ATSC 3.0 – The ‘Grandest Alliance’ of 370 Experts and 110 Companies

Posted on June 3, 2015 in ATSC News

In his opening welcome remarks at the 2015 ATSC Broadcast Television Conference, ATSC Board Chairman Glenn Reitmeier of NBC Universal highlighted the significant cooperation and collaboration behind ATSC 3.0 while providing some historical perspective.

By GLENN REITMEIER

As we “Tune In to the Future” of ATSC 3.0, it’s hard to believe that the first digital HDTV system proposals were announced 25 years ago – in 1990!

As you know, the best ideas from those four initial digital systems eventually merged into the Grand Alliance HDTV system and became ATSC 1.0, the world’s first digital television system. The core technologies that were pioneered in ATSC 1.0 and that revolutionized broadcasting also revolutionized cable television and enabled the creation of direct broadcast satellite and DVD; and they were the precursor to today’s video streaming over the Internet.

Think about how much technology has changed since 1990. (Much of today’s ATSC 1.0 system was conceived even before the Web browser.) There’s something I think is even more amazing about ATSC 3.0 than its technology.

At the time of the Grand Alliance, it was quite a feat for seven competing organizations to reach agreement on the best-of-the-best technologies and successfully combine them into a single system. Today, the creation of ATSC 3.0 is “The Grandest Alliance.” Innovative new ideas and proposals for every technical aspect of the system have been submitted by all kinds of organizations from all over the world.

Technical proposals have come from broadcasters, consumer electronics companies, integrated circuit manufacturers, technology companies, research laboratories, universities and others. The ATSC’s technical discussions and decisions are drawing upon those organizations’ best engineers from the United States, Canada, Korea, Japan, China, the UK, Germany, France, Spain and other countries. In fact, there are over 370 individual technical experts from 110 organizations who are contributing in ATSC committees.

Thank you to all of our ATSC member organizations and individuals whose innovation, collaboration, relentless pursuit of technical excellence and drive to reach consensus are propelling ATSC 3.0 forward.

Posted in ATSC News