Audio Video News

The Consumer Technology Association (CTA) and National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) recently filed a petition with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to let broadcasters and TV companies voluntarily switch to the next-gen ATSC 3.0 TV standard for delivering Ultra HD (UHD) TV and immersive audio via formats such as Dolby Atmos.

In a recent report, industry trade publication TWICE wrote:

The transition to Next-Gen TV broadcasting will be voluntary for broadcasters and TV makers and won’t disenfranchise consumers who receive current-generation over-air DTV broadcasts.

That’s what the consumer electronics and broadcast industries have in mind in a petition filed with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

The Next-Gen TV standard, also known as ATSC 3.0, is a more efficient IP-based DTV-broadcast standard that would deliver Ultra High-Definition (UHD) TV, advanced emergency alert information, more channels, interactivity, data casting, and object-based audio. It would also deliver better in-building reception by indoor antennas, ability to receive broadcasts in vehicles moving at high speed, and extended range via the ability to broadcast a signal from multiple towers at a time in a geographic market…

Under the proposal to the FCC, ATSC 3.0 transmission would be optional for broadcasters, and ATSC 3.0 tuners would be optional in TVs, although major suppliers such as Sony, LG, and Samsung have committed to offering ATSC 3.0 TVs, said NAB communications VP Dennis Wharton. The Pearl TV consortium of broadcasters and the Sinclair station group have also committed to Next-Gen TV, and their stations reach 85 percent of U.S. territory, he said.

Existing TVs safe: To ensure that consumers’ existing digital TVs continue to receive current-generation over-the-air DTV broadcasts, the associations proposed that TV stations in a given market be allowed to simulcast one another’s programming. A station that converts to ATSC 3.0 would be able to have its programming broadcast in the current-generation standard by a temporary host station that hasn’t converted. And the ATSC 3.0 station would broadcast the host station’s programming over an ATSC 3.0 signal, Wharton explained. The stations’ current dial positions would not have to change…

There would be no mandated cut-off of current-generation DTV broadcasts.

No mandate: No mandates are needed in the petition, Wharton said, because no additional spectrum or government funds are required to implement the standard. During the transition from analog TV to DTV, he explained, the government handed over 6MHz of additional spectrum to stations so they could simulcast digital signals alongside their analog signals. When analog transmissions were ended by government mandate, the stations gave back the extra spectrum to the government, he explained.

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