President’s Memo

Posted on July 8, 2014 in ATSC News

As we enter the dog days of summer, some of us may remember fondly the era when the pace of the business world slowed down a bit during the summertime.  Not anymore, especially at the ATSC.

Intensive work continues this month as participants in the Technology Groups (TG-1 and TG-3) gather in Washington. TG-1 is pushing toward the finish line on standardization of the suite of backwards compatible enhancements, known as ATSC 2.0. TG-3’s multitude of activities, supporting all aspects of the next-generation ATSC 3.0 standard, continue apace as well.

Your ATSC Board is very active this summer, too. We’re looking ahead to the annual ATSC Board strategic planning sessions in a couple of weeks in Los Angeles where the Board will be focusing on both near- and long-term planning, transition scenarios and standards implementation, among other things.

Our June Board meeting was held in Seoul, and directors spent the week meeting with Korean broadcasters, manufacturers and government officials, who all learned more about ATSC 3.0. A recurring theme in all of these high-level meetings was how important both mobile TV and Ultra HD 4K TV, as well as interoperability and personalization, are for the future of terrestrial broadcasting. It was gratifying to hear strong support for our work on ATSC 3.0 in all of these areas.

After visiting South Korea, ATSC members headed to China for another series of meetings focused on broadcasting’s future, hosted by the Future of Broadcast Television (FoBTV) summit in Yantai. There it was clear that the ATSC’s work is becoming increasingly prominent on the world stage as efforts progress on developing a common global strategy for next generation television standards.

The ATSC’s key role in international standards work, particularly ATSC 3.0,  also was underscored at the IEEE Broadcast Technology’s International Symposium on Broadband Multimedia Systems and Broadcasting, hosted in Bejing by ATSC member Tsinghua University, and at the 19^th International Symposium on Broadcast Technology, also in Bejing, where FoBTV, DVB and, of course, ATSC were featured presenters.

At home and abroad, we’re hearing loud and clear – from broadcasters and technologists, from government officials and business people – that moving to next-gen standard is critically important.  Thanks to the tireless work of our members to define the future of television, there’s no doubt in my mind that ATSC 3.0 will lead the way.

Mark Richer
President
Advanced Television Systems Committee

Posted in ATSC News