Fun in the Sun with the ATSC
August is generally kind of quiet in Washington, with Congress in recess and droves of lobbyists, lawyers and others fleeing the District’s sweltering heat for the beach or the mountains. But even as summer winds down, there’s no slowing down here at the ATSC.
To paraphrase the adage, there’s no rest for the weary ATSC standards developers. Keeping their progress going from the TG3 Technology Group’s productive face-to-face meetings last month, specialist groups and ad hoc groups are continuing to meet this month.
Some of their most pressing work relates to reaching consensus on a few remaining open items related to the Physical Layer transmission system. TG3 sub-groups will very busy in August putting the finishing touches on documenting core building blocks of the Physical Layer transmission system as it heads toward ATSC 3.0 Candidate Standard status. In parallel, work on upper layers, including the decisions about the ATSC 3.0 audio system, continues unabated.
While there’s a flurry of ATSC activity focused on our aggressive short-term goals of moving various ATSC 3.0 elements to Candidate Standard status this year, we also have our eye on the horizon. At last month’s strategic workshop, the ATSC board spent two days discussing the longer-term roadmap for next-generation broadcasting. It was an open, at times free-wheeling, dialogue that addressed a broad range of topics from transition planning to interoperability testing to field trials.
One exciting opportunity for many ATSC members identified by the board is the desire for prototype broadcast and reception hardware based on the ATSC 3.0 Candidate Standard. A critical mass of equipment from various manufacturers will be needed for laboratory and field testing as ATSC 3.0 moves toward Proposed Standard status in 2016. And we encourage our members to begin developing such prototypes as the suite of standards collectively known as ATSC 3.0 solidifies in the months ahead.
To that point, the board also wants members and other stakeholders to understand that ATSC 3.0 is not just a single, stand-alone standard, rather a group of next-generation television subsystems and standards designed to work together. Check out the layman’s overview of ATSC 3.0’s architecture, as elucidated by TG3 Chairman Rich Chernock, in this issue of THE STANDARD – good bedtime or beach reading for anybody curious about how the ATSC 3.0 puzzle pieces will fit nicely together.
I wish to thank the literally hundreds of volunteer experts working to make next-generation television a reality. As ATSC wraps up a busy summer, we’re looking ahead with excitement to fall when the harvest will bear fruit in the form of Candidate Standards. In the meantime, here’s hoping you can squeeze in some family vacation time during the remaining Dog Days.
Mark Richer
ATSC President
ATSC Board of Directors 2015 Strategic Retreat in Atlanta (left to right): John Taylor, LG Electronics USA; Mark Richer, ATSC; Sam Matheny, NAB; Peter Symes, SMPTE; Dave Siegler, Cox Media; Lynn Claudy, NAB; Wayne Luplow, IEEE/Zenith; Rich Chernock, Triveni Digital; Lindsay Shelton-Gross, ATSC; John Godfrey, Samsung; Craig Todd, Dolby; Glenn Reitmeier, NBC Universal; Ira Goldstone, Univision; Mark Eyer, Sony; Yian Wu, IEEE/CRC; Brian Markwalter, CEA; and Richard Friedel, Fox. Not pictured: Brett Jenkins, Media General, and Andy Scott, NCTA.
Posted in ATSC News
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