FUTURE OF BROADCASTING DTV SUMMIT

Leading broadcast television associations, research laboratories and standards development organizations from around the world have organized a strategic conference focused on the future of terrestrial broadcast television.

The Future of Broadcast Television (FOBTV) Summit will be held to foster global collaboration to exchange technical advances in the rapidly converging areas of terrestrial broadcasting, consumer electronics and networking technologies, discussions that that may lead to the development of common strategies for the future of terrestrial broadcasting.

The FOBTV Summit will take place on November 10-11, 2011 in Shanghai, China. The National Engineering Research Center of Digital Television, China will host the historic event. NERC, established in 2010, is a leading high-tech institution co-founded by Shanghai Jiao Tong University and other mainstream digital TV researching institutes, manufacturers, broadcasters and agencies.

For more information, visit www.fobtv.org

ATSC 2012 ANNUAL MEETING...MARK YOUR CALENDARS!

The date has been set! Mark your calendars for the 2012 ATSC Annual Meeting in Washington, DC.

Tuesday, May 8th, 2012
Ronald Reagan International Trade Center
Washington, DC

Plan on joining us!

PLANNING TEAM REPORTS AVAILABLE NOW

The Planning Team on 3D Television (PT-1) and Planning Team on Next Generation Broadcast Television (PT-2) have finished work and published their final reports.

The reports are available for download on the ATSC website.

FIRST MEETING OF ATSC 3.0 TECHNOLOGY GROUP (TG3) SCHEDULED

The first ATSC TG3 meeting has been scheduled for November 30, 2011 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM ET. The meeting will be held at the National Assoc. Of Broadcasters (NAB) in Washington DC, Conference Room A

Please update all calendars accordingly, and we’ll see you on the 30th!

FIRST MEETING OF 3D TELEVISION GROUP

The first meeting of ATSC TG/S-12 on 3D television met on October 5, 2011 in the ATSC Offices.

The effort is led by Dr. Youngkwon Lim, representing the Electronics and Telecommunication Research Institute (ETRI).

"The addition of 3D-TV capability to the DTV broadcast standard will foster new broadcast services while preserving the integrity of legacy TV receivers by adopting a system that allows for simultaneous delivery of 2D HDTV, Mobile DTV, and 3D programs within the same channel while ensuring backwards compatibility," said Mark Richer, ATSC President.

OCTOBER 2011 ATSC BOOT CAMP WRAP UP

The October 13th ATSC Boot Camp in Johnston, IA was a huge success. Thank you to all attendees and presenters, as well as our host, Iowa Public Television.

Select presentations are now available online – if you were an attendee of the seminar, please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it for more information.

A special thank you to our 2011 Boot Camp sponsor Heartland Video Systems, Inc.

ATSC ACTIVITIES REPORT

This report summarizes current work within the ATSC relating to Standards and Recommended Practices, and Planning Team projects.

Major New Activities

ATSC has formed a new Technology Group to develop "ATSC 3.0," a series of voluntary technical standards and recommended practices for the next-generation digital terrestrial television broadcast system that will serve viewers and TV stations for decades to come. This work will pave the way for new terrestrial television broadcasting technologies.

ATSC 3.0 is likely to be incompatible with current broadcast systems. It must, therefore, provide improvements in performance, functionality and efficiency significant enough to warrant implementation of a non-backwards-compatible system. The expected timeframe is approximately 5 to 10 years.

The formation of TG3 will allow TSG to accelerate its current activities, including development of ATSC 2.0, NRT, 3D, and Mobile DTV.

Jim Kutzner, PBS, has been appointed Chair of TG3. Skip Pizzi, NAB, and Luke Fay, Sony, will serve as vice-chairs. The first meeting of TG3 will be held on 30 November 2011 in Washington, DC.

Renaming of TSG

As an offshoot of the formation of TG3, the Board has decided to rename TSG to Technology Group 1, or TG1. This change will impact document numbering going forward and be reflected in outgoing correspondence and liaison.

Planning Team Status

Three Planning Teams were formed by the ATSC Board of Directors in spring of 2010. Each PT was focused on a specific project. Each reported directly to the Board and engaged in outreach and dialog with appropriate industry and business leaders, focusing on technical feasibility and market requirements. The end goal of each PT was to determine whether there was a need for standardization by ATSC.

The three Planning Teams have completed their work, the status of which is summarized in the following sections.

PT-1, 3D TV

The Scope of PT-1 was to consider and report on the likely benefits and limitations of a standard for terrestrial broadcast delivery of 3D TV. The group was chaired by Craig Todd, Dolby.

PT-1 developed a New Work Item Proposal (NWIP) on 3D-TV, which was approved by the Board in July. That work was assigned to TG1, which formed a new Specialist Group on 3D-TV (S12). The specialist group is chaired by Youngkwon Lim, ETRI. There are two vice-chairs: Sung Oh Hwang, Samsung Electronics America, and Anthony Vetro, Mitsubishi Electric.

PT-1 has completed a Final Report and submitted it to the Board, which has authorized public release. The document can be downloaded from the following link:
http://www.atsc.org/cms/pdf/PT1-049r1-Final-Report.pdf

Having completed its assigned work, PT-1 has been deactivated.

PT-2, Next Generation TV

The Scope of PT-2 was to explore potential technologies to be used to define a new/future terrestrial broadcast digital television standard. This analysis included assessment of the range of services that could be delivered with a new standard and consideration of potential timeframes. PT-2 was chaired by Jim Kutzner, PBS.

Following input from PT-2, the Board agreed to form a new Technology Group to focus on Next Generation Broadcast Television (now known as TG3). PT-2 has completed a Final Report and submitted it to the Board, which has authorized pubic release. The document can be downloaded from the following link:
http://www.atsc.org/cms/pdf/PT2-046r11-Final-Report-on-NGBT.pdf

Having completed its assigned work, PT-2 has been deactivated.

PT-3, Internet Enhanced TV

The Scope of PT-3 was to identify and quantify industry implementation of Internet-connected services and platforms, and consider the relative benefits of interoperability with various implementations. PT-3 was chaired by Rajan Mehta, NBC-Universal.

PT-3 developed recommendations on work already underway in TG1 on ATSC 2.0 and provided liaison with specialist groups S11 and S13. PT-3 completed a Final Report on Internet-Enhanced TV and submitted it to the Board for review. Having completed its assigned work, PT-3 has recommended that it be deactivated.

Ballots

The following ballots are active within ATSC:

A/153 Part 2 Reballot, "ATSC Mobile DTV – RF/Transmission System Characteristics." This document had previously been approved by TG1 but during the comment resolution process substantive changes were recommended by the comment resolution group (S4). The revised document was submitted to TG1 for consideration and approved. Comments were received during the ballot and resolved. The document was submitted to a vote of the Membership and approved on 7 October 2011. Publication is pending.

A/70 Part 2, "Conditional Access System for Terrestrial Broadcast, Part 2 – IP." This document defines the method for utilizing Simulcrypt concepts to simultaneously encrypt services with different service protection systems without transmitting multiple differently-encrypted copies of the services. The TG1 ballot was approved with comments, which were resolved editorially. The Membership ballot was approved on 17 October 2011. Comments were received during the ballot. Publication is pending.

A/174, "Recommended Practice on Mobile DTV Performance." This document addresses the signal conditions that may be encountered, with assessment of the potential impact upon the front-end portion of a receiver of A/153-based mobile digital television broadcasts. The document provides recommended performance guidelines that are intended to maximize reception. The TG1 ballot was approved with comments, which were resolved editorially. The Membership ballot was approved on 26 September 2011. Comments were received during the ballot. Publication is pending.

A/53 Part 2 Revision, "ATSC DTV System – RF/Transmission System Characteristics." This revision of A/53 Part 2 removes text relating to E-VSB and clarifies other text regarding 8-VSB operation. The document was approved by TG1 on 19 August 2011. Comments were received and resolved. Because some of the proposed changes are substantive, a reballot of TG1 will be conducted. Issuance of the ballot is pending.

Withdrawal of A/80, This ballot is to withdraw A/80, "Modulation and Coding Requirements for Digital TV (DTV) Applications over Satellite." The TG1 ballot closes on 2 November 2011.

Other Items

The CS period for the Non-Real-Time Candidate Standard has been extended until 5 December 2011.

ATSC MEMBERSHIP

In our continual quest for new participants, we’d like to ask current member organizations to encourage non-member companies they may be associated with to join the ATSC – standards work is lead by our active members, and we welcome new faces! For more information on how to join the ATSC, please direct potential new members to the membership area of the ATSC Website or to have interested parties contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it directly.

ATSC STANDARDS… In Print!

The ATSC has setup an online store for those who wish to purchase printed full color professionally bound copies of the A/153 and A/85 standards. Save your printer ink and instead, buy copy for the low prices listed online at http://stores.lulu.com/atsc All standards and recommended practices will remain available for download at the ATSC website.