President’s Memo: Education and Advocacy

Posted on November 4, 2019 in ATSC News

ATSC continues to raise awareness of the suite of ATSC 3.0 standards – both in the U.S. and abroad. This fall, ATSC members have been evangelists for Next Gen TV implementation, engaging with broadcasters, technology firms and policymakers around the world, from the IEEE Broadcast Symposium in Hartford, Conn., to NAB New York to the India Mobile Congress in New Delhi.

I was proud to represent ATSC at last month’s 2020 IEEE Broadcast Symposium in Hartford, where ATSC members participated in a number of great sessions on ATSC 3.0. An excellent presentation was given by Fox’s Winston Caldwell, who described how Next Gen TV is being addressed at the World Radiocommunication Conference 2019 (WRC-19) in Egypt. He noted that WRC work influences spectrum allocation decisions across the globe, including the spectrum auction and subsequent TV repack underway in the U.S. today.

ATSC had a strong presence at NAB New York as highlighted in this issue of THE STANDARD. We are grateful to the volunteer ATSC leaders who staffed ATSC’s “Get Ready” booth to field the wide variety of questions from attendees. And thanks to Pearl TV, one of our Platinum Sponsors, for their successful demonstrations of the new interactive application framework. We also thank the ATSC-sponsored panel and speakers for providing insights on content production and protection.

A number of ATSC members also attended at the recent India World Congress 2019; this was timely evangelism in light of the formation of our new international ATSC Planning Team (PT-6).  As explained in THE STANDARD, India is in the midst of studying a “broadcast offload” scenario addressing moving content from a cellular to a broadcast network. Thank you to TSDSI for inviting me to speak at their conference-within-a-conference: “Standards for Development & Bridging the Digital Divide in the Era of 5G & Beyond.”

Participating in broadcast conferences, big and small all over the world, is an important aspect of our education and advocacy efforts on behalf of ATSC 3.0. There is so much to learn, and the excitement for our businesses is contagious! Stay tuned for more ways that ATSC and our members will be able to support the implementation of Next Gen TV at home and its recognition abroad.

Madeleine Noland, ATSC President

Posted in ATSC News