SAN JOSE, Calif.—Harmonic has announced that WRC Promoter GmbH has deployed Harmonic's VOS360 Media SaaS for playout and streaming of live sports events.

WRC Promoter is the company responsible for TV production and commercial aspects of the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC), FIA European Rally Championship (ERC) and FIA World Rallycross Championship (World RX).

"The WRC fan base is growing, and our goal is to maximize our viewership," said Philipp Maenner, WRC Promoter's senior director of media rights. "Harmonic's VOS360 Media SaaS streamlines the playout and delivery of live events and linear channels, helping us expand our video streaming service. With Harmonic's VOS360 SaaS, we can deliver video to new affiliates on the fly, broadening our global footprint."

Using VOS360 Media SaaS, WRC Promoter successfully launched Rally.TV, a new linear channel, and consolidated multiple apps (WRC, ERC, World RX) into a single platform. VOS360 SaaS is deployed in a geo-redundant configuration, assuring the highest service availability. Real-time scaling and geo-redundancy features on VOS360 SaaS enable WRC Promoter to stream sports events reliably and at scale, with pristine video quality, Harmonic reported. 

"Our VOS360 Media SaaS powers streaming for many of the world's top sports events, and we're excited to help WRC Promoter achieve unparalleled scalability, reliability and quality," said Gil Rudge, senior vice president, video products and solutions at Harmonic. "With VOS360 SaaS, WRC Promoter can tap into the efficiencies of the cloud and utilize the same playout feed for delivery to consumers and affiliates, bringing exceptional-quality live sports streaming to more than 250 million motorsport fans."

Harmonic will demonstrate its latest innovations in streaming and broadcast delivery at IBC2023, Sept. 15-18 in Amsterdam. To schedule a meeting with Harmonic in stand 1.B20, visit https://info.harmonicinc.com/ibc. Further information about Harmonic and the company's solutions is available at www.harmonicinc.com. 

With worldwide broadcast standards now combining traditional over-the-air terrestrial television with Internet Protocol, the ATSC is working on ensuring ATSC 3.0 and other digital terrestrial television (DTT) standards are part of a global wireless ecosystem that includes cellular standards such as LTE/5G as well as Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.

The U.S. based standards committee has released a white paper on its campaign to remind decisionmakers of the value, ubiquity and robustness of advanced broadcast standards such as 3.0 and DVB, the dominant broadcast standard in Europe. 

“The paper is a very public statement from the ATSC that basically expresses a strong desire to work closely with other digital terrestrial television standards development organizations in an effort to look at where technology can be converged and work on developing a unified voice on the world stage for broadcasting,” said Madeleine Noland, president of ATSC.

'Codifying a Shift'
Since there has never been a global terrestrial television format, DVB, ATSC and others have, in the past, been looked upon as competitors when promoting adoption worldwide. Such competitiveness is no longer the case, however, when broadcasting has become viewed by some as yesterday's wireless technology in a world now dominated by IP data streamed over cellular networks. But now with IP protocol part of worldwide broadcast standards, a new "data pipe" available via over the air broadcast brings with it a whole new set of opportunities. 

It’s important for broadcasters to continue to remind worldwide standards bodies of the relevancy of broadcasting, which brings the efficiency of the "many to one" broadcast model vs. "one to one" unicast, characteristic of the IP model. This is especially so in an environment where the spectrum currently used by broadcasters is coveted by wireless providers.   

“Broadcasters worldwide are facing challenges with the advent of new media consumption but we're facing new opportunities together with the notion that you can now deliver IP data over your broadcast network,” Noland said. “Broadcasters worldwide can work together to develop some of these opportunities that will benefit everybody. This paper is codifying a shift that's already been taking place between what would appear to have been a very competitive landscape in the past.”

Along with recognizing the value of broadcasters’ traditional ties to their local communities, there are also the technical advantages that broadcasting brings to the table, something that has been proven time and again during weather-related emergencies.   

“Broadcasters share a common infrastructure design, largely anchored by high power, high tower (HPHT) transmission facilities,” the ATSC said in its paper. “This infrastructure is often among the most resilient, designed to withstand natural disasters so that information can be transmitted when it is most needed.”

Ongoing Efforts
The ATSC plans to discuss its proposals with an eye towards the ITU World Radiocommunication Conference 2023 in November. The work towards converging worldwide broadcast standards has been ongoing for more than a decade, according to the ATSC.

“The effort to forge a next-generation broadcast standard that encompasses all the major standards development organizations (SDOs) dates back over 10 years,” starting with the Future of Broadcast Television (FOBTV) Summit in November 2011 in Shanghai, the association said. “The initial goal of FOBTV to foster work on a best-of-the-best next-generation television system has not been realized to date, but since its formation the group has served as a forum for communication and exploration of new technologies and ongoing efforts underway within the various SDOs.”

One of the keys for tying broadcast technology into other wireless formats is through the development of a "broadcast core network"  that is agnostic to the DTT system, a concept ATSC is working on.

The broadcast core network "is being designed for standalone, broadcast-only operation and/or for converged operation with other data delivery networks, e.g., 802.11, 5G, LTE, 3G, SMPTE 2110, CBRS, Satellite (LEO-MEO-GEO), LoRA, IoT, etc.," the ATSC said. 

"BCN will accommodate cases where an uplink is always available, never available, or sometimes available. The goal of the BCN is to enable broadcasters to offer regional data delivery services, such as software updates to game consoles, recall updates to managed automobile fleets, and more. Among these use cases is redundant or enhanced GPS signaling (eGPS)."

This convergence of worldwide broadcast standards with 3GPP (aka “3rd Generation Partnership Project,” an umbrella term for a number of standards organizations which develop protocols for mobile telecommunications) could bring to reality a scenario in which cellular and broadcast protocols could work together in ensuring consumers are always using the most robust and reliable wireless reception available. 

However, broadcasters will have to unite behind a common goal to make DTT an essential part of a global telecommunications ecosystem first, the organization warned. 

“DTT broadcasters are operating in a global ecosystem of data delivery networks,” the ATSC said. “Data session steering, switching, and sharing across heterogeneous networks can improve spectrum usage efficiency by using the most appropriate network(s) for each given data session in a dynamic fashion. Indeed, 3GPP envisions a 5G ecosystem of heterogeneous global data networks. Next-generation DTT systems are the most efficient physical layers for one to-many data delivery in the world—for TV and non-TV uses, and for fixed and mobile uses. 

“This technology edge can be leveraged for convergence with other data delivery networks, e.g., the Internet and LTE/5G, but fragmentation creates a fundamental barrier to including DTT in this heterogeneous ecosystem,” the ATSC continued. “As a means of more than just survival, the more exciting potential for this segment is to integrate the next generation digital transmission technologies into the generalized convergence. Convergence among the major DTT technologies would facilitate convergence with other networks (and may be necessary for long-term success).”

Richard Friedel, chairman of the ATSC, said broadcasters were approached by 3GPP to develop a plan for such a convergence. “This was an initiative on their part,” he said. “So that means they're interested enough that they're going to try to make something happen.”

Friedel added that with concerns over spectrum efficiency and sustainability, the strength of broadcast technology becomes more evident than ever. “The absolute lowest cost of delivery of a bit of information to consumers is through a broadcast methodology,” he said.

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND—The international body governing global spectrum treaties has affirmed the reservation of UHF channels for broadcasting across Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Russia and neighboring nations. In making way for mobile broadband, the World Radiocommunication Conference last week voted to reserve 470-694 MHz (U.S. Chs. 14-51) for broadcasting.

“Representatives reached a consensus that this spectrum, currently used by broadcast services such as digital terrestrial TV and radio microphones, is too important to be allocated to mobile services,” said a statement from the European Broadcasting Union in Geneva, Switzerland.

The World Radiocommunication Conference is an ad hoc body of the International Telecommunications Union that meets every three to four years to review regulations covering radio frequency spectrum and satellite orbits, and revise them when necessary. Around 3,300 participants from 162 of the ITU’s 193 member states attended the four week conference, which concluded Nov. 27. More than 40 items involving spectrum allocation for mobile broadband, ham radio, emergency communications, satellite transmissions, maritime and aeronautical radio and more were discussed.

Revisions were made to allow mobile broadband services in L-band (1,427-1,518 MHz) and C-band (3.4-3.6 Ghz) spectrum, with studies to be done to identify frequencies at 6 GHz and above that would be suitable for wireless broadband.

Further revisions opened up the spectrum between 694 and 790 MHz (U.S. Chs. 52-67) to mobile broadband, with “full protection… [for] television broadcasting as well as to the aeronautical radionavigation systems operating in this frequency band,” according to the WRC’s summary of the meeting’s outcome. (In the United States, these channels were redesignated for mobile broadband and auctioned off in 2008.)

Other revisions included a new allocation for amateur radio in the 5 GHz band, more frequencies between 694-894 MHz for emergency communications, and greater protections for search-and-rescue operations on 406-406.1 MHz. New allocations also were made for earth observation satellites, wireless avionics, gobal flight tracking for civilian aviation, automotive radar and earth stations in motion.

Members also agreed to review coordinated universal time for a report to be considered at the 2023 WRC.

It was the EBU that made clear that WRC members agreed to reserve 470-694 MHz for broadcasting in the 118 countries comprising ITU Region 1. EBU said WRC members “agreed that there would be no change to the allocation in the 470-694 MHz band either now, or at WRC-19 in four years’ time. Instead there will be a review of the spectrum use in the entire UHF band—470-960 MHz—at the WRC in 2023. Only then will it be decided whether to make further changes to the Radio Regulations. This added security will enable many countries in ITU Region 1 to continue with their digital switchover programs without the risk of an impending change in use of the spectrum.”

The National Association of Broadcasters in Washington, D.C., also hailed the decision.

“NAB was pleased by the global unity demonstrated at WRC-15 for the importance of a vibrant system of over-the-air broadcasting,” the NAB’s Dennis Wharton said in a statement. “Of the 162 nations attending the conference, more than 140 countries rejected the wireless broadband industry’s anti-broadcasting UHF spectrum grab and recognized that frequency band is harmonized to provide television services on a worldwide scale. This broad consensus should send a strong message that while wireless broadband services are important for those who can afford the fees, that service should not come at the expense of a ubiquitous over-the air TV service that is available to all for free.”