Sachin Deshpande – Someone You Should Know

Posted on October 1, 2015 in ATSC News

Sachin Deshpande
Sharp Laboratories of America
Chairman, ATSC Ad Hoc Group S33-2

A 20-year industry research veteran, Sachin Deshpande is principal scientist and technical lead for Sharp Laboratories of America. He has made more than 70 technical contributions during his career to various developments including ISO/ IEC and ITU-T High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC), Scalable High Efficiency Video Coding (SHVC), and Multi-View High Efficiency Video Coding (MV-HEVC) International standards. He holds 58 U.S. patents, with several more pending, and has contributed to more than 50 peer-reviewed technical journals, conferences and books. In addition, he has mentored students and collaborated with U.S. universities for research to create one-of-a-kind long-term technologies.

Deeply involved in ATSC 3.0, Deshpande has had a role in various ad hoc and specialist groups including service models, service announcement, usage reporting, service signaling, companion device protocols, application signaling and ATSC 3.0 video. With his international project management experience and R&D skills in multimedia systems, video streaming, networking, video coding, web technologies and user interfaces, his expertise has been invaluable as ATSC 3.0 nears deployment.

Today, he chairs the S33-2 Ad Hoc Group (AHG) on Service Announcement and Personalization in the ATSC 3.0 Specialist Group on Management and Protocols. Additionally, he is editor for three ATSC 3.0 Working Drafts: Service Announcement and Personalization, Service Usage Reporting, and Companion Device Communication Protocol.

Why Does He Do It?

In addition to a clearly time-consuming “day job”, Deshpande commits time to ATSC 3.0 because the technology is important, both to the future of the industry and to his company.

“Sharp is a pioneer in LCD Televisions and a long-time ATSC member,” Deshpande said. “ATSC 3.0 is the next-generation broadcast standard and, with it, we’re working on a standard which defines the future of broadcast and that’s of great interest to my company and to me personally.”

He admits it’s an exciting time too.

“TV as we know it has been changing,” he said. “The new ATSC 3.0 standard with the most advanced codecs, hybrid broadcast-broadband support, immersive audio, personalization, second-screen device support and interactivity can provide an exciting new TV experience for years to come. It’s exciting to be developing this standard with other experts in this field, and it will be a great accomplishment for all the members when the ATSC 3.0 standard gets deployed and is used by consumers.”

How Did You Become Involved?

Deshpande earned his Bachelor’s degree in India and went on to earn his Master’s degree at the Indian Institute of Technology in Mumbai, where he ranked first in his University and Department respectively.  He then earned his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering at the University of Washington.

Since then he’s been a leader in video compression standards and MPEG standardization activities.  As he was working to wrap up SHVC and MV-HEVC standardization, ATSC 3.0 was starting its serious technical development activities.

“Due to Sharp’s interest in this space it was a natural fit for me to get involved with ATSC 3.0 and broadcasting,” he said.

How Can Members Maximize their ATSC Membership?

Deshpande says people should identify projects in ATSC 3.0 that, from their company’s and industry sector’s point of view, are really important to be addressed – added, refined, developed –  then speak up and get involved.

“Join Ad Hoc Groups that are of interest to you and start reading current Working Drafts,” he recommends. “Also, consider making technical contributions in your areas of expertise.”

And obviously, start planning for the transition to ATSC 3.0. “The goal of all ATSC members is to complete the standard on time and then to see it successfully deployed,” he says.

Relax by Running

When asked what he does to relax in his spare time, Deshpande quipped, “What spare time?”

But seriously, he admits that no matter how busy you are, everyone needs a way to unwind and his go-to activity is running.

“It’s now become somewhat of habit,” he says. His wife, son and daughter also take advantage of the natural beauty of the outdoors and do many family hikes. They especially enjoy exploring treks of differing difficulties in Columbia Gorge and other scenic areas in the Pacific Northwest. And if all that didn’t provide enough stimulation in Deshpande’s life, he’s also known as quite a classical music aficionado.

Posted in ATSC News