Here is a litany of unlikely-sounding excuses. None of them make a lot of sense.
The US is not heavily reliant on OTA broadcasting, so the suggestion that
countries which do rely heavily on OTA broadcasting take longer to switch over,
makes little sense, for the US. And it makes no sense regardless. The obvious
way to go about this is to install multi-standard receivers in all TV sets,
very early on. And let the broadcasters do the catching up. It's not like these
chips cost hundreds of dollars. That was the braindead excuse attempted back in
2000. Worse comes to worst, the ATSC 3.0 aspects are never used. Honestly, how
nonsensical is it to suggest that the signals have to be broadcast first, years
before anyone can receive them??
Not sure about "content protection" either. We have ATSC 1.0. somehow, that has
been accepted. ATSC 3.0 is no more vulnerable to "content protection."
The fact that existing chips may be unsuitable for mobile devices is hardly a
reason why they haven't been available for all new TV sets and STBs. The
problem with mobile reception is all about greed of the mobile service
providers, so that's been all too well known from the start.
Sorry, but the explanation here is just like it was last time around. Until the
phased-in receiver mandates, March 1, 2007 being the final one, the CE vendors
were happier getting paid off under the table, to not introduce ATSC 1.0. And
the stores, to not carry STBs. And the salesmen, to never mention that OTA even
exists.
There's no credible excuse why every TV set on the US market today isn't ATSC
3.0-capable, and there's absolutely no reason to think that next year should be
any different. All lame excuses.
Bert
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https://www.tvtechnology.com/atsc3/searching-for-atsc-3-0-at-ces-2019
Searching for ATSC 3.0 at CES 2019
James E. O'Neal· Jan 17, 2019
Industry executives offer their views on standard's absence
LAS VEGAS--As Yogi Berra might have observed about this year's CES, "It was
déjà vu all over again," (at least with regard to the next-gen TV sets being
displayed by both large and small manufacturers.)
Last year, with the ink still drying on the 3.0 standard and the FCC's
green-lighting of its use by the nation's TV stations a couple of months
earlier, ATSC, NAB and CTA industry officials gathered to celebrate its arrival
with a champagne toast on the opening day of the CES. However, there was not a
single 3.0-capable set to be found among the super-bright, super-big,
super-colorful, super-intelligent, (and, in some cases, super-expensive)
television receivers that literally reached the ceiling of the Los Vegas
Convention Center which hosted the 2018 show.
Fast forward a year-has there been any change in the 3.0 situation?
In a word, no! If anything, there was less ATSC 3.0 presence this time, as one
TV manufacturer did put up a sign in its 2018 CES display space that touted the
benefits of the new DTV transmission standard. Not even the sign was there this
time.
CRITICAL MASS
While most of the TV set exhibitors quizzed about the lack of ATSC 3.0 product
(which has been available since 2017 in South Korea) were silent about its
absence at CES, John Taylor, senior vice president of public affairs for LG USA
did offer an explanation.
"You're a year or so early," he said. "We're trying to time the introduction of
the product with the critical mass of Next-Gen TV broadcasting, and the whole
industry seems to be moving toward a 2020 product launch." Taylor did seem
fairly certain that the 3.0 sets would be populating manufacturers' exhibit
spaces at the 2020 CES to "prime the pumps" of buyers who would be at that show
to decide what to stock their stores with for the 2020 holiday buying season.
And while others in the industry have hinted that there may be a problem with
delivery of some of the components needed for 3.0 sets, Taylor was quick to
state otherwise.
"There's no technology issue at all," he said. "It's a business marketplace
consideration about the right time to introduce the product in the U.S. market.
We could ship the product today. As you know, we're shipping ATSC 3.0 TVs in
Korea, but it has to make sense for the U.S. market and that's heading towards
2020."
Taylor noted that LG and its Zenith R&D subsidiary are providing receiver
products and technical support for some of the U.S. ATSC 3.0 field trials.
THE VIEW FROM OVERSEAS
Peter Siebert, head of technology for the DVB (Digital Video Broadcast
organization, a Swiss-based consortium that sets digital broadcast transmission
standards for Europe, and is roughly the equivalent of the Advanced Television
Systems Committee), was at the show and had a slightly more pessimistic view
when asked about the appearance of ATSC 3.0 TVs at the 2020 edition of the
"world's biggest consumer electronics show."
"I don't think so," said Siebert. "And the reason why I don't think so is that
there has to be a strong commitment from the broadcasting community to say 'we
will introduce the service,' and personally from a European perspective, I
don't hear this message from the North American broadcasters.
"It's a typical 'chicken and egg' problem and there must be somebody breaking
it," he continued. "The broadcasters must say 'we offer a service.' It doesn't
help that the industry develops products first. For example, when I look at the
televisions, there are many 4K televisions on the market. However, this doesn't
mean that we have 4K broadcasts. I think the broadcaster has to make a firm
commitment to introduce the service and then the receiver industry will follow."
Siebert noted that when the United Kingdom decided to migrate from the original
DVB-T (terrestrial broadcast) standard, which was struck in 1997, to an updated
version, DVB-T2, which was completed in 2008, there was no "chicken and egg"
situation because there was a clear commitment from the BBC for a rollout of
the improved HD service via DVB-T2.
"It can go very fast if well planned," he said, noting that the transition was
accomplished in Ukraine in a single year and in two years in Germany. Siebert
did admit that the move to DVB-T2 didn't go quite so fast in every European
nation, explaining that "typically, the more a country is relying on
terrestrial television, the longer it takes, because you have a much bigger
legacy of receivers that you have to update before you can start a new service."
However, lack of suitable receivers didn't seem to be an issue in the DVB-T2
transition.
"In Germany, when we went from DVB-T to DVB-T2, we had all stakeholders sitting
together at a round table and making a plan on how to introduce T2," said
Siebert. "It was very clear. The broadcasters said on this date we will switch
our transmissions to the new DVB-T2 specification. And it was also very clear
that the consumer industry [would be] ready way before this, providing the
necessary equipment. So, at the time the switchover happened, quite a high
percentage of receiving equipment was ready. I think it is necessary that all
stakeholders sit together, to agree on a plan and then stick to the plan."
THE VIEW FROM SINCLAIR
Since ATSC 3.0's inception, one of its biggest backers has been the Sinclair
Broadcast Group, and for the past several years the broadcast station group has
been at CES to promote the standard, even operating a transmitter on Black
Mountain south of Las Vegas to provide TV set exhibitors with 3.0 signals to
demonstrate reception of OTA UHD video at the show. Sinclair has also hosted
demonstrations of 3.0 technologies a few blocks away from the convention halls
in a suite at the Wynn Hotel.
Mark Aitken, Sinclair's vice president of advanced technology, was on hand this
year to offer his take on the absent ATSC 3.0 hardware.
"I think it's very simple," said Aitken. "There two issues. The difficult one
is content protection, and this issue has not been answered. You've got a lot
of dancing around on the part of the networks with respect to what their
requirements are for content protection, and not a single solution that has
been put on the table has been supported by all of the content providers-and I
might add content distributors or MVPDs. So, you have a bit of a stalemate. For
me, it's a fairly easy one to resolve. I look at it and say as a starting point
'if Widevine [DRM] is good enough for Netflix, why isn't it good enough for
broadcast?'
"The networks will always try to extract the broadcaster from out of the middle
of the relationship with the consumer," continued Aitken, noting that
reluctance of networks and program providers to allow their content to be
transmitted by affiliates deploying ATSC-M/H [aka Mobile DTV] was one of the
reasons for that mobile initiative's ultimate demise.
"I think there's been a soft promise made on the part of broadcasters that
we're willing to come to a solution. There's been an unwillingness on the part
of the large content players to sit down and really try to solve that problem,
at least with Sinclair. They have their own views and their views are not
shared equally with all broadcasters. And so, for the very same reasons that we
ended up with Dolby AC-4 as an abstraction of the Atmos production environment
in Hollywood, the issue of content protection is being driven by those same
Hollywood entities, which for a broadcaster is driven through the network."
Aitken summed up the situation by stating: "It is a political problem,
absolutely."
Aitken said that Sinclair will light up 26 markets by the end of 2019.
"There's a requirement by the FCC that there be some replication across ATSC
1.0 and ATSC 3.0," he said. "There may have to be an opportunity to force that
issue at a regulatory level, which nobody really wants. But at the end of the
day sometimes you solve problems by spilling a little blood first."
THE CHIP
Despite his disappointment with this stalemate in the rollout of 3.0, Aitken
was in a celebratory mood as he announced the release of an integrated circuit
specially designed and fabricated for Sinclair. The chip's unveiling marked the
end of a nearly two-year journey that began with a pledge to supply free ATSC
3.0 demodulator chipsets to any company manufacturing smartphones or other
handheld viewing devices that would commit to including them in their products.
Explaining the genesis of the project, Aitken-who is a firm believer that
broadcast television's future lies in mobile devices-said that after surveying
existing 3.0 chip products, he quickly came to the conclusion that none were
really satisfactory for mobile device applications.
"We knew what sort of power the available chips consumed," said Aitken. "It's
easy enough to guess the power requirement specs, because it's almost like a
curling iron if you've ever put your finger on one. If we were ever going to
have a mobile-enabled device-something that was suitable for embedding in
phones, something that could couple-up to a cellphone without draining the life
out of the phone-we would have to create it."
Frustrated that none of the large consumer electronics firms showed much
interest in mobile TV products, he decided to go it alone.
"We went literally to the top of the ladder, and at the end of the day, they
saw the world the way that they choose to see the world," he said. "They saw no
place for mobile ATSC; certainly not at this time."
Aitken recalled an Indian company with a reputation for low-power consumption
specialty integrated circuit design-Saankhya Labs-from his involvement with
ATSC M/H-and contacted them.
"I decided to pick up the phone and have a conversation with Praag Naik, who is
the president," said Aitken. "We had a conversation, and it became evident that
we shared a much higher-level understanding of what was possible, so Sinclair
invested."
The result was the creation of a very low-power consumption chip that can
easily be incorporated within a mobile viewing device without substantially
decreasing its battery life or increasing its physical profile.
NOT JUST FOR ATSC 3.0
Aitken said that as Saankhya had an established reputation in software-defined
radio (SDR) technology, it was decided early on to create a chip that was
signal agnostic, with software dictating which of a dozen or so digital TV
signals it will decode, including ATSC 1.0 and the European DVB-T2 standard.
"We're not building an ATSC 3 chip," he said. "We're building a chip that can
go in set-top boxes, in televisions, in tablets, for any global broadcast
standard, including digital radio. You level your risk by having a
multistandard chip."
Aitken says that at present about 1,000 of the chipsets have been created, and
the foundry is ready to roll out millions more. Asked about takers for the free
devices, he acknowledged that this has been a bit of a hard sell, but sees some
light on the horizon.
"We've offered a major carrier five million chips. We've also offered the
engineering of that chip into the device and we've offered the availability of
the IP data stream, but that has not been enough to entice them to do that yet,
but we are knee-deep into discussions with a USB manufacturer."
Aitken views this as a first step to getting the chips into mobile devices,
explaining that they would be part of a USB-C "dongle" equipped with an
embedded antenna and designed to plug into mobile devices. And by the chip's
not being specific to ATSC 3.0, the dongle could be used virtually anywhere
that digital over-the-air broadcasting is taking place.
"It would host DVB-T2, ISDB-T, ATSC 1, and other standards just by changing the
software," said Aitken. "It could be used in any part of the world."
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