Year in Review
Noteworthy Achievements Highlight Busy 2014
2014 will be remembered as a very busy year for ATSC, characterized by a number of key milestones and noteworthy activities throughout the year, and especially significant progress on the development of the next-generation ATSC 3.0 standard. A look back through the past year of THE STANDARD chronicles the good work being done by ATSC members and leaders.
JANUARY – Kick-starting 2014, the ATSC named Triveni Digital’s Dr. Rich Chernock to succeed PBS’s Jim Kutzner, who retired from PBS. In January, Chernock provided his view of where the evolving ATSC 3.0 process was headed. Putting some of TG3’s work into perspective, 4K Ultra HD TVs dominated the big product news coming out of January’s 2014 International CES®.
FEBRUARY – The ATSC issued a Call for Proposals seeking audio/or video “watermarking” technologies for Automatic Content Recognition (ACR) to help interactive applications and other features of the ATSC 3.0 broadcast TV standard. NBC Universal’s Glenn Reitmeier was re-elected ATSC Board Chairman, while ATSC members elected Samsung’s John Godfrey, Sony’s Mark Eyer and LG Electronics’ John Taylor to new three-year board terms.
MARCH – The ATSC explained the TG3’s structure and the many areas for member involvement – four Specialist Groups: S31, System Requirements & Program Management; S32, Physical Layer; S33, Management & Protocols; and S34, Applications & Presentation Layer. (Under each Specialist Group are a number of Ad-Hoc Groups, each working on critical elements of the standard.) The ATSC also welcomed LIN Media’s Brett Jenkins to the organization’s Board of Directors.
APRIL – A major ATSC 3.0 milestone in the spring was the call for proposals for the Physical Layer transmission system proposals. In April, the ATSC Pavilion at the NAB show in Las Vegas spotlighted many ATSC member companies and provided a platform to showcase the evolving standard work underway.
MAY –The ATSC’s highest technical honor, the Bernard J. Lechner Award, was presented to PBS’s Jim Kutzner, capping his stellar career in broadcasting and recognizing his many significant contributions to the ATSC. The May issue of THE STANDARD saluted three television luminaries who passed away in 2014, including Lechner, Dr. Oded Bendov and Joel Brinkley.
JUNE – After May’s successful 2014 ATSC Broadcast Television Conference and ATSC 3.0 Bootcamp, the June issue highlighted the insightful presentation by board member Sam Matheny where he called for ATSC members to “please join this process, contribute your talent, your ideas and your passion. Let’s keep the momentum!”
JULY – The newsletter highlighted Korea’s enthusiasm for ATSC 3.0, reporting on June activities in Asia where a number of ATSC members moved from the Korean broadcaster meetings and headed to China to be a part of sessions for the Future of Broadcast Television (FoBTV) organization.
AUGUST – As the summer was winding down, TG3 formed a new “Ecosystem” Specialist Group to model and evaluate the environment in which ATSC 3.0 systems will be deployed. The new group, designated as S35, is chaired by digital pioneer and long-time ATSC volunteer leader Merrill Weiss. In August, the new implementation guide for mobile emergency alerting also was published.
SEPTEMBER – Fall brought a renewed focus on the interactive and personalization capabilities developed as part of ATSC 2.0, which will be key building blocks for ATSC 3.0. The September issue also featured a profile on one of ATSC’s newest members, Pearl TV, a partnership of broadcast companies formed in 2010. Managing Director Anne Schelle sat down with THE STANDARD to discuss Pearl and their participation in ATSC activities.
OCTOBER – This issue again put progress behind ATSC 3.0 into perspective, looking at the 4K Ultra HD demonstrations from September’s CEDIA Show in Denver and highlighting the worldwide focus on spectrum efficiency and robust transmission in TVNewsCheck’s report from the 2014 International Broadcasting Convention in Amsterdam.
NOVEMBER – The ATSC was proud to announce its Primetime Emmy Engineering Award from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences at the upcoming 2015 International CES for the collaborative effort to address wide variations in TV audio. Also in November was an overview of the ad hoc board committee exploring various possibilities for eventually migrating broadcasters and consumers to ATSC 3.0.
Posted in ATSC News
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