RALEIGH, N.C.—Capitol Broadcasting Company, Inc. (CBC) has announced that longtime local media leader Heather Gray has been named interim general manager of WRAL-TV (NBC) and WRAZ-TV/FOX 50 (FOX).

Gray, who currently serves as station manager for WRAL-TV, FOX 50, and WILM-TV, will oversee the stations’ strategic operations, including their news, programming, sales, community initiatives, and audience engagement efforts. As station manager, Gray worked alongside Joel Davis, general manager, who will be moving to Philadelphia in mid-March to lead NBCU Local’s Philadelphia operations.

Gray joined WRAL-TV in 2017 as the creative services director and quickly ascended through key leadership positions, including brand director and station manager.

Currently, she oversees audience development, community relations, programming, and local production teams while driving marketing strategies across digital, streaming, and broadcast platforms.

Gray has worked in local media newsrooms for more than three decades across multiple departments including news, marketing, community, sales, and executive leadership. She has also been instrumental in the success of major projects for WRAL, such as WRAL’s Nights of Lights, WRAL’s annual “Coats for the Children” campaign, many fundraising efforts for North Carolina, most recently for Hurricane Helene as well as WRAL productions of both the Raleigh Christmas Parade and Durham Holiday Parade. She serves as the primary point of contact for many of WRAL’s community partnerships.

“Heather is a dynamic and innovative leader who brings deep experience, strategic vision, and a strong commitment to local journalism and community service,” said Jimmy Goodmon, CEO and president of Capitol Broadcasting Company. “Her leadership has been pivotal in WRAL’s continued success, and we are confident that she will guide us forward during this transition.”

Before joining Capitol Broadcasting, Gray held leadership roles at 12 News/KPNX (Gannett/TEGNA), worked in the newsrooms for First Coast News in Jacksonville, FL (NBC/ABC duopoly - Gannett), KCRA-TV (NBC-Hearst), Good Day Sacramento (then WB/Paramount) in Sacramento, CA, and KHSL-TV (CBS) in Chico, CA. She is widely respected for her ability to blend journalistic integrity with creative audience engagement strategies.

Gray currently serves on the board for United Arts of Wake County and recently joined the board for the Local Media Association.

Heather graduated with honors from California State University, Chico, with a BA in Communications, Media Arts. She lives in Cary, NC, with her husband, and two adult children, one a recent graduate of North Carolina State University, the other currently a student.

RALEIGH, N.C.—WRAL-TV today named Mike Friedrich, a 20-year television news veteran, as its new news director, effective in May.

He will be responsible for leading WRAL News content teams across all platforms, including WRAL-TV, Fox 50, WRAL News+ (WNGT) and wral.com as well as news content on all streaming platforms and FAST channels, WRAL owner Capitol Broadcasting Company (CBC) said.

Currently, Friedrich leads the news team at KUTV, the Sinclair-owned CBS affiliate in Salt Lake City. While at KUTV, he led the station’s news to ratings improvements—No. 1 in both the morning and late news time slots and tighten the station’s standing with a legacy competitor at 6 p.m. it said.

The station saw the greatest share growth in the Salt Lake City market during his tenure. Friedrich also spearheaded growth on KUTV digital and social platforms, including a 143% subscriber increase on KUTV’s YouTube page, it said.

"I am honored to join one of the nation's most respected news teams, serving Raleigh, Durham, Fayetteville, and the surrounding communities across North Carolina," said Friedrich. "I consider WRAL to be on the Mount Rushmore of content centers. Their commitment to covering stories important to the Triangle and its dedication to showcasing what makes North Carolina unique and special is unmatched in the nation."

Friedrich will take over from 19-year news veteran Rick Gail, who announced he was retiring earlier this year. 

He previously held management roles in Washington, D.C., Houston and Baltimore. He also served as a Public Affairs Specialist and team lead at the U.S. Census Bureau’s Public Information Office.

“We are thrilled with the addition of Mike to the WRAL family. As a proven leader in local news, we know his guidance and leadership will be a great fit in maintaining and growing the diversified WRAL News products,” said WRAL and Fox 50 vice president and general manager Joel Davis.

More information is available on the station’s website. 

RALEIGH, N.C.—Capitol Broadcasting’s WRAL has launched a new 24/7 local streaming news channel, WRAL News+. 

The company has also built a new streaming studio for the service.  

The WRAL News+ streaming channel simulcasts WRAL News throughout the day and provides unique content and updates from journalists who work for WRAL News+, WRAL reported on its website. 

The new WRAL News + channel is also available to both streaming audiences and radio audiences.

Users can access the channel via: 

• WRAL connected TV Apps for Roku, Apple TV, Fire TV, Samsung Smart TVs.
• The radio at 99.3 in Raleigh, 96.5 in Durham, and everywhere in the Triangle on 101.5 HD3.
• WRAL.com by clicking on “WRAL News+” to watch or “Listen Live” to get the audio-only stream.
• The WRAL News mobile app by clicking “watch live” right at the top of the homepage of the app.
• Users can also stream audio of WRAL News+ free from the WRAL News app or by going to wralnewsradio.com. 
• Users can also find the news radio stream link on wral.com.

RALEIGH, N.C.—As a fast growing urban center not far from the Atlantic coast, the Raleigh-Durham, N.C., area has seen its share of natural disasters, including Hurricane Dorian last fall. So it’s not unusual for WRAL-TV, the Capitol Broadcasting Company-owned NBC affiliate to be prepared for the unexpected. 

Preparing for the coronavirus pandemic, however, prompted a longer-term technical challenge, though, as news crews, anchors and managers had to quickly arrange for in-home broadcasting as well as keep their employees safe in a situation that sees no immediate end in sight. 

“We realized early on that we needed to act quickly and decisively and our primary focus was how we could distance key personnel from the newsroom,” said Leesa Moore, director of news operations and special projects for WRAL-TV. “That was our primary focus.”

Of the 151 employees, managers had to first determine what was the minimum number of staff who could remain at the station and who was able to broadcast from home. 

“Right off the start, we identified personnel who we knew were outfitted to work from home,” Moore said.  “We needed to make sure that any staff working in the field were well equipped to do their job safely, but they were not going to come back in the building.

“I think we went about it as systematically as you could and I did document dayparts and jobs, so we have a spreadsheet of who is allowed where and when,” she added. “How we determine who is in the building is not number driven but rather shift driven.” 

Remote production is not new and in this age of file-based workflows and working in an IP and cloud environment, the process of home setups was more about expanding capabilities and ensuring reliability, according to Tony Gupton, technical project coordinator for WRAL.

“We have a lot of the technology, we just needed to learn how to use it in a bigger fashion—we're talking IFBs, LiveUs, frame syncs coming into the control room, that sort of thing,” Gupton said. “I had to separate our reporters and photographers and figure out how they were going to go about working in tandem without being in close physical contact 8-10 hours a day.”

The station’s master control is “state of the art,” according to Moore, so social distancing was not as much of an issue. 

“We closed entry to that room so it is only essential personnel, and we've given people pretty strict instructions on how they should enter and leave their workspace,” she said. “We just built a new news set, so thankfully that has really served that purpose well. Anchors are no more than 6 feet in proximity, even on the set.”

Gupton was responsible for setting up home studios for reporters and anchors, which created its own set of challenges.   

“The idea was to build them a studio that was user friendly—something that you didn't need to have an entire crew or control room to put on the air,” Gupton said. “Anchors are interacting with reporters, meteorologists need to see their weather maps from their home, so we needed an in-home setup that was robust and durable enough to last three to four hours at a time, when you start thinking about batteries, bandwidth things like that.” 

For ENG crews in the field as well, protection was a priority. Crews are given survival kits including sanitizer wipes, microphone covers and boom extensions to keep reporters and subjects at least 6 feet apart.  

“As the pandemic progressed, we added additional measures in terms of distancing,” Moore said. “Perception is a big part of this too. If the viewer doesn’t think you're practicing what you're preaching, they will call you out and they’ll say, ‘what part of social distancing does your crew not understand?’

“So we not only had to be duly diligent in making sure our people are protected  but we're also protecting our viewers,” she added. 

Ensuring a reliable connection with an in-home studio is vital to keeping viewers informed. Gupton says they’ve done well so far. 

“We're LiveU customers, so we're using the combination of cell modems and in some cases, when I go into the anchor's homes and realize that their home network is stable enough and good enough, then we can use some units that don’t require cells,” he said. “So it's kind of half and half—it depends on their own home network and how reliable it is, but so far, we have figured that out and gotten the right combination of units in the right homes. Knock on wood, everything is running very, very smooth.” 

Has the experience of the past month and a half prompted the station to think about how news reporting will change in the future?

“I think on the back side of this, there could be some changes,” Gupton said. “Could we have done this five years ago? Probably not, we were still running satellite trucks. What will we do in the future when this dies down? It could change some of the way we do some things. I'm not sure.”

With 11 hours of news to produce daily, Moore thinks the station’s response has helped bring them closer to their viewers. 

PLUS: Maintaining 'Broadcast Quality' During Coronavirus

“We started producing nightly specials at 7:00 called ‘Facts Not Fear,’ and we started telling viewers early on, you can trust us, we're going to give you the facts, we're not going to try and invoke fear,” she said. “And I think it really paid off, if they don’t think we’re ‘walking the walk,’  they call us out on it. And we answer every single email personally.

“When issues arise or our employees have questions or concerns, they’re addressed immediately, because they are the backbone of what we do and if we show any type of hesitation or unease on air, that’s going to translate to our viewers,” Moore added. “So we need to make sure everyone is comfortable with the new expectations and I think we're pretty much there.”

WASHINGTON—Real-world deployment and testing of the ATSC 3.0 Next Gen TV standard was front and center at the Advanced Television Systems Committee Annual Meeting here yesterday (May 23) with reports from Pearl TV, Sinclair Broadcast Group, Capitol Broadcasting, NAB and public broadcasting.

The first session of the day, “Reports from the Road” moderated by Tom Butts, content director of TV Technology, demonstrated for the sold-out event just how far Next-Gen TV has come over the past few years.

“The last two years, we’ve had the [3.0] transmission going…,” said Peter Sockett, director of engineering and operations at Capitol Broadcasting Company, owner of WRAL-TV in Raleigh-Durham, N.C., during the session. “I looked at this entire [3.0] ecosystem, and it worked,” he said, recalling a special Next-Gen TV demonstration CBC made in February of 4K UHD HDR from NBCOlympics’ coverage of the Winter Games transmitted over the air via 3.0.

[Read: WRAL-TV Showcases Next Gen TV’s Potential]

“It all just played. It worked as you’d expect…. We are actually beyond the whole cliché of 'crawl before you walk; walk before you run.' We are beyond crawl.”

The session began with a presentation by Anne Schelle, managing director of Pearl TV, about the ongoing 3.0 model market project the station consortium is leading in Phoenix. Twelve broadcasters are participating in the project, which among other things seeks to give broadcasters “a place to develop a common framework that will be needed for an end-to-end system in a basic [Next-Gen] TV service to be finally commercialized,” said Schelle during her presentation.

“You’ve got this 10,000-plus-odd page standard,” she said. “There are a lot of great capabilities that broadcasters can bring to the marketplace, but where do you start, and how do you think about the consumer in all of this?”

One place is with the cooperation of competitive stations in the market in the form of channel sharing as a means to protect legacy DTV viewers while freeing up spectrum for Next-Gen TV service.

In Phoenix, that has meant KNXV-TV, KPNX and KTVW, owned by Scripps, TEGNA and Univision, respectively, making room for KFPH-CD’s Escape, Get, and Unimas 1.0 services to free up KFPH-CD to serve as the first 3.0 stick in the market.

KFPH-CD, which lit up with 3.0 service April 6, is serving as an open, collaborative testbed for the consumer electronics community, the vendors building out the Next-Gen transmission system, broadcasters and consumers, she said.

[Read: Phoenix Model Market Launches Next Gen TV Broadcasts]

Phoenix broadcasters will cycle through KFPH-CD to gain their own experience with 3.0. The plan is to put a second 3.0 stick on air in November, she said.

Last week, FCC Commissioner Michael O’Rielly visited Phoenix to see the model market at work for himself. Next-Gen TVs from LG, Samsung and Sony were used to receive a 3.0 1080p HDR signal for the demo, she said, adding that Dolby AC-4 audio and advanced emergency alerting were demonstrated. 

Consumer labs are being set up in the market to get feedback from viewers on Next Gen TV service, many of which will go online later this year; however, as viewers have learned of the 3.0 rollout through mandated public notifications, many have already expressed interest in receiving Next-Gen TV, Schelle said.

Mark Aitken, vice president of Advanced Technology at Sinclair Broadcast Group, updated the meeting on the company’s deployment of a 3.0 single frequency network in Dallas.

“It’s a lot more than an SFN project,” he said. “Baltimore, in fact, was the first SFN project.”

Some of the knowledge gained from that project was on display in the lobby of the Ronald Reagan Building where the ATSC Annual meeting is being held, including a demo of SHVC being delivered over the air, he pointed out.

However, the Dallas SFN deployment of 3.0 is the beginning of Sinclair’s nationwide rollout of Next Gen TV, he said. But before the Sinclair deployment began –or any other SFN rollout for that matter starts—it is imperative for broadcasters to answer a single question. “Why are you doing this?” said Aitken. “If you answer the why you can start to figure out what it is you need [in terms of technology] to answer the why.”

[Read: Q&A: Mark Aitken On Dallas Next-Gen SFN Trial]

In Sinclair’s case, the answer centers on the station group’s desire “to address all device types of the future –not just the ones we have in hand today,” said Aitken. Those include automotive and deep indoor, thus all of the devices need to have sufficient RF saturation. “If you haven’t got signal level, you haven’t got anything,” he said.

Sinclair is using the Dallas deployment to develop a rollout strategy that leverages tower resources as they are, not as they ideally could be, he said. That means Sinclair is using an existing 1,000-foot TV tower, a 400-foot TV tower and a former AT&T microwave replay tower for its SFN sites.

“The fact is in many cases you are building to what exists,” said Aitken. “So the question is how do you get around the encumbrances.”

As Sinclair deploys its SFNs around the country, Spectrum Co is going to roll out with a minimum of two ATSC 3.0 Next-Gen TV stations in each market. “The reason is, frankly, we need capacity to invite people in to do the experimenting. Not just to do television but to do all the other things that are possible with the standard,” said Aitken.

Quoting Nexstar President and CEO Perry Sook, Aitken said: “It’s really about monetizing underutilized spectrum.”

NAB Senior Vice President of Technology Lynn Claudy reported on 3.0 tests conducted in February and March in Cleveland at WJW. NAB and CTA have partnered with the Tribune station to create an independent facility for broadcasters and vendors to test ideas and prototypes of 3.0 technology.

The 3.0 field testing conducted from Channel 31’s 1,000-foot tower delivering slightly over 400kW ERP might best be summed up with a spin on the business aphorism: "You can have it good, fast and cheap. Pick two," said Claudy.

In the case of Next-Gen TV from a single high-power stick, broadcasters can have two of these three: a high data rate, very robust reception and robust reception throughout the entire market, said Claudy. “If you want to get all three, you need to begin thinking differently –maybe an SFN to do that,” he said.

For the Cleveland test, Claudy’s team took 800 field strength measurements at 100 sites in the market. Four different PLPs that were time division multiplexed were used to look at different data rates with different levels of robustness, he said.

[Read: NAB-CTA Team On ATSC 3.0 Test Lab]

An antenna affixed to a 30-foot telescopic mast mounted on a van was used together with receiver and monitoring technology from South Korea's ETRI to take readings when fully extended and at the roof level of the van at 12 feet.

On the high data throughput end of the continuum was a 256 QAM modulated signal supporting 28Mb/s. On the highly robust end was 16 QAM delivering 4Mb/s. Two modes in the middle were used –one to emulate an ATSC 1 data rate and the other for a handheld mode, said Claudy. As would be expected, the less robust modes were less successful in terms of service availability, he said.

Claudy also addressed what it takes to get 3.0 on the air today. Broadcasters still can’t simply go through a catalog, buy what’s needed and get it running. That will be “bumpy,” he said.

While that observation on the surface may appear to be at odds with Sockett’s characterization of the 3.0 ecosystem, even CBC’s OTA demo of the Winter Olympics required a degree of handholding from the vendor community –specifically when it came to deployment of Dolby AC-4 audio.

Since the PyeongChang 4K UHD coverage, CBC has been running 4K UHD content from NASA TV, said Sockett during his presentation.

Besides its PLP 1 LDM enhanced layer used to transmit a 20Mb/s payload with 22dB SNR, CBC is using PLP 0 for a highly robust core layer delivery with 4.5Mb/s throughput at just under 3dB SNR, he said.

Used for mobile delivery, PLP 0 transmits content to Sockett “on the way home driving at posted speed limits plus maybe nine,” he said to chuckles from the audience.

Sockett also mentioned a recent success for ATSC 3.0 in North Carolina where first responders are beginning to provide emergency information that can be parsed into 3.0.

The session wrapped up with Prabu David, Dean of the College of Communications Arts and Sciences at Michigan State University, where WKAR is expected to deploy 3.0 this fall; and Marc Hand of the Public Media Venture Group, a consortium of 25 public media entities, that has been created to address 3.0.

“This is a group of stations that is very bullish on ATSC 3.0,” said Hand. The Public Media Venture Group is looking at the Next Gen TV standard in the context of education, emergency alerting and exploration of a range of partnerships, including how to work with commercial stations.

At Michigan State and WKAR, the focus will be on exploring “opportunities for creating interactive content to really tell a compelling story,” said David. MSU researchers from the fields of engineering, social science, medicine and automotive will contribute to the effort, he added.

RALEIGH, N.C.—There will be a new way for North Carolina high school football fans to experience their teams, as Capitol Broadcasting Company has announced it is launching “HighSchoolOT Live,” a weekly, live streamed show that will provide footage of multiple football games from across the region.

“HighSchoolOT Live” will feature a Game of the Week that will offer a multi-camera production, graphics, and game commentary from HighSchoolOT.com Senior Editor Nick Stevens and former high school football coach Wayne Bragg. The in-studio “HighSchoolOT Live” production will offer in-game updates from five other games that week.

Starting Aug. 19, “HighSchoolOT Live” will air every Friday during the regular season from 6:55 p.m. to at least 10 p.m. Fans will be able to see the show on HighSchoolOT.com, HighSchoolOT.com mobile apps, and WRAL OTT apps for Roku and Amazon Fire TV. Audio from the show will be streamed on WCMC-FM 99.9 The Fan. 

WRAL’s new antenna for broadcasting
in ATSC 3.0 on Channel 39.RALEIGH, N.C.—WRAL, the NBC affiliate in Raleigh-Durham owned by TV pioneer Capitol Broadcasting Co., started transmitting high dynamic range 4K content over an ATSC 3.0 signal in late June. ATSC 3.0 is the broadcast TV transmission standard now in development at the Advanced Television Systems Committee that promises the type of features and functionality available via broadband, as well as handling 4K and other advanced video and audio features.

Here, Pete Sockett, director of engineering and operations for WRAL, answers some crowd-sourced questions about the 3.0 broadcast and how the station intends to transition to the format. He opened by giving a shout-out to WRAL’s equipment suppliers, including ERI, GatesAir, Harmonic, Keepixo, LG Electronics, Meintel, Sgrignoli & Wallace, Monroe Electronics and Triveni Digital.

Sockett:I’d like to start by thanking all of our vendor partners that have held our hand through all of this, and the ATSC TG-3 membership as a whole. All we’ve done here in Raleigh is pull together the sum of everyone’s work. Thank you to all.

TV Technology: What have you learned so far?
Sockett: That this is still truly a science fair experiment. There are so many moving parts that are still up in the air, and that there are so many people in the ATSC that are far smarter than I will ever be! Also, it’s been pleasantly surprising to me how many of “IP-based” tools that we’ve been using for years are useful in 3.0 (i.e. Wireshark, VLC etc.).

WRAL’s “Channel 39 Club,” the team that helped
light up the ATSC 3.0 broadcast on Channel 39.
TV Technology: Will you continue to broadcast this signal full time?
Sockett: Absolutely.

TV Technology: How does the coverage area of the experimental signal compare to the station’s primary signal coverage area?
Sockett: Not sure yet… we don’t have a portable demodulator to be able to perform any tests. We are currently working on a plan to get one, but that’s a few weeks out. For what it’s worth, the RF waveform on a spectrum analyzer looks very promising so far!

TV Technology: Describe the physical system configuration and how it's laid out in your facility. What did you have to add?

WRAL’s circa 1996 encoder/decoder.
Sockett: We had to add most everything. Currently it’s all located at the transmitter site.
We convert WRAL to 1080p (Teranex)
HVEC encoder (Harmonic)
Route Encoder (Keepixo)
Signaling and Announcement and Route Encoding (Triveni)
Exciter and transmitter (Gates Air)
Mask filter and Antenna – (Electronics Research Inc), and…
We borrowed a TV with the ATSC 3.0 Receiver from LG

TV Technology: Will you do native SDR and convert or HDR and down convert to SDR? Using what method?

WRAL camera operator Terry Cantrell doing a live shot
with anchor Brian Shrader on the ground-breaking broadcast.Sockett: It’s too early to tell for sure, there is still a lot to learn in this arena. My gut tells me that we will ultimately produce everything in HDR and create the best pictures possible.

TV Technology: Which HDR format did you use and why?
Sockett: HDR-10. Two summers ago, when we shot the “Take Me Out to the Bulls Game” documentary, we recorded in Sony RAW / S-LOG3 (before you ask, it was shot on a Sony F55). So to prepare for airing this time, we graded it to 1,000 nits. The Harmonic encoder could signal the HDR 10 in the SEI metadata. We got lucky on that part.

TV Technology: What audio format are you using, AC-4 or MPEG-H AA?
Sockett: We started with AC-4, but realized the LG set needed AAC, so we switched modes. Long term, we will follow the ATSC recommendation for AC-4.

Jim Goodmon, Jr., vice president and general manager
of Capitol Broadcasting Co.
TV Technology: What encoder is being used?
Sockett: Harmonic Vibe 4k

TV Technology: What was the transmitted bit rate, did the WRAL test/demo involve LDM?
Sockett: Approximately 25Mbps. We did not do any LDM testing.

TV Technology: Is there any part of the ATSC 3.0 standard that is not finished that is affecting how you conduct the experimental broadcasts?
Sockett: No yet, we are still crawling before we run, so we haven’t hit any limits so far.

Members of WRAL’s Channel 39 Club, l to r: Dave Catapano of Triveni,
Nick Paulin of ERI, Joe Seccia of GatesAir and Matt Brandes of WRAL.
TV Technology: WRAL is using an experimental license to broadcast this signal on Ch. 39. Will you be able to learn anything that will help create the framework for simulcasting?
Sockett: We expect to learn a lot! Of course our friends at Sinclair are blazing that trail for all of us as we speak!

TV Technology: Are you intending to do live production and what camera would you use?

More members of WRAL’s Channel 39 Club, l to r: Mark Voorhees of
GatesAir, Mike Mory of WRAL, Joe Seccia of GatesAir, Dave Catapao
of Triveni, Sean Devine of Triveni and Matt Brandes (in the back), WRALSockett: I assume you mean in UHD? If so, yes, but not sure when...

TV Technology: What is WRAL’s plan for procuring additional receivers?
Sockett: We are currently working with a couple of vendors on that. In reality, time will take care of it.

TV Technology: Does the station have any other 4K content that it intends to broadcast? Can it do a 4K news broadcast or other station-generated content?
Sockett: We plan on airing the NBC 4K content from the Olympics… We’re very excited about that!
Long term, we have been producing a local show, “Out and About,” in 4K-SDR since January of this year, and will be producing all new WRAL documentaries in 4K HDR going forward.

TV Technology: Does WRAL expect any visits from the FCC or congress to see how the system works?
Sockett: No plans currently, but they are always more than welcome to come visit. We’d love to show them this great new technology!

TV Technology: How and when do you plan to make the transition from ATSC 1.0 to 3.0? Is WRAL exploring channel-sharing as a transition option?
Sockett: We will begin the transition as soon as it makes sense to do so. Of course will evaluate all options to make sure it goes as smooth as possible.

For more, check our ATSC 3.0 silo.

Also see…
July 26, 2016
“Transmitter Sites: Things to Consider for ATSC 3.0”
Many stations will replace transmitters, RF systems, line and antennas as part of the channel repack after the incentive auction and it makes sense to select gear that will work for ATSC 3.0.

July 20, 2016
“20 Years Later, WRAL Is Still a Broadcast Pioneer”
The year 1996 was a landmark one for broadcasters in the United States. In that year, the federal government revamped the rules governing the industry with the Telecommunications Act of 1996. It was also the year that the HDTV era was launched in the United States when WRAL-TV in Raleigh, N.C. commenced HDTV broadcasts in July; and it concluded with the FCC’s approval of the ATSC DTV standard at the end of the year.

July 13, 2016
“ATSC 3.0 Document Status”
ATSC 3.0 will be a suite of about 20 separate standards

June 29, 2016
“WRAL Lights Up ATSC 3.0 4K Signal”
WRAL-TV plans to use it to provide a deep offering of on-demand content, access to multiple sources of video to enhance linear viewing, and a number of other 24/7 streams of TV and radio programming, representing the marriage of broadcasting and broadband.

The year 1996 was a landmark one for broadcasters in the United States. In that year, the federal government revamped the rules governing the industry with the Telecommunications Act of 1996. It was also the year that the HDTV era was launched in the United States when WRAL-TV in Raleigh, N.C. commenced HDTV broadcasts in July; and it concluded with the FCC’s approval of the ATSC DTV standard at the end of the year. On their own, these were momentous events; in the aggregate, they represented a series of milestones that have influenced the industry ever since.

WRAL Reporter Brian Schrader introduces ATSC 3.0 to Raleigh viewers. That path to digital television was a rocky one, however. The rollout suffered from a lack of content and skepticism on both sides of the aisle; consumers were lukewarm about the cost of HDTV sets (with little to no HD to watch) and broadcasters were skeptical about the costs of transitioning to new technology. There was market confusion over what constituted “DTV” and “HDTV” and the fact that the two were not interchangeable. What drove the move to DTV was a government-mandated transition to digital; with HD being the “icing on the cake.”

Despite such skepticism, some early pioneers took the plunge, most notably WRAL. In the summer of 1996, when the station began broadcasting in HD, there was no approved DTV standard yet, little to no HD content to watch and much of the technology to produce and transmit in digital had yet to be developed. “A TV station will have to completely rebuild,” the station’s chief engineer Tom Beauchamp told TV Technology at the time, adding that “there are a lot of unknowns.”

Perhaps it’s appropriate then that 20 years later—almost to the month—WRAL again made industry headlines with the launch of the nation’s first commercial ATSC 3.0 broadcasts. Operating on Channel 39 under an experimental license from the FCC, the official launch began on June 29, with a WRAL News at Noon newscast and a simultaneous second channel broadcasting a sports documentary shot, edited and posted in 4K/UHD HDR.

The Capitol Broadcasting Corporation-owned station said it planned to use ATSC 3.0 to showcase the capabilities of next-gen TV, including on-demand content, access to multiple sources of video to enhance linear viewing and a number of other 24/7 streams of TV and radio programming in a representation of what it terms “the marriage of broadcasting and broadband.”

WRAL is relying on a number of forward thinking technology vendors including ERI, GatesAir, Harmonic, LG and Triveni Digital to develop and test new ATSC gear. “We will be broadcasting throughout Raleigh and Durham, N.C. and performing test measurements to learn about the characteristics of this new delivery platform,” said CBC Director of Engineering and Operations Pete Socket. “We will share this information with fellow broadcasters and equipment manufacturers to test their new designs in the real world.”

The NAB, along with several broadcast groups are urging the FCC to approve use of the ATSC 3.0 standard by Oct. 1. Coupled with WRAL’s test launch, we’re seeing a rapid move towards real implementation. Where it goes after that will depend on a number of factors, both within and out of our control, but with pioneering broadcasters like WRAL—who continue to demonstrate their technology leadership throughout the past two decades—the chances for success are that much greater.

CINCINNATI—WRAL-TV in Raleigh-Durham launched the first ATSC 3.0 simulcast earlier this week, utilizing GatesAir’s Maxiva transmitter. Designed for ATSC 3.0 content delivery, the Maxiva includes a 7kW ULXT liquid-cooled UHF transmitter and its XTE exciter.

Maxiva in WRAL's transmitter room

The Maxiva ULXT features the latest PowerSmart Plus transmitter architecture and ultra-efficient liquid cooling, integrates next-generation LDMOS power amplifiers for reduced power consumption and transmitter footprint, and supports AC to RF efficiency. The Maxiva XTE exciter provides advanced signal processing, throughput and IP capabilities to deliver ATSC 3.0 signals and data, including emergency alerts, to fixed mobile devices.

WRAL, in working with GatesAir and other vendors, will share findings from the project to refine the end-to-end architecture.

RALEIGH, N.C.—WRAL is offering its viewers more opportunities to stream live newscasts, events and other on-demand content by announcing it has upgraded its OTT Roku app and adding its first app to Amazon Fire TV.

These new versions of WRAL’s app adds additional content than just live newscasts, including Carolina Railhawks soccer games, legislative hearings and trials, weather forecasts, DualDoppler 5000 radar, WRAL documentaries, Tar Heel Traveler and Restaurant Ratings. WRAL’s OTT apps are feed-based, allowing for content updates as video is published. It is also integrated with Google’s DoubleClick for Publishers to work with video ads.

WRAL says that future updates will incorporate search functionality in addition to more streaming content.

The broadcaster also announced that it will launch its app on Apple TV later in the summer.

RALEIGH, N.C.—Capital Broadcasting Company has announced that it has upgraded its WRAL News app to deliver content to the Apple Watch. Users of the app can now get breaking news, headlines, the DUALDoppler 5000 radar, and seven-day and hourly weather forecast on the smartwatch.

The ability to use the WRAL News app on the Apple Watch is available through an update that is free for all iOS users. The app will only work on Apple watchOS 2.

CBC also announced that WRAL News is also accessible on Apple News for iOS 9 users. Users can add WRAL News into the aggregating news app feed and favorites.

WRAL News and other WRAL apps can be found through the app store and on the WRAL.com mobile download page.

NEWPORT BEACH, CALIF. – Raleigh, N.C. station WRAL has added Bitcentral’s CORE:news program to help with its news programming. CORE:news is a news production, media management, media collaboration and archiving system that provides a unified story-based workflow that enables video capture/encoding, editing, playout management, digital publishing and archiving of assets. Content can be shared across platforms via CORE:news from anywhere with a Wi-Fi connection. Bitcentral is a provider of news production, distribution and aggregation systems headquartered in Newport Beach, Calif.