Station groups with a combined membership of nearly 400 U.S. broadcasters have banded together to create an ATSC 3.0 Implementation and Planning Guide, giving station managers and broadcast engineers a clear roadmap on moving their services from ATSC 1.0 to the next-gen standard for over-the-air broadcasting.
Everything from the delivery of 4K and high dynamic range (HDR), to the ability to better warn viewers during emergencies, the document covers everything behind ATSC 3.0 and its eventual implementation. ATSC 3.0 is currently being considered by the Federal Communications Commission.
American Tower, Dielectric, Ericsson, GatesAir, Harmonic, Hitach Kokusai Electric Comark, Meintel, Sgignoli, & Wallace, Pearl TV, Sinclair Broadcast Group and Triveni Digital are the groups involved in creating the document.
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“ATSC 3.0 is rounding third base and heading into the home stretch,” Anne Schelle, managing director of Pearl TV, which represents more than 200 local broadcast stations, said in a statement. “It’s time for managers, engineers, and planners at all levels to look ahead and get ready for the requirements.
“ATSC 3.0 is the ‘glue’ that will enable broadcast protocol to exist in an Internet environment, which means better pictures and sound, personalized and geo-targeted viewing, mobile viewing, more information about emergency alerts, and the seamless integration of broadcasting programming with other Internet Protocol services.”
The report also covers the hardware decisions broadcasters will need to make once ATSC 3.0 comes along, including transmitters, RF systems and antenna components.
Related: Three New ATSC 3.0 Standards Approved
“This guide was developed over the course of the last several months to help the industry prepare for a monumental update,” said Rich Redmond, chief product officer of GatesAir. “With the approval of the ATSC 3.0 Physical Layer as a finished standard a few weeks ago, work continues on the final ingredients that will comprise the multi-layer ATSC 3.0 technology.
“Our industry is finishing the standard now, but now is also the time to start planning. The guide is available on the GatesAir website and will be a living document that will evolve as additional elements of the standard are completed.”
