President’s Memo: The Momentum Continues…

Posted on June 1, 2012 in ATSC News

For those of you able to attend the 2012 ATSC Annual Meeting in Washington in early May, we hope you found it both an educational and insightful session.  Our goal was to demonstrate in a dynamic way how the ATSC and our suite of digital television standards is being utilized by broadcasters, consumer electronics companies, and myriad equipment and service operators to redefine the future of television.

Annual Meeting luncheon keynoter, Former FCC Chairman Dick Wiley (left), was honored by ATSC President Mark Richer as the industry commemorates the 25th anniversary of formation of the FCC Advisory Committee on Advanced Television Service, which Wiley chaired for nine years.

Members and guests alike confirmed that the meeting was a successful and inspirational exercise, and you’ll find a number of reports from that convocation in this month’s issue of The Standard.

ALIGNED ON FUTURE OF TV

We’re especially grateful MPEG co-founder and convener Leonardo Chiariglione made the trip from Italy to keynote our meeting and provide a progress report of that organization’s work.  It’s clear that MPEG’s work is in alignment with ATSC’s vision of the future of broadcast television.

Also highlighted at the meeting was the great progress being made to methodically roll out Mobile Digital TV services and products.  Our last panel discussion of the day included representatives from both of the broadcaster business groups, from the transmission and reception communities, and from a service operator who is planning for enhanced audience measurement.  Mobile DTV is moving ahead with a thoughtful and well-conceived strategy, unfolding as it should to reach the American public this year.  Other countries in the Americas are eagerly anticipating the full launch of Mobile DTV in the USA, with trials now underway in Canada, Mexico, and Bermuda.

On behalf of the ATSC board of directors, I was very honored to present Merrill Weiss with the Bernard Lechner Outstanding Contributor Award.  I’ve known Merrill for many years and was pleased to see him recognized for his contributions.

That wasn’t the only award handed out in May.  I gave out a record number of rubber chickens as tokens of appreciation to the many individuals who have gone “above and beyond” to assist the ATSC in its standard-setting agenda.

Many thanks to sponsors of the 2012 annual meeting:  Dolby, LG Electronics, Linear Acoustic, Samsung, Zenith, Harris, CEA, ETRI, IEEE BTS, Sony, BIM, Cox Media Group, Ericsson, Jampro Antennas and PBS.

MOMENTUM CONTINUES

Our momentum continues, with the approval of the Non-Real-Time ATSC standard just a few days after the annual meeting.

Standardized NRT provides a tremendous leap for the broadcasting industry.  The delivery of non-real-time services via the ATSC NRT standard will now allow broadcasters to deliver file based content, including programs and clips, information for emergency alerts and commercial applications such as digital signage.  The new broadcast ATSC NRT standard will support both broadcast reception to both fixed location and to mobile DTV receivers that have been designed to make use of the new flexibility.  We are grateful to the many individuals and companies who have contributed to this important new standard, now designated as A/103.

Over the past month, we’ve seen much evidence of the important work that ATSC continues to do on behalf of broadcasters and ultimately the public itself.  As our momentum continues, I’m grateful for the contributions made by our members and hopeful that we can continue to attract companies and organizations to become active members of ATSC.

Mark Richer

ATSC President

Posted in ATSC News