What I Learned at the ATSC Annual Meeting

Posted on June 1, 2012 in ATSC News

The ATSC Annual Meeting is a learning experience for many, including these two participants who shared their insights from the early May session:

Bill Hayes, Director of Engineering and Technology for Iowa Public Television, notes the annual meeting “brings together a wide array of industry representatives from all different segments and disciplines, so it’s kind of an eclectic group. It was a great turnout but the total number of participants was small enough that you could converse with the majority of them. This leads to idea sharing and exchange among participants that wouldn’t happen in a huge crowd or on phone conference call. I think it’s that face to face exchange and interaction that allows ATSC to be so successful.

Mark Richer’s 2012 Rubber Chicken Awards went to deserving honorees (left to right) Pat Waddell, Mark Eyer, Art Allison and Adam Goldberg.

“I learned that the work that’s going on in the area of technology for people with disabilities has a ways to go and, if not properly handled by the regulators and stakeholders, it may have the opposite effect than was intended. I learned that mobile DTV service needs to gain wider deployment or it risks fading away. I learned that my friend and colleague Merrill Weiss has contributed more to the industry that I love than I ever knew. Probably the most important thing I learned was to be careful about which subjects to be passionate about: one misstep and Mark Richer is handing you a rubber chicken.”

Samsung VP for Government & Public Affairs John Godfrey, who also chairs the ATSC board, says he learned that “ATSC Mobile DTV is extremely well timed for market launch in 2012, because consumers are enjoying video on the mobile devices but are finding out that they can quickly exceed the caps on their carrier data plans if they watch a lot of streamed video.  ATSC Mobile DTV will be a great complement to mobile broadband.”

Digital Tech Consulting’s Myra Moore and Steve Koenig from the Consumer Electronics Association offered their perspectives on where TV is going during the Annual Meeting.

Posted in ATSC News