Year of the Ox

Posted on February 1, 2021 in ATSC News

February 12, 2021 ushers in the Year of the Ox, and we wish our colleagues across the world a Happy Lunar New Year.

According to one myth, the order the animals arrived at the Jade Emperor’s party determined the order of the zodiac calendar. The Ox was about to be first, but the Rat tricked him into giving him a ride, and then jumped off his back and landed just ahead of the Ox. Thus, the Ox became the second animal. In Chinese culture the Ox is highly valued. Honest and logical, the earnest Ox does not seek praise, but gains recognition through hard work and deeds.

Like the Ox, ATSC has much hard work and many important deeds ahead of us in 2021, and it will take perseverance and honest effort to accomplish our goals. Broadcasters have their sights set on 20+ additional market launches, receiver makers are releasing new NextGen TV models and already planning for the 2022 development cycle, and solution vendors are busy behind the scenes installing the systems that power ATSC 3.0. At the same time, the ecosystem is in hot pursuit of innovative applications for the ATSC 3.0 platform including distance education and automotive use cases.

We’d like to congratulate CTA for an exciting and successful virtual CES® 2021. ATSC was proud to be among the nearly 2,000 exhibitors and to participate in a NextGen TV Focus panel together with Samsung and Fox Television Stations. ATSC additionally engaged in a number of CES-related activities, including two ATSC-hosted live panel sessions and a dedicated website where all the exciting NextGen TV announcements could be aggregated. All this great content is still available. Be sure to visit atsc.org/ces ! It was also terrific to see over 50 articles written on NextGen TV spanning a wide range of publications, together reaching an estimated 83 million readers. Be sure to read the CES 2021 Rewind article by CTA’s Brian Markwalter for more on the show.

We are pleased to announce that the ATSC Board of Directors approved the next phase of work on Core Network Technologies for Broadcast.  Since April last year, Planning Team 8 (PT-8) has been studying the topic from many angles: use cases, requirements, design concepts, feasibility, and potential for commercial success to name a few. The team presented its findings at the December 2020 ATSC Board meeting, and in January the Board assigned the project to Technology Group 3 (TG3). Unlike Planning Teams, Technology Groups can draft Standards and Recommended Practices, thus this milestone marks the transition from exploration to technical work. TG3 created a new Specialist Group, TG3/S43, to take on the job. ATSC would like to congratulate and thank Ali Dernaika of Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Kevin Shelby of Coherent Logix who co-Chaired PT-8 and have agreed to transition into co-Chairing TG3/S43.

Congratulations also to NAB’s Lynn Claudy, who was re-elected Chairman of the ATSC Board, a tribute to his leadership over the past two unprecedented years.  We also thank Brian Markwalter of CTA and Richard Friedel of Fox Television Stations, who were re-elected Vice Chairmen.

Looking ahead, let’s all embrace the Year of the Ox. The people that fuel our ecosystem have never shied away from honest hard work. If fact, we thrive on it.

Madeleine Noland, ATSC President

Posted in ATSC News