President’s Memo

Posted on April 2, 2014 in ATSC News

April 2014

With the long winter behind us, spring has finally sprung. And that means one of the busiest times for the ATSC and our members, a record level of activity led by the fast pace of our standards work. We’ll hit the pause button on that work next week as ATSC members descend on Las Vegas for an NAB Show that promises to bigger than ever before. What’s particularly exciting is how this year’s show agenda dovetails with the ATSC’s focus on the future of television broadcasting – the intersection of business, policy and of course technology.

For our part, the ATSC will help drive the conversation with a series of high-level briefings with senior executives in the broadcasting field. We’re inviting everybody from CEOs and CTOs to Group VPs and Station Managers to join us in a lively dialog on the direction of the broadcasting industry and how the ATSC’s enabling technologies will help keep terrestrial broadcasting relevant and competitive in the decades ahead. (These informal briefings will be held during show hours at the SpringHill Suites, across the street from the LVCC North Hall. Please contact Lindsay (lsheltongross@atsc.org) to schedule your visit.)

ATSC Everywhere at NAB

It will be hard to miss the fruits of our members’ labors on display throughout the trade show.  In addition to many members’ own booths, the ATSC Pavilion will spotlight exciting progress on our evolving standards, spearheaded by the ATSC 2.0 Implementation Team in cooperation with Triveni Digital and Unisoft. In our prime North Hall location, you’ll see a live demonstration of how ATSC 2.0 can use over-the-air triggers (from a local Las Vegas TV station) to activate Internet-delivered content.  Korea’s Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute also will demonstrate futuristic Cloud Transmission technologies in the ATSC Pavilion.

Not to be outdone, the M-EAS Implementation Team has carved out a dominant position in the adjacent Mobile TV Pavilion. Together with Monroe, Triveni, GatesAir (formerly Harris Broadcast) and LG, they’ll demonstrate affordable real-world broadcast equipment for the delivery of the Mobile Emergency Alert System using the ATSC A/153 Mobile DTV Standard.

And you won’t want to miss the detailed presentations on the next-generation ATSC 3.0 standard during Sunday’s NAB Broadcast Engineering Conference. Chaired by ATSC Board member Bob Seidel of CBS, the ATSC 3.0 Update (9:30-11:30 PDT, April 6) will feature detailed presentations from our talented volunteer leaders hard at work on ATSC 3.0, including NAB’s Skip Pizzi, Triveni Digital’s Rich Chernock, Sony’s Luke Fay, LG’s Madeline Noland and Samsung’s Youngkwon Lim. The M-EAS Implementation Team’s 11:30 a.m. session will feature Jay Adrick of GatesAir and Dave Catapano of Triveni Digital with a progress report since the ATSC’s standardization a year ago of M-EAS as an extension of the A/153 standard.

Today, Tomorrow & Beyond 

Right after the NAB Show, we’ll all be back to work on ATSC  2.0 and 3.0 standards, leading up to our next major events – our day-long ATSC 3.0 Boot Camp in Washington on May 7, followed by Today, Tomorrow & Beyond: The ATSC Broadcast Television Conference on May 8.

The Boot Camp is designed to give attendees, teckies and even analog management types alike, a solid understanding of the next-gen broadcast standard and basic knowledge about the inner-workings of the ATSC and our standards process. The Boot Camp will conclude with our annual member’s reception that evening.

The Today, Tomorrow & Beyond Conference on May 8 will take a broader look at strategic visions of how television various stakeholders can transform the industry. As proud as we are of our standards work, we recognize the need to put that work into context with the regulatory and business realities that broadcasters are facing in the near- and longer-term.  In that regard, I am delighted to announce that the President and CEO of the National Association of Broadcasters, Sen. Gordon Smith, will be our featured keynote speaker.

To be sure, a very busy spring for the ATSC and our members.  We look forward to seeing you at any or all of these upcoming events.  If your organization is still on the sidelines, now is the time to get involved.  If you’re already involved, thank you. And I urge you to reach out to colleagues who you think could make a contribution to our efforts as we define the future of broadcasting.

Mark Richer
ATSC President

Posted in ATSC News