Markertek. That is followed by the SBE Annual Awards Reception, sponsored by Comrex, and the SBE National Awards Dinner, sponsored by latakoo.

The SBE Membership Meeting provides an update on SBE activities and programs. It will also include the induction of the newly and re-elected officers and directors of the society. The live webcast of the Annual SBE Membership Meeting will takes place from 4:00 to 5:00 p.m. EDT. To view it, go to the SBE website (sbe.org) and click on the webcast link. Reminders will be emailed to members the day before and the day of the webcast.

At the SBE Awards Dinner, awards include the Robert W. Flanders SBE Broadcast Engineer of the Year, James C. Wulliman SBE Educator of the Year, SBE Technology Award to an SBE Sustaining Member company and the Best Technical Article, Book or Program by a SBE member. The keynote speaker will be media consultant Skip Pizzi. Among the many activities in which he is involved, Skip is currently the project manager for NextGen TV transition for WNET, New York.

SBE chapters will be presented with awards recognizing achievement for Best Chapter Communications, Best Regional Educational Event, Greatest Member Growth, Highest SBE Certified Chapter and Highest Meeting Attendance. Winners of the local SBE Chapter Engineers of the Year will also be recognized.

In preparation of the event, SBE President Andrea Cummis, CBT, CTO, said, "I encourage all SBE members, but especially those in the New England area and Canada, to attend the SBE National Meeting. Chapter 22 has always produced a high-caliber event, and the SBE looks forward to returning to Syracuse and working with the Chapter to host the SBE national event."

Registration for the SBE22 Expo is required and is free. Visit the Expo website (sbe22.org/2022-expo) for details and to register.

Tickets for the SBE National Awards Reception and Dinner ($16) are available through the SBE website (sbe.org) and by telephone, Monday - Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. EDT at 317-846-9000. There is no registration or fee to attend the Annual SBE Membership Meeting.

Accommodations at the Ramada by Wyndham, Liverpool may be reserved by calling 315-457-1122. The SBE has a limited number of rooms reserved at the discounted rate of $111. Ask for the SBE22 Expo room rate to receive the discount. By booking and referencing the Expo you can receive the room discount, and the show organizers receive a credit to offset costs.

Click here for more information. 

BOULDER, Colo.—Skip Pizzi has joined the Public Media Venture Group (PMVG) in a newly created role around ATSC 3.0.

Pizzi will serve alongside PMVG consultants Vinnie Curren and Liz Maestri and PMVG founder and CEO Marc Hand, the company said.

“After spending the last several years helping lead the development of the ATSC 3.0 standard, it’s extremely gratifying to now be joining a team that’s in the forefront of the standard’s actual deployment,” said Pizzi. “I’m also glad to be working with trusted, long-time colleagues whom I greatly respect, and pleased to again engage with the public broadcasting industry, where I began my career.”

The sole focus of PMVG, a nonprofit business development consortium of 32 public media organization, is leveraging NextGen TV and developing use cases to assist public broadcasters in sustaining their services over the long term, PMVG said.

Pizzi will focus on leading the ATSC 3.0 market transition planning and implementation of PMVG member stations. He will serve as an advisor to PMVG stations, board of directors and CEO on 3.0 strategy and opportunities. He also will lead PMVG’s NextGen TV Working Group of stations already broadcasting 3.0 or in the process of transitioning, it said.

“With the priority of moving the PMVG stations onto the ATSC 3.0 platform, we are thrilled to bring Skip’s wealth of skills, experiences, and long-time engagement with public media to our work,” said Hand. “Skip participated in the original planning meetings for PMVG in 2016 and has been a trusted advisor over the years as we navigate the needs of our stations, and the opportunities offered by ATSC 3.0. We’re very pleased to add the contributions that Skip will make to our efforts and in addressing the range of needs of the PMVG stations.”

More information is available on the PMVG website.

ARLINGTON, Va.—The standard has been approved, testing is ongoing and new TV sets with support for NextGen TV (aka ATSC 3.0) debuted at CES2020 earlier this month. Now comes the hard part—marketing it.

That was among the chief topics at SMPTE’s NextGen TV Summit hosted by WETA last week. A standing-room-only crowd discussed the technology, marketing and business opportunities broadcasters could harness with the new over-the-air broadcasting standard. And one of the first steps is branding.

“We don’t talk about ATSC 3.0 anymore,” said Lynn Claudy, senior vice president of technology for NAB and chairman of the ATSC board of directors; “now we talk about NextGen TV.”

KEEP UP WITH THE JONESES

In a quickly evolving mobile, digital world, broadcasters have to assert themselves once again if consumers are to embrace the new standard, Claudy added.

“There’s a lot of competition and disruption; you have to ‘keep up with the Joneses’ in digital media,” Claudy said. Referring to the IP component with NextGen TV that allows broadcasters to provide OTT-type services, Claudy said, “We have to be seamlessly integrated into existing online broadband ecosystem in a meaningful way.”

With increased demand on spectrum, “the pressure is on broadcasters to be more efficient,” Claudy added. “You’ve got to do more with less.”

Claudy’s opening comments were echoed by ATSC President Madeleine Noland.

“The cellular industry is ravenous for spectrum,” she said. “And the way to defend your spectrum is to use it well. And I think the ATSC 3.0 standard is going to help broadcasters make their stake in the ground very strongly with, ‘hey, our spectrum is being used extremely wisely for the betterment of the people and the economy.’”

One of the most significant differences between ATSC 1.0 and 3.0 is the latter standard’s emphasis on mobility, which was driven home by Mark Aitken, senior vice president of technology for Sinclair.

“[With ATSC 1.0], we lost consumers because we had an opportunity to be the mobile leader and we didn't choose that path,” Aitken said. “And if we forget that this time around, we might as well put the gun to our head right now.”

In 2017, Sinclair offered to give away 1 million NextGen TV tuners to any cellphone makers willing to add the capability to their devices. While there have not been reportedly any takers, Sinclair has showcased a NextGen TV chip it has developed in conjunction with Saankhya Labs, VeriSilicon and Samsung Foundry, and Aitken hinted that there will be new developments to see at the NAB Show in April.

“Don’t be surprised if you see a smartphone with a NextGen TV chipset at NAB,” Aitken predicted.

SINGLE FREQUENCY NETWORKS

Broadcasters are currently petitioning the FCC to revise the commission’s standards to allow the increased use of multiple transmitter deployments to make NextGen TV signals cut down on multipath, making the broadcast signal more robust in the mobile environment. These “single frequency networks” could be the key to consumer adoption, according to attendees.

“SFNs let you extend your coverage into shadow areas,” Noland said, adding that an SFN in San Francisco, for example, could increase audience reach up to 40%.

SFNs also represent an opportunity for broadcasters in one market to cooperate on deploying and enhancing NextGen TV coverage, according to Jeff Andrew of Osborn Engineering.

“We believe that SFNs should be co-located—all the stations in one particular market should all be on the same SFN sites, sharing the same infrastructure,” Andrew said. “Pick your channel assignments that support SFN deployment.”

NextGen TV also allows for enhanced graphics and geo-targeted emergency alerts through its AWARN platform. With broadcasters often serving as the primary source of information, this could enhance even more broadcasters’ roles during emergencies.

“Wireless companies are not overly eager about wireless alerts,” Noland said. “They don’t want to accept responsibility for the message that goes out. The broadcast community cares about such messages and enhances such messages. Broadcasters are content creators, not just content distributors, which differentiates us from the 5G community.”

John McCoskey, CEO of SpectraRep, mentioned that the industry needs to create a consistent look when it comes to providing enhanced emergency alerts.

“We are looking at approaches that will provide a similar look across all channels,” adding that “there is a fair amount of interest among broadcasters about how to tie emergency alerts into the news workflow.”

THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM

NextGen TV is not being deployed in a vacuum however. 5G was described as “the elephant in the room” at the conference, but NextGen TV advocates emphasized the differences between a broadcast one-to-many service and cellular one-to-one.

Acknowledging the hype around the next-generation cellular standard now being rolled out in selected areas, Josh Arensberg with Verizon Media reminded attendees that “5G is an enabler, a last mile provider, just like ATSC 3.0,” but that as content creators, broadcasters can better enable programming and information tailored to the benefits provided by broadcast.

“Without content and people creating experiences, there’s nothing,” he said. But because higher resolution content comes with a bigger data appetite, “you can see a $500 bill within minutes with up to 10 Gbps downloads [in 5G],” adding that when it comes to efficiency in a mobile device, when compared to “cost per bit,” 5G is up to “90% less efficient.”

“[NextGen TV] can contribute to a very efficient battery life,” Arensberg added.

CONTENT IS NO LONGER ‘KING’

When it comes to business opportunities for NextGen TV, Mark Fratrik, senior economist with BIA took issue with the traditional “content is king” mantra.

“Platforms and devices drive the business models more than the content,” he said. “It’s hard to think that content is king; Roku, for example doesn’t create content, but Wall Street loves them. For incremental growth, it’s platforms and devices that drive the growth today.”

Fratrik and his colleague Rick Ducey unveiled the results of their study that estimates that broadcasters could grow revenue 50% over the next 10 years as they deploy ATSC 3.0. Nevertheless, the ATSC 1.0 signal will continue to be the main source of revenue over the next decade, they said.

“Even with the new capabilities NextGen TV provides, traditional linear TV advertising and retransmission will continue to account for the lion’s share of revenues throughout the 2020s,” Fratrik said.

A CLEAR MESSAGE

With deployments under way and sets scheduled to hit retail by the 2020 holiday shopping season, marketing NextGen TV will probably be the biggest challenge for broadcasters in 2020. Skip Pizzi, vice president of technology education and outreach for NAB, advised caution when promoting a product and service that can’t be accessed by consumers yet.

“You don't want to push too hard on the consumer side if there isn't yet a product that they can use,” he said. “You have to be careful and clear on the messaging.”

For those consumers who have heard about NextGen TV, the main takeaway has been that it will allow for 4K resolution and enhanced audio. And for South Korea, which has gotten a headstart on deploying ATSC 3.0, 4K has been described as the “killer app.”

That country in fact, is already planning on shutting down ATSC 1.0 before the end of the decade according to Claudy. “They have already planned their shutoff of ATSC 1.0 in 2027,” he said. “All HD content will be gone in favor of 4K by then.” But he also reminded attendees that that country’s transition to ATSC 3.0 was mandated by the government. “Korean broadcasters also got more spectrum for the transition,” Claudy said.

In the early stages of the deployment in the U.S., Claudy believes broadcasters will opt for 1080p resolution with HDR and HFR (in certain situations) and just offer 4K on “special occasions.” But by combining over-the-air broadcasting with IP, the capabilities are so much more than that, according to Stacey Decker, CTO of Public Media Group, who reminded attendees that it’s not just NextGen TV, but other advances such as the cloud, AI and software-defined networking that is revolutionizing broadcasting.

“We're at a unique time in our history with regard to technology disruption,” he said. “We now have the opportunity to take the infrastructure we've all known for years and deploy these things on top of it and make it powerful.”

For a comprehensive source of TV Technology’s NextGen TV coverage, see our NextGen TV silo.

COLUMBUS, OHIO—When ATSC president Mark Richer launched the organization’s “Road To ATSC 3.0” campaign earlier this year, he observed that the television industry would be “embarking on the road trip of a lifetime.”

One of the stops on that “road” took place in a big way here June 27-28 with the arrival of the “Midwest Next-Gen TV Summit,” an event designed to bring information about the new DTV transmission standard to broadcasters who might not have had an opportunity to participate in the numerous ATSC 3.0 launch events at the NAB Show and elsewhere.

With the assistance of broadcasting associations from six states—Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin—the ATSC brought together some of the top names in a program tailored for both station management and engineering contingents, with an agenda split between the nuts and bolts aspects of ATSC 3.0 and new business models that it could fuel.

The technical side was first, and after welcoming remarks by the executive director of the Indiana Broadcasters Association, Dave Arland, the day-and-a-half conference got down to business with a tag team presentation by the former chair of the ATSC technology group that developed the standard, Richard Chernock, and Skip Pizzi, NAB’s vice president of technology education and outreach. The duo described the genesis of the ATSC 3.0 standard, its inner workings, how it will allow broadcasters to offer a much wider range of services, what it will take to put 3.0 on the air, and even how adoption of the standard can fit in with the ongoing U.S. television spectrum repack.

TIME TO GET SERIOUS ABOUT ATSC 3.0

As well as describing technical aspects of ATSC 3.0, Chernock urged broadcasters to embrace the new standard and commit themselves to adopting it as soon as possible.

“Technology is continuing to accelerate and grow,” he said. “It’s almost an exponential curve and it’s going to keep on going [and] we’re used to television technologies that sit still for a long time.

“How many decades was NTSC pretty much unchanged? And then along came ATSC 1.0, and now, in much less time, 3.0 has come along, and parts of 3.0 are not going to sit still but will keep evolving,” Chernock added. “So, I think we’re entering a phase where we all have to learn that things are not going to be completely stable. They’ll keep on changing. They’ll get better. And if you take advantage of it, there are a lot more opportunities. The key thing is to recognize that it’s going to happen and how to work with it, rather than stick your head in the sand and complain.”

Pizzi observed that while ATSC 3.0 was a “faith-based initiative” and not mandated, broadcasters and consumers alike would benefit from its implementation.

“The main thing is better audio and video,” said Pizzi. “There’s also the ability to do a quantitative increase as well as a qualitative one—to put more in the same channel.”

“There are plenty of more tweaks and adjustments that broadcasters and consumers can add if they want to,” said Pizzi, observing that with the hybrid nature of 3.0, broadcasters would be in a class by themselves.

“They [will be] the only ones who can do both over-the-air and Internet broadcasting,” he said.

Pizzi admitted that implementation of ATSC 3.0 would not exactly be child’s play for a number of reasons, including lack of backwardly compatibility with 1.0, and especially, the absence of a “loaner” channel for phasing in the new service as had been done in the analog-to digital TV transition.

“It will require extensive broadcaster collaboration,” he said. “It’s going to be different in each market.”

Pizzi also noted that the current lack of 3.0-capable television receivers will have to be addressed.

[Read: ATSC 3.0: The Time To Deploy Is Now]

“We assume that new TVs starting to come out [around] 2020 and beyond will be dual system—1.0 and 3.0” he said. “This is just voluntary. There’s no mandate that they will be that way. It’s to the television manufacturers’ advantage to do this. The folks who make the TVs—most of them—have all been involved in developing the standard and they each have, we think, a good bit of intellectual property in the system. So it behooves them [to equip the sets with 3.0 capability].

“We don’t think that lack of a mandate is going to be a problem in terms of having receivers on the market soon,” he said.

A VISIT FROM THE COMMISSION

The summit’s program included a special appearance by FCC Commissioner Michael O’Rielly who noted that the commission was “very positive” about the DTV standard and that it has been trying to speed the deployment as much as possible; however, the successful adoption of ATSC 3.0 also depended on other factors.

“The commission set the stage for deployment of the new standard through a Report and Order and Further Notice in November,” said O’Rielly. “At the time I made clear that the success or failure of a new technology is dependent on two things. First, it requires significant interest by broadcasters willing to make a bet on the future of television and the capabilities this standard may allow. Second, it will require great interest by consumers to adapt and adopt new features and functions that may soon be available.

“Both of these are achievable, but not without tremendous effort,” he said.

O’Rielly acknowledged that while broadcasters had their plates full with the repack and other issues, their rollout of ATSC 3.0 couldn’t be relegated to the “I’ll get around to it someday” category.

“Unfortunately, television broadcasters are under enormous pressures right now,” he said. “The hi-tech companies, who broadcasters compete with daily for advertising and consumer attention are not going to stop and wait for ATSC 3.0 to be fully deployed. They are going to continue to eat market and advertising share.

“So, time is not necessarily a luxury you all have,” O’Rielly continued. “If you are a broadcaster sitting on the fence on whether to implement ATSC 3.0, you should be worried that the fence may no longer exist if you take too long to decide.”

COUNTERING WIRELESS BROADBAND

ATSC 3.0—with its greatly enhanced capabilities over those of present-day ATSC 1.0—is viewed by some as a means for shifting consumers away from streaming of content via wireless broadband to a one-to-many over-the-air delivery paradigm. This surfaced in several presentations, including Jerald Fritz’s “Building New Revenue with Next-Gen TV and SFN Deployment.”

“[With ATSC 3.0], you are no longer in the entertainment video business; you are now in the data business,” said Fritz, explaining that with the feature set provided by the new transmission standard, consumers will have a way to bypass congested and poorly performing cellphone networks when viewing live events, such as a football game, while at the sports venue.

Fritz, executive vice president for strategic and legal affairs for ONE Media, also praised the selection of the OFDM (orthogonal frequency division multiplex) modulation used in 3.0 as an enabler in this respect.

“[Another] major advantage that ATSC 3.0 brings, among many, is the movement to a different modulation scheme—from 8-VSB to OFDM. This means that there’s no multipath distortion, there’s no ghosting, there’s no fading. That means that we finally have the ability after 20 years to have mobile television. All those millennials are watching television on their mobile devices, streaming and paying AT&T and Verizon.

“We abandoned mobile television to the phone company because we didn’t adopt OFDM 20 years ago,” Fritz said.

[Read: ATSC Meeting Explores 3.0 Deployments]

Regarding the availability of a return channel with ATSC 3.0, Fritz remarked “If…there’s a return channel for broadcasters, you have to ask yourself ‘what is it that broadcasters can’t do that the telephone companies can do now that we have a return channel?’”

Other summit presentations included a report by the NAB’s Lynn Claudy on field testing of ATSC 3.0 performed at the Cleveland transmission testing facility, a presentation by AWARN’s Fiona James on the potential of ATSC 3.0 to enhance emergency warning information, a look at the Phoenix test market and the need for cooperation among broadcasters in rolling out 3.0 from Scripps Media’s Ray Thurber, and a panel discussion on considerations and planning in connection with ATSC 3.0 adoption, and another on the monetization opportunities possible with ATSC 3.0’s personalized advertising and viewership data attributes.

Summit activities included a Wednesday evening reception at the Early Television Museum, located in nearby Hilliard, Ohio. There attendees viewed and received demonstrations of numerous television-related artifacts that traced the technical history of the television from its “mechanical” 30-line resolution roots into the electronic and color eras.

Museum founder Steve McVoy was on hand to greet the delegation, and observed that at more than 90 persons, the group was largest ever to tour museum since its inception in 2001.

“It went better than I had expected for a group this large,” said McVoy. “And I’m glad to have hosted a crowd like this with such an appreciation of television’s long history.”

SUMMING IT ALL UP

Asked about how the Midwest Summit came into being, Dave Arland responded that while midwestern television broadcasters were aware of the introduction of the ATSC 3.0 standard, it was felt that it was necessary to provide some in-depth information about 3.0 and the advantages that it offers television station operators.

“While many of our midwestern stations have heard from their corporate engineering teams about the emerging next-gen TV standard, we wanted to offer a detailed overview of what’s in the actual standard and how the first implementations are being put together,” said Arland. “And we knew that our general managers would be interested in the new revenue potential made possible by IP capability. It will be interesting to revisit the landscape in a year or two to see how the new ATSC 3.0 standard is being harnessed to strengthen the business of broadcasting and delivery of digital information.”

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

PALM DESERT, CALIF.—Broadcasters at this week’s HPA Tech Retreat discussed two timely television technical topics: the introduction of the ATSC 3.0 DTV transmission standard and the on-going TV spectrum repack initiative.

The “Broadcasters Panel” included Dave Siegler, vice president of technical operations for the Cox Media Group; Del Parks, senior vice president and chief technology officer for the Sinclair Broadcast Group; Skip Pizzi, vice president of technology education and outreach at the NAB; and Fox Network’s Rich Friedel, who also chairs the Advanced Television Systems Committee’s board of directors.

Matthew Goldman, Ericsson senior vice president of technology at Ericsson and SMPTE president, moderated the Wednesday afternoon session and kicked off the discussion by asking the group to talk about the current status of ATSC 3.0.

“The good news is that the standard has been released and the government has allowed us, on a voluntary basis, to broadcast [ATSC 3.0],” said Friedel. “Things are very exciting in ‘ATSC land.’ It’s really real and you’re going to see it on the air.”

THE ADVANTAGES OF MOVING TO ATSC 3.0

Goldman also quizzed the group about what they considered to be the single best feature of the new standard and if its implementation was related to the on-going TV spectrum repacking operation.

“There are so many features associated with ATSC 3.0, so it’s hard to pick out just one,” said Pizzi. “But in the early term I would say greater transmission efficiency combined with more robustness. It’s going to allow broadcasters to do more in the same amount of spectrum and at the same time provide higher quality.”

“I would say it’s the marriage of broadband and over-the-air broadcasting,” said Friedel. “Consumers will be able to get an internet type of experience combined with television.”

[HPA Tech Retreat Plays to Sold-Out Crowd]

As for the tie-in between ATSC 3.0 and the repack, the panel agreed that while there was no direct connection, the timing of events was such that they could be coordinated in such a way as to provide introduction of 3.0 signals in a market as the channel changing is taking place.

“They’re not really related,” said Siegler. “But the coincidence of the timing is a good opportunity for broadcasters to make changes, including addition of 3.0,” noting that coordination and cooperation between broadcasters would be important elements in making both transitions happen. “It’s really an aggressive plan, but you have to start somewhere.”

MAKING THE TRANSITION HAPPEN

Parks acknowledged the challenges in store for broadcasters in achieving the joint goal of shifting channels and rolling out ATSC 3.0, but observed that there has been a long-standing spirit of technical cooperation among broadcasters, even those who are business competitors.

“The engineering departments in broadcasting have had a traditional role in cooperation,” he said. “Many of us are on the same towers and sometimes there are opportunities to use common antennas.”

He added that as the repack and its relatively short deadline for completion was occupying a lot of engineering time and vendor resources at stations and within station groups, it may be challenging to make the move to ATSC 3.0 at the same time.

“There are a lot of engineering ramifications to the repack,” said Parks. “Sinclair has some 95 stations to repack and this is a really significant effort on-going with the introduction of ATSC 3.0 at the same time. A lot of resources within our group are being expended to run both projects at the same time.

“It is very tricky. The government is taking spectrum away and has sold it, so we’re being repacked in a smaller amount of spectrum and at the same time we’re talking about how to deploy 3.0. The most popular approach put forward is to use channel sharing on one or two ATSC 1.0 sticks. So broadcasters have to cooperate or there will be no service.”

Goldman then asked the panel to comment on new services that ATSC 3.0 would enable for the consumer.

“I’m most excited about interactivity that comes with the broadband connection,” said Siegler. “This allows so much to be done.”

[Redefining Television]

“ATSC 3.0 is based on OFDM, rather than VSB and the associated fragility which 1.0 is based on,” said Parks. “With 3.0 and OFDM, you now have this ability for reception in a car while it’s while traveling at 70, 80, 90 miles-per-hour,” said Parks. The vehicle now is really a big computer and you need to have some way to get broadband to it,” noting ATSC 3.0 would be a big enabler in this regard due to its IP nature.”

“ATSC 3.0 is the first and, so far, the only IP-based TV transmission standard,” said Pizzi. “This could become a real advantage at the end of the day once the transition takes place.”

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

For more information on the repack, visit TV Technology's repack silo.   

WASHINGTON– The Advanced Television Systems Committee honored Skip Pizzi of the National Association of Broadcasters as the 2017 recipient of the organization’s highest technical honor, the Bernard J. Lechner Outstanding Contributor Award. The presentation was made during the 2017 ATSC Next Gen TV Conference at the Ronald Reagan International Trade Center on Wednesday.

“Skip Pizzi is an outstanding leader with remarkable technical and management skills. His enthusiasm and commitment has helped to facilitate the rapid development of the next-generation broadcast television standard,” said ATSC President Mark Richer, pictured at far right, with Pizzi center and ATSC board chairman, Richard Friedel, at left.

Pizzi chairs the Specialist Group on ATSC 3.0 System Requirements and Program Management, which is responsible for consideration of the development of ATSC 3.0 use cases and scenarios. “These scenarios were used as the basis for the system requirements that enabled the development of Technical Standards and Recommended Practices that make up ATSC 3.0,” Richer said.

Pizzi’s Specialist Group was also responsible for review of the TG3 Technology Group’s outputs for adherence to system requirements and for coordinating the ATSC 3.0 development schedule. In addition, that Specialist Group is responsible for drafting the overall ATSC 3.0 “System Standard,” (A/300).

A musician and audio expert, he also played a key role in the development of the ATSC 3.0 audio standard and he served as co-coordinator of the advanced audio system test activities. He also serves as vice-chair of TG3, which has overall oversight for the ATSC 3.0 standard.

Pizzi is the NAB’s vice president of Technology Education and Outreach. His career has spanned the broadcast and new-media industries, with 13 years as an engineer and technology manager at National Public Radio and 11 years in various posts at Microsoft. He also spent seven years as an editor at Broadcast Engineering magazine, and continues as a technology journalist and author. His most recent book is “A Broadcast Engineering Tutorial for Non-Engineers,” 4th edition, and he is an Associate Editor for the "NAB Engineering Handbook," 11th edition, both published by Focal Press.

Pizzi is a graduate of Georgetown University, where he studied Electrical Engineering, International Economics and Fine Arts. 

The Lechner Award is bestowed annually to an individual representative of the ATSC’s membership whose technical and leadership contributions to the ATSC have been invaluable and exemplary. The title of the award recognizes the first recipient in 2000, the late Bernard Lechner, for his outstanding services to the ATSC. The honoree is selected by the ATSC Board of Directors and presented at the ATSC’s spring meeting. Lechner passed away in 2014 after a long career in TV technology.

Recipients of the ATSC Lechner Award:

• 2000 – Bernard Lechner, Consultant
• 2001 – Rich Chernock, Triveni Digital
• 2002 – Regis Crinon, Microsoft
• 2003 – Glenn Adams, Extensible Formatting Systems, Inc
• 2004 – Graham Jones, National Association of Broadcasters
• 2005 – John Henderson, Hitachi
• 2006 – Art Allison, National Association of Broadcasters
• 2007 – Mark Eyer, Sony Electronics
• 2008 – Michael Dolan, TBT
• 2009 – Wayne Bretl, LG Electronics/Zenith
• 2010 – Pat Waddell, Harmonic
• 2011 – Jim Starzynski, NBC Universal
• 2012 – S. Merrill Weiss, MWG Group
• 2013 – Mark Aitken, Sinclair Broadcast Group
• 2014 – James Kutzner, PBS
• 2015 – Luke Fay, Sony
• 2016 - Madeleine Noland, LG Electronics
• 2017 – Skip Pizzi, NAB

WASHINGTON—The future of high resolution is now for Korea, as the country’s broadcasters recently launched a terrestrial UHD television service, the first nation to do so. To congratulate the country on its accomplishment, NAB CEO Gordon Smith, EVP/CTO Sam Matheny, SVP Technology Lynn Claudy and VP of Technology, Education and Outreach Skip Pizzi made the trip to Seoul for the two-day Global UHD Conference that commemorated the launch.

In addition to the UHD terrestrial service, Korea has begun regular broadcasts of the ATSC 3.0 standard. As the U.S. is currently working on ATSC 3.0 itself, Pizzi said that it was beneficial to see the next generation standard in action. Currently multiple Korean broadcasters are delivering ATSC 3.0 services and off-the-shelf consumer displays are able to receive the signal off the air. The NAB quartet took some time on their trip to visit with broadcasters who are in the process of converting to and testing UHD over ATSC 3.0.

Korea previously announced that it plans to broadcast the 2018 Winter Olympic in Pyeongchang in 4K over ATSC 3.0. “We saw a lot of detail on implementation (both on the conference’s exhibit floor and at broadcast facilities we toured), and got a visceral sense of the enormous range of possibilities that ATSC 3.0 offers by observing the wide variety of modes that Korean broadcasters are currently testing in the lab and field,” Pizzi told TV Technology.

Additional information gleaned from the trip was the plan for Korean broadcasters to soon begin creating national and regional single frequency networks (SFNs); the eventual shutdown of HD over ATSC 1.0 services; and the possibility of migrating from T-DMB for mobile TV to ATSC 3.0 services.

Korea will not be resting on its laurels, however. According to Pizzi, once Korea is fully up and running as a terrestrial UHD nation it will begin moving forward on providing 5G TV services. 

For more on this subject, visit our ATSC 3.0 silo.