ATSC presents latest developments at NAB sessions, TechZone

The Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) is highlighting a variety of new innovations and the evolving standards work of the organization at the ongoing 2012 NAB Show.

According to ATSC president Mark Richer, the annual gathering in Las Vegas is a hotbed of activity. "More than 20 educational sessions and presentations involving ATSC standards are planned," he said.

ATSC is addressing the future needs of television broadcasters at the show and is a driving force behind the Future of Broadcast TV (FoBTV) initiative, he added. An FoBTV progress report is being presented today at the show.

At the ATSC TechZone, ATSC members from three continents are demonstrating implementations of new work by the ATSC on DTV enhancements. They include:

Dolby Laboratories, demonstrating how enhancements of Dolby Digital Plus to provide Surround Descriptive Audio with ATSC-compatible streams can improve the TV experience for the 25 million visually impaired people living in America.

Samsung Electronics and the Korean Broadcast System (KBS), demonstrating Real-Time Hybrid 3D-TV broadcasting of Full HD 3-D content.

Through the Open Smart Alliance (OSA), KBS also is showing aspects of ATSC 2.0, including a DTV multicast service called "Korea-View" that is broadcast in MPEG-4 along with special receivers designed to pick up the advanced transmissions.

The Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI), demoing a Non-Real-Time (NRT) terrestrial high-quality 3-D TV broadcasting system that transmits stereoscopic content or additional views of the stereoscopic content in advance using ATSC NRT. LG Electronics and ETRI also will show how both standard ATSC and Mobile DTV can be used to transmit and receive 3-D TV broadcasts.

Linear Acoustic, showing systems addressing the new requirements of the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act passed by Congress.

Canadian educators and engineering students from Ryerson University, showing interactive Mobile DTV prototype technology using ATSC's A/153 Mobile DTV standard.

Germany-based Decontis, demonstrating a Simple Network Management Protocol enabled monitoring system that analyzes and monitors all aspects of Mobile DTV and ATSC broadcasts.