Standards Update

Posted on November 27, 2012 in ATSC News

The following ballots are active within ATSC or have recently concluded.

Revision of A/71, “Parameterized Services Standard.” This document has been approved by TG1 and is currently at a ballot of the full membership. The ballot closes on 3 December 2012. The primary motivation and substance of this revision is to add a new, more flexible, signaling method. The method involves delivery of a new descriptor called a Parameterized Service Descriptor (PSD), which provides information the receiver can use to determine whether or not it has the necessary resources to render the virtual channel.

3D-TV. Part 2, “Working Draft ATSC Standard: 3D-TV Terrestrial Broadcasting, Part 2 – Service Compatible Hybrid Coding using Real-Time Delivery.” This document has been approved by TG1 and is currently in comment resolution. Issuance of the membership ballot is expected soon. This document provides detailed specification of the parameters of the Service Compatible Hybrid-Coded 3D (SCHC), which is one particular case of the Service Compatible 3D-TV system using legacy MPEG-2 video as one view of 3D content and delivering both views with legacy terrestrial Real-time Delivery (SCRT). This specification includes the video encoder input scanning formats and the service multiplex and transport layer characteristics and normative specifications.

Working Draft Revision of A/153 Part 8, “HE AAC Audio System Characteristics.” This document has been approved by TG1 and is currently at a ballot of the full membership. The ballot closes on 18 December 2012. This revision was developed to address several issues, including: 1) clarifying the use of SBR and signaling of the output sampling rate of HE AAC in M/H Component Data, 2) specifying the target loudness level for the mobile audio service, and 3) updating boilerplate text.

Corrigendum to A/52, “Digital Audio Compression (AC-3) (E-AC-3) Standard.” This document has been approved by TG1 and is currently at a ballot of the full membership. The ballot closes on 17 December 2012The version of A/52 released 23 March 2012 included a new Annex G entitled “Enhanced AC-3 Elementary Streams in the MPEG-2 Multiplex.” A field defined in the syntax of the E AC 3_audio_descriptor() was assigned the same name as a pre-existing field in A/53 Part 1 and A/65: service_type. The overloading of field names creates confusion, especially since an upcoming revision to A/53 Part 6 must refer to both the service_type in A/53 Part 1 and the service_type in A/52 Annex G. This corrigendum addresses this overload by renaming the field in A/52 Annex G to audio_service_type.

Withdrawal of A/58, “Harmonization with DVB SI in the Use of the ATSC Digital Television Standard.” This ballot was approved by the ATSC membership on 27 September 2012. Document A/58 has been archived.

Posted in ATSC News