Someone You Should Know: Dr. Ryan (Hakju) Lee

Posted on May 3, 2016 in ATSC News

Baseball and digital TV go together naturally.  Just ask Ryan Lee.

Dr. Ryan (Hakju) Lee, principal engineer at Samsung Electronics, has been involved with ATSC since 2006, initially working on the ATSC mobile TV standard, in parallel with his work on the DVB second-generation standard.  Currently, he’s Samsung’s primary member of the ATSC S32 physical layer specialists group under the TG3 Technology Group.

“The key strength of ATSC 3.0 is that it’s a well-balanced standard for manufacturers and broadcasters,” said Lee.  “In the ATSC 3.0 process, I’m confident that all members in this industry are collaborating with each other on the service requirements, selection of the technologies, and experimental testing.  With those efforts, I expect all the industries will have great business opportunities, break the shell of current terrestrial broadcasting with digital television, and move forward to the new viewing experience.”

Lee has worked for Samsung for more than 10 years.  He earned a PhD from Yonsei University in Seoul, Korea majoring in MIMO (Multiple Input, Multiple Output).  He also learned many physical layer aspects including OFDM (orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing) and FEC (Forward Error Correction) codes.

“Those experiences and knowledge made it easier for me to land softly in this broadcasting research area,” he said.

Lee says emphasis on ATSC 3.0’s flexibility is key, because it will be extensible for future needs while not affecting legacy receivers.  He notes that ATSC 3.0’s physical layer provides various options for code rate, modulation methods and framing parameters.

“System Discovery and Signaling, known as the ‘bootstrap,’ is a core technology element to enable the complete flexibility and future extensibility. It is preceding the physical frame and indicating the format and the version of waveform to be followed,” he said.  “So the receiver could identify ATSC 3.0 waveform, a future version, or even different waveforms by capturing the bootstrap signal and could decode the desired frame based on its capability.”

Lee lives in Bucheon-Si, Gyeonggi-do, Korea with his wife, who is a school teacher, and their daughter.  In January, his family took a trip traveling the west coast of the United States.  Lee has come to the U.S many times for business, but it was his family’s first visit to America.

An avid sports fan, Lee tries to watch as many Korean baseball league games as he can.

“I am trying to catch every live game through broadcasting (terrestrial, cable, and T-DMB (Korean mobile broadcasting) and streaming services,” Lee said.  “I also enjoy visiting baseball stadiums and the mobile broadcasting / streaming services are quite joyful to check the replays or player’s statistics and to hear commentary.”

Posted in ATSC News