Single digital terrestrial TV standard possible and necessary, says Laven

Phil Laven, chairman of the DVB Project and vice chairman of the Future of Broadcast Television (FoBTV), says it is possible for the world’s terrestrial television broadcasters to put aside their differences and unite around a single digital format.

Author:: TVTechnology
Publish date:: Sep 17, 2012

Last week in Amsterdam, Phil Laven, chairman of the DTV Project and vice chairman of FoBTV, stopped me dead in my tracks when he said he was “ashamed” of the decades of competing analog and digital TV standards that have cost consumers and broadcasters billions of dollars.

Laven, who is working with Future of Broadcast Television chairman, ATSC president Mark Richer and other leading television industry representatives from around the world, says agreement on a unified digital terrestrial broadcasting system not only is possible but necessary.

In this video interview, Laven discusses how FoBTV is proceeding and a timetable for what it hopes to accomplish.

At its annual meeting in Virginia on May 21, the Advanced Television Systems Committee said it was forming three groups to investigate 3-D terrestrial broadcasting, the possibilities Internet-enabled TV receivers give broadcasters and next-generation TV broadcasting systems.

FoBTV off to ‘great start,’ says Richer promo image

At IBC2012, Mark Richer, president of ATSC and chairman of FoBTV, discussed where the new organization is headed with development of a future digital terrestrial television broadcasting system.

The Advanced Television Systems Committee has approved the A/103 standard making possible non-real-time news, sports and weather information to fixed and mobile DTV receivers.

Working mobile broadcast TV standard achievable by end of year, Davis says promo image

Reporting on the progress of ongoing mobile broadcast TV tests by the Open Mobile Video Coalition, Cox Broadcasting VP of engineering Sterling Davis said a working standard can be achieved by year’s end.

Germany pushes for digital terrestrial DVB-T2 upgrade promo image

Germany is preparing to migrate to the second-generation DVB-T2 digital terrestrial architecture, following the lead of the UK, Italy, Finland and Sweden.

Cooperation among competing bodies appears possible as TV mulls future direction at IBC2011 promo image

It appears from Amsterdam that the debate over how to allocate spectrum has opened the possibility for greater cooperation among competing digital television standards bodies.

The company’s chairman said they are running out of spectrum in some markets.

The mobile industry in Europe wants regulators to allocate a total of 32MHz for mobile television from the UHF range, 470MHz to 750MHz, currently used for TV broadcasts.