PLYMOUTH, Wisc.—Heartland Video Systems (HVS) recently completed configuring New Mexico PBS’s Ateme-based encoding system with live artificial intelligence (AI) language translation of the broadcaster’s ATSC 3.0 OTA broadcast signal using LingoPal’s cloud translation services.
New Mexico PBS operates KNME-TV licensed to Albuquerque and KNMD-TV licensed to Santa Fe. The broadcaster created its own ATSC 3.0 lighthouse when KNMD-TV transitioned to 3.0 in June 2021, HVS said.
That conversion included a full solution from HVS, including an Ateme encoder that processes two HD program streams and three SD program streams that are simulcasts of KNME-TV’s offerings. New Mexico PBS and HVS have continued to evolve the functions and capabilities of the ATSC 3.0 OTA system over the last several years, most recently by providing AI-powered language translation, it said.
The HVS engineering team reconfigured KNMD-TV’s Ateme 3.0 encoder to send an SRT English-only audio stream to LingoPal’s cloud-based service. The 5.1 English audio track (there was no need to send SAP audio) was processed through the AI system, it said.
"Technology is moving fast, and what unlocks it for broadcasters is the tight, day-to-day collaboration between our teams and partners like Ateme, aligning encoding, delivery, and real-time translation so it just works inside existing workflows,” said Casey Schneider, LingoPal founder and CTO.
Live Spanish, Portuguese, and Korean translations of the original audio, delivered in 2.0 downmix mode and lip-synced with the video, are returned to the TV station’s ATSC 3.0 Ateme encoder, the company said.
“Sometimes technology advances enough to unlock features that previously could not be imagined,” said Mike Schmidt, ATSC 3.0 technologist at HVS. “The hope, in that case, is that the process isn’t too complex or require[s] so many resources so that it can’t be readily used. I was very pleased to find that neither drawback applied to this feature set. The entire configuration took about an hour, not including the work LingoPal did to prep the service beforehand, and worked as advertised the first attempt.”
The benefits of adding this new capability, particularly with regards to emergency messaging, “can’t be overstated,” said New Mexico PBS director of engineering Jason Quinn.
“The ability to communicate with our viewers in their native language gives us the chance to serve our complete audience with all of the important details they need in times of an emergency,” he said.
Heartland Video Systems will exhibit during the 2025 NAB Show New York, Oct. 22-23, at the Javits Center in New York City.
See HVS at NAB Show New York booth 465.
More information is available on the company’s website.
